03.06.19 - Our Fertility Journey
FAST FORWARD TO PRESENT>>>
It’s been awhile.... and a lot has changed. Stay with me, this is a lengthy post. Lets recap:
William and I finally got married. It took a while and there were plenty of ups and downs but we made it! We finished building our house a month after the wedding and was able to move in as husband and wife. That in itself needs its own post! We might get to that later... This post is about present time.
It’s been 1 year and 10 months since we got married and in that time, we managed to get pregnant! I shared the news of our pregnancy in June 2018. It was such an amazing feeling! Something that I can’t even begin to describe. We went along as any normal couple would do who just found out they were pregnant; we started speaking to my belly, downloading all the apps, reading all the books, and we even started telling family and close friends.
On August 20, 2018, it the was the day of William’s graduation ceremony. Something we have looked forward to since probation started. I woke up to excruciating pain and bleeding. I took myself to the emergency room and after 6 hours of waiting, blood tests, vaginal exams, and ultrasounds, I was told I had an ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy are rare and very dangerous. Its when the embryo implants itself in someplace other than the uterus. In my case, it was my fallopian tube. I needed to abort our baby and remove my fallopian tube because if I didn't I would bleed out and die (That’s exactly what our doctor said). It was such an emotional day. I called William and he immediately left his graduation and came to the hospital. That healing process was such an emotional roller coaster and we couldn't have done it without the love and support of each other.
We thought that after we healed and processed our grief, we would be on our way to making another baby. 6 months later, on February 8th, 2019, I found myself right back in the ER with the same kind of pain I felt 6 months ago. 10 hours later, they tell me I need to have another surgery because during the ultrasound, they found a 6cm cyst on my left ovary. The cyst was causing all the pain.
This brings me to present time. My surgeon informed me that visually my female reproductive parts looked healthy but she suggested we see a fertility specialist just to make sure. So we had our first fertility appointment yesterday and that was overwhelming. He told us that getting pregnant is easy as long as three major factors are working: my ovaries, my remaining fallopian tube, and William’s sperm count.
To test my ovaries, he ordered a simple blood test during my next period.
To test my fallopian, an out patient procedure called Hysterosalpingogram (HSG) will be done. The test takes no longer than a half hour. It involves placing an iodine-based dye through the cervix and taking x-rays. These x-rays help evaluate the shape of the uterus and whether the fallopian tubes are blocked.
And lastly, to test William’s sperm, he will need to give them a sperm sample after abstaining from ejaculation for 3-4 days.
I wrote this post because I wanted to share our fertility journey. I never thought this road would come, but we’re here and it’s very real. Hopefully I can keep up with this documentation and share our journey with all of you. Thanks for reading, and I’ll let you know how the tests go...
