Flash Back Friday, Part II

A 1% chance of conceiving a baby without intervention is looking at thinks from a positive perspective. 99% of not conceiving naturally was more my take on things.

Del is the eternal optimist. He always said that we'd have a family and that he had no doubts that it would happen. I wanted to believe him. Deep down I did, but I also didn't want to be further devastated if it didn't happen. We spent a lot of time praying for children. I prayed that God would do his will but also prepare me for that. I was prepared to be child-less (though I hated the thought of it) and we both just tried to focus on the options we had to get help.

The waiting lists began. First we waited about 3 months to see a specialist. He wanted us to try with some of his suggestions for another 3 months. When that didn't work, he put me on fertility drugs and said he would try 3 months of that. Those 3 (wacky) months went by with nothing. So then he said, "I promise you that you will have a baby. Now you have to move on to see another doctor. Phone me back when you're pregnant". So, another waiting list. This time it was 3 months before we got the phone call to come in for a consultation. That was in May, 2007. The receptionist called to book a consultation appointment for October. OCTOBER!!! I asked if there was a wait list we could be put on. She explained that she could, but that they rarely got cancellations. She also explained that they close for 6 weeks in the summer so that was also against us.

However, in June we got the phone call that we could come in for a consultation. At the consultation we decided that we would try IUI. The Doctor was willing to try 6 cycles of this. If at the end of 6 cycles we still were not pregnant, he would refer us to a different province for In-vitro. When I asked if we could start the doctor looked at his calendar and said, "Well, if you get your period within the next 5 days we can try one cycle. If not, we'll have to wait until the end of September". Sure enough, I got my period a couple of days later.

We started a cycle of drugs, followed by one IUI treatment. We had planned to fly out to Ottawa to spend Canada Day on Parliament Hill. Don't laugh at us, but we seriously considered postponing the IUI treatment until September so that we could keep our holiday. Our rationale was that we'd be deviated plus ruin a holiday we'd been looking forward to if things didn't work. However, we couldn't live with the unknown and so we delayed our holiday by a week. We also believed that God was opening these doors and we didn't want to close them.

During IUI treatments you need to go to the hospital every two days for follicle tracking. During the last time I went, I was by myself and the lady who was doing the procedure said, "Look here, you can actually see an egg inside the follicle." It was this perfect, round egg with kind of a halo around it. I started to cry as I just knew that I was looking at my child.

The day of the procedure came and we were both pretty nervous. The procedure did hurt quite a bit, but didn't last long. After, the nurse asked if we had any other questions. Del said (jokingly), "We don't have any questions. But can you just tell us that it worked?". The nurse got this serious look on her face, sat down right beside us and said, "You know, I don't want to take away any of your hope but I need to be honest with you and tell you that this almost NEVER works the first time. So my advice is to relax, enjoy your vacation and come back in September refreshed and ready to try again."

She left the room and Del held my hand as I cried quietly while we waited to be able to go home.

to be continued...