IUI attempts in Lincoln

After trying to conceive naturally wasn't resulting in two pink lines, our OB suggested we try a common medication called Clomid.  We started in January 2013 and would take progesterone for 10 days to start my cycle then day 5-9 would take Clomid 50mg pill every day, after going in for two ultrasounds we found that none of my follicles were large enough to do anything with. So we stopped and cancelled this cycle.

The average woman in an average cycle will produce 1-2 mature follicles/eggs that are 18-30mm in diameter.  Although PCOS women have many follicles they are usually are very immature and even if they are released would not be large enough to be inseminated.

Knowing that I didn't respond well to the 50mg of Clomid we tried another round of Clomid in February this time bumping it up to 100-150mg.  Sadly, after two ultrasounds to measure my growing follicles, the largest one we had was 13mm, not big enough to do anything with.  We sat down with Dr. Friesen our wonderful OB that said he thought we might be to the point of needing injections to help stimulate my ovaries into producing mature follicles.  His hunch at that time was that we were going to need to do Invitro Fertilization (IVF) which at that point I was completely against and was hoping and praying we wouldn't have to go that far.  Not that IVF is against my beliefs, religion or I wouldn't do it, it just sounded so scary.  It sounded so expensive and it sounded so final.

Dr. Friesen encouraged us to make an appointment with a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) who is a specialist of conceiving one could say.  Thankfully a co-worker of mine had encouraged me a few weeks earlier to contact and get on the long schedule for a primary appointment with Dr. Maud Doherty a RE at Methodist Women's Hospital in Omaha.  After we had Dr. Friesen's blessing to go to Omaha we called weekly to see if there were any canceled appointments that we could snag so that we could get in and start the process earlier.  Much to our surprise we were able to get our first appointment with Dr. Maud on February 20, 2013.

PCOS What???

We first thought we might have troubles conceiving when my cycles were not regular.  I would often go 8-10 months between cycles and never thought much of it... I actually thought of it as a blessing at that time... ha what a JOKE!

After trying to conceive the good ole natural way with no luck we visited our OB in Lincoln.  Thankfully with my line of work I work along with these doctors and was able to find which doctor I thought best fit our personalities, our needs and who would work hard to support our dreams of having children.  We started at our OB office doing labs and an ultrasound.  My ultrasound along with lab work came back as PCOS.  Many of you are probably like what the heck do all of those letters mean? Even with working in the land of women and babies, I too had to re familiarize myself with in's and out's of what this would mean for us.

PCOS stands for Polycysitc Ovarian Syndrome.  Its a fairly common infertility hurdle that many women face.  There are a few different types of PCOS and women can present differently, There is a good link to the types of PCOS here: The Many Faces of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome.

A short synopsis of what PCOS is, my hormones are out of alignment and my ovaries make many small cysts that make getting pregnant quite difficult.  Knowing that we had a uphill battle with my body we decided to do a sperm analysis to see if we had any male infertility factors.  Thankfully hubby's body was just fine and we would just have to focus on getting my hormones/ovaries and uterus to play nice.

My PCOS symptoms are: Irregular cycles, acne, increased testosterone, and ovaries that looked like this, with many small cysts.

More about PCOS here: Mayo Clinic- PCOS

The Crush that Started it All

I first noticed Derrick in a stalker-ish sort of way.  Sophomore year of high school I would be sure to walk by him on my way to class, follow his sports schedule, track down his friends and maybe get a "hi" mustered up as we passed in the halls. After a mutual friend stood up for me and got his AIM screen name, the chatting online seemed to start immediately.  I didn't want to seem too creepy but inside I was freaking out that my crush was talking to me.  I weirdly would write down and keep notes of his likes/dislikes, and might have even of gone so far as to print our conversations.  Fast forward a few months after a rejection by him to the Sadie Hawkins Valentines Day dance, and a awkward 16th Birthday party, and many online conversations, we started dating.

We dated through out the rest of high school, and college.  We thankfully both stayed in Lincoln for College and were always there to support each others dreams with school and careers.  We were practically inseparable but finally in May of 2009 Derrick proposed to me at the San Diego Zoo via a Caricature artist that he had commissioned to draw a beautiful engagement photo.  The whole day surprised the heck out of me, and he in my books wins hands down for best proposal ever.

June 12, 2010 I married the man of my dreams.  We moved in together after our wonderful two week Hawaiian honeymoon and started our life together as husband and wifey.  We enjoyed life as young 20 somethings with friends, work, and trying out adulthood.  It wasn't until a year or two later we would find our next step in life wouldn't come as easy as we had hoped.