Sam's Story
My husband and I have been trying to conceive
for two years. My ob/gyn kept telling us to have
intercourse on days 12-14 of my cycle, but it
was not working. In September of 2006, I left
work, sat at the dining room table and cried.
I told my husband I did not want to try anymore,
and that the stress and disappointment were too
much. We cried together.
Then, in October, I had a blood
spot a week before my period. I remember
thinking, "This is odd," because that
had never happened before. The next week, I
bought a pregnancy test and tested. We had
two lines! I ran into our bedroom shouting, "We
have two lines! We have two lines!" We
celebrated and our families were ecstatic!
Three weeks later, we miscarried.
The worst part was the dilation
and curettage (D and C). We had to be in
the maternity ward, with all of the healthy babies
and healthy moms. My appointment was for 11:00,
but I did not get into the operating room until
1:30. There were two emergency C-sections ahead
of me. Those babies were more important to the
hospital because those babies were alive. I was
fine that night and the next night. But, the
third day was horrible. The anesthetic wore off
and I was in a lot of pain – physical and
emotional.
I cried the whole month of November. I cried
all the way to work and all the way home. December
was good; I had been given the go-ahead to try
again in January. When January came, so did the
tears. I was terrified that we wouldn't be able
to conceive or that we would miscarry again.
As luck would have it, we got pregnant in January.
At the end of the month, I began spotting again.
On Super Bowl Sunday, as we were leaving church,
I felt the baby come out. I saved her, and took
her to my doctor's office on Monday. The tests
revealed nothing conclusive
– just a spontaneous
abortion. (I hate that term. Why use abortion?)
I cried and was angry.
At the same time, I was taking a grief counseling
class for my degree. I shared my experience with
my class. During a break, a woman who was a pediatric
nurse came up to me and said, "I know someone
who can help you. There is a doctor I work with
who is a fertility specialist." She gave me his
name, and I went home and looked him up on the
internet. I made an appointment the following
week. I consulted my ob/gyn, and she was angry
with me. She said, "I do not recommend this until
you have had three miscarriages." I asked her
why she would want to put me through that again,
and she did not have an answer.
She and my specialist began working together.
She ordered 22 blood tests (all negative) and
then did a hysterosalpingogram
(HSG) – also fine. She faxed all of
the results to my specialist and he analyzed
them. He determined that all I needed was a shot,
gonal-f, to keep my ovaries from releasing an
egg until the follicles were mature. I had been
ovualting at day ten, and he wanted my body to
hold off until day twelve. I took gonal-f injections
for five days.
When I returned for an ultrasound, the follicles
were not quite ready, so I continued for two
more days. This time, the follicles were mature,
and my luteinizing
hormone (LH) blood count was rising, so I
was instructed to take 500 mg of ovidrel that
night with intercouse and 250 mg of ovidrel the
next night with intercourse. The timed intercourse
was very difficult for me. I was worried that
something might go wrong, and I could not relax.
All that I could think about was, "We paid a
lot of money. We have to do it." The second night
was much better, and I was able to relax.
I am still waiting for the results of this cycle.
I am concerned that because my LH was already
rising, we might have missed the egg. I will
not know for another week. I am excited that
I have a doctor who is skilled and who knows
what he is doing, but I am disappointed that
I have to go through all of this.
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