This post will be filled with more information than you probably care to know about my health and all of the issues we had getting pregnant, so if all you're looking for are updates on baby... feel free to skip this one! Just understand that we are cautiously optimistic, because we are still at a higher risk for miscarriage because of our struggles.
For those who don't know all of the details and want to know here it is...
Well, it wasn't really 2.5 yrs of wanting really bad to get pregnant, but I remember right around the time we found out Heather was pregnant (Fall/Winter of 2008) we made the decision to stop actively trying NOT to get pregnant. We'd just let God decide and go with it! There wasn't any stress over getting pregnant, but after some time passed (over a year, but I'm not exactly sure exactly how long), we realized - wait a second... we should have gotten pregnant by now, something must be wrong!
We were still in San Antonio at this point, so I went to the doctor and had all kinds of monitoring and testing done for several months. Doug also got checked, and fortunately he was perfectly fine. Right as the doctor concluded all of her testing and felt comfortable to try prescribing me medications to help things along, I told her I was weeks away from moving across the country to the DC area. She advised me to not worry about pregnancy in any way until the move was done and most of the stress of the move had subsided since stress is a big factor in getting pregnant. So, I took her advice and moved to DC and got settled there.
Once I was settled a few months later, I made an appointment with a doctor in this area. She looked over all my labs and medical records and felt comfortable enough with the data to proceed with the medication and not retest again. The problem is that I do not ovulate on my own at all. This problem usually doesn't come to light until you get off of birth control, because birth control regulates all of the hormones that are out of whack in the first place. So, I was prescribed clomid. Each month when it didn't work, she doubled the dose. After 3 rounds of no luck with clomid, she referred me to a fertility specialist.
I went and met with the specialist, and at this point Doug was working at a job where you got zero leave (sick leave or vacation) until after you had been employed with them a full year. So, I had not choice but to go to these appointments by myself. The specialist wants to do a MUCH more thorough investigation of the problem, and so for a few months it was appointment after appointment of tests, labs, etc. I have never in my life had such an invasion of my privacy that's for sure!
At first every time I discovered something new that wasn't functioning right with me I became very upset. It makes you feel like you're broken or something is wrong with you. Now, having learned so much, it's actually refreshing to know the reasons for some of the issues I have, and what I can do to treat them! So, I won't get too much into all the details, but all of the tests confirmed I have PCOS - which is why I'm not ovulating. PCOS is similar to diabetes in a lot of ways, because it's a form of insulin resistance, but is it not diabetes. My blood glucose levels have been completely normal throughout this entire process.
Additionally, my liver levels were slightly elevated. It turns out I have a non-alcohol related liver disease. It is not life threatening, and my liver levels can be reduced by changing my eating habits, which I need to do for the PCOS anyway. The main thing is I have to be more careful about taking medications (like tylenol) since they are processed through the liver.
Finally, one of my thyroid levels was completely out of whack. I was sent to an endocrinologist for further investigation. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease, which means I'll take synthetic thyroid hormones for the rest of my life. This is very important when you are pregnant. Low thyroid levels greatly increase your chances of miscarriage in the first trimester, because when you don't have enough of the hormone for yourself, you don't have any left for the baby, and the baby doesn't produce the hormone itself. My endocrinologist will be monitoring me closely throughout the pregnancy, so we are taking all of the necessary precautions.
The PCOS, liver condition, and thyroid disease are not curable, so I will live with them forever BUT the good news is they are all treatable and not life threatening. PCOS and liver disease is simply managing my diet. My thyroid will require medication forever and monitoring every 6-12 months. I had expressed to my primary care physician my frustration from going from believing I was completely healthy to finding all these things out, and he gave me a lot of great perspective about how minor all of this really is.
So, after finally uncovering the root of the problem, the fertility specialist was very optimistic. At my age and no male factor, it wasn't a matter of IF we could get pregnant, but when/how. Right about the time we were ready to move forward, Doug left for school in Georgia for 3 months! All the medicine in the world can't stop God from making this happen on His time ;)
So, Doug got back and we began our first round of fertility medications. I was started on the same pills again (clomid), but this time I was VERY heavily monitored to include ultrasounds and blood work every 2 days. Still no luck! They upgraded me to injectable medications, but they had to figure out exactly what combination of medication and doses would work for me. So for several weeks I was giving myself several injections every night. Now I know that the time I spent at nursing school was in no way a waste. Had I never done that, I'm not sure I could have injected myself and probably would have given up day 1! Doug worked nights, so most of the time I was on my own to administer the meds - most of which sting REALLY bad going in!
Because we were not doing IUI or IVF, we were simply using meds to get my body to ovulate, the doctor had to be careful not to overstimulate my follicles. If there were too many eggs, he would force me to cancel the cycle, because as he puts it, "We will not have a Jon & Kate plus 8 situation". The practice I go to (very large practice in VA, DC, & MD) has had VERY few cases of triplets (mostly through IVF) and no more than 3 since I think the 80s. They are very conservative and careful. We were very fortunate and did not overstimulate on the first cycle. So, after our first cycle, the nurse called with the results of our pregnancy test, and I got very strange news. I wasn't expecting to be pregnant - it was only our first cycle. I didn't get a yes or a no though. She said, "You are a little bit pregnant, your levels were a 5.6, which means the pregnancy is not viable". WHAT?! So I did some research, and at the 4 week mark they are looking for at least 100. Anything over 25 is considered pregnant, BUT the blood test should detect ZERO, because the only way your body makes the pregnancy hormone is if you are pregnant. Most people would never know if they had a 5.6 level. There probably wouldn't be a positive home pregnancy test, and it was almost as if you were never pregnant at all. We decided to look at the bright side. It was only our first try, and it goes to show that it CAN happen.
Round #2 - or so we thought! I went in, excited to begin another cycle. They did the initial tests and discovered I had large cysts on both ovaries so we would have to take a cycle off :( This is not at all uncommon when you use fertility medications. Luckily after a month passed, we were good to go! We were VERY fortunate, because it was only our second cycle and we got pregnant!
I'll let Doug tell you in the next post all about how we found out we were pregnant! It was probably one of the craziest days I've had in my life...
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