Advice for the bride and groom
At my cousin's bridal shower this weekend we were asked to fill out "Advice for the Bride and Groom" cards. I texted Anthony to ask what he would say ("Listen closely to more than just words") so I wrote that down, and also included the advice my grandma gave me when I was seventeen ("Marry someone you can tell anything to"), and then added my own, "Love means admitting you're wrong when you know you're right. Do things you love together, but allow each other the freedom to do things separately." When the bride-to-be read the cards out loud, the older ladies in the room exclaimed, "That's excellent advice!" Then turned to me and asked if I was happily married.
I am happily married to an extraordinary degree. Most days I don't know how I got so lucky to have found someone who is my rock, my guiding light, my source of strength and stability, my biggest supporter and, above all else, TRULY someone I can talk to about anything. I never realized what value lies in that. I feel like God must have known the struggles I was going to endure in the future, so he put in front of me the only man capable of seeing me through it.
I'm talking of course about infertility, which continues to plague us nearly 4 years since coming off birth control. In all that time, despite our trying and timing and testing, I only fell pregnant once, and it ended in a miscarriage at 6 weeks. We started seeing a fertility specialist last September. They redid Anthony's semen analysis, which once again checked out fine. Both sets of blood work came back fine. The HSG showed both fallopian tubes are open with no blockages. They did a set of 3 internal ultrasounds on me--one during my period, then another 2 weeks later around the time I'd be ovulating, and then a third one when nothing was happening. Everything was infuriatingly normal. Ultrasounds showed I was about to ovulate right on time, with plenty of mature follicles, and bloodwork confirmed that I DID indeed ovulate. Other than an inconsequential fibroid on my uterus, the good news was nothing appeared to be wrong; the bad news was this earned us an official diagnosis of "unexplained infertility".
The very last test he could perform was a 3-hour blood glucose test. It sounds weird to say, but FINALLY something came back abnormal. I'm hypoglycemic and insulin resistant, meaning my blood sugar is low and the amount of insulin my body produces is way too high (13x where it should be). This is important information because out of whack insulin levels can spoil the quality of the eggs you're producing, and also keep a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. Allegedly, with eating healthier and starting Metformin, the prognosis is an 80% success rate within three months.
I've done a complete 180 in my eating habits, I've cut out sugar completely and follow the meal plan (lots of protein and complex carbs every 2 1/2 hrs) religiously. If this doesn't work, there are no other options. IVF isn't doable if my egg quality is poor like he assumes. So the next step would be to start looking into adoption, which neither of us are against, if that's what it comes down to.
This path is just still so unfamiliar to me, despite having traveled it for years. I never for a second thought I'd have trouble getting pregnant when I was ready. I guess no one with infertility does. Most days are fine, others are a pit of despair, but I can always write more on that later.
I am happily married to an extraordinary degree. Most days I don't know how I got so lucky to have found someone who is my rock, my guiding light, my source of strength and stability, my biggest supporter and, above all else, TRULY someone I can talk to about anything. I never realized what value lies in that. I feel like God must have known the struggles I was going to endure in the future, so he put in front of me the only man capable of seeing me through it.
I'm talking of course about infertility, which continues to plague us nearly 4 years since coming off birth control. In all that time, despite our trying and timing and testing, I only fell pregnant once, and it ended in a miscarriage at 6 weeks. We started seeing a fertility specialist last September. They redid Anthony's semen analysis, which once again checked out fine. Both sets of blood work came back fine. The HSG showed both fallopian tubes are open with no blockages. They did a set of 3 internal ultrasounds on me--one during my period, then another 2 weeks later around the time I'd be ovulating, and then a third one when nothing was happening. Everything was infuriatingly normal. Ultrasounds showed I was about to ovulate right on time, with plenty of mature follicles, and bloodwork confirmed that I DID indeed ovulate. Other than an inconsequential fibroid on my uterus, the good news was nothing appeared to be wrong; the bad news was this earned us an official diagnosis of "unexplained infertility".
The very last test he could perform was a 3-hour blood glucose test. It sounds weird to say, but FINALLY something came back abnormal. I'm hypoglycemic and insulin resistant, meaning my blood sugar is low and the amount of insulin my body produces is way too high (13x where it should be). This is important information because out of whack insulin levels can spoil the quality of the eggs you're producing, and also keep a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. Allegedly, with eating healthier and starting Metformin, the prognosis is an 80% success rate within three months.
I've done a complete 180 in my eating habits, I've cut out sugar completely and follow the meal plan (lots of protein and complex carbs every 2 1/2 hrs) religiously. If this doesn't work, there are no other options. IVF isn't doable if my egg quality is poor like he assumes. So the next step would be to start looking into adoption, which neither of us are against, if that's what it comes down to.
This path is just still so unfamiliar to me, despite having traveled it for years. I never for a second thought I'd have trouble getting pregnant when I was ready. I guess no one with infertility does. Most days are fine, others are a pit of despair, but I can always write more on that later.