So my first post was just to give everyone an overview of what we have done so far in this journey of infertility. I decided for the next few posts I would break down my treatments and go into more detail.

I pulled out my old planners so I could give you guys some more specifics on the dates.

So, as I mentioned in my first post, I had surgery to remove my right Fallopian tube in September 2017 (9/15/17 to be exact). Then, before we could start the first round of fertility treatments, we had to have an appointment to meet with the fertility specialist doctor once I was healed to make our plan of action. On October 2, 2017, my husband and I met with our fertility doctor.

I was immediately excited because he was so laid back and so easy to talk to. He very confidently said, “we are going to have a baby!” No part of me ever doubted that. He also said that IVF was a so much higher chance for us, but that we could definitely try IUI first. Both my husband and I were really optimistic about IUI. It was much cheaper, and I only had to do two injections before IUI! Since I am so terrified of needles, this was definitely the best choice for us!

After several appointments to monitor and check my uterine lining, ovaries, and hormone levels; my IUI day was scheduled. The way they choose the best day is by timing when my ovary is going to release a dominate follicle. That way they know the best day to “inseminate” me and hope that the follicle gets fertilized.

Also, since I only have one tube now, they had to make sure the largest follicle was on the left side. Luckily, that all worked out the first time. So, on November 2, 2017 we headed up to the doctors office for the first try with IUI. They injected me using a catheter and then I laid on the table for 5 minutes after. This is enough time for the sperm to find the egg and hopefully fertilize. Then so began what is known as the two-week-wait (2ww).

Basically, it takes two weeks for the pregnancy hormone (hCG) to show up in your blood. This is why you have to wait two weeks before going in to the office for blood work. They also really encourage you to NOT take an at home pregnancy test, as getting a false negative is a lot more common, and will only make you more crazy. Actually, amazingly, I have never taken a test before my blood work (even though I’ve been SO tempted!)

On November 16, 2017, I went to the office in the morning before work for my blood work. They told me they would call with the results between 12-3pm. I then went to work (I am a teacher) and obsessively kept my phone on me. I was ready to literally run out of my classroom to answer it. Luckily, they called during my lunch in the teacher’s lounge to deliver the bad news 🙁

Naturally, even though I thought I would be fine, I was totally devastated. I couldn’t pull myself together and my amazing principal let me go home while another amazing coworker covered my class for the rest of the day. I decided after that day that from then on, I would take off work on the day I was getting the call.

In December 2017, my right ovary was ready to release the dominate follicle. We still did the injections, but instead of IUI we did “timed intercourse.” They told us that there was like a 1% chance that the follicle could get fertilized and somehow find my uterus. When we got the negative call that time, I was not sad nor surprised!

We went on to do another round of IUI on January 4, 2018. That was a scary one because it had snowed in Maryland that day, schools were closed, but IUI waits for no weather. I had to go that day because timing is EVERYTHING with fertility treatments. We braved the terrible roads, only to get the bad news call on January 19.

We still didn’t give up! On February 5, 2018 we did the whole thing all over again! I got the bad news call that time on President’s Day (February 19), which was lucky since I was already off work that day.

After that, my husband and I were sick of this! We had lost that hope we had back in November and we were ready to start the next thing. So, on February 26, 2018, we met again with the doctor to discuss IVF. I’ll save that whole story for my next post!

Thanks for reading! 🙂