From There to Here (And other fun stuff)

I feel like we should fill in the blanks a little...maybe not completely necessary but it is a good way for us to document our journey. There was a lot that went on for us from the time of our post in Feb until our next post in July. First, we had to decide if we wanted to venture down the IVF road again and let me tell you it was not an easy decision for us. We decided that for us we would feel better if we had a little bit of a financial cushion so we decided to go away for Walter Reeds program and to Shady Grove which has a top notch Shared Risk program as well as wonderful success rates. It proved to be a great decision (not only because now we know the end result) mostly because the medical care we received was excellent. It appears after the fact that Walter Reed may have been a little cavalier in letting my estrogen levels get too high...as a matter of fact my doctor at Shady Grove was a little disturbed at how high the let me levels get. In addition to looking for a.) a better program b.) a little more financial security I also wanted to get additional testing done prior to going through another cycle. My concern was having fluid in my tubes...I had read that if you have blocked tubes you can end up w/ fluid in them that can actually kill the embryos once they are transferred. So I wanted to get a clear answer on this before we proceeded. Dr. Chang agreed that this was a good idea. So I head to DC on my own while Chad was deployed to get all the routine exams done that they require in order to approve someone for Shared Risk as well as an additional test called an HSG...basically they shot dye through your tubes and take pictures this is normally how they would diagnose someone having blocked tubes and I am sure many other abnormalities. Much to my surprise when I was having this test done the doctor looked at me a little perplexed and said "both of your tubes are open and you have both your right and left tubes"...imagine my surprise as my surgery report that I have from last year clearly states "absent rt ovary and tube" and "blocked left tube". Normally this would be good news but after 2.5 years of infertility, failed treatments and a failed IVF cycle not to mention all the waiting in between...it really wasn't happy news. It was very confusing, and very frustrating news. It was hard sharing the news w/ Chad as he didn't take it too well either plus the fact that he was deployed and not really to do much. This news didn't really change anything as far as our treatment went...it basically just changed our diagnosis from "Tubal Factor" to "Unexplained"...yes the dreaded unexplained infertility. Anyway it was a tough trip from start to finish...flt got canceled, was diverted into a different airport, luggage went to original airport, took 12 hrs to fly to DC when it should have taken 4 from start to finish but despite the speed bumps along the way it was a successful trip and we were approved for the Shared Risk program...now we just had to wait for Chad to get home. Originally we had planned to travel to DC in May for our first round of IVF w/ Shady Grove but that fell through and we ended up rescheduling for July...which turned out to be perfect timing (as God's timing always is).

For Inquiring Minds (questions we get a lot when we tell people our news)
- Are we going to find out what we are having? Yes
- Do we have names picked out? Kind of...we are pretty sure on one girl name and have half of
a boys name but we have a lot of work to do in this department...I figured we would wait
until we find out what we are having so we don't waste effort
- Nursery Ideas? We love the stuff at Restoration Hardware, just not sure which one yet
- How am I feeling? Great!!!!! A little morning sickness from weeks 9-11 and then again week
13 but all in all I cant complain, it hasn't been too bad. The worse thing for me is my energy
level...I am tired all the time.
- Cravings? Not really, other then normal routine stuff...this week it is brownies :-)...I know I
I need to stay away from the junk but I feel a little here and there wont hurt :-)

Chad:
I have to tell everyone how cute he is :-)
- He made me laugh when we were on our way to our first u/s he kept saying that we were going
to go get the "kids picture taken" which may not be that original to everyone else but I had
never heard anyone refer to an u/s this way...I thought it was cute :-)
- Every time I complain about a symptom he comes back about an 1 -2 hours later and will tell
why my back is already hurting or why I am having so many pains/cramps...he will go an look
it up on the Internet...too cute
- He is very protective and wont let me lift anything...including the dogs...which I miss picking up
Nashie...so I have to get on the floor if I want to cuddle w/ him
- Though I have called him Dad for the boys so many times since we have got the dogs over 4
years ago...I have to tell you that when we were at the u/s on Tuesday and the lady said to
Chad...."Dad, you are going to have to get over here if you want to see the screen" it made my
heart skip a beat...the hear Chad referred to as "dad" from someone else in this context was
a really neat moment for me.

Needless to say we are very, very, very, very excited and overwhelmed w/ joy...so much so that neither of us have slept very well the past 2 nights. We feel so Blessed and are so incredibly thankful for the Blessings God has given us.