Our Next Step.....

First of all, Corey and I wanted to thank everyone again SO very much for all of your kind words and prayers. If you could only know how much it means to us to hear others are thinking of us and how many people care for us. We truly are blessed with the kindest, most loving, wonderful people in our lives. We love you dearly and thank you so so so much!

Well, by now if you've been reading this blog, you know that we are looking at going to Madrid, Spain to proceed with IVF. We are still doing research and talking with people, making sure this is the route we want to take. I understand that some people are a little skeptical about us going over seas, and I would be too, if I were on the outside too. But, I look at it as, we've come this far and have not gotten a baby...we need to keep going. I have to stay positive around this time in our lives.

We have been in contact with Ruth, who is in charge of helping us with our travel arrangements overseas and communicating with the doctors/nurses at the clinic in Madrid. Our next step is to have a web-cam consultation with the doctor who will be doing our procedure, Dr. Jennifer Rayward. She is a born American, who moved to study abroad and be co-owner of the clinic we are going to, ProcreaTec. Following the consultation we will pick a date in September that we would like to do IVF and will be starting me on the medications for one to two months and getting our travel arrangements in order.

Lots to do in a short amount of time, we will keep you posted when we know more. :-D

Gulp.......

All Monday morning at work I was SO excited for what was to come at lunch time. Even though I was sick as a dog, I still had high spirits about the blood tests that were being drawn at lunchtime. I talked to my work and they gave me the afternoon off, I was as useless at work as could be possible. I was miserable and just needed to go home.

So, I got off work at 1:15pm (15 minutes early for lunch) and quickly drove over to Aurora Medical Center, just a few minutes away from my work and got my blood drawn. I think the lady at the laboratory who was drawing it, I think thought I was crazy or just a goofball.....I was asking a bunch of questions like when the tests get picked up and how long does it take for the tests to be done and I went on and on. In all reality, I was just really excited and nervous. When I get like that, I tend to talk a lot and very fast, that somehow comforts me.

At 2:30, a short one hour and 15 minutes after the draw, my phone rang with a '414' area code number showing up, I knew right away it was my doctor. It was Molly, a very sweet nurse of Dr. Wittmaack's. I could just tell by the sound in her voice what the results were. She started off by asking how I was and proceeded to tell me what the doctor looks for in these types of tests. She says that typically the HcG level needs to be above 2. Mine.....was not. It was below 2. Meaning, Corey & I were NOT pregnant. I couldn't really respond, I was truely shocked after all, I had convinced myself that I was pregnant.

The rest of the night was...Not Good. I called Corey at work and told him the bad news, he started to get choked up a little bit but held it together. Yeah, um not me. I went ahead and called my Mom, Dad, and sisters. They have been AMAZING support behind us. They helped me see the positive in this horrible time. After awhile, Corey came home from work, bringing some beautiful flowers and some medicine to make me feel better. We spent the rest of the night cuddling and talking about what our next step is......

The Results Are In......

Well, the 'big day' came and went.....when Corey got home from Fargo on Sunday evening, we decided to do a pregnancy test together. We were both so incredibly excited while we were waiting for those three little minutes, that seemed to take an eternity...I swear...if we could replay how we were acting, I bet we looked like five year olds just waiting to open that first gift from Santa on Christmas morning!!!! Oh, we were SO excited! That was the longest 180 seconds of my life.

We went into the bathroom, I grabbed the stick and covered the reading so we couldn't peek, so we could both see it together......sadly, it said "Not Pregnant". Sucks. Really Sucks. We truly thought this was our time, I actually felt like I was pregnant. It's crazy what your mind will do to you when you're in the state of mind like I am, desperately wanting it to say we were pregnant.

Corey was right though......I was in shambles. I am so glad he was there to help pick up my pieces. The rest of the night was a blur as I was sick already, and to add this to the cake was just to much to bare. Corey comforted me and him being there cuddling me made things seem for just a split second, that things will be alright. He made me see that, there are still options out there.

However, those at home pregnancy tests, aren't always 100% accurate, so Cor reassured me that the test could have possibly been wrong.

The next day (Monday) I was to have more blood work: a progesterone level and a HcG level check to see if we were in deed pregnant.

More to come.....

To Everyone.....

Corey and I wanted to thank everyone who has been following and supporting us in our decisions about how we're starting a family. Not everyone is as supportive as others and we just wanted to let you know how very grateful we are to have those of you who are behind us. Thank you truely, from the deepest part of our hearts! We love you all!

Love,

Kathy & Corey

The count is down....

Well time is ticking slow but fast for the time for us to take our home pregnancy test. Some good news I think I forgot to mention, it looks like we can take the test tomorrow (Sunday) night...so when Corey gets home from his trip back to Fargo for the weekend, I hope we decide on taking the test. So I guess this cuts down the waiting time in half...instead of two days, it's a short one day away!

Today I'm not feeling well at all, I have a head cold pretty bad and my stomach (baby area) feels very weird, like something I've never felt before. It could be because of the meds I'm on and everything I went through for IUI, but HOPEFULLY it's more than that :)

Hopefully I'll have good news for you tomorrow! :)

4 days to go.....

Well I broke down today and couldn't put it off any longer.....I went to the store and got a couple pregnancy tests! I look at it as I did pretty well not getting them until now! :) hehe I'm so tempted to just go take a test real quick, what could it hurt, right?! But.......I promised Corey after we did IUI that I will not take a test until the doctor gave us the go to do so. So....I gotta hold up my end of the deal.....ahhh....but it's soooo darn tempting! :)

We have 4 days to go until our test date. We have decided that whatever happens on Monday/Tuesday.....we are not going to say anything to anyone, until we come home. It just so happens that we will be coming home to Minneapolis next Wednesday-Sunday for my sister's giving birth and I'm throwing my best friend Ali's bachelorette party on Saturday. Ever since we started trying to have a family...I have been very strong about no matter when it happens, we will not tell anyone unless we are in person. At least our immediate family. So.....if I don't answer my phone on Monday/Tuesday......it won't mean I am or am not pregnant, just that I want to tell my family in person what the outcome was. Does that sound selfish? :( Sorry if it does, we have lived away from our family for so long, this just means the world to me to be able to tell them in person and share the excitement with them! :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful evening! :)

Good news!

Well we got a ray of sunshine for good news this morning! :) I got a call from Molly, one of Dr. Wittmaack's nurses regarding my blood test that I had done yesterday to check my progesterone level. She stated that the doctor likes to get at least the levels/results to be 30 and mine was a 50.8. Yippiee!!!!! I got so excited, I stepped away from work to call Corey and tell him!!!! Yay!!! What that means exactly is, that i'm not for sure pregnant, it only means that it is a very good level for the ability to hold a safe pregnancy! She went forth in telling me that, next Monday's progesterone and HcG levels check will determine if its a positive or negative. Next Monday I can go buy a take home pregnancy test and see what the result says! I'm so excited...I think I'm going to buy out the whole inventory of tests at the store! :) Corey's reminding me that now I can relax and enjoy the next week since my levels came back so great! i think I'll take his advice and just take it easy, try to enjoy this time in our lives. Only 5 days to go till we find out!!! :)

Baby dust!!!!

What's Next.......

OK, so we have a week to wait to find out if we are pregnant. Corey keeps telling me to relax and not get stressed over what the outcome will be. I am always thinking one step ahead and have been doing an extensive amount of research of what to do IN CASE we need to look at further options.

Our next and last option to have a baby will be In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). It's a very hard thing to swallow when you look at what it exactly entails. Not even the money aspect, but the emotional side of it is exhausting.

We have discussed and come to a decision that if IUI does not work, we are looking at doing IVF in Madrid, Spain in late September/early October of this year. We will have to be in Europe for 2 weeks for the procedure. I have been talking to some people that have been very helpful and kind with getting things in order for the big procedure.

What would I have to go through when attempting IVF? Well it's basically really easy, along with very detailed and extremely time consuming. On my first day of my cycle I would need Corey to start giving me injections three times a day for nine to ten days...on day 8 of my cycle I will need to be in Spain where the start of retreiving the eggs will start. Corey's sample will be collected and frozen and I will wait 3-5 more days while the laboratory works their magic to hopefully make a baby. Than once the eggs and sperm have combined like needed, they are injected into me and if they attach to my lining, than we're pregnant!!!!
That's just a nutshell of what the procedure is, there's many more medications I will need to be on for months before the procedure, and so forth, but I won't bore you with all the itty bitty details.



Going through this has been a very hard thing for me to deal with. Corey has truely been my rock, keeping me grounded and sane through this very long journey. Thank you SO much Corey for putting up with me through these last 4 years of sadness, stress, frustration, and disappointment. I love you more that words can say and you are my whole world...through and through.

The start of our journey....

In September of this year my husband and I will have been actively trying to conceive a baby for four years. The first about eighteen months or so we tried everything on our own. We spent a whole bunch of money at Barnes & Noble on 'How To Conceive Naturally' books and such. I knew something was wrong with me when my cycle started to hinder off schedule, I was stressing to much about starting a family and I chalked it up as that was why I was missing cycles and such. Little did I know that we had much bigger problems that we only read about online. We never thought we'd be that couple....the couple that can't have kids.

Well finally we got frusterated enough that I decided to talk to my OB/GYN it's then, that she sat me down to tell me I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polysystic Ovarian Syndrome).....basically it's something that a lot of women get that causes you to have abnormal hair growth, no periods, cysts on your ovaries, and weight gain. From there she prescribed me to take Metformin 1500mg/day to jolt my period to start. If I don't have a period, I don't ovulate.....so the Metformin really helped get me back on track. Usually that medicine is used for diabetics, but studies have shown that it can help with ovulation in women with PCOS, and I'm waling proof for that exact study.

From there I went forth with many tests, some repetative, some painful. I have had very painful HSG - hysterosalpingogram done, which they inject a dye into my fallopian tubes to see if if anything is blocked. Luckily everything came back clear and I was good to go, or so I thought. I have had dozens and dozens of ultrasounds trying to determine if I have any cysts on my ovaries and the timeing of my cycle.

My husband at the time was seeing a Urologist just to check and make sure everything is ok on his end, and that hopefully it's just my cycle being off that is the problem. Unfortunately, the doctor discovered that Corey has a low sperm count - meaning either his 'guys' have bent tails, they have double heads, or the amount of guys just isn't there. So, Corey went through extensive treatment himself....he's had numerous semen analysis's done along with much blood work as well. The next step for Corey was to take the fertility drug Clomiphene aka - Clomid....mostly it's a female fertility drug, however it can raise a male's testosterone level if needed, and our case.....it's what we need.

I was starting to see an Endocrinologist - basically he's a doctor that specializes in helping couples with fertility problems. We were told after many months of dead ends, that In-Vitro Fertalization (IVF) was the only option that would work for a couple in our shoes. We had heard of using Clomid with timed-intercourse as an option that has worked on some couples, along with Intrauterine insemination (IUI) - which is basically an option that we were scared to do, for the fact that it's pricy and very involved. But with the end result being a baby....what else could we do?

We decided to first attempt to do timed-intercourse for many months with the help of both of us being on clomid. Let me tell you.....being on clomid is HARD.....it makes you ticked off at the smallest/stupidest things....so for us to both be on it.....was.....interesting!? That's a good word for it. Anyways...the result in the timed intercourse was zilch.....nothing.

After some mishaps (to say the least) from our first fertility clinic - we were referred by my OB/GYN to another Endocrinologist - Dr. Frank Wittmaack who is based out of West Allis, Wisconsin (which is a western suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin). Dr. Wittmaach and his team have been absolutely wonderful with everything from all of our questions, to our appointments, and making us feel comfortable with every step we take.

After many long discussions, my husband and I finally decided to do our first IUI last Tuesday, May 25 2010 at 11:30am. Corey needed to be at the hospital at 9:30am to give a semen analysis so the lab can prepare the sample for the procedure. I went along of course, afterwards we got some breakfast and tried to relax. I was VERY nervous for the procedure for I had read that it can hurt and it just made me very anxious and excited at the same time. I know I would not have been able to do it without having Corey right there beside me. The procedure was quick but painful. Dr. Wittmaack told me my cervix was hiding from him so it made it more uncomfortable. He was very gentle and kind like always.

It's been one week from today that we had our procedure and we have one more week to go until we find out if we are, indeed pregnant!!!!!

We have been asking everyone we know to say a prayer for us, in hopes it nudges the Big Guy Upstairs for a little help this time! :)

A little about us...

Hello Everyone!

I'll have to apologize in advance, when I talk, I sometimes tend to jump around so please bare with me while I tell our story.

Just to give you an idea who you're about to read about....my name is Kathy and my husband is Corey. I was lucky enough to be able to marry to the man of my dreams whom I met almost seven years ago when we were in college at my cousin's wedding. From May 24th, 2003 and that day forward, we have been the light in each other's lives. A lovely 3 1/2 years later we got married on September 9, 2006 in our hometown Fargo, North Dakota. The rest is pretty much history...

From the day we got married we have been trying to conceive a baby and have had many let downs. At first we thought it was just our timing that was off and so we bought many books on how to time everything correctly and purchased ovulation predictor kits along with way to many pregnancy tests. Many months later we still were without good news. Little did we know what lied ahead of us, the very long road that we have been on I would like to share with you, in hopes that someone, somewhere out there this may help them cope with the hardship they are going through like we are at this time. I know when I feel down I tend to surf the web to look for other bloggers stories that hep lift my spirits, reading about their happy endings.