Our (unexpectedly bumpy) journey so far

So I'll probably write a bunch today, to get everything caught up to speed.  

There are a lot of reasons Jimmy and I are excited right now - some of them obvious, others not so much.  In all truth, Jimmy and I have been trying to start the family we know we want to have for just over a year.  In December of 2008, we decided it was as good of a time as any to start our family, so we threw out the pills and got excited thinking about how much our life was going to change.  Every person remembers countless health / sex ed classes where they were told how easy it is to get pregnant.  Look at someone wrong, and it may just happen! (ok, so that wasn't quite the message they were sending.... but close!)

Both of our sets of parents warned us of how easy it was for them to conceive (something that freaked us out until we decided it was our turn!).  After the year we have been through, I am grateful that for most couples, it IS a simple process.  For us, it wasn't.

After a couple months and no positive pregnancy tests, we started to wonder what was going on.  After further reflection, I realized the time between each visit of AF wasn't consistent, and was DEFINITELY not the out-of-the-box 28 days.  Hmmmm.  At my yearly visit to the "girly doctor" in May, my doctor recommended having blood drawn so they could check to see if anything was off.  I went in, had a bunch of blood drawn (side note - I have low blood pressure, and having a bunch of blood drawn is an interesting experience!), and awaited the results.  We left on a vacation to visit Spencer and Andreea in Washington DC, and expected to hear back from the doctor sometime while we were gone.

Not that I think I have some special powers, and while Jimmy often accuses me of being slightly pessimistic (I call it realist), I suspected it wouldn't all come back peachy keen.  My suspicions were confirmed when I got a call from the doctor's office.  Some of my hormones came back at levels that were higher than expected, and we scheduled an appointment with Dr. B (a more specialized OB-GYN) for June.

Ah.... the first appointment with Dr. Banfield.  

By this point, I knew what to expect (ah, the wonderful technology that is Google).  I had searched to see what possible conditions / issues I could have going on, and had come to the conclusion that I likely had PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome).  My symptoms matched, and the hormone levels confirmed it.  

Dr. B talked with me about my history (seriously, what girl remembers what her periods were like when she was in 8th grade!?  Annoying.  That's all I remember them being.  And somehow that doesn't help a doctor!), my current symptoms, and our goals.  I came away with a lot of questions, and a strong dislike for this man.  

Reasons I disliked him:

1.  He didn't seem to take me seriously, as I was "only 24", so I had "tons of time" to get this figured out (ok, bucko, but we wanted to start a family now, at 24)

2.  He basically told me to sit around and wait (haha.  ME, sit around and wait!?)

3.  He also told me I was fat and needed to work on that (ok, so he didn't directly say that, and yes, I already knew it, but he focused a ton on the fact that many women see positive results if they lose 10% of their body weight)

4.  I was scared that I may never be a mommy.... something I had dreamed about forever.... and he was the one telling me this news (again, in not so many words, and a very extreme conclusion as there are many options for women with PCOS).

I called Jimmy, bawling, and told him how awful this man was.  As most of you know, Jimmy is a wonderful man  and he instantly offered warm, loving words and thoughts.  From that day (and much before that day) on, he has been by my side, learning, getting excited, aching, being frustrated, and loving me.

So we were supposed to wait 3 months to see if my cycles regulated themselves, and we could then come back and discuss options.

Information on PCOS (a short version... there are MANY websites / articles out there that are much more eloquent and complete):

Doctors don't know what causes PCOS, or anything to predict it.  They do see higher rates of PCOS in women whose mom or sister has it (so it's likely at least somewhat biological).  PCOS messes with the hormones that are in a female's body, making it so that she doesn't ovulate, or ovulates very infrequently.  PCOS is associated with higher rates of miscarriage.  PCOS puts a woman at higher risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, some cancers, and heart disease in the future.  Depending on the woman's goals, PCOS is treated in a bunch of different ways.

The next three months was killer.  I'm a pretty impatient person, and I just felt like I was waiting around for NOTHING.  When the next appointment finally came, I was ready to take the next step.  Dr. B suggested waiting another 3 months or so (so that we'd hit December, as doctors don't like to say you have fertility issues until you've been trying for a year).  While I went into the appointment (which Jimmy attended, what a wonderful husband!) set in my decision to move forward... I started to weaken and agreed to waiting another 3 months (with the offer by the doctor to call anytime I wanted to talk about starting a more aggressive approach).  After this appointment, I liked him a bit more, and left knowing we had a lot of thinking to do.

After talking with my wonderful sister (who called B.S. on the waiting another 3 months), and discussing options with Jimmy, I decided to go with my gut and call the doctor, asking to take a more aggressive approach.  We wanted a family, and we wanted it now, and there was no use waiting another 3 months I felt like we were going to end up in the exact same place anyway.

So I made the call.  Less than a week later, I started on a prescription of Metformin.  Metformin is a drug used most commonly with people with Diabetes.  It helps your body process insulin (one of the many things doctors think causes confusion in the bodies of women with PCOS).  It also often helps women lose weight (something that is slightly more difficult for women with PCOS).  There weren't many negative side effects to weigh - possible nausea, etc., but nothing too serious.  In the beginning, I was having minor issues with the nausea (only when I forgot to eat enough food with the pill), but that all calmed down pretty quickly.  I was also taking a prenatal each day... and hoping.

My cycles seemed to start regulating themselves.  Going from 62-63 days (yah, that's a long time!), to more like 40.  I was hopeful, but trying not to get my hopes up too much.  By this point, I had taken way too many pregnancy tests to count over the last 10-11 months.  If I never saw one again, I would probably have been okay with it, except for the fact that they were a necessary evil in this process!

Mid-December I was having a bit of an optimistic spell.  I'm not sure why, but I was convinced this would be our month.  My cycles were getting more regular, my husband was still amazing and by my side, and our good friends were having a baby in July (so we better hurry up if we wanted to have kids around the same age!).

Again..... I'm not claiming I have some crazy tenth sense, but I guess sometimes you just know things.