Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Unexplained Illness


Blog Prompt: Describe the most serious illness you have ever had.

I really have not had any serious illness but I did have unexplained illness. What am I talking about? Well, for years we never used any protection and never wound up pregnant. We just figured it was not the right time. When we finally tried to have children it just was not working. I tried temping, timing, ovulation kits, everything. We then went to see my ob/gyn who ran some tests. Everything came back negative except for the dye test. It showed that my tubes were blocked. My ob/gyn said that I could never have children the natural way and that she could not help me any further. She sent me to a fertility specialist. They looked at my x-ray and agreed that my tubes were blocked and that in order to do IVF I would have to go under surgery to clear away the fluid that was being released from my tubes. So the big day came. I had the surgery. The surgery took longer than expected. Flipping out my husband who was so worried. When I awoke the doctor told me, "There was no blockage." What, I had surgery for nothing? My husband was so mad. Well, because there was no blockage they could not do IVF because insurance would not have covered it. They told me that I had unexplained infertility and that they would help me still but in a less expensive way. First we used clomid a drug that increases your eggs and IUI (artificial insemination). I tried this for 3 months with still no success. We then moved onto injectibles Gonal-F. We did this for one month. We had to stop taking it because I developed 3 cysts. At this point I was really getting fed up with all the testing and doctor appointments, needles, etc. and I was about to throw in the towel. I explained this to my doctor and he said that he'd like to try one more time with the Gonal-F and if still no success we'd move onto IVF. So in Jan 04 we tried again with the injectables. This was when I conceived the triplets. I had a high risk pregnancy so the poking and probbing continued for 33 1/2 weeks. I also developed gestational diabetes. That's another story for another day.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

so nice to read the result of your unexplained -illness - triplets.God must have wanted to make up for missing you when he was handing out fertility.

Tammy said...

OH my goodness. My heart always goes out to you women that try so hard to have children. I hate you had to go through that but I know you wouldn't have given any of that up for what you have now. My husbands daughter has had diabetes with all 4 of her children and its been touch and go with them all. But they are all healthy and happy.

loonyhiker said...

Wow, what a scary time for you both. I can only imagine your frustration. I remember having a pap smear and then a biopsy for what they said was precancerous cells. I was told I would need to think about freezing or burning these cells. The doctors were positive that I needed this done. After requesting a second opinion, they redid a biopsy and found nothing. All pap smears since have not shown anything but no one can explain it.

D said...

amazing! I'm glad you were able to have your kids. what a miracle!

Unknown said...

Same here. My sister went through the same thing to have her child; but the doctor told her see would not be able to conceive again. A year after the baby's birth she was pregnant again.

Glynis said...

Wow! Those little ones are so lucky to have parents that went through so much for them :) Thanks for sharing, Laura!

Jennifer Giuffre said...

Wow. All that for children. And SOOOOOO worth it!!!:) I'm sure you think so, too.