Brooke's Story

December 2006 

After a year of trying I went to the health clinic on campus at my university.   I had to fast on my birthday so they could give me an insulin resistance test. Imagine going out to eat for your birthday and not being able to eat.  Or have cake : (  They basically drew my blood every 1/2 hour for 3 hours to see if I was pre-diabetic.  I remember laughing off my nervousness by saying to my friend Kadie, who was no where near ready for kids, that by the time I had them I would have to be on so many drugs I would end up having triplets and then I could give her one!  So not funny, but my way of relieving the tension.  Years of tests and experiments later, I received an unexplained infertility diagnosis.  

January 2008 

I am working with a doctor, taking wild amounts of Clomid and still having ridiculously low progesterone levels.  The doctor decides to take a one month break before going to injectable's.  a few weeks later we will decide to move to Canada where we have to wait about 6 months to get in to see the fertility clinic there.

July 2008 - visiting family in Idaho and having weird pains in the lower left side of my stomach.  The pain is gradual and off and on over a few days.  I decide to go into the doctor, just to make sure I am not going crazy.  My doctor asked me if I could be pregnant and I laughed.  Remember?  The frantic referral I asked you for along with the 2" thick stack of tests performed to fax along with that referral?  Right. Totally not pregnant.  I would know.  5 minutes later she would bring me a little slip of paper with a check mark beside PREGNANT!   I get rushed in the next hour or so to an emergency ultra sound to date the pregnancy.  I am 8 weeks along.

September 2008- Fertility clinic calls to book me an appointment.  I happily tell them I don't need one!

March 2009 - baby arrives happy and healthy with no complications.

February 2010 - I know it could take me a while to get pregnant again, so we decide to start earlier that we would hope to be pregnant, but would prefer them to be too close rather than too far apart.  Doctor refers me to the same clinic.  I get an appointment about a week and a half later.  WHAT??  I am nervous that it will happen to fast.  (what was I thinking?)

December 2010 - after my doctor telling me my chances of getting pregnant were about once every ten years, and 4 rounds of failed clomid runs,  we decide to get more aggressive.  I want to do the Hyper Ovulation IUI.  I am very fortunate that my insurance will cover a lot of the drug costs, saving me quite a bit of the costs.  Doctor tells me if I am going to do the H-IUI than I should just jump to IVF because I would have a lot better odds with that.  Begin saving money and debating all the moral issues that go along with it.  How many?  Do you select gender?  Should we do genetic testing?  What do you do with the left overs?  The waivers give you a lot to think about.  There is still about a 3-6 month wait list.