Endometriosis Awareness Day 2

     “According to the Jean Hailes Foundation for women’s health affects one in 10 women. Of those, about 30 per cent will experience infertility, while many other symptoms affecting the bowel and bladder as well as tiredness and bleeding will hamper the lives of sufferers.”  http://www.bendigoweekly.com.au/?p=17808
     From the time I was a young teenager I thought I would have trouble getting pregnant. I don’t know why I had this thought considering I was just a kid with no reason to think about having a kid of my own yet, nothing was troublesome with my health that would have let me to this assumption, and my mother and grandmother had no problem having children of their own. So what made me think this? I’m not sure, just a gut feeling. I kept this fear to myself until I started a serious relationship with Tyrone. I told him my biggest fear “I’m worried I can’t have children or if I can it will be difficult.” Of course, like a good man, he said no, don’t worry, everything will be just fine. So I kept my fear to myself hoping that when it came down to it he’d be right. In 2007 I started having some serious health issues and in 2008 I was diagnosed with Endometriosis. A unknown disease that was well known for infertility. My fears arose in me again. I told Tyrone, and at this point we had been together for 3 years, that I understood if he needed to bow out gracefully. A sick girlfriend can be dealt with but a possible infertile one? Maybe not so much. Of course it would have absolutely broken my heart but it wasn’t about just me. My thought was that we both wanted kids and this way he still had a good chance of having one. Of course he said I was ridiculous for even mentioning this and that he would never leave me especially for that.
     I talked to my doctors about my fertility. Everything was normal except for the extreme pain I was having due to the Endo but I was still told it may be, probably would be, difficult. So… my gut feeling was right. I would have problems conceiving. My thoughts immediately went from “I knew it” to “oh god why me?”
We started trying to conceive in November 2009 with bloodwork to see if I was ovulating. I was not. We tried for three months with no success. My HSG levels were suppose to be in the 10-15 range and I wasn’t even getting a 1. My numbers ranged from 0.3-0.7. These number kept coming back and making my heart break more and more. In March of 2010 my Endometriosis Specialist said there really was no point in continuing this way because I wasn’t ovulating. He wanted to start us on Clomid. He was very hopeful that this would work and I was ecstatic. It takes most couples a year or so for a doctor to come to this conclusion. Luckily I had a Endo doctor that was on top of his game. My HSG levels were still in the 1.something range for the first two months. The third month we doubled the dosage and my HSG level was 11. 11!!! That’s right – success! I ovulated. I thought ‘YES! This means we should get pregnant in the next few months!’ because a normal couple it can take a few months to get pregnant when everything is working right and now everything, for me, was working right. I took a pregnancy test the week before mothers day and got a negative. The following week, the day after mothers day, we got a positive on a test. Then two more. Then an ultrasound with a tiny beating heart.
     Although we had a little difficulty conceiving, which would have been a lot more troublesome had I not had a specialist tracking everything, we did and birthed the most gorgeous baby ever. We are lucky and never go a day without forgetting it. We have a miracle baby and thank God every chance we can for her. There are so many women out there who are not as lucky as we are. Who aren’t able to carry their own babies and hold them in their arms. This is why I promote Endometriosis Awareness as much as possible. I don’t want any more women, especially my daughter, to have to go through the pain and fertility problems like I have had to.

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