Thankful for Fertility Treatment Center - Day 5

A long, long time ago, the Hottie and I were child-less. We married in March 2001 (almost 10 years ago - go us!) and planned to have kids after about a year. One year in - we started officially trying. Many months go by - no kids. You know how you sometimes have those gut feelings??? Well, I had one - I knew something was wrong. I really always felt like I would have problems in the "getting pregnant" department. Everyone would just say...relax, you're young, it will happen. Even though that is sometimes true, you get sick of hearing that. Really. And...as luck would have it - it didn't just happen (well - 8 years later it did...but, that's a whole other story).

My OB diagnosed me with PCOS, or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. She gave me Clomid. Nothing. She referred me over to The Fertility Treatment Center. Lots of tests and money and tests and money and drugs confirmed a case of PCOS with difficulty in the conception and maintaining of a pregnancy. By some miracle (and lots of drugs) and an IUI (well, many of them before it worked), we ended up with Brady. We were ecstatic.

2 years later, we were ready again. We went back to FTC. New doctor. We learned that we were very lucky with IUI...my body didn't respond well and it took many tries and were so very lucky we didn't have high order multiples. They suggested IVF. After a lots of thinking and talking, we decided to go for it.

January 2006, the IVF process began. Lots of tests and money and tests and money and drugs and more drugs and still more drugs...I ended up with overstimulated ovaries. Apparently, it's kind of a big deal and my case was pretty rare (like 2%)

Poor Hottie...ask him about this - worst time ever!

I ended up with a hospital stay, lots of weight (like 40 pounds in a week), and two paracentesis procedures. It was a very emotional time for me. I was NOT pregnant, but had hormones ravaging my body like I was 9 months pregnant, gaining 10+ pounds a day of fluid, stuck on the maternity floor of a hospital, and in major pain. And just to make it even better, at one point during my hospital stay - one of the nurses that I had taking care of me asked me if all of this was really worth it. Yes - she really said that. As I was crying in my bed. Alone. I can still hear her rude attitude in my head. Oh...you better believe I rudely let her know that it was definitely worth it and then very kindly excused her from my room. Forever.

Now, at that point in time...I did not really know if it was worth it. But...luckily, I soon found out just how worth it all of that misery was. Now, of course we had to cancel the IVF transfer during that round (since I was in the hospital) but, a few of my frozen embryos were transferred over a couple months later - and in January 2007...we were welcomed our girlie-girl, Lily.

Fertility treatments are very invasive. Intimacy is thrown out the window. You're more worried about rushing your "deposit" to the office than having any fun. It's a schedule. EVERYTHING single thing you do is on a schedule. It's like you need a vacation from your life to follow the schedule. But...it's worth it. It's SO worth it.

I promise.

Thank you Fertility Treatment Center...without you - no Campbell Cuties.