So, Jonny and I went to the infertility doc yesterday. Yikes. I really had no idea what to expect, but I did know that I would be nervous. Extremely nervous.
Jon and I drove separately so he could head straight to work afterwards. God bless his boss for being so supportive of his needing to take time off of work and rearranging his schedule to be with me at my multitude of doctor’s appointments. We got into the office where I had to check in. On a touch-screen TV. No sh!t. This giant TV is sitting on the receptionist’s desk saying “Please touch the screen to check in!” Wow. How high-tech is this joint!!
So, I punch the screen and begin in the check in process. Very similar to checking in at the airport for your e-ticket. Without the option to upgrade your seat. Ah well. But it did come complete with the ID check in. As in, there was a webcam on the TV and it snapped my picture. Although, it was better than the DMV because I got to approve my picture, haha.
Jon and I sit down in wicker chairs and he picks up a couple magazines for us to thumb through. I’m sorry, I need to restate that. We sit down in WICKER CHAIRS. Guess we know where the budget for the office went to….the TV.
I get called back by the nurse to have my vitals checked. Blood pressure is HIGH. Shocking. She asks me if that’s normal for me. No, I’m your 120 over 80 girl every other day of the week.
Then we get called back to see the doctor in his office. I really liked him except for the fact that he thought my eyes were about 8-10 inches BELOW my eyes. Hello!!!!! Up here buddy!!!! Oh well, men have their faults.
However, he did make up for it in the fact that he had more statistics than I knew what to do with. He had done a lot of research about pregnancy and MS, which I was really happy about, however, none of the news he had was good. All the statistics he had showed that a woman with MS has worse statistics for pregnancy than any other “normal” person. Which is what I figured, but still hard to hear. He did mention that the majority of the time if a woman with MS gets pregnant, normally her symptoms are suppressed, which is GOOD.
Then we got to talking fertility options. I am unable to take the oral hormone pills because my MS doctor said NO. I guess the oral hormone pills that I would be prescribed tells parts of my brain to make more eggs. Because my brain is already jumbled up and inflamed in certain areas, the less we mess with it, the better. So, those are out.
Next option is taking injection steroids, which I believe is what the *other* Jon and Kate did. I would take the injections for about 10 days to stimulate my ovaries, and then we would try on our own. Typically, people would use this method for 4-5 months, and if nothing happens, they move on to something different. When the doctor told us that by trying this method our chance of having twins was 1 in 4 and having more babies than 2 was (I believe) 1 in 10, Jon goes, “OK, that’s good!”
I nearly fell out of my chair.
I look over at him and say “Are you crazy?? We don’t even have 1 baby yet, and you’re already talking about multiples???”
And he goes “Once and done, right??” Ahahahahahaha…he’s so funny. Jon wants two kids, and I want 4, so we shall see who wins this battle. I have the feeling that I have the power, but who knows. Of course, he has volunteered that if we are blessed with multiples, he will personally *snip snip*. That’ll save us some insurance costs, thanks, hon.
From talking to my neighbors and good friends Kelly and Lisa, we would probably be better off having twins or multiples first because then we wouldn’t know any different. If we were blessed with another baby after that, it will be a cake walk. Ahahahahahaha….it makes sense, but still.
We also talked about IVF. The scary thing is that he had a study of 6 women with MS in France that underwent IVF, and 5 out of the 6 of them experienced relapses WHILE prepping for the IVF because of all the hormones, etc. Wonderful. I should have asked what the exact differences were between the hormones for us trying on our own and the IVF ones. Argh. I was trying so hard to remember everything he was saying.
So, needless to say, we have a lot of thinking to do, although, I’m pretty sure Jon has his mind made up. Once he gets back from Ohio tomorrow, we’ll be able to talk about it more.
I’m trying very hard not to get overwhelmed and to stay calm with this whole baby thing, but it’s getting increasingly more and more difficult. It’s hard when you’re surrounded by happy little toddlers, and go to baptisms of perfect little boys, and to be a godmother to two beautiful children. I can’t help but think: “why not me?”
It seems that everywhere I look, people have kids or babies, or are pregnant and have no problems getting pregnant or staying pregnant. UGH UGH UGH!!! How is it that they are so lucky??
Then I have to remind myself that I have a wonderful life, a wonderful husband, wonderful family, wonderful friends and I need to focus on that and be thankful for that. Maybe Jon and I aren’t meant to have children. Maybe we can just spend the rest of our lives traveling…who knows. I’ve just got to focus on the positive and keep my spirits up.
