Progression

I am progressing. I was in the room with a lot of other people when a pregnancy was announced via speaker phone. I said congratulations and ooh’ed and ah’ed about her son being an older brother etc etc.

That may all sound like standard behaviour that happens everyday. But it hasn’t been like that for me for awhile. Um for about 14 months actually.

In the early stages of TTC, pregnancy announcements sucked because I wasn’t pregnant yet. When I was pregnant pregnancy announcements sucked cause I couldn’t share my news with anyone other than family because it was too early. When I lost my babies, pregnancy announcements just sucked, full stop. But now….. Now they are cool. I was genuinely happy for this person, which surprised me a little :)

The smile wasn’t fake, nor was the congratulations. And to be honest, I’ve faked it in the past, a lot recently.

So I’m making progress. Now just to hold my niece or nephew for the first time, who is due so close to my original due date. I really believe bubby will come on my due date, and although I would prefer it not too, if it does, it will allow me to celebrate that day for the rest of my life. Rather than fear it.

Having a rant

Ok, be prepared, I’m about to have a rant and a rave.

A friend of mine just lost her baby. The pregnancy came as a surprise. She was not sure if she was prepared or not. She decided they were stable enough to offer a baby a chance at a good life. They decided to keep the baby. 1 week later she had a miscarriage.

Now, upon telling people she had lost the baby, she was met with the following statements:
*everything happens for a reason
*well it wasn’t planned anyway
*next time everything will be fine
*you’re very young, consider it a blessing

I would just like to point out a few ‘problems’ I have with these comments.

*Everything happens for a reason
Right, what reason is that exactly? To make me miserable? To make me never be able to enjoy a pregnancy without freaking out about losing another baby? Or why, it happened because there was something wrong with my baby? – that’s great, now my body is incapable of making a healthy baby. Will it always be like this, or is my body just hopeless?
No matter what reason you thought this was a sensible comment to tell someone – IT IS NOT. She feels like 5hit, and there is no reason you can give her that makes it ok that this happened.

*Well it wasn’t planned anyway.
And? Your point is? So it wasn’t planned, does that mean I loved my baby less than you? Pfft, you’re kidding right. I can’t imagine that all the children out there running around in the world are loved on levels that are measured by whether they were planned or not. Alternatively, if someone can manage to fall pregnant by accident, are you jealous? Did it, or is it taking you a long time to fall pregnant and the pure truth is your jealous someone else did it without trying?

*Next time everything will be fine
Says who? Unless you have a time machine and can tell me my next pregnancy will be fine, shut up. I wanted it to be fine this time. Do you think that if next time everything IS fine, that I will magically forget about the baby I lost? I lost my baby, everything is not fine NOW, why are you trying to talk to me about next time?

*You’re very young, consider it a blessing
Do I even need to elaborate? Age does not determine how much you grieve your child. Granted, women in their later years may be more panicked that they are running out of time. Hell I’m 28 and scared I’ve left it too long; I imagine older women would feel that anguish a lot stronger. But that does not mean that it is a good thing to happen because someone is younger. The child was wanted, which in turn makes a miscarriage devastating. Left with what ifs and what could have been’s. Perhaps someone younger may even take it harder than what I would, maybe they are yet to deal with guilt and grief. What a sad, sad way to be introduced to such emotions.

Look I know the majority of people have NO IDEA what to say to us, or how to help us when we lose a baby. But, honestly, the best comments I received went along the lines of this:
‘That’s 5hit, I’m so very sorry’
‘I can’t imagine how you are feeling; I just wanted to let you know that I am here if you need me’

If you DO NOT KNOW WHAT TO SAY, say that….. I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say. That’s enough you know. Just you acknowledging it is enough.

It’s a horrible position to be in, to have to talk to someone who is grieving. But please do not try and give me some justification for this happening. There is none. She is sad, and my guess is that a little piece of her will be sad forever. She’ll be able to function again one day, like nothing is wrong. But please, for now, just tell her your sorry, and that you are there for her. I promise you that will be enough.

A bump in the road

I wrote a massive post and lost the whole thing!!!!!!

Over the past few days DP and I have reached the decision that we will not be TTC again until 2010. This is a massive decision that we did not come to without shedding many a tear.

My life has become a minefield of trying to avoid having miscarriages, stressing about miscarriages, and trying to deal with my miscarriages. It pains me so much to know that I carried two children who I never had a chance to meet. I no longer sleep properly, as my head continually ticks over thinking about what is, what was and what could have been. The past 6 months has been emotional torture for me, and I know my unhappiness has led DP to be stressed and worried about me. We no longer have sex for fun, but instead to make a baby. I was also so focused on being pregnant before 16th January that I was wishing time away. I am still very scared about how I will feel on that date, as well as on the 4th May. But I am allowing myself the chance to fall apart on those days, to cry, to grieve, and to pretty much lose the plot. But I think that that is healthier than spending every second of every day trying to get pregnant, or thinking about getting pregnant before then. Those days are going to suck, and I just have to deal with it.

We are going to discuss surgery options with the OB in regards to the scarring on my left ovary. I thought I was doing a fantastic job of disguising the excrutiating pain I have been having, but more then a few people have talked to DP after noticing my discomfort. So now its out it the open.... It farking hurts. ALOT. Most of the time really. I am in pain from CD1 right up until about 4 days after O. So for about 18 days of each cycle, I'm in pain, no matter what movement I make. It all has to do with the maturing of eggs and actual ovulation. However on EVERY day of my cycle, If I stretch to the right too far, it hurts, because it creates pulling on the left. If I lean to far to the left, it hurts because it squashes the area that is scarred. Or it just decides to hurt for no apparent reason, like right now. So it needs to be attended to.

The past few days have been amazing. Firstly, we had absolutely fantastic sex (with a condom!!!), for no reason other than to have sex. O'ing was a pain in the a55 cause it was painful and stopped me from going about my usual things. It was an irritant, rather than that freak out time that usually meant OPK's, Maybe Baby, Green Tea, Robitussin, and well timed sex.

The instant we decided we wouldn't be TTC'ing for awhile, my head seemed to clear. The cloud that had been hovering over me for so long seemed to disappear. I have been so scared about being pregannt again. I was so so sure I would miscarry again, and I wasn't sure how I could cope. I kept telling everyone I would try once more and give up if it did not work out. I feel now though, that giving myself a chance to find some happiness again will make me stronger for next time we TTC.

I am not silly, I know when we TTC again I will become CP Checking, CM monitoring, BBT taking, Robitussin & green tea drinking, planned sex, crazy lady again. But, thats ok, I'm fine with that, I know I'll have a lot of other ladies to freak out with on BH. But for now, I'm going to have sex becasue I'm h0rny, not because my temp dropped, or spiked, or because I have EWCM.

I dont think I can give up blogging completely. There are so many journey's I want to watch unfold. TTC'ers who will get their BFP's. Those unfortunate to have experienced losses, to get to their baby after so many detours in the journey. And those who are currently waddling around, about to become wonderful parents, on a journey that will change their lives. I'm not prepared to give that up just yet. I may not be trying, but I'll be following everyone through their journey's.

So, I figured I'd post, and let you all know what was happening, instead of just disappearing into internet oblivion. I'll be lurking in the shadows, and of course, there is always facebook

Thank you to everyone who has sent me messages of support and encouragement. Your kind words helped me through some very, very dark times this year. And you helped celebrate some happy times, long before anyone in real life knew what was going on.

If anyone ever needs a shoulder to cry on, who has any questions that they think I can help with...please msg me. I will always be here to lend support to those in need.

The book isn't finished, its just a new chapter.

Aaaaaarrrrrgggggggh

I'm farking over it. I can't handle this anymore.

Twice the Dr has pointed out that the ovarian ectopic could have killed me. IT DIDN'T. A freaking bus could hit me any day of the week.

DP wont let this go. For the FIRST time since all this has been happening dp has piped up with 'I dont think we should try again cause its your safety we're talking about'.

Fark me. Seriously. You could have told me this PRIOR to me having a catheter stuck up my freakin cervix.

I've had enough, I feel like pulling up stumps and giving the whole TTC game away.

I can't have a baby without dp - well not technically true, I can, but do not want to.

How long do I wait in hope his fears go away.

This is all too farking hard. I battle on everyday, when in reality I am absolutely broken inside.

Waiting, waiting, waiting

Well I’m still in the process of having a major panic attack whilst I wait for the karotyping results. The path lab sends all genetic testing to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, and their policy is to mail out results to the Dr, NOT to fax them like most other labs. So I am unsure whether I will even get the results this week or not. They are ready TODAY, but I have no idea when they will be sent to my Dr.

Therefore it appears I will miss out on any chance of being pregnant again in 2008 L

OB Follow up

I was extremely nervous once the Dr’s appointment had been changed. I thought the day would drag on, but it went so, so fast. Before I knew it dp and I were in the car and on our way. I honestly think that drive did more for my heart rate than any exercise ever could. Nothing like a bit of panic to get your heart rate up!!!

For the first time I had to wait to see the Dr, it was only about half an hour, which didn’t really bother me all that much. Once we were in we sat in silence for a few minutes while he read through all of the results and looked at the scan pictures.

First off he advised that the karotyping results weren’t in yet, which pi55ed me off. I had rung the pathology results area to ensure they would be ready PRIOR to making an appointment with the Obstetrician. They had told me they would be ready last week? Right, obviously?

He asked me to speak first. I told him I have recurring pain in my left ovary, before ovulation. And hence the reason I have a lot of in-depth ultrasounds of my ovaries. He said ‘oh that’s why they did that; because I knew I hadn’t requested them’. He said she must have liked me because usually they will not do anything outside of what is listed on the referral. So finally something went my way…..

He agreed that the pain would be the maturing follicles pressing on the scarred area. He also said he did not believe it was necessary to operate unless I was in too much pain. I later told dp that I would not opt for a surgery near my reproductive organs unless I was in so much pain I couldn’t walk.

The tricky part came when I was talking about the ectopic, and chances of it happening again. He said he is 90% sure I had an ovarian topic. Empty sac in uterus, large mass that kept growing in left ovary. But he could not tell me 100% that it was though, because he did not operate. He could only have told me for sure if he had operated and sighted the ovary for himself.

My concern personally is that I developed the scarring after the infection from the D&C, and that this is specifically what caused the ectopic. He said we will never know whether I scarred before or after the ectopic. But he said my chance of having an ectopic (with no history of ectopics) is 1 in 100. My chance of having an ectopic (with a history of ectopics) is 1 in 80-90. He is confident that I will carry my next pregnancy to term, barring any chromosomal abnormalities with the bubby. I’m glad he is confident, because I sure as hell am not.

My thyroid results came back at a perfect level, right in the mid range of normal. So another test can get crossed off the list.

I have therefore been given the green light to TTC this cycle, PROVIDING the results of the karotyping come back ok.

Next time I fall pregnant (please be soon, please be soon) I have to have bloods from the very beginning every 2 days to monitor BHCG and Progesterone. I have to have a scan at 6 weeks to check for an ectopic. I have to take baby aspirin from 7 weeks. And if my progesterone level is not adequate I will have to have that too. However he does not think progesterone is an issue as i do not have an LP defect.
So I have rung the pathology place again today, and have been told that my results will be ready tomorrow morning, and that hey will be faxed directly to my Dr. If I have not heard from him by lunch time, I will be chasing it up again.