My first post

Welcome to my blog.

On a whim (and suffering extreme boredom and indifference at work) I decided to start a blog. I guess it wasn’t really a whim, more like inspiration. I have been inspired by all of the amazing women (and one man) who have started blogs that reveal their feelings and experiences about infertility. Like most of the women out there dealing with infertility, I spend a lot of time on Google looking for diagnoses, ideas, or some shred of hope, that we might one day be one of the lucky people who “beat” infertility. A friend of mine, who I met through a support group for infertility, told me about this page called “999 Reasons to Laugh at Infertility”. I am sure any of you who have found my blog must also be familiar with this one. After reading all of the postings on that site (maybe 150 – 200??? I lost count), I followed up on various posters with blogs of their own. These blogs are humorous, filled with information and hope, and most of all have helped me feel a little less alone. It opened up my eyes to this community of women and now that I am about to embark on my first IVF I decided to join the gang!

A brief bit of history about my TTC journey: We have been with two different Res, one terrible and one so-so (but who seems to have loyal patients), I have done two IUIs on Clomid, and two IUIs on Menopur injectables, with good follicle response but no success and no explanations. I had a laparoscopy before the last two IUIs, and one Yale Endometrial Function test (endometrial biopsy) before starting IVF. The laparoscopy showed mild endometriosis, and the Yale test showed an infection and dis-syncrony (???) of my lining. Following that test I was put on Lupron Depot for three months back in May (I will save that story for another posting) and antibiotics for one month. I used that time while on the Lupron Depot (while there was no chance I would get pregnant) to eat all the fat, gluten, sugar, etc., I am not “supposed” to be eating, and to drink all the alcohol and caffeine I am not “supposed” to be drinking. I like to blame my recent weight gain on the hormones, but I suspect it was also partly these indulgences. I also went on roller coasters, and spent time in saunas and hot tubs – just some of things I have been avoiding doing for the last 2.5 years. Now that the Lupron Depot is out of my system, I am one week and two days into the birth control pill part of my IVF cycle.

I decided to call my blog “First and Only?” because to-date I have been very adamant, and my husband has (after lots of discussion) agreed, that we would only do one IVF, and if doesn’t work we would move on to adoption. I am the kind of person that generally sticks to a decision, sometimes bordering on stubborn. I hope in this case this won’t be a decision we have to make.