Here is a little recap of our journey thus far. In 2008, we started "not preventing" and just tried it the good ole-fashioned way. That year we moved from Charlotte, NC to Columbus, OH. So we just kinda chalked it up to a lot going on and tried a few ovulation kits, but didn't seem to work. We were living with my sister and her husband while we sold and bought our houses - and got lots of first-hand newborn experience when our nephew was born in October of 2008.
In 2009, I talked to my ob-gyn about how we hadn't been successful in our baby attempts. We spent that year doing all of the initial tests. All of my bloodwork for the various tests came back normal. My husband's sperm count was good. I also did the HSG test where they inject blue dye up to make sure the tubes were open and everything was fine. In the summer, my doctor started me on Clomid (the lowest dose since I wasn't having any ovulation issues) and we tried that for a few months. In the fall, we decided to keep trying without Clomid until Christmas and then move to the next step and talk to a reproductive medicine doctor in 2010.
In 2010, we scheduled our first visit with our reproductive medicine doctor. We learned about all of our options and decided to try 3 rounds of intra-uterine insemination (IUI, also known as artificial insemination). This process involved me having a couple ultrasounds so that the doctor could check in on how my follicles were doing. When the time was right, they told us when to do the HCG (Novarel) shot to trigger ovulation. Crazy to think they let just anyone do this - but my husband did a good job. About 30+ hours from when I received the shot, we went in to the doctor's office for the actual procedure. My husband had to give a fresh collection that they washed and prepared. Then the doctor injected the "washed" sperm up in my uterine cavity with a catheter. I could feel a little pressure, but it was just kind of like having a pap-smear. Then you just wait two weeks and hope for a positive pregnancy test. Unfortunately, my test was negative and my period showed up a few days later. We were really disappointed when the first round didn't work - I always thought that once we got "a little help" - that would do the trick. We decided to go through with another round of IUI and my friend actually ended up giving me the HCG shot this time, since I was out-of-town visiting some friends. When that round was also unsuccessful, we decided not to go through with the 3rd round. We went back to discuss our next steps with the doctor in May. Since we were still classified as "unexplained infertility" - there was an out-patient surgery that I could have done to see if there was anything else causing issues like endometriosis. Knowing the result of this laparoscopy surgery would help us better decide whether to do in-vitro or the fertility drugs with another IUI. We decided to go this route and I had the surgery done in June 2010. The doctor just went in through a small incision below my bellybutton with a camera to look around and made another small incision above my pelvic area for the tools to move things around as needed. Work was kinda crazy in the spring, so I was excited about my day of bedrest after the surgery. :) The results of the surgery were that everything looked fine. We were relieved that nothing was wrong with me, but we still didn't have any answers. We went to Japan in July and then met with the doctor after we came back and decided to move forward with in-vitro. We had 5 weddings in September/October and some other planned trips that fall - we are what some would call social butterflies. So we decided to keep trying on our own for the rest of 2010 and then start in-vitro after the holidays. And here we are - the Lupron shots start tomorrow. Good night!