Thursday 30 July 2015

Napro....

We are currently attempting to expand our family of two using Napro technology. Find out more about that here. However, given that we are dealing with severe MFI (in addition to my own problems - we've been hit twice!) we are remaining realistic about the possibility (probability?) of needing IVF at some stage in the future.

Napro is all about finding the problem and fixing it. They're big into food intolerances and one of the first things we did was take a test to see if what we were putting into our bodies might be having an effect. It turns out that we are intolerant to A LOT. Especially my poor husband...his results were the worst our doctor had ever seen. Turns out he's nearly intolerant to everything! I'm luckier in that I'm "just" intolerant to eggs, dairy and gluten (so just the fun stuff). This knocked us for 6 and has been very difficult. We feel like we're doing pretty well and I've found some good recipes to try out but we definitely have our frustrated days where we just want to eat a block of cheese melted all over a big chunk of bread, followed by a whole chocolate cake. So far so good though and we are allowed to treat ourselves occasionally. Sigh...

We also have to take many, many vitamins and supplements. As in we spend around 1/10th of our salaries a month just on vitamins. That mightn't sound like much...it is! We are hoping with everything we have that it's doing something positive for us.

We're having a semen analysis recheck in a couple of months so that'll be let us know if our hard work and effort has made any difference. We've been warned not to expect to get up to "normal" levels but I, at least, can't help but hope. If there's no difference then we need to sit down and seriously consider moving straight over to IVF (most likely with ICSI).

I also have an appointment coming up with a consultant to talk about my third possible laparoscopy. This doesn't thrill me but if it'll help us...I'll take it with open arms.

Apart from all the above fun, I also get monthly blood tests to see what my hormones are doing. As someone with a severe phobia of needles, this didn't start off so smoothly but I'm getting better with every passing month. I no longer cry! Win! For me and the poor doctor who has to look at me. To help my hormones along, I take Lexatrole (Femara equivalent as far as I know) on CD3 and then move over to progesterone supplementation during my luteal phase.

We've found this to be a tough journey and unfortunately we're only at the start of it. Napro ask that you give 18 months to achieve a pregnancy and the thoughts of this being our reality for another year is somewhat overwhelming at times. However, we're doing our best to take things one day at a time some weeks are (much) better than others. Our second biggest goal from this (a baby being the first), is to not let it stop us from living our lives. This can be difficult since it is an expensive process but we are certainly doing our best on that front.

On that note....it's Thursday, which means it's nearly Friday which means it's practically the weekend and we have plenty of fun planned so things are looking up already!



Monday 27 July 2015

Here goes nothing!

Well, it's a big day - my first blog post! I've been wanting to do this for quite a while and I admit that I have been somewhat (majorly...) of a blog lurker for the past few months. Reading others' blogs has helped me to remember that I'm not alone out there in the big, bad world of infertility. I mean, of course I'm not alone - I have a wonderful husband who supports me more than I probably deserve, given my crazy moods and tendencies to lash out irrationally at times. 

We haven't told anyone IRL about our struggles but I think some close family and friends may have guessed at this stage that our stork has taken the scenic route to us. My husband thinks I read too much into things and others don't analyse as much as I do but I'm sure there are some question marks hanging over us all the same! 

Because we're dealing with both male and female factor infertility, it makes things a little harder...one thing seems to get fixed and then another breaks, or so it seems to us. I'll go more into our specific problems in a later post but for right now I just wanted to get the show on the road....

I hope I enjoy writing as much as I've enjoyed reading!