The Baby Ruth Blog

Sunday, June 20, 2010

The Baby Ruth Library

For a little one who hasn't even been conceived yet, Baby Ruth sure has a lot of reading material. Check out our new kid's book section in the bookshelf! On Friday, we spent the day with my parents and grandma in Hood River. My mom just retired from teaching second grade for over 30 years and she gave us loads of these gorgeous children's books! I can't wait to test them out. Thankfully we have nieces and friends to help "tide us over" until we read to our own munchkin.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Round 2

As I type, there's a little buck with just the start of antlers laying in the grass right outside my window and a cute baby bunny is chomping on some grass. It made me think of Bambi and Thumper. I love Spring!

This month, I'm going to make every effort to "betrol myself" as Hallie would have said. I really don't want the progesterone to take control of my emotions again. I'll be starting round 2 tonight and take pills for the next 12 days. I'm thankful that I don't have to do them as shots. This can be very painful, as some of my friends have experienced during thier IVF treatments. One of the gals had so much pain that she couldn't walk or lay down for a stretch of time.

I've been working on an application for an IVF scholarship from the organization INCIID the last few days. I'm waiting to connect with the IVF coordinator from OHSU since they will have to write me a letter of referral. If we win the scholarship, they will pay for 1 free IVF cycle. We would be required to fundraise $3000 of it, which has already been saved in the Baby Ruth Fund thankfully.

I can't beleive it's June and school just got out. It's freezing cold--just had to turn on the heat. I think I'll cozy up in some pj's and watch the show 24 with my hubby.

Good Night!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Correction to two things and a Congrats

I am not just a little irritable. It has progressed to REALLY REALLY irritable (I'm blaming progesterone because there's no other reason for it). Poor Samir--my dear business "partner-in-crime". He nicely reminded me to make calls today and I bit his head off. Ugh--I hate hormones.

Also, I had my friend's blog address a little off. It's www.paulandgretchen.blogspot.com
I'm not telling her results here, because I'm trying to bite my tongue and let people tell thier own stories!

Lastly~ Big CONGRATS to my mom Carolyn for retiring in 10 days. She had a really nice, well attended party tonight at Tommy O's. I hope she felt loved and supported.

Goodnight!

Monday, May 31, 2010

Hello friends and family!

Nothing really new to share with me~ just thought I'd let you know that after one month of progesterone treatment, I feel pretty normal. I have been a little on the irritable side, but other than that, I have not had side effects. I am getting anxious to be done though! I'm ready to find out what's next!

Thursday night we celebrated with my friend LS from Hannah's Hope. She is 4months pregnant and is now one of our "alumni" gals. I'm so excited for her as it's finally feeling more real! We've been through this together for the last two years and it truly encourages everyone to see someone have success after waiting such a long time. Her attitude has been amazing through the thick and thin lining(haha little infertility joke).

Wednesday, we'll find out how my friend GM's frozen embryo transfer went. She had two put in and I'm so hopeful that this is it...Changes are in the air! Check out her amazing blog and be prepared to grow in your faith just be reading about her journey:paulandgretchen@blogspot.com

I'd better get ready for the day now! I'm going to do a garage sale and see how much of our junk I can get rid of. Have a great Memorial Day everyone.

Monday, May 17, 2010

New Diagnosis

Today was my post-op with Dr. Amato. Since I didn't have any difficulty with the surgery, I expected a very brief, "nothing" kind of appointment. WRONG! It turns out, I have something she did not expect. It's called endometrial hyperplasia, which is a thickening of my uterus that has pre-cancerous irregular cells. They take it seriously, because left untreated, it can eventually become cancer of the uterus. It is also something that can contribute to infertility. To treat it, I have to start taking 12 progesterone pills per month for 3 months. At the end of this period, they will do a biopsy and make sure it's gone.

Here's a link with more info about this issue:
http://www.uterus1.com/edu_ctr/clinicaloverview.cfm/20

I'm sure most people would be appalled to have a diagnosis like this. However for me (and anyone who's ever been infertile), it feels really good to find out more about my body and why it's not doing what it's supposed to do. On the spiritual side, it also makes me grateful for this journey I've been on, because if I wouldn't have had the hysteroscopy, they never would have found this condition so soon and been able to catch it. Who knows, I may have had 3 kids by now, but died of cancer by age 40.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Updates

My meeting a couple weeks ago went ok with Dr. Amato. She was very conservative about how she spoke regarding the polyp, which kind of annoyed me, but I guess she has to be careful what she says or people get too hung up on things. She said she thought it unlikely to be the primary cause of our issues. She said that endometriosis is probably the main issue. However, I asked her if it was in a place where implantation occurs and she confirmed that it was. So, I'm still hopeful that removing it will give us another chance to conceive naturally. She also thought that was fine to wait a few months and see what happens. Please pray for the surgery to go well tomorrow and that a miracle could take place in the next couple months!

As for Weight Watchers, I'm doing great. I've lost a total of 5 lbs and have not felt all that different. It's been good for me to journal my daily food intake and keep track of points online. I know I'm making better choices and limiting my portions, which is a good change for me.

That's all the Baby Ruth updates for now. Happy Cinco De Mayo~ Cheers!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Surgery Scheduled

So I heard back from the surgery scheduler and I'm on for May 6th, which was my date of preference. Yay! I will have my pre-op over the phone on April 26th and can't wait because I'm dying to know if Dr. Amato thinks that the polyp has caused implantation failure, how long she thinks I've had it, etc.

Our Infertility Journey

Like many young couples, we thought that we would decide it was time to have a baby and it would just magically happen. We were the "perfect" ages..in our mid twenties, and we had been married for 3 years. It's embarrasing to admit, but I was so excited, I even bought some miniature Baby Ruth candy bars to hand out for when we would make our big announcement to friends and family! (Cute, huh?)

Well, after a year or so we began to worry. We were both tested and the doctors could find nothing wrong with either of us. I had a history of bad mentrual cramps, so I requested a laparoscopy to search for endometriosis, and nothing was found. We went through a couple years of the unsettling diagnosis of unexplained infertility, were treated with Clomid and underwent five unsuccessful IUI’s.

In the Fall of ‘07, we began to see a reproductive endocrinologist. After making sure that Bryan was tested more thoroughly and finding that he was very healthy indeed, our doctor performed another laparoscopy on me, and he found stage-two endometriosis. Because the clinic was outside of our medical insurance network, we had to pay for the procedure out of pocket. The specialist felt that after the laser procedure, we should have a good chance of conceiving naturally, so we knew that we were making an important investment. Unfortunately, many months of trying to conceive passed and nothing happened.

In May of ’08 I followed my dream of starting a support group for women who were going through a similar journey. It had been a long, hard, lonely five years as a barren woman! Through the support of our church, I was able to find eight other women who desperately needed someone to talk to. It has been a miraculous, life changing experience to have this group to laugh and cry with. We have come a long ways emotionally and spiritually together and have become great friends.

With the encouragement of the support group, we started to consider IVF. Our specialist felt that this was a very logical next step as well. After months of praying and discussing the financial side, we scheduled our IVF for October 2008. We decided that we would take out a loan from our home equity to cover some of the expenses. The doctor was able to harvest ten eggs, five of which fertilized. In the end, he transferred two six-day blastocyst embryos, and we all felt very confident! Despite so many things going for us, the babies did not implant and our dreams of becoming parents were crushed once again.

Just recently, in the Spring of 2010, we began seeing a new specialist and had some more tests done. Thankfully, an ultrasound helped the doctor discover a tiny polyp on my uterus that needed to be removed. After surgery, the biopsy revealed endometrial hyperplasia, a condition when left untreated can result in cancer of the uterus. We are so thankful that it was caught before it could cause trouble. To treat this condition, I was prescribed with a three-months of progesterone. With one month down and two to go, we are certainly looking forward to the next step in our journey.

I hope that by sharing this, we can connect with our friends and family on a deeper level. I know that many have been concerned, but not known how to show their love and support for us. It's a difficult subject, but if there's anything I've learned, it is to be open and honest, not ashamed. When we share our hearts, we can reach out and encourage others. If you have read this and struggle with infertility, or another battle, don't be afraid to talk to someone about it. Life is a roller coaster ride, but we're all on it together, so buckle up and let's go!