After much reading about the adventure that Todd and I are embarking on, and after my selfish jealousy of others who "accidentally" get pregnant or say "we weren't even trying!", I realized that there is a lot about this journey that is new and exciting that others should be envious over US. Majority of couples won't have the pleasure of going through an adventure of this magnitude together - the physical and emotional journey of assisted reproduction is a test of strength, faith, and completely losing any sense of self.
Long story short, we are going through InVitro Fertilization (IVF for short) with Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI for short). What does this actually mean? Well, the doctors have taken a syringe of Todd's "stuff", they will extract my "stuff", force them to be happy in a test tube together, and then put the finished product back inside of me. And of course, hopefully 9 months later there will be a baby born. All of our "stuff" is completely normal and healthy, they just need some help meeting. Much like Todd's personality, his "stuff" is very introverted.
How did we get started on the process? We first started with a doctor's group called the Reproductive Medicine Group based out of Tampa, FL. Everything started out fine, we completed our tests and consultations; but something just didn't feel right about the process. We felt rushed, and almost swindled by them. Of course to this group of specialist doctors it is common day occurrence to ask couples for $15,000 for a procedure that has a 50/50 shot of working. But for us, it was a big decision we wanted to have our timing on, be talked to like patients that had a decision, and have all of our questions answered before signing on the dotted line. So we switched doctors and now are working with the University of South Florida and their reproductive group. AMAZING! Dr. Mayer is fantastic, thoughtful, educational, and most importantly makes us feel good and comfortable about the process. Still the same cost, still the same statistics, but we feel good about it. If Todd didn't already have a name picked out for our imagined baby boy, I would name him James after our doctor James Mayer.
So after we were re-tested, have any and all possible medical tests done to make sure we are legitimate to procreate, the official process began on October 10, 2011. I still don't understand how stringent the government rules are on assisted reproduction...but in spirit of being hopeful, I'm goign to forget about that piece and how I used to perceive it as unfair. This has really encouraged me to be more hopeful and faithful in God. Everything really happens for a reason - there's a reason we're going through this, there's a reason we have the resources to do this, and there's a reason that it will or won't work. It's now like a little mysterious puzzle of what's in God's greater plan and what exciting things will be in our future.
My main purpose for writing and posting is to educate, entertain, and hopefully gain support. At first I wanted to keep the IVF process a secret in fear of it not working or others judging me or Todd for our election to do this over adoption. But now I'm realizing the more people that know, the more fun this journey is and the more support Todd and I will have whatever the outcome is.
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