2010
December - We get married in the Catholic Church with no training in NFP. We decide to wait two years before having children (oh, how I miss those days when we thought we could actually plan this and wouldn't experience any problems).
2012
October - I finish my last pack of birth control pills.
November - My period doesn't come. Hmm, that's weird.
December - My period still doesn't come. I confide in my sister (RN, mother) who recommends the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility and encourages me to set up a visit with my doctor if I don't get my period by February 1.
2013
January - Still no period. I read Taking Charge of Your Fertility, and my mind is blown. How could I be so ignorant of how my body and fertility works for 10+ years of my adult life?
February - Set up an appointment with my doctor to talk about no cycles. She thinks I'm just having trouble getting started again after being on the pill and prescribes progesterone pills to trigger a bleed.
March - I bleed! (Hey! That's a song by one of my favorite bands!) But... it's really just a little bit of spotting that doesn't even fill a pantyliner. Doc says that's OK, and we'll do it again.
April - I finish the progesterone again, but I don't bleed or spot at all this time. I decide I want to see an OB/GYN, and I also talk my husband Kris Kringle into attending a NFP class with me. We start Couple to Couple League classes, and already see it as something we'll need to suffer through. We can't relate to the dry, unengaging couple (that only read off of notes the whole time) very much at all.
The OB/GYN tells me that some women with no cycles have some success with thyroid medication, so he puts me on armour thyroid without testing me for anything and tells me to come back in 3 months or when I get a period, whichever comes first. He also puts me on progesterone cream and tells me to take it all the time.
I decide to run another marathon because obviously I'm not getting pregnant and I need to feel in control of my body.
May - I'm disgusted with the way that OB/GYN treated me, and after our second CCL session, I decide I want to try to see a doctor who doesn't believe in hormonal birth control. Our hearts hadn't converted to embracing Theology of the Body yet, but looking back, it's obvious our hearts were changing.
My new OB/GYN who adheres to the teachings of the Catholic Church is amazing. We stop the armour thyroid and progesterone and wait a month to see what happens. (Spoiler: nothing happens.)
June - OB/GYN starts cycles of estradial and progesterone to trigger a cycle. Nothing happens. I run a great marathon and feel good about my body and what it can do, even if other parts of it are broken.
July - After getting courted by a few companies, I accept a position in the Omaha region, and we plan on moving. At this point, I feel like we're on the right track with medical support. Our hearts are converted to embracing Theology of the Body. The Omaha position wins over the job in another region because I know I could be treated at the Pope.Paul VI Institute from here on out.
August - OB/GYN tests me for thyroid and orders an ultrasound. I have low T3:Reverse T3. The ultrasound, done at a hospital and not the tech prefered my OB/GYN's clinic, says that my lady parts look "normal." Hindsight, I saw the telling "string of pearls" on my ovaries, but I was relieved to hear nothing looked bad. I start the new job.
September - OB/GYN starts me out on 75mcg of T3. I immediately start getting terrible side effects: headaches, crampy calves, racing heart. I knew something was wrong when about 20 minutes into a regular run, I had to stop because I through my heart was going to shoot out of my chest. My OB/GYN cuts the dose down to 7.5 mcg with the thought that we will slowly build back up to the right dose. The estradial/progesterone "cycles" continue with no bleed.
October - It's time to make the appointment at PP.VI, as I can't keep seeing my other OB/GYN long distance. I get in to see Dr. K. at PP.VI within about 2 weeks of making the call (cool!). We stop the progesterone immediately (no bleed), but continue the T3. I'm told to wait 2 months to see what happens. I'm also told I need to learn the Creighton model for charting. I roll my eyes at learning another method of charting. Please. It can't be that different.
THE DARK PERIOD OCCURS. I haven't hit this low before or since. I am gloomy, in despair, a simply not coping well. At all. I'm pissed I'm being told to wait and see AGAIN, and I really don't see why God is doing this to us.
December - We start learning the Creighton model, and it's obviously very different from how I'd been charting, in a good way. I decide to go back into PP.VI a week earlier than recommended because nothing is happening and I can't take it any longer. Dr. K. orders bloodwork, an ultrasound, and puts me on the wait list for a laparascopy. I have an amazing moment in church on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, and I'm at peace and hopeful that we are getting somewhere. Ultrasound reveals the "string of pearls" on each ovary, and for the first time, I think about the possibility of having PCOS. (It never occured to me before because the first ultrasound was "normal" and I didn't fit the "profile" for PCOS. I know now that the "profile" is a bunch of hooey.)
2014
January - I start taking Synthroid (50 mcg) along with T3 (22.5 mcg). I wait and wait for my surgery to be scheduled.
March - Laparoscopy reveals endometriosis everywhere (suprising because I didn't have any "classic" symptoms like pain)! My ovaries are the size of golf balls (they should be almonds) and definitely polycystic. Tubes and uterus look good, no adhesions anywhere. Dr. K. recommends a second surgery to remove the endo and perform a double ovarian wedge resection.
May - Surgery #2. Dr. K. clears out all the endo and performs the double ovarian wedge resection. I recover just fine with no complications. I start to observe fertile-type mucus. (Whoa! What's this stuff! Could it be...?)
June - I cycle for the first time, all on my own, one month after surgery, to the day! It's like getting my first period all over again - way to go, body! You're a woman!
July - No cycle this month. Yellow Stamp City, Population = me. Such a low after such a high last month. KK and I discuss that we are, in fact, called to adopt.
August - Yellow stamp, after yellow stamp... doc says I should need to wait until a peak day or 3 months post op to come in for a visit. I have one day of CM that's lubricative, so I chart a white baby on CD 65 and call it a peak day. That allows me to get a P+7 blood draw that reveals that I did not ovulate yet (duh), but I do get to come in for a progesterone shot (my first ever!) to try to trigger AF. I start spotting on CD 73, but never get AF. I finally see my doc on CD 77 for 3 months post op, and she decides to call the spotting CD 1, and I get to start Clomid immediately. Finally, I feel like we're doing something again. There's a plan. Adoption research and discussion continues.
September - Clomid, Round 1 (and the only round to date) bombs in a smokey, fiery way. I end up acting like a heinous monster to my husband. Even though I see some good fertile mucus, the lab results are abysmal, and I have to have progesterone to start a bleed. Whomp whomp. We pick adoption agencies to facilitate the process and complete our home study.
October - Femara, Round 1 (and the only round to date) begins. Yes, I had good CM again, but I was once again just a mess of anger and ridiculousness on it.
November - Turns out Femara is a pigeon. It flew in, pooped everywhere, and flew out with nothing but a mess. I made it to P+16 with no PMS/pregnancy symptoms, and the pregnancy test was negative, which I knew it would be. After the negative test, I decided to stop charting/caring for awhile. Who wants to be a mess over the holidays? Not me.
December - Pretty uneventful on the IF front since I didn't chart and since my body does jack and squat on its own. We wrap up our home study (yay!), and I procrastinate in setting a doctor's appointment to discuss how to not TTC but still work on my health.
