TTC Update

Well our last IUI was in June and it failed. That makes 3 failed IUIs. We found out in July that I had 3 large cysts on my right ovary and 3 small ones on my left. So the doctor put me back on birth control to get rid of them. I am now at the beginning of a new cycle and the doctor wanted to see me back down in San Antonio tomorrow but I asked if we could take this month off. They said of course, that a lot of people do. Its a very stressful process. But there are a few things I would like to take care of first before doing another round.

I think the cysts are still there I can feel them every once in a while so I am choosing to continue birth control this month. If I went down to SA and they saw the cysts were still there they would just tell me I have to wait another cycle anyway... but that's my life lately, the waiting game.

I found out about a week and a half ago that the pain I have been feeling in my chest was not cracked cartilage as the doctors have been trying to tell me but its actually a dislocated rib! Feel on the right side your collar bone. Then feel down about 3 ribs and that is the one on me that is popped out from the rest and dislocated. My new chiropractor is determined to put it back in place but says my body is the most stubborn he has seen. Apparently my muscles contract faster than he can push it back in place. He said in 10 years mine is the first one he hasn't been able to fix the first time! He even fixes UFC fighters when they get cranked out of place and he can't fix me? But he said he will get it if its the last thing he does. This has been like this for 3 and a half years so I don't expect a miracle overnight. I know it will take time. It usually pops once each visit but its not back in place yet.

Another bit of good news!! We found out the other day that our chiropractor also does acupuncture!! Now Tricare doesn't pay for any of my visits with him but Sergio and I have built a great relationship with him already that he loves us like family and said that he would do acupuncture on both of us for FREE!!! This would hopefully help with our fertility issues!! I have done some research that people who go through these treatments with acupuncture have a higher success rate than those who don't! I am just so excited!!

You are probably wondering why our chiropractor fell in love with us so quickly? Because he found out Sergio does Brazillian Jiu Jitzu and he is a big fan of the sport, used to do it himself and actually knows Joise Gracie (probably spelling the first name wrong) but anyway he the one who reshaped the UFC back when it first started by introducing BJJ!! This guy is like a brother to our chiro and he is going to be coming to visit him to go Hog hunting soon and our doc said he would call Sergio so he could meet him. Now J Gracie is also fighting in October in Rio Di Genaro, Brazil and said he is going to see if he can take Sergio with him because Gracie asked our doc to be his ring side doc!! How cool is that??

Anyway that is enough rambling for now, this was supposed to be a fertility update and it turned into much more, lol. Oh well there is a full update for you for now!

We Moved!

Well I guess this post is overdue but we have been soo busy! May 6th we moved on base, we got offered a 3 bedroom two and a half bathroom house on base! With a two car garage. I know that it was God's doing! We didn't know what to do, we were even deeply considering just buying the house we were renting. April 18th I prayed and asked God to give us wisdom, the Bible promises that if we ask for wisdom God will give it to us. I told Him that we didn't know what to do and only He knew our future and what would be best for us. I asked Him if it was His will for us to buy that house that we would have a peace about it, and if it wasn't that the housing office on base would offer us a house that we couldn't refuse! Well the morning of April 19th (my birthday) He did just that! The housing office called to say they had a house for us to look at! So since I had just had my surgery grandma came down to help me pack up our house and move. I literally had to pack the whole week right after I had my surgery to move the very next weekend. Check out my facebook page for the pictures!

And our journey continues...

Our journey continues to have bumps in the road! But its alright, I am just along for the ride! I found out last month that I had cysts on my ovaries, two on the right and one on the left. This month I went back to find out if they decided to go away... and while the two on the right did there is still one on the left and they aren't sure if its the same one or a new one. I have been on birth control since last month in hopes to reduce them and have them go away on their own. The doctor said that missing 4 or more BC pills in a month can cause you to develop cysts, so maybe that is what happened, because I have never been good at remembering to take the pill every day. So, we discussed my options and I have decided to have surgery to see if the endometriosis has come back. I believe it has and I also believe its worse this time than last. While under they are also going to do a hysteroscopy to check everything out because my last HSG (dye test) was about 2 years ago. This will tell them if my tubes are clear. So I feel good about the surgery, to have answers and know what step to take next. Chances of getting pregnant after removing the endometriosis are greater, so that is what I am praying for! I am still on the birth control and will continue taking it up until the day of my surgery which will be April 29th. Hopefully then the cysts will be gone! Well that is about all for now!

Journey with Sarai/Sarah

Genesis 11:30
"But Sarai was barren; she had no child."

This is the first metnion in the Bible of a woman being infertile. I don't know if she was the first ever woman to be infertile but it's the first mention of it.

Sarai and Abram are married. God promises a nation to Abram.

Genesis 12:2
"And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing."

Genesis 15:2
"And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless..."

Genesis 15:4
"And behold the word of the Lord came unto him, saying... but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir."

Genesis 16:1-4
"Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid, and Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she concieved; and when she saw that she had concieved, her mistress was despised in her eyes."

Genesis 17:15-16
"And God said unto Abraham as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her; yea, I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her."

Genesis 21:2
"For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac."

My thoughts:

God promised a nation, a great nation to Abraham yet his beloved wife Sarah was barren. God waited many years, Sarah was in her 90's when she finally became pregnant and she had only one son - Isaac. God tested Abraham with his son that was promised to make a nation out of and told Abraham to take him up and make an offering using his son. Abraham obeyed without question. Isaac asked his dad "where is the lamb?" They had everything else needed, but not knowing his father was going to use him. He said "God will provide one." While he trusted God even through this he made an alter, bound his son and placed him upon it. He even went as far as to pull out his knife and raise it above his child. When he was ready to offer his son, God said "Don't harm your son, look in the thicket." There was a ram stuck in the thicket. That was used for the offering. Imagine the conversation going home between son and father. Abraham was teaching Isaac that we need to trust God in every aspect. And as a mother of an only child - what would be our reaction to the news? The Bible doesn't let us know whether Sarah knew or not but could we see this as God's way of seeing what we were made of? Seeing if He could really trust us? This pictures the coming and dying of Jesus. God giving His only son as a sacrifice to save a nation of people.

Journey through the Bible

So I decided a while ago that I was going to start reading through the Bible and anytime there was mention of a woman who struggled with having a baby I was going to write about it and see how God used that in their lives to bring them closer to Him and if He eventually blessed them. I started writing these in a journal but will now transfer them here for you all to read if you like. I will title them all starting with Journey and then the couple or woman's name to make it easier to follow along. I decided to start at the begining in Genesis.

Another month come and gone...

Some people live their lives by the day, the week, but me... I live mine by the month. At least I count them by the months. Because each month brings me new hope. I don't know how after 36 months when a new one starts I still hold out hope that maybe THIS will be MY month. You probably wouldn't understand this unless you have suffered through some type of infertility before. But since we don't have a solid diagnosis on why we haven't gotten pregnant, I hold the hope that it happened before and it can happen again.

So the IUI obviously failed... again. That makes two but we are learning I guess, learning the right timing... at least I am. My last cycle produced about 7 "good" sized follicles which turn into eggs if released and if they aren't released, fill up with fluid and turn into cysts. I was so hopeful that out of 7 surely we would get at least one! Nope, instead I ended up with probably half a dozen cysts on my ovaries. I knew they were there, I could feel them. Suddenly I would get a sharp stabbing pain that would last a few minutes on either side just inside from my hip bone - right where the ovary sits. So the doctor put me on birth control to get rid of the cysts and take a month off from the IUI as to not make it worse or cause more.

When I go back to the doctor we will discuss the surgery for endometriosis again. He didn't seem sure he was going to do it but said if it was causing pain he was open to it. And I just know its back so I am going to push for it. I want to start fresh, a whole cycle where I don't have to wonder at the end if THAT was the reason it didn't happen. I am about a week away from seeing the doctor again and I still feel that stabbing pain in the ovaries.. I really hope the cysts are gone. I hope new ones didn't create this month, clomid can stay in the system for a few months afterwards and that is what caused them in the first place.

So because of all that I quit my job at JCP. It was getting too hard and stressful to try and guess ahead of time what days I would need to be taking off to head down to san antonio when they would tell me just one or two days ahead of time. So it was causing me to have to call in too much. I feel so much better not having to worry about working and I am still making money too! I am selling things around the house, had a garage sale in which I made over $300 in two days, a lot more than I was making at JCP! And I am still selling Mary Kay. I am going to try and broaden that business now that I have more time to do so.

Oh yeah and to top all that off. I go to see the orthopedic doctor this week to do an MRI probably and tell me that yes, I need surgery... AGAIN... this will make the 3rd time on that knee and 5th all together.

January 4th, 2011 - Day 1

I have decided that this year with the help of God I will read through the Bible for the first time! So pray for me please because I can't think of one thing that I have really stuck to for so long. My plan is to help me keep up with it I am going to make myself accountable to one blog a day to write about something that stuck out to me when reading. I am following a Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan. So today I read the following: Matthew 1:1-17, Acts 1:1-11, Psalms 1 and Genesis 1-2. I read from the King James Version.

The majority of what stuck out to me was in Genesis and first it was Genesis 2:10-14, And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

My thoughts: Now you may be thinking... really why that? But I guess I never knew there was a river that split off 4 directions from the garden of Eden. And to mention that there is gold and it is good... imagine being in a place where you can just see gold in the earth? I mean I am sure that then that gold was nothing more than just beauty to them, they had no need to use it for money, but imagine seeing gold sparkling in the ground... It also surprises me that the same river that went out of Eden went to Ethiopia, a country which is one of the poorest in the world now.

Genesis 2:23-24, And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

My thoughts: This is a concept not everyone can handle. The thought of "family first" superceeds their thoughts on this. But when a man marrys a woman, that woman becomes his family to put first. Of course it doesn't mean that the man should forget about his family but he has new priorities in life and for a mother or father or either the man or the woman to think that their child should put them above their spouse is just plain wrong and against God's word. God is first, and the spouse is second. He has new responsibilities. I won't go into too much detail on this one, you get the point. Let's just say its something I have had to deal with for over 5 years now.