The waiting room is full of women who are 27 months pregnant, have at least one unruly child bouncing off the walls, or both. No one is happy to be there and it feels like the wait will never end....until it does. The nurse comes out and calls your name way too loud, you let out a huge sigh and walk through that door into the dungeon of unpleasantness. Ok, ok. I know. I'm 36, I've done this at least 20 times. Its not that bad. But, come on, it does ruin your day. This time was no different. There's always something. Because there was nothing available at any other time, I took a mid-week appointment smack in the middle of the day. Booooooo. No time for a quick freshen up before three different doctors appear and dive right in.
I love my OBGYN. Really, I do. No kidding. I hate the way we meet, but as a human being, she's genuinely a pleasant, friendly person who offers support where she can. Would I prefer she wasn't up to her elbows in my hoo-ha every time we spoke? Yeah. But since I got to choose, I'm glad I chose her. I knew she was the right one the minute she told me, during our first visit, how she'd been trying to conceive for 10 years. TEN YEARS. Wow. Can you say "Sheeeeee-rah!"? Now, if only she'd stop bringing in 2-3 of her closest friends to poke and prod at me every time I got undressed. That would go a long way toward being gal pals. Over the years, I've had some "problems" in that area. An only slightly threatening cancer that decided to come back for a visit twice more after our first meeting, a couple of ovaries dotted with cysts, and now, "Surprise!" (insert sarcasm here), a good dose of infertility. That means our visits require all kinds of expert-like nosey people to come in and check on me as well. I know its for my own good, but ugh.
This visit started out in the same way as all the others. We did the uncomfortable "How's your life been going?" conversation during our exam (why?), and then I dressed and went to her office, hoping to hear the "Your cancer's still gone!" update. Doc said she wanted to talk about where I was and how I was feeling about all the injectable meds. We discussed the IVF steps and how far along I'd gotten. I realized it felt good to talk about it with someone who had experienced fertility struggles herself. As I started to tell her how I often felt like I was on a roller coaster of optimism and defeat, she nodded. Before I knew it, she was telling me more of her story. It ended with a C-section and gorgeous baby boy! It turns out Doc underwent IVF last year, and was successful on the very first try. She told me all about her doctor, her protocol, and the habits she believed were winners. I think I let out the sigh heard around the world. We had experienced similar causes for our infertility, married infertiles, and even taken similar medications during the cycle! Whew! I was doing something right!
I knew that tons of people did IVF. I even knew some were success stories. But to hear it from the woman who was treating my problems and recommending IVF clinics to me only a year ago? I really felt like I had someone in my corner who did this herself. It gave me the little boost I needed to push through this with a positive mind. I can't tell you how much it helped. Let's see that these positive thoughts and feelings produce some super positive results. Its baby time!