The Light

Infertility can be a complicated struggle and can stand in the way of your hopes and dreams of starting a family. I have had PCOS for years, pretty much right after high school. My periods were irregular and my hormones were a crazy mess all over the place. I met my husband 11 years ago and we have been married for 7 years. We were trying to have a baby for 6 1/2 years before I finally got pregnant and let me tell you it wasn’t easy. Countless tears, money, frustration, sadness with no light at the end in sight, and to be honest I was really feeling like there would be no light at the end for me. There were so many times I told my husband lets just give up. He always told me let’s keep going, we’re almost there. He is the reason we are where we are today. The first doctor I ever saw for infertility was not really an infertility doctor. She was a OBGYN doctor and never did any ultrasounds on me. They give you medicine to induce a period and you count days after that and take another medicine and do the deed and hopefully at the end of the month if you haven’t had a period, perform a pregnancy test to check for pregnancy. I tried this for a few cycles and nothing worked, of course it wouldn’t. She gives the same protocol to every patient and not everyone is the same and will react the same to those medications, and to top it off there’s no ultrasound being done so how do you know what’s going on inside? I do a lot of reading and research at home. I read a lot in books and online. I read that acupuncture can help with infertility and balance your hormones. A light bulb went on in my head. Maybe this is it, maybe this is the answer for me. I didn’t see Edie right away though, at the time I didn’t know of Edie and her magic wonders. I saw another lady for a while and it seemed to help me or so I thought it was helping me. She never gave me raw herbs, it was always droppers of liquid or capsules I take everyday. With almost a year of nothing, my menstrual cycles came back but with no pregnancy achieved I knew I had to seek something bigger. I started looking in the phone book yellow pages when I found a nice ad for Edie. I looked at her site online and read other peoples experiences and I felt extremely hopeful, probably the most hopeful I have ever felt in my journey. I had been seeing my Reproductive Specialist Doctor about half a year before starting to go to Edie too. I finally felt things were moving along in a positive direction after combining Edie’s wondrous magic with the different protocols of my Specialist. I felt close to the light but it was just out of reach, but that was the closest I have ever felt and it felt refreshing. I saw my Specialist for a year and while yes, I was ovulating and being closely monitored weekly with ultrasound, that light was still just out of my grasp. With the help of Edie she worked closely on my uterine lining and keeping my hormones balanced. I remember a cycle where my lining wasn’t that great at 2mm. With Edie’s help in a span of a few days she got my lining to 12mm. Outstanding, just incredible to have that kind of reaction from acupuncture and raw herbs. The time had come and I feared it, my Specialist said those words I wasn’t ready to hear and didn’t think I would ever hear. It was time I think about and schedule an IVF consultation with her. A lot rides on IVF if you don’t know, finances, emotions, what if’s, it’s quite a lot to think about and let alone go through physically and mentally. I stopped seeing Edie for a little while to try and recover from that financially too. Acupuncture and seeing a Specialist and fertility medicines and injections can be very costly, so I took a few months off and away from everything to just gather my thoughts and let my body rest. I started seeing Edie about a month before we started our IVF cycle even though she recommends a few months before. When I started the ultrasounds during my cycle it was a bit slow moving but you could see good things. My follicles were growing slow but there was a nice amount and my uterine lining was not quite there but getting there. I remember Edie wanting to focus on my lining. Toward the end my lining was 6mm and 8mm is good for IVF. Edie wasn’t quite happy with that and worked pretty aggressively getting it thicker. By the time I had my egg retrieval Edie got my lining to 12mm and 5 days later when I had my embryo transfer my lining was just above 13mm, perfect perfect lining and great sticky environment for my 2 embryos to snuggle in and get comfy for the next 9 months. I saw Edie the day of my transfer for a boost of her wondrous magic and was on bed rest the rest of that week. I remember crying to my husband a few days after the transfer telling him I didn’t think it worked and what if it didn’t work, then what do we do? I have 2 more 6-day blastocysts that we froze so do we try again? What do we do? That was 3 days after my transfer that I cried to my husband. The next day I went to the store and thought I’d just get a pregnancy test and do it at home and if it’s negative I won’t be too disappointed when I draw blood in a few days for the pregnancy test at the clinic. I went home and did the test and left it on the counter and thought I’d walk away and come back to it in a couple minutes. As I was walking out of the bathroom I glanced over at the test on the counter not even a minute later and I saw it, a second line on the test. I have never seen that before and never thought I would so I just stared at it and cried. Could it be? Can this really be happening? Is this real? Should I pinch myself? I called my husband at work and he couldn’t contain himself. I could hear him smiling ear to ear on the phone and the excitement in his voice. I took a test the next day and it was darker than the day before, and each day the test just kept getting darker and darker. I got a call from the clinic in the afternoon after taking the test that morning, I was so nervous. The first thing the nurse says when I answer the phone is “Congratulations you’re pregnant!!!.” The sweetest words I’ve heard in my life and waited my whole life to hear. My result was 99 that day and anything over 50 is what they want to see. Two days later my result was 240 which is excellent. Your number is supposed to double every 48 hours and my number was a little more than doubling. I transferred 2 embryos and usually with twin pregnancies your numbers will triple or more. So I had a feeling that just one of the embryos stayed and the other one didn’t. A couple weeks later my number was still doubling like it should. A week after that at my first ultrasound at 8 weeks pregnant my doctor started the ultrasound and I could see my husbands jaw literally fall to the floor as my doctor was counting sacs. “Counting sacs?” I thought why would you be counting sacs with just one baby? That day she counted a total of 3 sacs, 2 with heartbeats and the last one didn’t have one. We FINALLY reached that light and I grabbed it tight and it felt so good. We were pregnant with twins, possibly triplets, and I couldn’t believe it. My husband didn’t say a word leaving the office, walking to the car, or driving off. The look on his face was pure happiness and total, pure shock at the same time. It took him almost an hour before he finally said something and his first words with huge eyes were “OH MY GOD! What are we gonna do?” Maybe a couple hours later he was fine and it was my turn. I was in shock and asked him the same question. Our 10 week ultrasound showed we were definitely having twins and we were filled head to toe in happiness. I’m now about 25 weeks pregnant with boy girl twins and doing well with Edie’s wondrous magic still. Feeling these babies kick me and move around as I write this has to be the greatest reward and most unreal and greatest feeling I have ever felt in my life that I never thought I’d ever get to experience. Getting to experience pregnancy and all it’s wonders is something I’ll never forget. Thank You Edie for your wondrous magic because without you there wouldn’t be 2 more. I also thank God continuously everyday, not just for our twins, but for finally reaching the light I always dreamed of.