By Whitney Lewis
I have dreamed of being a mom ever since I can remember. So when my husband & I decided it was time to start a family nearly 6 years ago, the doctors gave us the blow of a lifetime- infertility with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).
When I spoke with the initial doctor I was warned that we would never have a family without medical intervention. I was devastated. It took days of just sobbing my heart out and wondering what my purpose was in life if I couldn’t be a mom. Then it was time to do some research and decide exactly how to handle the news & decide how much medical intervention we were prepared to take.
Our doctor visits started about a week later. I worked with perhaps one of the sweetest doctors – she truly understood my concerns, the symptoms, the treatment options, everything… After all she had PCOS herself and went through issues when she wanted to start a family. We followed instructions to a T. I changed my diet, started exercising, took Metformin to help with the PCOS symptoms, and tried a few fertility pills as well. It took 2 long, heart-breaking years of charting, dieting, shots, pills, doctor visits, and watching everyone around us become pregnant before we scheduled a consultation for intrauterine insemination.
We planned the appointment to take place on our 5 year wedding anniversary. We knew what we were getting into and I had finally come to terms that getting pregnant just wasn’t going to be easy for us. Two days before the appointment I had massive sharp cramps, a sign typical of ectopic pregnancies. I cried the whole way to the doctors office. As is routine we did the urine pregnancy stick and I assured them it was negative since we hadn’t been to our appointment yet. When the nurse pulled me from the waiting room she hugged me as tight as possible and said ‘it’s positive’! I must have looked at her like she was crazy- after everything we’d been through & month after month of negative home tests there was no way it could be positive. The doctor did an immediate ultrasound to check for the concern of an ectopic pregnancy. We were in the clear and I could hardly contain myself. It seemed after so many tears, and so much begging and praying we were finally given the amazing news that we were pregnant.
With eager hearts we wondered what other struggles we might incur with our long-awaited bundle…