HSG done!

 I was super nervous about the HSG procedure (the pain part, not really the results). Ppl keep telling me, "be sure you take some ibuprofen beforehand"...apparently it can be pretty painful during and/or afterwards. Thankfully I had my guy there for emotional support, a laugh, and as my DD to get me home! (pic from right before we went in)

It did hurt. Only when the dye was running through my tubes. which was fast, but it was very intense. I got a little dizzy afterwards and took a nap once we got home but so far not much cramping or anything else. Thanks for the prayers!

The results will be sent to our doctor at the fertility center and she (or more likely her nurse) will let me know what they find in a few days. Thankfully the doctor who did it was really nice and told me afterwards that it looked great and he saw no blockages. Yay!

Also, it was slightly cheaper than what I was quoted the other day. Woohoo! Before the HSG we went to our regular fertility clinic and I had a blood draw for some blood work to be done (just keeping up with my thyroid levels) and Ben had to get another semen analysis (because it's been so long since the last one) so total for today was $362 which was less than we were expecting to have to pay so it was a win there also!
Now we wait for our labs...

More testing

I've had a couple of phone calls with the financial consultant at our fertility clinic today. Blah! Insurance doesn't cover infertility so we pay everything out-of-pocket. We don't want this to be a source of debt so we save and do things as we can. Which makes the process even longer.
A few months back we decided that I would NOT have an HSG test (a dye test that sees if there are blockages in my fallopian tubes) because my ultrasound looked good and our doctor said it wasn't necessary even though she did recommend it. We talked through it all with her and she was fine with our decision...NOW our doctor is saying we really need to have it done before we move forward with doing an IUI (intrauterine insemination). Ugh!
Here are the price options:
Two outpatient places at $232 and $325 or we can have it done at our clinic for $475. Yikes. We're going for the cheapest but according to the nurse I talked to at our clinic this place doesn't always produce the best images so we run the risk of our doctor wanting a re-test which we will have to pay for again. Please be praying it only takes one test to get good images and also that everything looks good and is flowing freely so we can move forward with scheduling our first IUI. My appt for the HSG is Wednesday.

An update and new journey...

I know it's been a very, VERY, long time since I've updated here. I've updated our timeline and hope to do a better job of updating our blog again. A lot has happened since my last post. We closed our foster home with the private agency we were working with. They were wonderful but for varies reasons, we no longer felt that we needed to be with them. The plan was to move straight over to TN Department of Children's Services (DCS) but life happens...and sometimes not how you plan. So that hasn't happened yet, though we do plan to contact them soon.

Over the past few months we have been working with a fertility clinic and with a fertility specialist to figure out the reasons we aren't getting pregnant. We've done lots of bloodwork and tests and are both on meds now. We've had several medicated cycles but still have not gotten pregnant. We hope to move on to IUI's soon. You can check out the timeline tab and there are links to explain what an IUI is.

Next month we celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary....and all I can think is that it has been seven years and not one positive pregnancy test. We decided before we got married to let God determine when we'd have babies and chose not to use any type of birth control. So naturally being almost seven years in, a few of those years actively trying to get pregnant, we definitely thought we'd be celebrating with a few kids by now. I mean, at least one! Every single cycle I allow myself to hope and dream and every single cycle so far (7 years worth) has resulted in heartache and crushed dreams. It's been a long road...with a lot of heartache and tears. We are so lucky and blessed to be walking this road together though. It has brought us closer and made us stronger but we're really hoping to be celebrating next year with a baby! I'll be updating as we go through this new journey so feel free to stick around.