Happy infertility awareness week!

I don't have a lot of new info to share but I wanted to say I am grateful for the people in my life.  This weird "condition" that I have has really given me the opportunity to reconnect with old friends, make new friends, and hear stories of others that have had or currently have fertility problems. I feel blessed that these people are in my life.

For the most part, I feel my life is pretty normal but there are days when I feel like the strangest person on the planet. Although I am not sure if that has to do with my missing uterus or not.  Most days I am totally ok with MRKH, and other days I don't understand why a 15 year old can have a baby, or why the person who lives off of welfare has 5 kids.  But, I have come to the conclusion that if I let those things bother me, I will just go crazy! So I let them go and trust that the universe has something else amazing planned for me.  Also, without MRKH, who knows where I would be...maybe I would have been be the 15 year old with a kid or the lady living off welfare with her 5 kids.

In other news, miss Michigan has MRKH. I thought that was interesting. She's pretty amazing. You can read her sory or watch the interview where she talks about it here.

And finally....Jason just had his "stuff" tested last week. Results should be coming next week. I won't blog about his experience, but its pretty funny! I will ask him later if he will :)

Is April here yet? Thoughts. Funny Story

This has basically been a waiting game for us, and anyone who knows me, knows I am NOT good at waiting!  But, I sort of have a feeling I will be doing A LOT of waiting in the next year or so...  We are super excited for our vacation to the East Coast in March / April, but I am also anxious to get home and get this show on the road...basically I just want to find out if all of our "parts" work together and if this is even going to be a possibility scientifically (biologically?  I don't know), or financially. 

This whole MRKH thing is really strange to me.  I guess I dont really understand how the female body works and I am not really sure if its because I never learned or because I didnt pay attention, but my husband knows more about it than I do.  Any Dieringer School District / ARHS Alums care to weigh in on this?  Did we learn about this stuff? 

I think I have a full understanding that this MRKH thing effects Jason and me. However, I'm not going to lie, I have mostly felt like it affects me WAY more. That is, until the other day: Jason and I were driving in the car (going to dinner or something...it doesn’t matter), and he looked at me and said "You know what I've been thinking about lately?" of course I never know what he is thinking, so I responded "nope". Then he said "You know, in April, when I am going to have to go to the doctor to get my sperm (side note: from this point on I will call it "stuff" because I hate that other word) tested? I've been really worried about it because I don’t know how long I am supposed to take. What if I am in there for like 2 minutes and then all the ladies in the doctor’s office talk about how fast I was, or what if I am in there for 30 minutes and they are talking about how long it took me. How long should I be in there for? What if what I think is normal is really a short amount of time or a long amount of time? I want to be average. I don’t want the people at the doctor’s office to talk about me when I leave." I did not have an answer for him, but it made me laugh for a while.

Interesting article

I found this interesting article that is almost exactly what Jason and I are going through.  This article does a way better job explaining it!   Here it is!

Updates

I dont think I have given an update in a while, so here it goes...

I have been having lots of tests done;  ultrasounds, blood work, MRI's, more blood work...After my initial ultrasound when they couldn't find my ovaries, I started getting a little bit discouraged.  Its just a lot of information, and it was all happening so quickly.  I think I was just really overwhelmed. I am dealing with these tests and not having positive results, plus working, going to school, being married, coaching volleyball, the holiday's, and the normal stuff life throws at you.  Anyway, there is some good news...

I have ovaries, and they appear to be working. I also have eggs (although the count is a bit lower than they would like them to be, but not impossibly low), and I also have two working kidneys which a lot of women with MRKH do not have.  So, overall I feel really lucky, and pretty hopeful.  Although, a little bit freaked out about the thought of having to "hurry up" with this process due to my low(ish) egg count. 

Next steps:

I think we are going to wait until we get back from vacation in April to take our next steps, but they will be as follows:

1. Jason needs to get tested to make sure his "stuff" works

2. I will have more blood work done

3. I will have to take fertility medications (not a big fan of this idea)

4. Find someone to carry our baby.  We are currently accepting applications. :)    
5. Figure out how we will pay for all of this $$$$

A little bit about #4...We are not actually taking applications, but we are looking for someone who would be interested.  Our Dr Says its better when you know the person.  Ideally, the person will have already had the child(ren) that they want, and are willing to help us out.  He also prefers that they are in their late 20-30's. So, if you are interested, or know someone who might be...Just let me know!

A Picture I Like

I just saw this picture the other day and I really like it.  Just had to share.

Womb for Rent?

I have been thinking a lot lately about having a surrogate carry our baby.  During my research I ran across this article about surrogates in India.  I am just curious what people think about it. I am not sure that it is something I could personally do, but maybe for someone.  My Doctor, Jason and I think it would be great to know the person carrying our baby, or at least know of the person. It would be a bonus if they lived close...That being said, anyone want to carry our baby?  I am only a little bit joking :)

Youtube video

This is a great Youtube video about someone else with MRKH.  Check it out here