So to all those women out there who are having a hard time conceiving, this post is for you! Don’t you love when pregnant women tell you “oh my gosh, it took me three (six, nine, etc) months to get pregnant, it was so stressful!” Well, boo-hoo! Only women who have been trying for YEARS to get pregnant (and possibly never do) can understand what I mean.
My first inclination that I may have problems conceiving happened when I was eight years old, yep, you read that right, EIGHT! Long story, but basically I fell down a water well shaft and ended up straddling a huge piece of metal, (yeah, it left a mark). Anyway…. I remember laying in the emergency room getting covered with warm blankets to help with shock and asking the doctor, “so, am I still going to be able to have children?” Yes, I actually asked that. Ever since I was a little girl I couldn’t wait to be a MOM.
During high school I had terrible pain (I later learned it was from endometriosis), so during my senior year of high school I had a laparoscopy to see what all the pain was. Well, the doctor said there was nothing wrong; except I may have trouble getting pregnant (does that count as “nothing wrong?”)
So, one of my choices was to get married young and start trying right away to get pregnant. I got married at 18. After six months (and not getting pregnant) I went back to see another doctor. He said “you can’t be considered infertile until you try for one year.” So we tried for a year. No results. Then they wanted to check my husband and see if it was him. It wasn’t him.
So after five years of trying (three more surgeries, troubled marriage, crying, depression, etc) I was approached with the idea of adoption (more to come on that later).
Summary: A total of 11 years of trying to conceive (each month getting my hopes up when I was even one day late…. My husband joked that I should’ve had stock in pregnancy tests). I did conceive one time after EIGHT years of trying, only to have a miscarriage at 9-10 weeks (another story too).
I finally had a HYSTERECTOMY after approximately 132 months of trying because I couldn’t take the up and down roller coaster ride of getting my hopes up each month only to have them dashed so severely.
Can any of you relate to this???
Camille, I love your blog. I have always looked up to you. I struggled to get pregnant with both of my kids, but not as long as you did. I tried for 2 1/2 years before we got Lindsay. Another 2 1/2 for Landon. I took fertility drugs with each of them and also went through two miscarriages. I am so sorry to hear about your story. I have a cousin who is adopted, and another cousin who adopted her two kids. I love to hear adoption stories. I feel Heavenly Father knows where those children belong, he just has another way of getting them there. Thanks so much for sharing. You really are amazing! -Tara Spendlove Lemos
ReplyDeleteThat breaks my heart...what a trial that would be!
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