Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The Support

Well tomorrow is the first day of all the days that will each be important to the IVF...get that? Tomorrow I start the injections. Tomorrow Nick and I go for the class on HOW to give the injections, and to go over any questions and all details of the IVF. It's a big day...hopefully the first of several over the next five weeks. Anyway, with the first big day looming, I have been doing a lot of thinking about how amazingly lucky we are. Obviously we were handed a terrible hand in the fertility department, no magical luck there, but EVERYWHERE else. Everything that we have been given to help us to deal with the terrible fertility hand.

We have amazing friends and families that surround us, love us and support us. We decided (maybe I decided...I don't think there was any question) that we were going to be extremely open with our fertility struggles. I know a lot of couples keep the details to themselves, but that is not something I would ever be able to hold in. I need the support I receive from all the people who love us and so want this for us. I need to talk about it, to discuss the what ifs, the whys of all of this. It is to much for just us, we need our families.

Like I said we have amazingly supportive family and friends, so I really wasn't looking or needing any more support...or so I thought. But I have found an additional support system. I had heard of the amazing world of infertility bloggers. I thought I might find some blogs like mine, blogs to talk with about our woes. I was so wrong. This is not a community where you are looking for twenty-eight year old women with endometriosis. This is a community built of a shared heart ache. A heart ache that I never want my friends and family to ever have to truly understand. I have come across two blog rolls, Cycle Sistas, which posts everyone who lets them know they are undergoing a fertility treatment each month, and Stirrup Queens and Sperm Palace Jesters, which amazingly lists EVERYONE who sends in that they are blogging about infertility. It is an endless list of men and women going through exactly what you are going through. These two lists have helped me realize that I am not alone, and that there are success stories. People do come out the other end of this with happy endings.

My Google reader has changed, or at least is constantly growing. As I click on the links of these lists I find blogs that I just must know how it turns out for them. The blog that named her three embryo's Harry, Ron and Hermione...how could I not save her?? The-dad-in-the-making blogger...come on, he is HILARIOUS! The blogger who is struggling with her infertility while living with MS, with my dad and his MS, of course this blog got my attention...the blogger who struggled with infertility for three years, and after her first IVF found out she is having twins. Hope. It gives me hope. To see that we are not alone. To see that it works for people, that families are made. That the drugs and the needles and the emotions are worth it. I am honored to be apart of this community of bloggers.

11 comments:

  1. You are not alone by any means and it's that feeling that often saves us from losing our minds...good luck with everything you are doing!

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  2. the one thing that has struck me since all this began, is how widespread it really is.

    As lonely as the journey seems at times, you are never, ever alone in this.

    Pay good attention in your class, get a washable marker for your arse, and the very best of luck!

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  3. Sarah, I may not have any children (and I have not completely given up on having any yet, although I am getting soooo OLD..) but I sincerely believe there is no greater joy in life than having a child. Nurture your hope and know everyone you know (and even people you do not personally know in the blogging world...) are rooting for you and Nick. You two are going to be amazing parents and it WILL happen. The very best of luck to you and lots of love!!! :)

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  4. Good luck! Sending you some positive vibes!

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  5. It gives me hope too. I'm a regular participater in the Stirrup Queen activities. Make sure you add the lost and found thing. The girl who does Stirrup Queen (Melissa) is super organized.

    So, wow, you're gearing up! I've been on Lupron for a while now (doc went on vacation) and my next appointment is August 4th. My potential egg retrieval is the 18th. Pretty cool! I am scared out of my mind though. I keep thinking...what if we're not successful...there's no reason we won't succeed, etc. etc. Constant conversations in my head.

    Thanks for the shout out. BTW, I do have an all IF blog that is separate from the other one. Mostly because I had an adoption blog and then we decided to try ART. For some weird reason I felt strange talking too much about our ART on the adoption blog.

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  6. I have been a lurker for quite some time. I have never had to deal with infertility but I have been following you and praying for you since I started reading. I am very excited for your IVF (of course not the shots part!)

    Thank you for sharing all sides of your story. You are going to be such a great mommy someday very soon!

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  7. The IF blog community is a great place for support. I wish I would have found them before my first round of IVF. I am wishing you all the best, good luck!

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  8. Good luck this cycle!

    I also love the support of the blogging community. It is really nice to know you are not alone. Somehow that makes it easier.

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  9. So glad you found us - everytime someone posts about the gratitude for the community, I feel just as happy and relieved as I did when i found this community. To say that it completely changed my life and my experience with IF is no understatement at all! Good luck this cycle, and I hope it brings you your heart's desire.

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  10. I'm here from Mel's Friday round up, and I couldn't agree more with the bounty of support that's out there in the internets. I think it saved my sanity and made me actually able to deal with the hand dealt us, as you so eloquently put it.

    I just started injects for an IUI cycle and I'll be rooting for this cycle to be our last!

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  11. Here from Mel's 500th Anniv round up.
    This post has me in tears. Good tears. Finding Mel's blog and all the other infertility bloggers after that made me feel exactly what you have described: not alone and that there is hope. Hope. So powerful.

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