Keith later gave me a hard time for telling him I was pregnant through a text message. Who knew that he of all people would have wanted some grand, romantic gesture informing him of our pregnancy? He knew I was taking the test that day. It was the day the nurse from Dr. H’s office told me to take the test. Just as she had told us when to do everything else.
I started seeing Dr. H at the Women’s Institute in August of 2002. I had been diagnosed with endometriosis the previous fall and was in a great deal of pain and really getting frustrated. As far as doctors go, it was love at first visit with Dr. H. My first appointment with him wasn’t like other doctor visits. Instead of being taken straight to an exam room, our initial meeting was held in his office. I’ll never forget the first words out of his mouth after he introduced himself.
“I can’t imagine the pain you’re in.”
He scheduled a surgery a few weeks later and removed all the endometriosis he could see. Since then he has done numerous surgeries to help relieve my pain.
After the last surgical procedure he did in 2010 I told him that we would probably try to start a family in the near future. He told me that if I did not get pregnant in four months I should come to see him. He explained that I was going to be in a great deal of pain once I stopped the medication I had taken for years to suppress the growth of the endometriosis. Boy, was he right about that!
We started trying in August and by November I was making an appointment to see Dr. H. Now, let me stop right here and say that I believe that God is the giver of life, not a doctor or a medical procedure. That being said, sometimes our bodies do not work the way they should and we need a little help. Medical help or not, all life is God-breathed at the moment of conception. So, ultrasounds were conducted, labs were drawn and a plan was made. We would start with ovulation induction.
Ovulation induction involves lab work, taking pills for five days, more lab work, ultrasounds and a shot of hormones in the belly all in hopes of making ovulation happen. There are two medications usually used for this. Dr. H decided to have me take the pills known to have lesser side effects.
There are women who go through this cycle for months on end and get no results. So you can see why it took me three home tests and two blood tests to really believe what was happening. I felt extremely blessed and a little shocked that we got pregnant from the first round of OI.
The plan was to wait until closer to the end of the first trimester to share the news, but I could not contain my joy over those two lines for that long. After the second blood test confirmed that my HCG levels had increased as they should we told immediate family. A few weeks after that, we told everyone else.
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