An Amazing Journey: Ch. 2 -- Roller Coaster Rides About This Page:

[Jennifer Marx]

[To view the table of contents for the story of Alexander's "Amazing Journey," visit http://www.passporter.com/babya/story.htm ]



The Roller Coaster Rides



In January 2002, I began taking Clomid, an entry-level fertility drug. From the start, it worked well for me. And on my second cycle of medication, I discovered I was pregnant. We’d done it! But being a practical person, I knew that getting pregnant was only the first hurdle. And sure enough, the pregnancy didn’t stick and I miscarried shortly thereafter. I wasn’t disappointed or hurt, just happy… I’d discovered that with a little help from science, I could get pregnant. Now I had to work on staying pregnant. But could I? The chances were slim… PCOS patients have only a 70% chance of a successful pregnancy, and we believed the chromosome thing was only a 50% chance… so maybe we had a 35% chance of success? Not many people would bet on that one.



So I went back on Clomid, in increasing doses. In September 2002 we went on a cruise with some good friends, and came home with a “little souvenir”… another pregnancy! This time, the pregnancy hormone levels were significantly higher than the first one. But, ever the pessimist, I believed that this would also pass… and it did. Again, I miscarried. But I felt I was making progress. Unfortunately, my doctor preferred that I only try nine rounds of Clomid, and this was #7. Alas, #8 and #9 produced no pregnancies. He felt my next step was to move on to injectible fertility drugs, which I was unwilling to do… not only were they incredibly expensive, but I knew based on my response to the Clomid that I didn’t need to pull out the heavy artillery. What was I to do now?



I decided to take a six-month break from fertility drugs and see what happened. As it turned out, the Clomid had a lasting effect for a while—my body behaved better than it had before I started all this. But not well enough to produce results. So I decided it was time to talk to an infertility specialist, and I made an appointment for late June. In early June 2003, Dave, Allie, and I went to St. Maarten for 10 days with his family for a reunion. We had a great time, got lots of sleep, drank lots of wine, and generally relaxed. And yes, you guessed it; we came home with another little souvenir! And without any medication either – what an accomplishment! I discovered this just before the appointment with the infertility doctor, but alas it faded away by the time of the actual appointment and resulted in another miscarriage. That made three total so far (that I knew of). But, still… look at the progress we were making!



The infertility doctor reviewed our history and re-tested Dave’s chromosomes. We discovered that his chances were better than previously believed… rather than 50%, it was now 75%. This was excellent news for us! The doctor put me back on Clomid, but this time added another medicine which is good for PCOS patients: Glucophage (normally used to treat diabetes, which I don't have, but apparently it helps with PCOS too). So I went gladly went back on the medicine, curious to see if it would offer different results. First try… nothing. And the next month I took a break. By the second try, I was feeling more relaxed and I decided to try something different. Remembering that I’d gotten pregnant after indulging in plenty of wine in St. Maarten, I decided it couldn’t be all that bad and perhaps even helped me relax. So for the month of November, I imbibed with a couple of glasses of wine every now and then. Unfortunately, November turned out to be a month filled with stress and travel (one short trip to Atlantic City for a funeral, and our MouseFest 2003 trip on the Disney Wonder and at Walt Disney World). So I pretty much wrote off that month, too, and stopped worrying about it. I figured I’d just start again in January 2004.



[Read the next chapter.]

[RaySharpton]

<font color="blue"> ºoº Roller coaster rides indeed. I'm so sorry that you had to go through all those miscarriages, but you sound like you handled it so well. God Bless you, Jennifer. ºoº

ºoº Now to Chapter Three. ºoº

ºoº Sincerely, ºoº Ray ºoº </font>

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