The following is Part 2 of Heather and Rodney’s Embryo Adoption story. Their story is revealed in a five part series on the EAAC blog. If you missed Part 1 get caught up here.
After about a year and a half of trying unsuccessfully to conceive, we agreed to go to the doctor. I scheduled an appointment with my obstetrician and we went in for a consultation. He set up the basic tests for both of us – a hysterosalpingogram (HSG) for me to make sure my tubes were clear, and a semen analysis for Rodney. I agreed to have my test done first. All was clear, and everything looked good. They did some blood work and everything showed clear.
Rodney’s test was next. We had to wait a couple of days for the results, and when the doctor called and told me, I was beyond shocked. There it was, in black and white (literally, as they faxed me the results). Our sperm count was incredibly low, motility was very slow and the morphology showed no healthy sperm in the little that was there.
I met Rodney for lunch and shared the results with him. As I said earlier, I am a “fix-it” kind of girl – now that we knew the problem, I was anxious to move forward. I plunged forward in our conversation from “here’s the issue” to “the doctor said we could try thus and such, but we’d need to do this now to make it work for our next cycle….” My voice slowly dropped off as I watched my husband’s reaction. He needed time to process what I had just told him.
We waited. We continued to try naturally, but we didn’t get pregnant. I continued in a downward spiral of sadness and disappointment. It was a roller coaster – every month I would have renewed hope. Then two weeks later, my period would start and I would be devastated. Rodney didn’t know what to do for me. I didn’t know what to do for myself.
During this time, I found both an online and a local support group that became my lifelines. I met women going through some of the same issues. I could finally talk to people who could relate to this pain and intense heartache. Rodney was supportive of my finding an additional outlet for all of my bottled up emotions.
In July of 2007 (now 2 ½ years into our journey), we went back to the Reproductive Endocrinologist. Repeat testing showed yet again the same results. The doctor recommended we see an urologist. We saw one doctor right away but he made both Rodney and I extremely uncomfortable and we didn’t feel he was compassionate or understanding at all towards our situation. We chose to put everything on hold due to our negative experience with this doctor. Neither of us was emotionally ready to move forward.
Stay tuned for next week as Rodney and Heather regain hope in an unexpected way.
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