So this happened….

I got married!  Yep, for the last two months I have been busy planning a wedding, no big deal 😉  M and I finally tied the knot, almost 4 years to the day we started dating.  Four years together, almost 3 of those fighting the infertility monster.  Four years of happiness, sadness, excitement, disappointments, adventures, and just LIFE culminated in an absolutely beautiful sunset ceremony on a picture perfect day overlooking the New York City skyline.  We invited 60 of our nearest and dearest to our little shindig and if I do say so myself it could not have been a better.  It was touching, emotional, intimate, and just US. So yeah, that happened!

A couple weeks post-“I do” and now we are in the process of looking for a house.  We have a pretty tight timeline since our lease is running out on our current place and it’s really just too small for us now.  The rest of the summer will probably be a mixture of house hunting, money managing, getting together with friends, going to the beach at least once, and just savoring our newlywed status.  Oh yeah, and I’m going to have to get used to a new name!  Holy sh*tballs.

So everything has been going well.  Our relationship is as solid as ever, we had a fairy tale wedding day, hopefully buying our own home in the next couple months, and I will be continuing my education come September in a Bachelors to Masters degree program into which I was accepted.  However, as all of you well know, there is still that nagging monster whispering in my ear every chance it gets–the infertility monster.

As a reminder, I have one PGD tested frozen embryo waiting to be transferred since March 2015.  Of the five stimulation cycles I endured, only once did I make it to retrieval.  Five eggs were retrieved, three made it to Day 5, and one tested PGD normal, so here we are.  One would think I would be ready to go full steam ahead with this little emby that could/might.  Well, I’m not.

This little emby is my last chance at a biological child.  I am not going through any more stimulation cycles to try an retrieve more eggs.  This is it.  Right now, he/she is out there.  Frozen in time.  A little sliver of hope.  Once he or she gets put back into the real world, in real time, there is a 50/50 chance of implantation, and even then there is no guarantee it will result in a healthy pregnancy and birth.  That’s a lot of pressure for a single little embryo.

Don’t get me wrong.  Biology isn’t very important to me.  I want to be a mom.  I do want to experience being pregnant, so using a donor egg would be an option I would most definitely consider.  Possibly even a donor embryo, for financial reasons.  I just want to be a mom to a child, to love them and raise them.  Biology doesn’t dictate that.  Love, compassion, and connection is what is important.  The thing is that is another long, expensive, process that we would have to start.  We would have to begin another journey.  And to be honest it’s just an exhausting prospect.  In September of 2015 I hit the end of the stim cycle road with my fourth cancelled cycle (fifth cycle total).  As much as I was mentally prepared and knew that would be my last cycle regardless of the outcome, the reality hit me very hard.  The disappointment was palpable, and seeing M’s disappointment just made it all the more bitter.  So if this transfer is not successful, in my practical mind I am ready for it and know what the next steps can be, but nothing is going to be able to prepare me for the reality of that moment, all I know is that it will be unpleasant (to put it mildly!).

Right now, there is hope.  I guess I am scared to have that hope dashed.  Hope is a very dangerous thing.  It’s awesome to have it, to believe in it.  But when that hope is gone, it’s the worst thing in the world.  I try not to let it in sometimes, but it has a sneaky way of worming it’s way into my subconscious and it just sits there whether I want it to or not.  Such is the human condition I suppose.

Maybe some would say to me – “But C, what if it DOES work?  What if this little emby that could becomes the little emby that DID??”  Well, that is very easy.  That would be the best thing in the world.  It wouldn’t take away any of the pain of the last few years, but it would sure as hell put it all into perspective.  It would just be awesome and awe-inspiring.  It would be everything (no pressure!).

So I ask of my fellow infertility warriors – any advice??  Thoughts on transfers?  Best time to have one?  Any suggestions on what to do to prepare?  How long to prepare??  I welcome all thoughts and suggestions!  Please share!