Not the Pregnancy Kind of Test

I have taken a slightly longer break in my writing than initially planned. The school year wrapped up, so it was time to shut down my classroom for the year. For a teacher this is the best and worst days of the year. I said goodbye to many graduating seniors and packed up an entire classroom and lab's worth of equipment. I also spent most of the month of May completing my Masters degree! I now am the proud recipient of a Masters of Science in Family and Consumer Sciences. In other words I am more academically qualified to be a mother than most of my friends who currently have children and I have the papers to prove it.

With all that said it is now officially my SUMMER BREAK and I have set big goals for my communication with the TTC community. I have found such joy reaching out to others who also seem to be stuck in this transition period, as well as, sharing with my readers both our trials and triumphs as we wade through the waters of this journey.

Just as I've done substantial research for my recently completed degree, I have been continuing my research for fertility health. I am looking forward to sharing with you in my next blog the information I have found and the natural efforts we have begun to implement in the past few months.

This brief update is just to share with you what phase we are at in our TTC journey.

Aside from the hustle and bustle of wrapping up the school year and completing my second degree I began experiencing symptoms that where abnormal for me. I do experience chronic pain due to Fibromyalgia. I know that this is a controversial diagnosis and there is many misunderstandings about the disease. It has taken me a bit to get here, but at this point in my life I don't care if people "believe in the disease" or understand what my diagonals entails. ( I truly say this in the nicest way possible.) I am happy to help inform you of what I know but I'm not going to debate the logistics of this diagnosis. Both my mother and I have this chronic illness. She is a huge blessing and an amazing support system in both my Fibro stuggle and our TTC journey. #mymomismybestfriend

Basically, my body hurts all the time and if you push or poke me it hurts more. Here is an overview of Fibromyalgia if you want more information. Thankfully, I do not experience the extreme fatigue that is often associated with Fibromyalgia, but my pain is real. I do my best to ignore, manage and distract myself from my symptoms.

At the end of April I had started feeling strange. Excessively tired,slight fever, and I couldn't focus to save my life. Bad timing body!!! I had things to do, papers to write and babies to make. I mustard through it but the pain only increased. At first, I had a weird bruising sensation in the middle of my spine. Then my arms started to feel like I had been lifting weights and my legs as if I had run a marathon. Not that I would have done all that but with the extreme fatigue I couldn't even lift a box if I wanted to. (Thankfully I have amazing students and faculty that helped lift those boxes!)

On May 14th, I was sitting in bed, writing a paper almost in tears because my pain levels where through the roof. I remember talking to my mom about my increased pain levels and her best recommendation was an Epson salt bath. So I cried...and prayed and cried a little more. Then I wrote that darn paper!

"Lord, please don't let this be the fibro progression of "next level" pain I constantly feel.

This can not be happening. The next day I forced myself to go to the doctor. I had blood test drawn and now I had to wait a week for the results. Just as the next work week began, I received a call from my doctor suggesting I see a specialist immediately. I had high levels of inflammation and a positive test for autoimmune factor. Not that I was doubting it but it was nice that I had written results to prove my pain was real! Even more, could this be what has been keeping us from conceiving?!?

A week later I am sitting in a waiting room of a rheumatoid specialist (for two hours) flipping through magazines trying to distract myself from the hundreds of autoimmune disease I could potentially have. After a total of three hours, I finally speak to Dr. M. for about ten minutes.

I was sure to clarify that we are trying to conceive and whatever treatment method we choose I don't want to interfere with the process.

It is always important to discuss treatment/medication for both you and you spouse specifically about fertility and pregnancy effects. The medication that my primary care physician prescribed me inhibits conception because it cause the lining of my uterus to thin. It can also block blood flow to a growing fetus if I did become pregnant. Unfortunately, the pain was so bad that I had to take it until I can get some answers. So TTC was put on hold while taking this new medication.

If anything I want to promote conception with treatment.

She suggested a few ideas and suspicions she has, but we had to wait for my blood work results to return before moving forward. Did I ever mention how much I just LOVE to wait!?! NOT. I don't remember praying for God to teach me to be patient. He must know me better than I know myself. (DUHH) I left the specialist office with a steroid shot and a list of potential diagnoses that made my mind race.

The week went by quickly and my results came back better than I anticipated. My follow up appointment did not last as long as my previous. She reviewed my results and deemed that I do not have any indicators of an auto-immune disease and my inflammation levels where not high enough to be of concern. I am happy to report that after the shots last week I feel almost no inflammation in my whole body! Dr. M. explained that 10% of the population are carriers of the autoimmune factor and do not have any major symptoms. She further elaborated that from the results she analyzed there was no indicators of fertility issues. PRAISE THE LORD!!! I am overjoyed that the results came back as nothing to have concern for.

Our TTC attemps are back on this cycle and I am hopeful. I know that God heard my prayers for healing during this time and he is still continuing to prepare my mind and body for our beautiful blessing that is to come.

After this small scare I have decided to become more contentious of my health habits and both my husband and are are making better eating choices. As always I am continuing my vitamin routine and adding an extra natural pro-biotic to my diet. Since getting my results I have felt ten fold better than I have in the last few months. I am also trying to see this "medical event" as a blessing because it honesty forced me to realize that I need to be aware of what I am putting in my mouth and how it is affecting my body. Even more so how it is affecting our attempts to conceive.

This was a short story made long only to share that we took a slight detour on our journey but thankfully it has led us in the direction that will help us grow a health baby.

There are many ways to the same place. It's all about taking in the beauty along the way.

Lord Jesus, Thank you for amazing support systems. YOU are our ultimate counselor but I know that you have placed people in our lives to be your hands and share the love you have for us. Lord sooth our pain, both physical and emotional as we strive to grow our families. You are our healer and we trust in your plans. In your beautiful name, Jesus Christ. Amen.