Welcome ICLWers!

Its IComLeavWe time again! So if you've made your way here via ICLW, welcome! If you found my little corner some other way, welcome to you as well!

A little background:

My name is Lynn and I'm 30 years old (although I'll be celebrating a birthday when this time comes around next month!). I'm married to an amazing guy I met online in 2000. We got married in November 2002 and will be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary next month. We've been trying to start a family for almost 6 years without any success.

My TTC history:

We began TTC on our first wedding anniversary. We were prepared for it to take up to a year, as this is common for most couples. However, we were not prepared for the hoopla that has ensued! I have never had regular cycles, but we tried anyway. We were stubborn at first and determined we would do this on our own. So we tried for several years with the result of - nada, nuttin', zilch. In late 2004, I started having some serious pains in my upper right abdominal area (right under my breast) and could not figure out what the problem was. These carried on for several months until I finally decided I had to see a doctor (I do not like to go to the doctor, so this was a biggie for me). At the time, The Hubs and I were living in England (where The Hubs is from and our marital home for the first 3 1/2 years of our marriage) and the doctors there were stumped for a bit. They sent me to have several ultrasounds (abdominal, pelvic, etc.) performed to see what the problem was. The ultrasounds proved not very helpful, as the doctors were unable to see much. I was told (by a very rude doctor) that I was "too fat" for the ultrasounds to see properly. It was determined that I probably had gallstones and I was put on an 18 month waiting list for an operation to remove my gallbladder (yup, that's what you get with a nationalized heath system).

I continued to suffer from severe pain in my abdomen and nothing much seemed to help. In January 2006 (about 6 months into the 18 month wait), The Hubs and I received his visa to live in the USA and we repatriated. Fast forward to February 2007, I was still having severe abdominal pain and attacks that would have me doubled over. After one such attack at work and a trip to ER, my employer at the time told me I could not come back to work until I had scheduled surgery to remove my gallbladder (he was concerned for my health, but don't be fooled - he was an ass). The Hubs insurance had just come into effect, so I made an appointment with my doctor, who promptly sent me over for an ultrasound (with similar results to the previous ones) and on to a surgeon. That was on Monday, March 5 and my surgery was scheduled for Friday, March 9.

On Friday, I went in for surgery, was put to sleep and woke up in a lot of pain several hours later (crying for The Hubs, no less). When I woke, they had not yet remembered to give me any pain medication, but it was quickly injected and I was given some shocking news. When the surgeon had gone in (laproscopically) to do the surgery, he was frightened at first that they had perforated and inflated the bowel, as he was unable to see my gallbladder. However, he quickly determined that the real problem was an enormous cyst sitting on my right ovary and pushing all of my internal organs up and to the left! He removed 2 litres of fluid (yup, like a 2L bottle of Coke) from the cyst, then removed the cyst and sent it off to be biopsied (it came back benign, thankfully). He then went on to remove my gallbladder (which had been verging on gaingrenous). He stated that, with both the cyst and the gallbladder the way they were, it was no wonder I had been in so much pain.

So, after recovery time, The Hubs and I got back to TTC. We thought it would be no problem at all now to conceive. But in September 2008, we had still not conceived, so I made an appointment with my OB/GYN. At my first visit, she diagnosed me with PCOS and did some blood work to determine if I had diabetes or insulin resistance. She also had The Hubs do an SA, which came back excellent (The Hubs strutted around for days like he was a rock star) so at least we didn't have to add male factor to our problems. My bloodwork came back that, while I did not have diabetes, I was indeed insulin resistant. My doctor prescribed Metformin and said to wait and see if this would regulate my cycles without Clomid. It didn't.

In April 2009, I finally convinced my doctor to prescribe Provera and Clomid. I just knew Clomid was going to be our wonder drug. Four negative Clomid cycles later, I gave up on that dream and The Hubs and I decided to take a break from medicated cycles until he could regain employment (he lost his job in November 2008 and has been looking ever since). We weren't going to stop TTC, just no medication until we felt comfortable moving onto our RE referral and an IUI cycle.

I just finished my first post-Clomid, unmedicated cycle (which I had "boosted" with Soy Isos). It lasted 89 days and I had no convincing O (despite the red CH given to me by FF). Since my O was not delayed, but in fact did not happen, I decided to give Soy Isos another shot. I increased my dosage with this cycle and am currently on CD 6 - Day 4 of soy. With the worst case scenario, my cycle will once again be long.

So, that gets you up to date with me. If you've made it this far reading, you must really be bored, lol! But thanks! Hope you enjoy your time at my blog and have a great IComLeavWe!