I thought it would be nice to start a blog so that everyone who wants to know about our journey trying to conceive can. I know a lot of people want to know, but don't know how to ask. I will try and update the blog as often as I can!
Gary and I started dating on June 12th, 2002. I was 17 and Gary was 18. Gary and I both knew we wanted children young and we both knew from the beginning that we were meant for each other, so we started trying to conceive even before we were married (Sorry mom!). We have not used protection since late 2003, but have not had any luck getting pregnant.
After 5 years of trying on our own us we decided that we should go and see some professionals to try and determine why we haven’t been able to conceive. We started by going to our family doctor, Dr. Landers in Woodbury. She performed numerous tests on me. When Dr. Landers wasn’t able to determine the problem she referred me to an OB-GYN, Dr. Burroughs, after additional tests he couldn’t determine the problem either, so he referred me to RMIA in Woodbury to see Dr. Bayless. After more testing and a year later the diagnosis was: infertility associated with anovulation, irregular menses and possible left tubal abnormality (small spill was noticed while HSG was performed, but it was confined). Dr. Bayless said we should start looking at different options for artificial insemination.
After reviewing several treatment plans, Dr. Bayless suggested we try Chlomid with IUI (Intrauterine Insemination). IUI is a process where the semen is washed in a Petri dish and is directly placed into the uterine cavity via a catheter and Chlomid is a tablet that is taken for about 5 days and it is administered in order to induce ovulation. We were very excited to be given a plan and told that there is a 30% chance this will work! We went home and called everyone we knew and told them what the doctor said, we were ecstatic that we may be pregnant by the end of the year. The following day, I had to call my insurance to see what would be covered and how much out of pocket would be needed. Big bummer…we found out that my insurance doesn’t cover anything for infertility. The insurance would only cover the tests to determine the diagnosis of the problem. So we were looking at spending $2,000-3,000 out of pocket. This is not what Gary and I expected! We figured it just wasn’t meant to be, so we continued to try at home and after numerous negative pregnancy tests we decided to not stress about it and to let some time go bye and save as much money as we could.

In December 2008 Gary lost his job at Motor Parts Service. This was not especially helpful to the Baby fund! We decided we wouldn’t let this deter us so we continued to save our nickels and dimes with the hopes that in the long run we’ll have enough.

It’s now the end of July, 2009 and Gary still hasn’t found a job but we are both very impatient and wanting a new addition to our family so bad that we decided to sell our most prized possession, OUR BOAT! We didn’t want to do it and contemplated it for months. We actually advertised the boat for sale 3-5 separate times and each time we got offers and requests to see it, but we just couldn’t sell it! We didn’t know what we’d do with ourselves without a boat (for the 7 years we have been together we have had at least 4 boats). After a lot of thought and consideration, we decided we wanted a child and that we could always purchase another boat down the road, so we sold our boat (sob). We now have the $2,000-3,000 to put toward artificial insemination!! Wahoo!

Since we came to the conclusion that we were going to sell the boat I have been searching the web for Reproductive Medicine offices in MN. I have not only been researching the prices but I’ve also spent numerous hours googling the doctor’s themselves. I’ve never been one for reading people’s blog’s online, but while researching information on specific doctors I came across a lot of testimonials about different treatments that people have gone through. After spending about 30+ hours online, I narrowed my list of 12 doctors down to two. One doctor, Dr. Kuneck works at the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Minneapolis, MN and the other, Dr. Corfman works at the Midwest Center for Reproductive Medicine. Both of the doctors have a lot in common; they both opened there own offices over 25 years ago, they are both rated in the top 5 in the state, they have the most advanced technology, and they have about the same success rates for the treatment options they provide. After a lot of thought we decided upon Dr. Kuneck at the Center for Reproductive Medicine in Minneapolis.

Please take a look at the other posts I put on here after this one. They are for specific days after starting this whole process. I am going to keep this blog updated for anyone who wants to read about what I am going through.

Love, Amy and Gary