Well after years of lurking on cyber space I finally decided to create a blog of my own. Okay I admit that I have a Myspace page but I never blog on it I just post pictures and use it when people ask me to visit their pages.

I have followed Vee's page "The Sweet Life" for a while and I was finally inspired by her to write about my life and struggles with TTC.

So you guys need some history on my first...

My name is Adela and in late 2000 I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a serious but very CURABLE cancer of the lymph nodes. I was treated with Chemo and Radiation that worked very well because I am alive today. However curing my disease did come with more than just a price tag.

I have been struggling with TTC for nearly 5 years now with no luck and it is suspected that the Chemo may have compromised my fertility. I say MAY because we are not really sure yet. I have done 2 rounds of IVF without success so far and I am waiting to start a third. To make matters just a little more difficult I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last June, a result of the radiation treatment. So now I have no thyroid to boot. :) What a mess huh?

However, the problem with TTC is not with me alone. My Dear Husband has known for a while that his sperm was, not so much. We have known that the problem may lie with him for 5 years. DH also has an extensive medical history as well. DH has had two kidney transplants so far in his life. The last one was nearly 11 years ago now and all is well with that kidney. Staying alive has also compromised DH fertility a bit. The combination of anti-rejection meds, plus having lost one of his "boys" after his first transplant from a hernia following surgery has greatly complicated his fertility as well.

But here we are Happy, mostly healthy, and want to experience life with children of our own. We considered adoption but found that adoptions can be reversed and are not covered by insurance. IVF on the other hand leaves no mistake to who the rightful parents are and happens to be covered by our insurance. Yeah BABY!

So where are we at in all of this? Well right now our ART clinic recommends that we try donor sperm. For now my eggs look ok BUT, with our last round of IVF we decided to have a PGD done. I gave 15 eggs. :) Only 11 were ripe. But 10 fertilized. :) All 10 were tested and they found that only 3 were normal. OUCH :( Not so much... The good news is that all 3 made it to blasties one was even hatching! We put back two and froze one. The bad news BFN... So after the PGD review we discovered we had lots of missing chromosomes. Right now, all indications is that the sperm is really not good. Actually after our first round of IVF they wanted us to use donor sperm but I declined I really wanted to try to give DH a child of his own. :) We still have one more Blasty on ice. But thawing and putting back one is such a huge gamble so they recommend that we do another retrieval and put back the frozen blasty with some siblings.

So that brings us back to sperm, semen, jizum, cum, toss, spooge, whatever you like to call it. We like to keep it international. A little more on DH, he was adopted and from that experience he/we have decided that it would be best that we try to use a compassionate donor. That means using a donor that we know and turst. Well as luck would have it we have lots of family and friends that have been very supportive of our endeavors to have a family and a few of our male friends and relatives have offer up their "assistance". NOT LIKE THAT! You lot of perverts!

So we are now in serious deliberations with one of our volunteers. That and well, this is all regulated by the FDA so there are many hoops to jump though first. :) So there you have it I will keep you posted on the jizum. More to CUM later... Hey I have to have a sense of humor in all this.

Thanks for reading,
Adela