Fertility update and mind dump coming.
Since our last cycle was canceled due to my uterine lining not growing enough, I have been ok. Sort of. I've been taking more Valium than I should, and crying more often than I'd like. But, I don't want to focus on that right now.
I have been offered two choices: surgery to evaluate and possibly repair my uterus, which may have sustained unknown damage during my c-section two years ago or might just be invaded my endometriosis again (Asherman's Syndrome is a possibility), or simply try a different form of estrogen supplementation- the patch, which is what I used back when I got pregnant with my now-toddler, and see if that thickens my lining.
We had a long talk and we've decided to try the estrogen patch option to see if that does anything, but if not, to stop. The surgery option is outpatient surgery and I've had surgery before, but neither of us is excited and frankly I am terrified. Furthermore, it will cost a lot, and is no guarantee either- ie. it could be for nothing, and it's totally unnecessary beyond fertility. My long term health is fine, beyond regular endometriosis symptoms that I can control by staying on the pill till menopause.
So, these are the facts. We'll try this one last option, but not go to extreme lengths. These are my husband's wishes and he was the one who originally wanted a larger family. As for me? I don't know. I keep asking God and the universe and myself: what do I want? I know I am scared of surgery. I know I want another baby, but I also can see the myriad benefits of just one, and of moving on with our lives. I do not especially want to be pregnant again. I never want to breastfeed again. I am worried about the finances of having two kids and working.
But: how do you KNOW what is best for your future? How do you choose something that will affect you the rest of your life? How do you turn down the unknown path? What do you do when you squint into the distance and it's just... murky? I don't feel that I am being called to have another child, but I also think of those could-be embryos and what they would be like and I feel sharp, deep, intense grief and longing. Of course, we might find out because we plan to donate them to a family that can't afford the treatment we did, but still, they won't be our children once we turn them over. So, I guess I need to sit with this, but I don't want to sit too long. I want to move on and I just need to figure out how to turn away from the road not taken. How does one do this?
Murky is exactly the right word for it. It is amazing all the existential and ethical conversations you have to go through thanks to infertility. We always sat at our dinner table and marveled, wondering what other people talk about when there aren't embryos to decide what to do with, treatment to decide to pursue or end, homestudy questions to discuss. I don't know how to do it other than to chunk the conversations, unless you like hashing it all out at once. I find I get exhausted and cranky after a while, and have to take breaks, table the discussion, but have a time where I want the discussion to come to some kind of decision. I think the road not taken will always beckon to some degree -- looking at those forks, the path you decided to choose at that time, and wondering about that other path as just as fair... but moving forward will happen, it's just not absolute. I don't know what it feels like to be in your particular situation, but I know when Bryce and I ended treatment and decided to go through Snowflakes to donate our embryos, we used a lot of t-charts, and we did a lot of asking questions of ourselves and service providers of various types. What we liked about Snowflakes was the option to know what happened to the embryos, to know they weren't ours any longer, but that we could know the outcome, for years. That was comforting. So, I have no amazing answers, but to discuss and make t-charts and know when you've hit exhaustion and come back again, and research your options. I wish you all the peace in the world as you make these difficult decisions and move forward in this arena.
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