Holiday Bah-hum-bug

I have to say that between being away from my parents and all the wanting-a-kid-that-I-can't-have right now and then not knowing if this time next year will be the same way or the year after that too and so on...I'm not a big fan of the holidays. It isn't as bad as it could be...it can always be worse right? I have a loving husband, a dog who is spoiled rotten and family who cares and that I can count on. Lately I just feel more like there is that missing piece and that I want more. I don't have crazy envy of those with children like I did the Christmas right after being diagnosed (man that was depressing). I just have anxiety. I worry that it will never happen, I worry about the possibility of it happening, I worry that I'll get my hopes up and they'll be deflated all over again.

The holidays and especially Christmas have so much to do with family and kids. I can completely see why it would be hard to go through the holidays without all of that in tow. I get the question of having kids more often lately. I guess after two years of marriage it's pretty common and harder (at least in LDS/Mormon culture) to pawn off on enjoying married life still, although I am. I also just have the feeling that those who aren't asking are assuming that something isn't right. I don't know which is worse being asked and able to throw out my defense mechanism answers of "oh goodness not yet" or "I want to finish school and get a real job first" or just being ignored altogether when it comes to the topic.

I'm also not really into the church related side of the holidays so much either. I believe in God and I believe in a plan to life and an afterlife and being with family and loved ones. But I don't want to be around those that just take it all for granted. I don't want to hear the lessons and lectures about family and how it's such a blessing. If it's such a blessing then does that mean Jeff and I have been cursed because we can't? If we're given trials to help us grow then why do I feel like, at least when it comes to church, that I have digressed so much? I don't know. I think it's good that we're taking time to figure this out and that I don't feel the pressure that I did to "have a family" and "being a mother is your most important role and calling" kind of thing that it felt like before. I hope it gets better eventually but right now I think I am fine giving God the silent treatment and I believe that if He loves us unconditionally and knows everything the way they say He does that He understands how we feel and still loves us and will be there when we want to talk again.

Karma and Misfortune

I don't know if I really believe in karma and I don't really believe that this is a case of karma but more of misfortune. Misfortune and odds. After all I know far too many women who seem to get pregnant easily to not know more women who don't. It was bound to happen right?

A good friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) recently began asking me more about how I came to be diagnosed with POF...what tests they did and what else they thought it might be. I of course became curious why they were asking and came to find out they had been trying to get pregnant and that she had missed periods without the happy following of a positive pregnancy test. I explained the rarity of POF and the other possible outcomes this might be. I did my best to be supportive while in my head this little voice said "karma's a bitch". I'm sure this friend had tried be supportive with my POF diagnosis but I always felt belittled and diminished when I talked about it with her. After all according to her it was worse to have bad in-laws than infertility and remodeling often came with a 50-60% risk of not getting what you paid for. I'm sure it was just a hopeful way to relate to me and a miserable attempt at showing empathy when all I really wanted to hear was "I'm sorry" or "That sucks". I don't remember hearing those the first time around...maybe because the hurtful things stick out so well in my memory. But as we talked about the possibilities and her feelings towards it I heard "I'm sorry you had to go through this"(even with that I laughed a little inside thinking "uh yah...STILL going through it"). But it still felt strangely healing. Healing for me to hear and to actually feel understood a little by her. This wasn't some small little thing in one's life. It wasn't comparable to other things and it wasn't a bid for competition or attention. It sucked! It hurt! It wasn't easy.

She had an appointment a couple weeks later and some blood work results a week or so after that. Come to find out she has PCOS and will be going on some medication to help regulate things. I've heard very hopeful things about this medication and of it fixing things and working relatively quickly. So come January when she's off the birth control again (used to regulate her body) I imagine that she will be coming out with some "happy news". I will be happy for her (I hope) but I wonder if the understanding will remain or if it will be back to minimizing or trying to debunk the worries that I have. I imagine that I will just continue to refrain from talking to her about my POF issues due to the feelings of dislike and anger that her resulting comments usually instill in me.

My Life is a Monet

I think in analogies a lot it seems. I have emailed a fellow POFer and good friend, J, for over a year now. We sometimes talk about how messy and crazy POF can be and how it makes your life feel out of sorts, maddening, saddening and totally unpredictable. We also often hope together. Hope for the luck and blessing to have a family, hope for better health and understanding and outcomes of POF and hope for things to turn out in general. We talk about how someday we'll look back at the hardship of it all and be completely grateful and see the beauty of how it turned out. I told her the other day that our lives are like Monet's (coming from the movie Clueless). They are kind of messy and not always pretty close up but when you look back on them or have some distance between yourself and the mess then it can be beautiful. I hope I can look back at the "art" of life in the long run.

Grant application

I suppose it doesn't matter now to put this on here. Jeff and I applied for a Family Building Grant from the Tinina Kade Foundation in August. We didn't tell anyone because we didn't want to have anyone waiting on it but us. We filled out a big application and got a referral letter from Dr. Gibson. The foundation is able to give up to $10,000 to the families awarded (last year they gave awards to 8 families). With our savings and finances in mind we requested $8,000. They were to notify those awarded by the end of October and the "winners" were supposed to fly to Washington D.C. for the formal awards on January 2nd. We received a confirmation of receipt email with 42 other applicants CC'd (yah not high marks on the privacy) and so we considered that perhaps that was all that had applied. We were more hopeful because of this.

We found out around October 17th that we were not being awarded anything. There were actually 130+ applicants. I guess we didn't really expect to get it but it still was a blow to our hopes. I wish there was a way to know why. I felt a little like the idea of donor egg stuff may have put us at a disadvantage. It is not really looked on with a positive light by most media I know of. It feels like we're never going to get anywhere on this. I know we will but right now it just stinks. With our budget right now we have no money that can go towards savings. I think the grant application and writing short essays on why we wanted it and thought we'd be good parents and such got us both more hopeful and thinking about the possibility more realistically. I know it did for me. Perhaps that's why it was an even worse let down. We do still have a good chunk of savings and despite money being tight we don't touch it which is a blessing. Hopefully soon we'll get where we need to be.

My greatest blessing...

My greatest blessing right now is Jeff. Having a husband who supports me no matter what and never complains is the biggest blessing. He doesn't complain about the fact that money is tighter now with me going back to school and that we can't afford things like we did before. He doesn't complain that my time is spent with work and school for the most part. He is just always very supportive and patient with me. I love him so much and I'm so grateful to have him in my life. We talked a while back about how things were and we were with POI before we got married. He told me that when he was thinking about marrying me that he thought of how POI could mean we might never have kids AT ALL (on our own or with DE IVF or adoption). He wanted to be with me despite all of that. How many women can be ironically "lucky" enough to know that...that their husband loved them enough even faced with that type of possibility that they still stuck by their side. I love Jeff so much and I'm so grateful that we're in this life together!!

Feeling Good

I've noticed with POI that I seem to have gained more weight in my middle. I've heard this is a common complaint too with POF/POI women. I think it stinks...as you can't get pregnant but you get a spare tire or other weight gaining which then leads some people to think you might be and the real morons (yes clerk at Walmart I'm thinking of you...despite it being like a year ago you bug me) to actually ask if you are. Anyway I have been trying to watch what I eat (something I've never really worried about before) and I feel like it's helping. Okay so no huge improvements but just feeling better about it. I need more dedication to get exercising too as I know that would help. That will be my next goal. Yeah me!

I am back in school (maybe I never mentioned it on this blog) but I quit my social work job due to major stress and emotional mess I became. I went back to retail part-time for work (don't get me started on how the difference in pay really sucks) and back to school. I really enjoy my classes and I love learning but I also don't like putting money into something (no matter the hopefully short term of it) when I would really rather put it into savings. Some is going to a student loan though and I will try to balance out the rest. At least we haven't used any savings so that is good. I don't know just having a feeling good about things day and it's always good to share those days.

What loss?

I have been thinking about how my attitude has changed a lot since originally being diagnosed with POI (primary ovarian insufficiency; this is the term I should use since the medical community is trying to adopt it). I think the thing that hit me the hardest back in the day was the loss of genetic connection to a child. I was heartbroken over not having a child to look or behave like me. Now a couple years later I kind of think of how self-centered that seems. Sure there will be people who try to tell us that our child looks just like me or nothing like me (whatever the case may be) but who cares. Our child will be just that...our child. He or she may have not been created in the same way that a majority of babies are but that won't change one iota of how much we wanted them and worked for them and how much they are our child as we are their parents.

I was thinking at work the other day about how I'm just excited to be a mom someday. And as I was thinking about it I realized that the genetic factor didn't enter my mind at all, in fact I was even more excited to think of how this child may take on some aspects, appearance, personality and health wise, that I wouldn't be able to give them. That although I hope our kids will look a lot like Jeff, I'm very curious to see the peices of them that will be a mystery. It was like I didn't feel a loss anymore (although I'm still jilted at the healthcare and insurance system hehe).

I just want to be a mom someday. I don't know when that will be and I don't know how it will happen but I believe it will. I'm excited to see what this wonderful child will look like and be like. I'm even more excited to share that whole process and experience with Jeff. I think we will make great parents some day. I hope that day isn't as far off as it seems at times though.