The Dreaded Semen Analysis

We were supposed to get a SA done at four months, but due to my husband not being able to take off from work and other things we opted to just try scoping at home again.  There were lots of fast and forward moving swimmers.  None seemed stuck together and I could count about 35-40 forward movers on each viewing screen.  This was at 600x so I am estimating that he has at least 20 million--but I could be terribly wrong!

We followed doctors orders:

Dr. Wilson recommends using a collection condom for a better SA.  Instructions were also to have 2-3 days of abstinence.

I just want to say that collection condoms are ridiculously hard to get on and we are lucky it did not tear!  But at least it was enviro friendly to the swimmers!  I was afraid there would not be much to put in the test tube container, but there was 7 mL!  I can't wait to hear about the results.  Now we get to wait.

God is Truly Amazing

I said in the previous post that God lead us down this path and I truly believe He did.  Every time I got scared, He was there and calmed my nerves--I did not even know why I was scared anymore.

Early in December of 2010 before the phone consultation, I had a major freak out!  I just knew we wouldn't be able to come up with the money, something else would need the money or it would all fail and we would have thrown the money in the trash.  I was on the verge of backing out, even my husband was concerned with my total change of mind.  He did tell me to not make any rash decisions that I was probably just panicking, but still I could see in his eyes that he was uncertain too.

We went to church and I prayed to God that He please give me some sort of sign, something, anything to know that we are doing His will.  I finished my pleas and prayers and sat back into the pew--nothing.  I felt nothing.  No sign, no sense of peace and most of all just as lost as I was before.

Church began, as usual with the procession and then I realized it wasn't "as usual."  Along with Father came a couple holding two tiny babies in beautiful white gowns.  Suddenly, I felt warmth from within and knew exactly what our decision should be.  There was no turning back at that point and I did not want to!

You may think I am a little nutty, but baptisms are not typical during Mass in our church.  Most people opt for a private gathering.  I could blow that off as coincidence too, but I cannot disregard the sudden warmth and overwhelming feeling of love, safety and peace I felt.  Everything looked like it was glowing around me.  That is the honest truth and the only way I can explain it.

We Made a Decision

I researched three main VR doctors and finally decided to go with Dr. Wilson because of his price and extraordinary success stories!  His success rates were near 97%!

Dr. David Wilson--Microvasreversal

My husband and I had a "heart-to-heart" and I learned that he never wanted the vasectomy and longed for more children of his own.  It was painful for him to discuss because he thought the whole thing would be impossible.  We have a tendency to be big talkers and dreamers with each other and know really we will never have the guts to do what it takes to get something accomplished.  This could have easily been one of those things, except for the fact that we had God on our side.

I may lose a lot of people with this statement, but it was true for us.  God had a very strong hand in this from the beginning and to not give Him credit would be wrong.  It gave us the courage to leap and we put our faith in Him even when I wanted to chicken out because the whole thing sounded to complicated and scary.

We made the decision to start saving for the reversal immediately.  I hoped to get things going in March during Spring break, but that quickly fell apart when I realized that we would not have enough money for the stay and the surgery.  But we did know it was doable to aim for June.  We scheduled the phone consultation for December 27, 2010.

Timeline

December 2005--Youngest Child born
January 21, 2006--Vasectomy
March 2006--avoided using condoms in hopes that the remaining sperm might get me pregnant
April-May 2006--Seriously regretting the vasectomy
Fall 2006--moved into new larger home
Winter 2007--causally look into adoption via internet
Late Summer 2007--Start to seriously consider international adoption, brought it up to my husband--he strongly opposed it
Late Winter 2008--Offered to get a part-time job to save money so we could adopt, my husband said no  (I assumed it was all children, adopted or our own, that he was satisfied with the way thing were)
Spring 2008--was hired full-time in a position I had not dreamed would be available--I was satisfied and very busy!
Fall 2008--I had a wacky cycle and my period was super late, but it finally did arrive.  The thought that I might be pregnant made everything worse!  I had spent the past 2+ years praying with every cycle that I would not get a period and that the V had failed.  Now all I could think about was, what if that was a miscarriage and I really can get pregnant again!
Late Spring 2009--obsessed over adoption sites and searched for the likelihood of vasectomies failing--not a very good chance!
Summer 2009--was super busy with work and had another late period that got my hopes way up
Fall 2009--looked at vasectomy reversal, but wasn't hopeful because of the cost and possible failures
Winter 2010--talked about adoption and nonchalantly about VRs and was left with a little hope, if I could find a way to pay for the expense of the a VR, but NO adoption.  Period.  Also we needed to pay off a few credit cards first.  He made the terms feel very unattainable and I was frustrated.  I would be 40 before I could get all of it done!
May 2010--My mom's story made me search Vasectomy Reversal in a new way--looking for success instead of failure!  Discovered microsurgery vasectomy reversal.  Found Dr. Wilson and a clinic in Minnesota, started researching Dr. Wilson
Summer 2010--Discussed it with husband in depth, he confessed that he never wanted the V and would love to have more children.  He just could not handle adoption.
Fall 2010--Final decision to go for it!!
December 27, 2010--Phone Consultation with Dr. Wilson, husband did not have a very good impression of the guy--I started more research and found Baby Center's Trying after Vasectomy Reversal group.  There was tons of positive feedback about Dr. Wilson
May 31, 2011--Vasectomy Reversal
June 25, 2011--Trying at home scoping--SAW TONS OF SWIMMERS!!!
June 27, 2011--Scoped again--still saw a large number of swimmers!
October 7, 2011--Scoped during the 4th month out--Swimmers still there, almost all were forward, fast movers!
December 27, 2011--First Semen Analysis--fingers crossed!  We will know within the next week what our official count is--the volume was at 7 mLs do that is good!  Now let's just hope there are lots of healthy looking swimmers!