The Making of a Mommy: 35

Saturday, April 10, 2010

35

Today's my birthday and I've decided to enjoy the heck out of it. Dinner with the family tonight and people making me feel special -- I've got a lot to be happy about.

4 comments:

Miss Tori said...: Happy birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day with your family!; April 10, 2010 at 3:27 PM
apieceofwood said...: Happy Birthday!; April 11, 2010 at 1:10 AM
Jenn said...: I just found your blog today so I wish you a happy belated birthday! You and Mike are an incredible story of courage and perserverance. You have amazing strength to write about your journey and share it with all of us. You are both in my prayers.
Romans 5:3
Rejoice in our suffering, suffering produces perserverance, perserverance - character and character - hope.; April 12, 2010 at 8:19 PM
Hua said...: Hey Lauren,

Happy belated birthday! I hope it turned out just the way you wanted it to be!

I found your blog while searching for unique and helpful content on cancer. I think you could benefit from sharing your personal story to an audience of people seeking information on cancer. Wellsphere's HealthBlogger Network (HBN) is comprised of over 3,000 of the web's best health writers, including doctors, patient experts and people pursuing healthy living.

For more information about joining, please visit http://www.wellsphere.com/health-blogger or email me at hua [at] wellsphere [dot] com.

Best,

Hua

Director of Blogger Networks; April 14, 2010 at 3:11 PM

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Where We've Been....

July 2001 -- Mike and I start dating (a long-distance relationship with 4.5 hours between us -- lots of weekend driving).
February 2003 -- Mike is diagnosed with lymphoma. He banks his sperm twice before beginning chemo, radiation, and having a bone-marrow transplant (he has 13 vials). He spends over a year recovering and rebuilding his strength and immune system.
December 2003 -- Mike proposes and we get engaged!
November 2004 -- We get married, and shortly thereafter I move the 4.5 hours to be with him -- no more long-distance romance!
September 2006 -- Mike is diagnosed with a recurrence of his cancer and begins several months of radiation treatment. Three weeks after getting the cancer news, we are blessed with a phone call from a relative saying we can begin our search for an IVF clinic -- the attempt will be taken care of, free of charge.
December 2006 -- we have our first consultation with our RE, and she recommends IVF over IUI, due to our limited sperm supply.
April/May 2007 -- We plunge into our first IVF attempt, but it does not work. We are left with five frozen embies, in addition to 12 vials of sperm.
June 2007 -- I am just weeks away from starting estrace to prepare for a frozen embryo transfer when we find out Mike has another recurrence of cancer.
July 2007 -- Mike begins chemo, which continues until September.
November 2007 -- Mike returns to work!
March 2008 -- We're ready to try the FET! I begin estrace and monitoring.
April 2008 -- We transfer two embies, but again it does not work.
Summer 2008 - Fall 2011 -- We took a break until we could get health insurance that covers IVF, but more importantly until Mike tried to beat yet more cancer recurrences.
October 14, 2011 -- My world is shattered when Mike succumbs to cancer.
Present -- Trying to learn how to live without my best friend and lover. Trying to figure out what kind of future I can possibly have. Trying to decide if I will/can ever fulfill my dream of having a child.