Courtney and Kyle

Since my husband and I were married in April of 2013, we have led a pretty great life. We’re fortunate with our home, our 2 amazing rescued fur babies, our jobs and our family and friends. Ultimately we have been blessed. However, there is something missing in our family of 4.

My husband Kyle and I started our baby journey shortly after we were married. I thought it would be quick and easy because we were both healthy and young. Boy were we surprised…. It is now May 2016 and we are still trying.

After a year of trying, my doctor and I decided that she would refer me to a gynaecologist. My gynaecologist sent me for all kinds of blood work. I was in and out of her office on a weekly basis and all my blood work was coming back as normal (nothing wrong), so she put me on Clomid to see if that would help, but no such luck. I was told by my sister in law to ask her to send me for a Sono HSG test (looking for blockages in my Fallopian tubes). I was referred to the IWK - it was the most painful thing I’ve ever been through. No blockages, but I did have scar tissue that they had to remove because the dye wouldn’t go through. They thought once they removed the scar tissue that I would get pregnant no problem. NOPE!

My gynaecologist was at her wit’s end and finally she decided to send me to the Atlantic Assisted Reproductive Therapies (AART) office. In the meantime, I decided to try Acupuncture. I absolutely loved it and loved my acupuncturist but it was getting extremely expensive so I stopped going. When I went for my consultation I fell in love with the people at this facility! Again, they sent me for more blood work and were very surprised that my gynaecologist did not send me for day 2-3 testing to test my prolactin levels.

In August 2015 while out for a bike ride with my father I received a call from a nurse at AART. He asked me a couple questions: “Do you find your vision is blurry?”, “Have you been getting bad migraines?”, “Is your period regular?” and “Are you lactating?”. I answered all his questions and then asked why the questions and he said “Your prolactin levels are through the roof”. Prolactin is the hormone that produces breast milk and when you are not pregnant it can mean you have a benign tumor in your pituitary gland. So he said, “We would like to retest you, since you are having no symptoms”. I then was retested and again my levels were through the roof. So in September they put me on a medication (Bromocriptine) to lower my prolactin and I was referred to the IWK for an MRI.

In November the IWK called and said they had a cancellation and got me in for my MRI. I am extremely claustrophobic so I was NOT looking forward to this but I knew it had to be done.

In December AART called and asked me to come into their office ASAP. I got to the office and met with one of their doctors who had my MRI results. I results showed that I had a 4mm benign tumor on my pituitary gland. It was too small to operate on so they told me to keep taking my medication. I took the news extremely hard.

In January 2016 they sent me for more blood work and on January 18th they called me with my results. My prolactin was back to normal (it was in the high 70’s and now it was 22), my thyroid was perfect and I OVULATED! This was the best phone I received in 3 years! So I stopped my medication, because I thought everything was good to go.

In February I began the Clear Blue Advanced ovulation test. No peak ovulation in February and no peak ovulation in March…. I was extremely confused and discouraged once again. I made an appointment at AART for April 15th and they told me to get back on my medication and go for more blood work in May. I also made an appointment with a Naturopath on April 22nd (year 3 of trying anniversary… wedding anniversary). This appointment was amazing. She suggested I take certain things out of my diet, gave me a new prenatal pill and put me on an oestrogen pill to help with my migraines and reassured me that I was going to be an easy case. Fingers crossed!

This has been the most emotional, lonely, angry, sad, stressful, frustrating, heartbreaking 3 years of my entire life and it is still continuing. I am at a point now where I don`t get excited for friends or family who are announcing their pregnancies and I feel so selfish for this. I do have amazing support which I am extremely lucky to have but this continues to be a very emotional time for us.