So let me just say that I have no intention of partaking in a constant stream of sappy, emotional journaling via this blog. That being said, however, I’m about to get a little sappy and emotional.
I met my husband back in 2006 when I was fresh out of high school. A mutual friend was convinced that we were a match made in Heaven, but I wasn’t so sure. At that point, I was getting ready to move away for school and was interested in living the single life for a while. I repeatedly told this particular friend that I was more than willing to meet this supposed “Mr. Perfect,” but that she shouldn’t get her hopes up. I had no intention of getting involved. Color me surprised when I fell head over heels in love.
Ryan, the husband, is truly the ying to my yang. I can undoubtedly say that he is my best friend and that I’m the best version of myself with him, and because of him.
In July of 2008, Ryan was over in Brazil performing in a professional water ski show. One day, during a run in the show, several mishaps occurred which led to him being whipped into a sea wall. This accident left him with a T-12 complete spinal cord injury, and he is paralyzed from the waist down.
Right after we learned of the accident, and began to accept the permanence of his injury we knew that our lives were going to change drastically. Thankfully, Ryan is by far the strongest man I’ve ever met and he didn’t let this information slow him down a bit. I have never felt like there is anything missing from our life together because he’s in a wheelchair. Through creativity and perseverance, we’ve managed to achieve everything that we’ve set out to do.
After we’d been married a few years, we knew we were ready to take the next step. We’d always dreamed of having children and could not contain our excitement at the possibility of having a little one of our own. We understood that our situation made things a little unique and we prepared ourselves for the next step…IVF.
IVF, or in vitro fertilization, is the most extraordinary blessing to the medical field. It has the potential to bring so much joy to the lives of so many different people, with so many, very unique situations. Despite all of the happiness that can come from this process, though, there’s no denying that it’s not exactly the easiest path.
When we first started out, I thought I’d take some medicine, have a little procedure and we’d call it a day. How very wrong I was. We were preparing to set out on one of the most mentally and physically draining experiences of our life. For those of you that aren’t very familiar with the IVF process, let me give you a quick run down. First, there are tests, then meetings with your doctor, followed by drugs, more tests, surgical procedures, and then some final tests to finish things off. When our RE (Reproductive Endocrinologist) first started explaining how everything worked to us, I felt like I would cry. It felt like things would take forever, and I couldn’t imagine having the strength to make it through. Especially when she explained that since I was young and healthy we had a whopping 30% success rate. 30 %…was she kidding me? And that was supposed to be good news!
Stay tuned for some more medical chit chat and lovely stories about how I turned into an emotional basket case!