So yesterday marks 2 weeks since our second failed cycle. This one has been easier to process, thankfully, and I really want to thank everyone who left messages on my BFN post. I really appreciate all of your kinds words.
We had a very busy weekend after the news which was good and bad. Good because I needed to take my mind off things and bad because the full weight of it only hit me the following Monday on my way to work and I was just so incredibly angry with everything and everyone. The past two weeks have been murder at work also but we’re back to a lull in the office so I’m at least able to write a little bit.
The Friday after the call. I immediately called for my follow-up appointment, which is next Monday (that 2ww for a follow up was the beginning of my rage), and we took a shower and got ready for dinner. N was great as always. We hugged and tried to keep our chins up. I was actually very okay on Friday. We went to dinner with our dear friends B and B and had the best time. It was a French restaurant and I had foie gras for the first time and now I am obsessed. My father always told me that I have an expensive palette hahaha. I actually spent most of the following week trying to find out where I buy some foie gras. Man, that stuff is expensive. I am aware about the controversy around ethical treatment of ducks to make foie gras but I found other sites that made me feel a little better about myself. But I digress.
It turns out we had such a good time at the restaurant that I forgot my phone there and had to go back in the early hours of Saturday to retrieve it. If they were actually open for business at the time I would have gotten more foie gras because I misplaced my leftovers from the night before! I’m still upset about that. I lost my phone and my new favourite food.
We met our other friends J and H at their house and the 4 of us drove down to Connecticut for the night. J is N’s best friend from high school and the only person he’s opened up to about IVF. I’m so proud of him for that. He is very candid with him and I think it makes them a little uncomfortable because they don’t know how to react or what to say but they were very supportive and even paid for dinner that night :). Hey, I’ll take it. We were in Connecticut to see Bill Burr. The show was hilarious as expected and the rest of the evening was a lot of fun too. We lost about $60 at the penny slots and had a lot to drink and we ended the night with Domino’s pizza. A 24hr Domino’s at a gas station, like the universe intended.
We got home on Sunday and didn’t really do much else. But I wish we could go on little trips like that more often. Actually, I shouldn’t wish. I should just make it happen. Anyway, on Tuesday I found the strength (somewhat) to tell my boss that we’re doing IVF. I’ll write another post on that later.
As I said, this last failure didn’t break me down or make me sad. It made me extremely angry. I wonder if each failed cycle is a step in the grief cycle. I’ll certainly be bargaining if round 3 fails.
I was angry with my RE and my body and myself mostly. I don’t understand what’s going on. I was angry at my RE for just not getting me pregnant yet and making me wait to start again. The day I got my period I was so angry, I’m sure I pulled a muscle in my neck. I was Angry at my body for failing again and I was so very angry at myself for having the audacity to hope that this would work.
With the odds so heavily stacked against us, why would any of this work? How dare I believe that this would go any other way but south? What I learned from this cycle is that you can have the most perfect stim cycle, perfect lining, a perfect hatching embryo and all the hope in the world still end up with a big fat fuck all. Nothing means anything, so really, all my hoping didn’t mean shit. So why did I hope this round would work? Why am I doing another round? Why, as I’m writing this, I’m already hoping round 3 will work?
It’s simple really. Hope is what’s getting me out of bed and what’s keeping me going. Hope and faith are said to go hand in hand and my faith falters a lot because I’ve had so many doors closed in my face. So hope carries me in the absence of faith.
There’s a painting called Hope by George Frederic Watts that I think describes what I’ve been feeling about hope. It’s a lady, blindfolded, looking rather shabby, clutching a lyre and it looks like she’s trying to listen to the music made by the last string. I feel like that sometimes. When everything goes to shit around me, I still have the audacity to make a little music.
So while I’m still a little down-trodden, I haven’t given up. Why would I? We’re only on round 2. The game is far from over. With every fail I gain a bit of wisdom and a bit of empathy and a bit of strength and a bit (a very teeny tiny bit) of patience and I’m taking that with me into round 3.
I’m so ready and I really really hope round 3 works.
source: wikipedia
Tales of a 30 Year Old Nothing 
Reading this breaks my heart. The thing I’m finding the hardest is all my support keeps saying “it will all be worth it.” It’s like the assume IVF will work, and as much as I hope and pray it does I have to keep preparing myself that I may be down this same road as you in a month. That is one of the biggest misconception of IVF! I am so glad you got away to get your mind off of things. Sometimes that’s the best thing to do for your heart! Hang in there girl!
Hope is both a powerful force and a necessary force. I’m glad you are still hoping! And I am going to also keep hoping for you!!
By the way, thanks for sharing that painting. I have not come across it before and it’s absolutely beautiful.
Hold on to hope! Sadly it is sometimes just a numbers game and sadly there are reasons that we will never understand why this one was not the one. Your time will come I believe it with all my heart xx
We have to hold on to hope, because seriously without it sometimes we would be completely empty. My pic on Facebook right now actually says “Never stop believing in hope, because miracles happen every day.” Which I feel is true…you just never know when it will be time for YOUR miracle. So try to keep your chin up, and don’t give up hope. Hang in there, friend! *hugs*
Round three was the time that worked for me, so third time could very well be the charm for you too! I am very hopeful along with you that this next round is IT!
Anger is an incredible feeling, and one you should let yourself have. I don’t believe it’s healthy to suppress feelings. It’s only unhealthy if you can’t make peace with it. I also think it’s great you are practicing self care and hanging out with friends. I am rooting for you. Continue to have that hope, although I know it can be hard. Hugs.
The anger is real. I cannot explain the anger I felt for every baby I saw, every pregnant belly at the mall and those drug addicts on the street lugging poor little babies around with them (you know what RSA streets are like). I doesn’t last. It is ok to feel like that and remember we all feel like that. Allow yourself time to grieve, you don’t have to be strong for anyone.
Never lose hope, its only a matter of time till you have that baby in your arms, maybe even 2. Everyday is a day closer to your destiny.
Hope is something one must have to get through the other side of infertility…whatever that other side may look like. Hoping and praying that Round 3 is your lucky round!!!
My OB told me something back in September that made me hold on a little longer, and it stuck with me because it made sense: The only way that we can be certain to NOT have a baby, is to stop trying. We will NEVER get there if we give up, guaranteed. You have so much strength in you, and I know that this is not how your story ends. I know that you wont, but I’m going to tell you anyway to make this sound more cheesy and cliche: Never give up. Don’t lose hope.
Take some time to take care of yourself, take time away if you need to. But this journey is only the beginning, not the end.
I’m thinking of you. This stuff sucks… I hope that we all manage to get somewhere soon! X