The Dream Is Not Easily Defeated

Within a few weeks, after our devastating appointment with the urologist, we began to discuss our options. We decided that if my wife was healthy, there was no reason that we shouldn’t proceed with the option of donor insemination so that we could still experience her pregnancy together and witness the birth of our children. Thankfully, my wife’s gynecologist had given us the name of a traveling fertility doctor, based two and a half hours away, who had recently started making local calls for initial consultations. We did our research on donor insemination and had a legal notepad full of questions for the doctor when we finally made it for our consultation.

We met with the fertility doctor and had done our homework on the cost and effectiveness of donor insemination. My wife had her notepad full of the questions we were ready to ask to get the ball rolling. We figured if she could still have the experience of getting pregnant and giving birth; we would be satisfied with still having the pregnancy experience and our child having half of our genetic code. We only got to ask the first question about donor insemination before the doctor stopped us and said “Why are you looking at donor insemination rather than invitro fertilization”? We, of course, told him that I had been given last rites on my ability to produce children and were looking for other options. He stopped us cold and said “That is inaccurate; you are a prime candidate for invitro. Your sperm count is very low but not non-existent and it only takes one sperm and one egg to create an embryo”. He also explained that many lab technicians neglect to count perfectly viable sperm, because they do not move with the “normal” motion…even though the DNA is perfectly in tact and capable of creating a healthy pregnancy with the aid of direct embryo insemination. He set us up to have my wife tested for any tubal blockages and we set an appointment for our first visit to his clinic in Jacksonville, FL. Again, we managed to make it to the car before completely breaking down from the shock of suddenly having our greatest dream literally resurrected. We were battle weary and elated at the same time. We looked at each other and said “Here we go…”.  What we didn’t know was that the roller coaster had only just begun.