Canadutch
Today I said something I never thought I’d be saying to my husband. I don’t think he ever expected it either, but sometimes life brings you to places you never thought you’d be.
A little while ago I said the following words…
Honey, are you sure you don’t mind if I show everyone your sperm?
Really, how many people really ever have a situation where they have that conversation?!
Lucky for us, he doesn’t mind!
Today was our fifth IUI and while we were at the hospital the lady in the lab asked if we wanted to see Xander’s boys under the microscope. Umm, hell yeah we do!
It was SO cool to see! Of course, a few seconds after I saw it I thought hrmmm… if my eye can see them, maybe my camera can too! Sure enough, it worked! This photo is taken through the eye thingie on the microscope, cool huh?
It was a small sample that they use to look at the sperm during the sperm washing process. So none of these actually got to the final destination. They were the guiney pigs of sperm, so to speak.
It is a very stressful day for me, when we go for the IUI. I get extremely anxious and tense, so this sort of broke up the monotony and gave me something to giggle about for a few minutes, which was great.
I think I squealed a little when I realized that I actually managed to capture them on camera.
There are so many aspects of conceiving a child that we miss out on. For a lot of people it’s a really joyous occasion that doesn’t have any negativity connected to it at all. People make their babies the natural way, before tension and pressure manages to start to ruin their sex lives. They get to tell their children the “when two people love each other the man puts his…” story, whereas we’d perhaps end up telling the “Turkey Baster Story”.
As much as we will love a child if we are ever lucky enough to have one, the process has been grueling and we do feel like some of what other people get out of it has been ripped away from us.
Apparently there are some advantages of infertility though. How many women actually get photos of their man’s tadpoles?! The everyday woman who gets knocked up home in bed, in the backseat or on a park bench probably never get the opportunity to see the science of it all, and we have that all around us. That’s pretty cool…
Hey, every story needs a silver lining, and today this is mine!
Sperm washing process? that brought up all kind of mental images I thought I would never have.
:D Wow, that’s a nice photo to show your kids when they grow up! :D “Let’s see little Tommy, guess which of these is you!” :D
One question: here in NL how many times do they suggest you go with IUI before moving to the next level? Do they take into account age, or the psychological effect of trying again and again with a low impact (so to speak) method? You can email me if you don’t want to reply here. Thanks! (email in my profile in the blog)
Hahaha, you are brilliant. I must admit, I am slightly jealous you got to see that! I don’t mean to sound insensitive as I know this process is really hard on you, guys. And I’m most definitely hoping for a baby this time around!
But yeah, like someone else said already… I do wonder why most guys don’t own a microscope for that very reason, lol.
When Rob and I were first married, he discovered he had (eep) testicular cancer. While he kept one necessary ball, the other had to be removed. Because of potential treatment side effects, they thought we should bank sperm, as well. I never did get to see them, though the guy who looked at the samples said that though Rob didn’t have a lot, they were very perky.
Hmm.
mahahhhahahha!! I cannot imagine having that conversation with my husband!! Too funny.
Crossing my fingers and toes for you this month!
:)
Wow, what a great attitude. I assume some of that is going south, so hooray. And your photo is very, very cool. Yay you.
Oh and Xander… you’re spermies are very cute! :-)
Thanks Saphireena!
You know, I’ve said to many guys over the course of my adult life: “You have sperm, so why haven’t you bought a microscope to look at it?”
I had a microscope as a kid and would gather samples of water and mud etc to see little critters swimming around, so it ASTOUNDS me, it ASTOUNDS me that every single man on this planet has not looked at their own sperm. I’m so jealous of men for having the little wiggly guys. To me they are adorable and amazing. Imagine if we women had live little swimming critters swimming around in our ovaries for instance, and then they could be shot out whenever we pleased? It’s almost like they are carrying millions of tiny half babies or something.
So I can’t express enough how utterly delighted I am by this blog post! Maybe you guys will even buy your own microscope now haha. :)
And yeah, excellent quality of the shot, amazing that it worked out so well!
Fantastic shot! LOL!
Sprinkling the baby dust to you.