Happy Valentines Day

10 years ago today, I took Erin O'Toole to Blackbob park to give her the single carnation I'd bought her and to swing on the swings. We'd been on two dates but were still a bit unsure about the whole thing. That morning, I found a Snoopy Valentine's Day card stuck under my windshield wiper.

This morning, I stuck a card on Erin's windshield along with three carnations (we make a little more money than we did in college). After going to the doctor (which I'll explain below) I asked her if she wanted to get breakfast from McDonalds and go sit on the swings at Blackbob park. She thought about it for a minute and chose the comfort of a breakfast at First Watch. Yep, we're older and less adventurous ten years later.

We had a consultation with our fertility doctor this morning. He told us that due to my low sperm count, the only option available for us is a specific form of IVF, where the sperm is inserted directly into the egg. We told him we wanted to do that and we were scheduled for the week of July 7th to fertilize the eggs. Some prep stuff for Erin (shots and other tests) will begin in May but the actual IVT will happen that week in July. So, that's that. Our big task between now and July is to save enough money to pay for this treatment. Please be praying that the right thing happens which (to us) would be that the eggs get fertilized and successfully implanted in Erin's womb.

Our Doctor tried figuring out any reason for my extremely low sperm count. Asked if I'd undergone radiation treatment as a child or other traumatic events. I told him that when I was in 4th, 5th and 6th grades, from late summer through early fall, I was very sick with a high fever, terrible cough and other symptoms. It would come back each of those 3 years, although the symptoms were less each year. The doctors were never sure what it was, they just assumed it was some sort of virus, but the antibiotics they gave me never worked. The only thing that ever worked to minimize the symptoms was Sudafed. Our reproductive doctor told us today that extended periods of high fever during early puberty can destory your body's ability to produce sperm. So I lost my ability to knock up my wife naturally while I was in 4th grade, when no girl with good eyesight would even look at me.

While having our V-Day breakfast at First Watch, I lamented all the money we'd wasted on birth control pills our first few years of marriage.