Our second IUI (intrauterine insemination) was a bit of an adventure. I was definitely feeling pretty dramatic about it at the time. Now that some time has gone by and we’ve moved on to the next one, I can laugh about it (kind of). For those of you who live in Seattle, maybe you remember that day a couple of months ago that the city basically shut down. I5 was closed because due to an accident and then a freak ice/snow storm broke out. That day was also the day of IUI #2.
The morning of the scheduled IUI Nate went in to do his “part”. About an hour after his appointment my phone rang. I could tell by the number it was the clinic, which was unusual. When I answered and it was my nurse practitioner, my stomach sank. You know it’s never a good thing to get a call straight from your provider. She explained that the lab called her and the sample was sub par. This cycle was actually a bit of a surprise so we hadn’t exactly “prepped” for this IUI like you’re supposed to.
My NP also explained that when they wash and spin it down they lose somewhere around 80% of the swimmers. And with the current numbers, if we lost 80%, we wouldn’t have enough to be able to go through with the IUI. With that information, she asked if we still wanted to continue washing since we probably wouldn’t be able to do the procedure anyways.
I remember sitting there, in my car in front of our house in tears wondering what the “right” decision was. I had already taken the meds and done the ultrasounds. It seemed like such a small step left to finish, right? Finally I said, “sure let’s just try” and we planned to reconvene at our afternoon appointment. As I sat there, unable to get out of the car yet, I prayed. I prayed for a lot of things, but specifically I prayed that we would go in and have a higher count after the wash than we even started with. Dream big, people.
Fast forward to Seattle-geddon 2017. I told you, DRAMATIC. I wasn’t aware of anything crazy going on when I left the house. You might be surprised to hear they don’t show breaking news stories on HGTV. I left with more than enough time to get to the appointment, but I quickly realized this was not a normal day. Once I hit downtown, it was gridlocked. That’s when I started to hear about the interstate shutdown on the radio. Nate was already at the doctor’s office so of course I started to frantically call him worried that I would be late.
*Side note: I HATE BEING LATE!!*
As the minutes dragged on, inching through the city, I knew there was no way I would make it on time. Nate assured me they would wait for me and said I should just keep trying. All of a sudden, the sky opened up (in a bad way). Within five minutes I had at least 3 inches of ice piled up on my car. As the ice turned to wet, heavy snowflakes I realized no one was going anywhere. Add more tears.
I called Nate, sure I would never make it. (These things are time sensitive, you see). We decided our only chance was for me to get out of my car and hoof it. I was only about a mile away so it was definitely doable. I could barely get out of the line of traffic to find an alley to abandon my car, but eventually I parked and got out. Filled with sheer determination, I started power walking up the hill. I’m happy to say, I made it in record time. I might have shown up looking like a drown snowy rat, but I made it.
When our NP sat down to talk to us she said something that gave me goosebumps. She said, “I don’t know how, but we lost almost nothing in the wash.” (Where are the ‘hallelujah’ emoji hands when you need them?) So, on that snowy, travel nightmare of a day, we were able to go through with our 2nd IUI.
No it didn’t end up working, but this experience did do something else. It gave me the hope I needed to keep pressing forward and know that God has all of this in His hands.
For more inspiration, read about my favorite part of that day.
