"She's got Brazilian leather boots on the pedal of her German car
Listen to the Beatles singing back in the USSR
Yeah she's goin' around the world tonight
But she ain't leavin' here
She's just going to meet her boyfriend down at the street fair
It's a french kiss, Italian ice
Spanish moss in the moonlight
Just another American Saturday night"
- Brad Paisley - 'American Saturday Night'
Full disclosure, I am a HUGE country & western fan. I was raised on Garth Brooks, Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline (thank you Daddy) and it is a love that has never left me. I think it's the detail and the stories that capture me most of all.
The lyrics from 'American Saturday Night' by Brad Paisley (š) highlight the irony of the 'All American' life as it incorporates elements from so many other nations and races. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love the multi-cultural side of life and the fact that the world as we know it is so open to enable us to enjoy the best of everything from across the globe. I am simply using it to mirror my feelings towards my fertility journey...so far.
When we first began trying for a baby I had just had the coil removed and our knowledgeable UK doctors informed me that I had both a large ovarian cyst on one side and a polycystic ovary on the other.
Firstly the coil or IUD dates back to 1900's and a German physician by the name of Richard Richter. His invention was far from what we know today and it was further developed by another German doctor, in an American lab and variants also produced by a Japanese doctor. IUD's have come a long way since then and their popularity was driven by the American market, but their crude beginnings were in Germany.
So here we have our first medical journey, which brings me back to my journey. As I mentioned I was initially told that I had one polycystic ovary; as it transpired I was misinformed by a non-specialist who wasn't able to correctly interpret the results of a scan I had and it turned out that the cysts on my ovary were in fact perfectly normal cysts that develop and disappear throughout the menstrual cycle.
The 'discovery' of polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS is down to two American doctors Irving F. Stein, Sr., and Michael L. Leventhal back in 1935 and it was therefore originally known as 'Stein-Leventhal syndrome.' The renaming of the syndrome does little to help its sufferers, but thanks to these doctors people know what they are dealing with...eventually, just not me.
Now as anyone on a 'nearly fertile' journey - as I like to call it - or those fertility survivors and childless parents among us, who have walked this road before will be all too aware, there are untold numbers of tests we have to face along the way. These will include enough blood being drawn to feed the entire Cullen Clan for a year (any Twilight fans out there?!) and scans of places and camera probes in or on our bodies in places we didn't know we had!
Scans and body imaging as we know them today (ultra sound and endoscopy) can be credited to two doctors in Glasgow, years apart, but interesting that they both originate in Scotland (if you're a fact freak like me!).
The self-illuminated endoscope was developed at Glasgow Royal Infirmary in Scotland (one of the first hospitals to have mains electricity) in 1894/5 by Dr John Macintyre as part of his specialisation in investigation of the larynx and over the years has been adapted to help with diagnostics and surgeries all over the body.
Ultrasounds came along much later and actually originated with technology that was used to look for problems on ships...quite a way from monitoring the miracle of life. Ultrasound was first used for clinical purposes in 1956 in Glasgow by obstetrician Ian Donald who worked with engineer Tom Brown to adapt the technology for use from ships to wombs.
Thus far I have had countless blood tests and multiple internal and external cameras and scans and I am currently awaiting a date for a laparoscopy, hysteroscopy and dye test, so huge thanks to those doctors for their pioneering efforts that are enabling today's medical professionals to help me...if not quickly enough in my opinion, but that's another story.
Along my journey I have also read book after book and tried diet after diet, none successful so far. I am currently on my second round of acupuncture (I went for a couple of months last year but then I moved house so it wasn't close by anymore). I found a new acupuncturist in January and I am currently taking a variety of herbal medicines in the form of tiny balls (90 in total per day) and my acupuncturist assures me that I am on the road to 're-balancing' after which it will just be a matter of time before I conceive. I do have faith in Chinese medicine, especially when you look at their ability to reproduce - their population doubled to nearly 1.4 billion from 1960-2015 despite having a one child policy in place from 1979-2015. Here's hoping it works for me, but I am also not giving up on western medicine...hedging my bets if you're a gambler.
The latest diet I am trying is the 'Mediterranean Diet' as advised by a lovely infertility warrior on Twitter (@StaleEggception thank you!) and I will also be trying the advice from Zita West as the wonderful @Jess_Jones79 has offered to send me a copy of the book. So my tummy will be taking a trip to the sunny med, even if I can't.
When I finally get my investigative procedures completed I will be embarking on my IVF journey, if that is what is required. Louise Brown was the first baby born from IVF in 1978 in England and credit goes to Robert G. Edwards and Patrick Steptoe for pioneering the procedure.
I am hoping (if I cannot conceive naturally) that I will be eligible for NHS funding for IVF, although with waiting lists what they are I am not holding out much hope of anything happening this century. In this case, my fertility journey will bring me to my next stop - Spain - where Spanish doctors will perform an English based procedure in a private clinic. I am aware that there are private clinics available here, but I have been advised by medical professionals here that the Spanish clinics are both cheaper and more successful. Having conducted my own research, I find this to be true, although I am painfully aware that it still doesn't hold any guarantees.
So there you have it, they say 'It takes a village to raise a child' but evidently it can take a whole lot more than that to make one!
Thanks go to Dr Google for all of my research and also to all of the medical professionals along the way who have made it possible for people like me to achieve their dreams of parenthood.
Even bigger thanks also go out to my fellow 'nearly fertiles' and 'fertility warriors' for their unwavering support and kind words in my hours of need.
#stillfat #stillnotpregnant
Love & peace xxx
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