The diary we were sent from the Cancer Council has been very useful - there are so many appointments and so much to keep up with!
Everyone we've spoken to has been so helpful and supportive.
On Thursday, hubby sees the radiation oncologist again to plan his treatment.
He got an appt with the Andrology Lab on Jan 3 to get a sperm analysis done - hopefully it's good enough to freeze. I thought that sperm banking might need private health insurance and that we'd need to pay out of our pockets for it since it's an elective procedure - but thankfully it's covered.
Money is not something I want to think about right now, and so I'm so glad that everything has been covered. It looks like the only thing that we've had to pay for is the PET scan (which we elected to do to give a clearer picture for the radiation therapy). That was $900 which put our out-of-pocket expenses over the yearly $716 Medicare Safety Net so we even get some of that back. That's good.
Regarding the fertility thing.
We always planned on having babies in 2-3 years. We both love children - well, not always other people's bratty little horrors - but we know we'd love our own! It's hard to be told that maybe we're not a fertile couple.
It makes me think about what else we'd have to do - would we adopt? Foster? Pour our energies into something else? And I don't know if I would want to go with IVF, and there's no way I'd do the donor thing. But then again, it might not even be an issue - I could fall preggers easily.
There are so many things I've taken for granted. I've assumed that because we're young, we'd be healthy. I've assumed that we'd have kids when we choose to have them. But that's silly, really. No one is immune from health problems, and children are gifts.
But right now, I'm re-writing another section of my PhD, feeling sad and frustrated, and wishing life could be simpler.
6 comments:
Jezzy I can't say enough about how inspiring you truly are. Over the last serveral months your blog has led insight into the beauty of life (including sorrow and fear). You always find the bright side and I know things will be okay. You are always in my thoughts and prayers (even though you are thousands of miles away, on a different continent, and we have never met). Thank you, for showing me how beautiful life really is and how important it is to appreciate the little things.
Aw, Jezzy...those are some rough issues to ponder. As a person who was a foster care worker for a while, I would state that it's a rough job to be a foster parent. Depending on the age and the nature of the abuse, it's a holy hell to foster children. The flip side is that it's incredibly rewarding when you see a child who was once angry, scared, and violent slowly start to feel safe and loved, and bloom into the child he or she was meant to be. I've always sworn that if I decided to foster, I'd state that I wanted two or under children. Those children can bounce back much easier on the whole since they are so young during the abuse.
Adoption would be a great choice, I would think. I, too, would not do a donor (too risky...), and I can tell you that after seeing a really close friend go through invitro (and the nasty side effects the egg producing meds gave her), I don't think I would EVER consider that procedure. Just my personal thoughts there. Take 'em or leave 'em! I feel like it'll be ok and you'll be able to have children the regular way, but I also realize that there's some sort of "security" in formulating a backup plan for just about any major event in one's life.
hey, just catching up on ur blog... kind of puts our own problems in perspective.
random words of consolation seem pretty paltry considering what you must be going through - nevertheless, may God grant you & ur husband the strength to get through this difficult time & hope things start looking up soon... :)
Wow...
I haven't been to your blog for a while. I was checking in when you were "taking a break" and hadn't seen any new posts for a while, so I stopped checking. I finally came back to find all of this. I had to scroll way down to catch up.
1. What an ordeal! I'm sorry that you two have to go through this.
2. Your medical background is both a blessing and a curse! You know every possible outcome and side effect.
3. If possible to practice this, the "one day at a time" philosophy may be helpful.
4. I will keep you in my prayers!
sobie - I'm not inspiring, I'm just doing what I have to. But thanks so much for your comment - it means a lot.
Kira - yeah - lots of thoughts going through my mind on this topic. I just hope he's got enough of the little swimmers.
S.C - hmm, felt that, thanks. x
Pink - thank you. I don't think anyone expects the things that come out of the blue in life, but I think we can surprise ourselves with how resistant we can be.
Laurita - Thank you, hon. x You're going through a lot yourself. I guess it's all about keeping the chin up and being thankful for what we have.
It's a complete and utter bitch that you have to be thinking about these things Jezzy. We do just expect to go along, it'll all happen when we want.
For what it's worth, however you get to be a mum down the track, you're going to do a fantastic job at it!
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