Protocol is everything

Matt Stratton | Mar 25, 2009 min read

kate-breakdancingSo we’re starting over from square one with our latest baby-making attempt. Last Friday, Carrie had some tests and discovered that the current medication (known in these circles as a “protocol”) was not having the desired effect – so this month’s IVF has been cancelled.

We had hoped to “get started” in the next week or so, but due to this setback, we’re pushed back a month. At least the doctor agreed that she doesn’t need to do a cycle with birth control (which is nice since we don’t have to wait as long, plus, those meds were messing with Carrie’s sleep), so hopefully the new “protocol” will have a better effect. This means that we don’t go “into the lab”, so to speak, for at least another month. So there will be no new Carriematt baby born in 2009 – our kiddo will come in 2010.

Wow, that’s weird to say. Hard to imagine that someone will be born in the year 2010. It’s so very Arthur C. Clarke.

For the record, this picture has nothing to do with IVF or infertility. It’s just a funny picture I took of our niece Kate last night. She’s doing a somersault, but I think it totally looks like she is breakdancing.

This whole infertility thing is getting quite frustrating. And not the least of the frustration comes from the fact that I cannot think of something better than “infertility” when I blog about it. I need new words so that my writing is more interesting. I also need something more interesting to discuss on this topic – it seems like it is a lot of “Well, that didn’t work, so we’re trying this now”. Again, and again.

It’s no lie to say that this is harder on my wife than it is on me. I don’t think that is because I am a futuristic cyborg sent from the year 2243 to protect the future by becoming a master of SharePoint. Nor do I take the easy way out by saying “Hey, you know how women are”…because I am not an idiot. I think for me it’s easier to just take a “long view”. Or at least it has been. I have to admit that it’s getting harder and harder to counsel patience to my wife, but that’s my job. But if this goes on much longer, my “big picture” lens is going to get a lot cloudier.