Craaaaazy

I amaze myself sometimes, I really do.

There I was, grieving having to stop trying for children from my own eggs, writing off the FET as a foregone conclusion and then I thought...wait! This crazy FET thing could actually work, especially if they let me do an IUI at the same time. I could actually have some hope here and have not yet actually reached the end of the road for my eggs. And that made me all excited and hopeful and like there was joy and a point to life again.

Which got me thinking. As usual. I was reading an old post by the fabulous Julie of a little pregnant fame which was in response to one of those "why don't you just adopt?" comments that infertility sufferers get from time to time. Well, often, really, let's not pretend it's a "from time to time" issue at all. It's a classic post, it really is. You should read it. I'll wait while you do. And, mind you, this was before she had Charlie but while pregnant.

And I was thinking, god, why can't I seem to move on to adoption or donor eggs easily. Why not me? Why do I keep trying and trying with my own eggs. Why, even though I so wanted to be done, even though I promised myself I would be done, even though I was happy to be done fer fuck's sake, why now after the negative and the crying and sobbing do I secretly want to do another cycle? Why do I not want to give up? Well, it's partly because it does happen sometimes. Some women do have success on IVF#9 or whatever. So there's this little bit of hope that drags me forward constantly, that doesn't allow me to give up. There's this little bit of joy that bubbles up when I think about trying again with my eggs that just isn't there when I think of donor eggs or adoption.

But it's probably mostly because I am crazy. Craaaazy. Clearly I must be somewhat unbalanced, or I would have stopped long ago, realizing that the odds are so not in my favor. And if we're being honest here, a big part of the reason why I wanted to stop trying with my own eggs was because of what the world out there (that is, you lot) would think of me. That you would think I was so desperate to conceive a genetically related child that I was refusing to see the whole point of this exercise, which is motherhood after all, which doesn't have to involve any genetic link at all.

However, as Julie puts it better than anyone:

It's not for you — for anyone —
To scold, to hector, or to scoff
At how we build our families, hon.
We decide that. You fuck off.

So, um. There we are. I have decided that if I want to be crazy and do yet another IVF with my own eggs, I might just do that. It's too hard to grieve giving up the genetic link when I don't have to, you see. I am not at the age where the RE's say that it is a foregone conclusion. I am not at the financial limit where I need to stop and move on or there won't be any money left. Really the only choice is what is harder - another cycle with my eggs or donor eggs (or whatever). And while going through the cycle I thought another cycle with my own eggs would be way harder because I wouldn't have any hope left, at this point it seems to me that donor eggs would be harder. And because I always like to take the easy way out, that's what I'm thinking right now.

Of course, if both RE's tell me point blank that I need to stop kidding myself and I need to move to DE and just shut up, this could all be moot. I'll find out tomorrow what one of them thinks, at least.