The Best Laid Plans

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. -Proverbs 16:19

We humans plan and plan, but God will continually step and in and remind us that he's in charge. Which is good. His plans are the plans I actually do want to follow, it's just that sometimes I forget that and I make my own plans. That's when things get messed up.

You're probably wondering what I'm talking about right now. Let me explain.

Our embryos arrived at our clinic today safe and sound!!! Praise the Lord! We've been waiting for this day for so long and I'm so excited that it is finally here!

So what's the problem? See, I had set things up so that when our embryos arrived we'd be ready to move right into our first Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) cycle and in fact had already begun the checklist of things to do during a cycle. I already started taking some of the medication (at this point just a normal birth control pill to add needed hormones to my body), we met with our doctor, Luke and I each had to take antibiotics to be sure certain diseases were not present in our bodies (an annoying FDA regulation) and we each had to have blood draws to check for certain things including, for me, my thyroid hormone levels. This is a common test done when pregnancies are being planned.

This is where the problem comes in. It turns out I have what's known as Hashimoto's thyroiditis which is the most common form of hypothyroidism. Basically, my doctor explained it by saying I contracted a virus which to my body looked a lot like the hormone my thyroid produces and in the process of attacking the virus it also is attacking my thyroid. My thyroid, therefore, is not able to produce enough of the hormone it is supposed to produce. If you want a better description, click here.

The good news is it is very treatable and I will begin taking medication for it tomorrow. The down side is we have to put off doing our first embryo transfer. If we tried to transfer the baby now, I would be at an increased risk of miscarrying, which of course we do not want at all. The doctor said it often takes a few weeks to a few months to get the thyroid healed and back to proper working order, so we're kind of at a wait and see point for when we can try another cycle. In four weeks I will be tested again to see how my levels are looking, if they are improving we'll be able to move forward then. If not, then I'll continue the medication, wait another four weeks and see how things look.

This is what I mean about humans and making plans. See, I'd built it all up in my mind already, imagining our first transfer taking place in early May, praying and believing the embryo would implant and we'd be having our next child by early 2016. But, like I said, God knows what's best. I just have to stop being all human and making my own plans and expectations.

If y'all would, please pray for this to pass soon, but also thank the Lord for helping us to find out this important information. It would have been horrible to not know, move forward and put our baby at risk. In the meantime, we'll keep having fun with our sweet Kinsley girl and waiting for God's timing to have our family grow.