Melissa Rupp, FCPI

Written 9/6/2016

Life has definitely flown by in the last few years!  
Just a little update on our lives:
 I am still at my office and truly love my passion for helping people get well. I still am a Wildtree Representative and love using their products daily in our kitchen. I am also still a Young Living Distributor but more than that, I am an Oil Addict... John is now the owner of his own business and keeping very busy. Jack and Penny are still driving us crazy on a daily basis and are still escape artists! We are on an infertility journey that we never expected to be on.  That is where we start... Over the next few weeks I will be writing regarding what has brought us to this point, 
but today I want to begin with May 2015...

This is the day that I decided I wanted to take control of my own fertility... or so I thought.  I had been having a lot of female related problems for years, but they had gotten much worse over the past few months.  I remember having a period so heavy and intense that when my husband came home from work I was sitting in the chair in a complete daze.  He was worried, said I was incredibly pale and for him to worry was the last draw for me.  I made an appointment the next day to see my doctor.  

I met with  my doctor, who referred me to another physician and so the fertility journey begins.  I was informed that I had 2 options, become pregnant or go on birth control (again).  I knew that I would not be going back on BC, after so many years of being on it and the horrible effects it had on my mood, I just couldn't do it again.  I also felt that it just wasn't the right thing for me.  We had also been trying for quite some time to get pregnant but to no avail.  I was tracking my temps, ovulation, and my symptoms like a hawk, but something wasn't right.  I was not ovulating... at least not when I was "supposed" to be according to my charting (more on that another time!).  My doctor decided that I should try Clomid, so we did.  We jumped through the hoops, just like anyone else would feeling like this is your only shot at the one thing that you want more than anything else in the world.  Let me tell you though, Clomid is not for the faint of heart.  It made me angry, I mean really angry, depressed, uncomfortable in my own skin, my hair fell out, my face broke out, my body was a disaster, and I gained 12 lbs in the first 2 months.  I have not considered myself "overweight" until my doctor decided to put me on a different medication on month 4, because I was now in a higher BMI bracket.  (Due to the Clomid mind you!!!)  We did all of the meds as directed for 4 months.  Did they work? Technically Yes!  But ultimately NO, because they were not treating any cause, just effects.  Did I ovulate, Yes.  Did I get pregnant, No.  Were the side effects worth it? In my mind, for me. No. 

Kari Beadner

Author  - Certified FertilityCare Practitioner and Birth and Bereavement Doula