My journey into the world of infertility began quite differently than most women's. I started looking into IVF long before I knew for sure that I had any fertility issues. The reason for this goes back almost 20 years.
When I was around 8 years old, I was diagnosed with Charcot Marie Tooth's disease (CMT). CMT is a degenerative muscular disease that mostly affects the arms/hands and legs/feet. It is related to Muscular Dystrophy. Check out the CMT Association if you are interested in more info about CMT. As a kid I thought that was not a big deal. I got to sit out in PE. I didn't have to run the track. That was great since it hurt my feet. The docs told my folks that all they could do is have me sit out in PE and wear some ugly inserts in my shoes.
I didn't wear the inserts for long. They were this horrible barbie-skin colored hard plastic. They gave me terrible blisters. So I wore them out of the house in the morning and as soon as I got to school, they were in my backpack. I hated them. And now years later I found out that those stupid things were found to be carcinogenic. So good for me!
As I grew up, I learned more and more about CMT. When I was 12 we changed insurance so I saw a new doc about my feet. This doc took CMT seriously and within a month of my first appointment with him, I had surgery on both feet to lower my very high arches. Otherwise, everything else continued on as it had been. Someday I'll post about the fun of being in a wheelchair for 2 months at 12 years old.
I'll finish this story in the next post.
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