Goodness, where do we begin? My fertility (or shall I say infertility?) story has been so draining yet so worth it. One year after my husband and I had been married, we stopped our birth control, anticipating starting a family within the next 12-18 months. However, we noticed that we were not very careful and had not gotten pregnant; anyhow, we told ourselves we just weren’t trying hard enough. After two and a half years, we got all the requisite tests done and they all came back great. That was more frustrating because now we had no idea what the matter was. We kept plodding along through the infertility road and worked with P.C.R.M., a fertility clinic in Burnaby.
Our first two rounds of invitro-fertilization were not successful and we were devastated. Normally a very upbeat and positive couple, my husband and I started to face the facts that we may not have children biologically. We honestly explored the idea of adoption. However, we had another shot: two frozen embryos waiting for us. This time, we were determined to do something different, drastically different. A close friend had just received positive news by working with Ryan Funk at Acubalance, so six weeks before our procedure, I made an appointment. This time things were significantly different. Ryan encouraged me to go on a gluten, wheat, dairy, sugar, caffeine, and alcohol-free diet. He only recommended a reduction in these items, but this was my last chance so I cut these things out completely! Ryan saw me twice a week; during those visits, we discussed my diet, strategies to reduce my anxiety, and a session of acupuncture complete with electrical stimulation.
11 days later I received my very first strong beta results… pregnancy success! It still is pretty surreal and we are so incredibly thankful to Ryan and Acubalance for helping us achieve this. Pregnancy success was starting to feel like something that would never happen for us. Although we fully intend on adopting the rest of our children, we really feel incredibly blessed to be able to have this avenue available to us at the same time.
Those that struggle with infertility deal with so many emotions and often feel like they would do anything to get pregnant and they understand that the scars of infertility run very deep. The entire time that I was dealing with Ryan, I felt like he was someone who really had a vested interest in helping me with our journey. If I ever hear anyone else speak of struggling with infertility, I would not hesitate to offer them Ryan’s name because we believe with his guidance and knowledge we finally got what we were looking for.