Dusty's Story

As I mentioned before, not only was my endometriosis a factor for us not being able to conceive, but unfortunately, Dusty also has some medical problems. Back in 2010 when I had my tubes flushed, they figured at that point they might as well check Dusty too. Well after getting a semen analysis (yes...that involves him doing "you know what" in a cup), they called us with the results. The news we got wasn't the best, but also wasn't the worst. They told Dusty that his sperm count was actually EXTREMELY high (more than double the normal count)...not many men have such a high sperm count, but his motility was low. (Yes, we though the dame thing. But when it comes to the "little swimmers"...you use 'motility' not 'mobility"). A little lesson: the motility is the forward motion to get the swimmers up to meet the egg. His swimmers...like Chandler says on FRIENDS, "won't get off their barcalounger"...they were wiggling but not moving in a forward motion.


We didn't do anymore testing on Dusty at the time because the doctor gave us hope that we could still get pregnant even with Dusty having low sperm motility, it would just make it more difficult. So once I had surgery and found out I had endometriosis, we thought that was for sure the culprit of our problem. It was at that point that we went forward with our insemination. After 2 failed inseminations, Dr. Chalmers thought it would be a good idea for Dusty to go to a Urologist to make sure there was not any further problems on his end. Against his will, Dusty went to Dr. Adams (Urologist) on July 12, 2012. Dr. Adams gave Dusty a physical and went over Dusty's records and labs that were previously done. He talked to him again about his HIGH sperm count and low motility. However, he did tell Dusty something that no other doctor had mentioned to us before. Not only did Dusty have low motility, but some of his "little guys" were also abnormally shaped. How? Why? Those were the two questions Dusty had for the doctor. Dr. Adams order Dusty a lab test just to make sure it had nothing to do with hormones, but he told Dusty that he felt it had a lot to do with his blood disease. For those of you not aware, Dusty has a rare blood disease called Sideroblastic Anemia. I know what you're thinking, "anemia...he doesn't have enough iron"! It's actually just the opposite...he has WAY too much iron. The symptoms of too much iron are similar to having too little iron, but the side effects are much different. The doctors at one point thought Dusty had hemochromotosis of the liver, but then narrowed it doen to the iron overload in his liver (which is basically the same thing as hemochromotosis of the liver). And now...well...he has low sperm motility and minor sperm abnormality. He feels terrible about it. The medicine I take when preparing for an insemination procedure helps my body overcome the effects of the endometriosis...but there isn't a medicine Dusty can take to overcome low sperm motility. If his labs come back good, then Dr. Adams told Dusty that there is nothing he can do to help him.

So where do we go? What's next? Do we wait for Dusty's lab work to come back and wait to see what the results are of the insemination procedure that we did last week? Oh...did I forget to mention we did one last insemination procedure?....