Episode 49: Failures in Fertility: Why Sharing Our Stories Matter
“We all carry the weight of overwhelmed differently, friend. You are not failing. You will persevere.” - Erin Diehl
Today, we’re getting personal. This podcast serves as a safe space for many to be their truest, most vulnerable self and we hope you feel a little less alone and a little more understood after listening.
On today’s episode, our host, Erin Diehl, is sharing her infertility story. While it’s a topic not many talk about, we hope you leave this episode knowing you’re not alone and that your voice, indeed, does matter!
In today’s episode, Erin talks to us about her infertility journey through:
The Past
The Present
The Future
Links from show discussions:
About the Host: Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the failed it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online!
Episode 49 Transcription
(00:00):
Hey friend, are you a leader who is career-focused, goal-driven and possess a life long learner mentality? Do you dream about achieving your goals and spend hours Googling how to’s and gurus? Does a side effect of your awesome, might I add, personality include perfectionism, the dreaded imposter syndrome and the ever-present fear of failure? Well, you've landed in the right place. We just became virtual BFFs. I'm Erin Diehl, the founder of the improv training company improve it! And a recovering perfectionist turned failfluencer. Inspired by the improv rule, there are no mistakes, only gifts. This podcast is the creative outlet you need to not only motivate you, but the people that you lead. Through interviews with corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, and even comedians, you'll walk away becoming a more empathetic boss by realizing that failure is a part of the journey and you must fail in order to improve. In the scene of life, we all have our own unique guests that we bring to the world, and it is our mistakes that help to unwrap them. Welcome to failed it!
(01:20):
Hey failed it! Fam. I'm going to start today's show with our failed it! Fam member of the work. This one is from reviewer. There is like 700 numbers here, but it's reviewer1233568876542267. So just a lot of numbers. So reviewer with all the numbers says The inspiration you need!! Erin’S energy is infectious and her honesty is so refreshing! Oh, and she’s hilarious. Take a listen if you want to feel seen or need a mental boost to get you through whatever hurdle you’re facing. You’Ll be glad you did! Oh, reviewer with all the numbers you are so kind boostin that ego today. Thank you. Also thank you so much for this review. It does mean the world and because of it, we are going to give to you with our zoom fatigue mini course, this is the last week to get your mini course.
(02:25):
So I'm going to keep singing, but also it is an awesome tool kit. And it gives you all types of tips and tricks on how to combat that treaded zombie fatigue. Send me an email at info@learntoimproveit.com to get yours. And failed it! Fam, if you can leave us a review, you know what to do iTunes failed it! Podcast, scroll down five stars, hit, write a review, boom, but a bang. It literally takes about two minutes tops and it means the absolute world to us. Thanks so much for everyone whose left a review. And if you haven't yet, please do. We're gifting all kinds of things here on the show for those who do. Alright team, let's get to failin' it. Failed it! Fam buckle up, put on that seatbelt because today I am getting real or my Instagram isn't keeping it real deal. Today's episode is going to be very personal for me.
(03:23):
And it may also be a little bit controversial. So let me start with a disclaimer. This is my story. We talk week after week, and I feel like we are there. If you are new to the show, I want to welcome you to the failed it! Family. I hope you can find this home welcoming, entertaining, but most importantly, a safe space all are welcome here. And I just want you to know that we celebrate the lives of others through the lens of their fails or what we like to call them the improv world, their gifts. So today I'm going to share a very personal story with you through the lens of many gifts, the world, through my way. My hope in today's show is this: that we learn from these gifts. That you hear my story and if it resonates with you, you feel less alone. Perhaps this story has not been your journey, but it's the journey of someone you know, who is struggling with infertility. My hope is that I give you a few tools in your toolkit to help you understand what that friend or family member is going through. I also want to say today's episode is not just for the ladies. Okay? Men in relationships also suffer when infertility is at play. And it actually is rarely talked about with men and is becoming an increasingly more discussed topic around women. Additionally, infertility is also something that is misunderstood when it comes to the LGBTQ couples and social infertility. So I have experienced several very good friends in the LGBTQ community who feel that this topic is often considered taboo. When it comes to having conversations about how their child was conceived. Y'all it is 2021. Let's get real and discuss.
(05:35):
Okay. So the week of April 19th is infertility awareness week. So keeping that in mind, I wanted the month of April to have a sort of theme to it in regards to women and women at work and infertility. So I thought that sharing this story would hopefully help someone out there in some way, shape or form, no matter where you are right now, listening. If you're on a walk, if you're in your car or if you're in your bathroom, getting ready, I see you, you look great. I want you to do something for me. I want you to shake out your limbs, go ahead, shake them out, shake out your arms, shake out your legs. Do the old brrrr with the lips too. Because my failed it! Family, we are about to get really comfortable with the uncomfortable. My armpits are sweating, just knowing what I'm about to say, but that's the point. We don't go through these fails of life for no reason. We must share because our silence is just that. Silence. It doesn't do anything for us rather than just keep us in our shells and in our own box. So I am getting outside that box today. And to be honest, it's feeling really good. So I've applied a really strong antiperspirant and I'm ready to go. I'm going to break this into three parts. Number one, the past of this story, the present and number three, the future. So today's episode is part anecdotal part tangible. You didn't think I was going to let you walk out of this without some key takeaways, right? So I want to start right with our first section, the path. Let me take you to a different place and time for the little, you know, how they used to do that on the saved by the bell episodes. That's what I was doing there. So anyway, I'm taking you to a different place.
(07:37):
It's 2016, isn't it weird to imagine a world without masks when, where we can actually embrace and hug and be around each other in groups. So it was around this time that my husband and I, John decided it was time to start a family. Now, John and I have been married for four years. At this point, we've been together for nine and I was waiting to start a family until I had improve it! Off the ground. And it was up and running because I knew I wanted improve it! To be my career. And I was very adamant about making it happen first. So once we decided it was time, we patiently, okay, went and put my name and patient in the same sentence ever. So, okay. We waited there. It is for our little Diehl to come. We waited and waited and waited and almost a year went by and we were not with said child.
(08:33):
So we decided to go get routine checkups to make sure we were both okay. And to figure out why this was taking so stinking long. So after our routine procedures, we learned that everything seemed to be fine. And we were asked if we wanted to do genetic testing. He said, sure. And we gave little to no forethought as to what may happen with the results. The results came back from our genetic tests. And I found out that I'm a carrier for a mutation called GJB2 for hearing loss and deafness. So I was a bit shocked to learn about these results, but my doctor reassured me that it was only a concern if John, my husband matched for the same genetic mutation and she assured me, it was extremely rare for couples to match. So we should be fine, but best practice let's get John tested.
(09:27):
So a month went by and we anxiously waited for the results. And we got them. Not only was John a carrier for the same genetic mutation on one chromosome, but he had a variable of that same mutation on the other. What are the chances? I mean, we asked the statistics on this. They're just so crazy. They're like one in so many thousands of chances. So I don't know the exact statistics, but it's very rare that this happens. So we were shocked. And what this meant was we had a 50% chance of having a child born with hearing loss and deafness. So the ideal chromosomal makeup was to have a child with my unmutated gene and for it to match with John's variable. So if you think about you have an X and a Y John had a variable on one of those and then the mutation on the other.
(10:27):
And I had a mutation and nothing. So we wanted that nothing to match with the variable. So long story short, this would result. This would result in a child who was a carrier, but who would not be affected with the hearing loss and deafness. So we were beyond sad, nervous, and to be honest, shocked about what to do with this information, the only way to make sure that the genetic makeup was ideal was in vitro fertilization, which is otherwise known as IVF. So when I first heard IVF, I was like, what the hell lo is that? Okay? So just know I am now a scientist. I invented IVF. I've written many textbooks. That's not funny, but I know a lot. So cut to Googling all the options, a complete deep dive into deaf culture, which by the way, is so fascinating and is amazing. It's such a wonderful, unique community, countless conversations and millions of soiled Kleenex later, we decided to keep trying naturally until we came up with a solution that made sense for us in our family.
(11:48):
Now not only were these conversations about the solutions philosophical, but we had to question our own values, our morals, our beliefs, and realize what we needed to do to give a child the best life possible, knowing the information we were given. So of course, another six months or so of trying, which was us trying naturally led to a series of fails every month. When I got my period, I would literally sit and cry on the bathroom floor. I'm not talking like soft little, you know, floating tears. I'm talking Kim Kardashians, ugly cry, face cold up in a ball on the floor events with friends who had families and even pictures of our nieces and nephews felt really tough to witness. We felt alone. We felt isolated and we wondered why something that was supposed to be natural for a heterosexual couple was so hard. So we had also decided to keep this entire situation private to everyone, except our parents.
(12:55):
It was hard enough to live in this knowing every day, but we also didn't want to burden others with it. And at that time, to be honest, we also didn't want others' opinions when it came to making decisions, but we wanted to come up with what was best for us in our family. So many conversations later, I'm talking a mandate. We decided that IVF and the ability to genetically screen for the mutation was the best option. Now, this decision did not come lately. It was heavy, it was hard. And it was very worrisome. Now I'm a person who hates going to the doctor. I hate shots. So I was nervous about how I would handle the hormones, how I would feel on the day to day, while running a company, having a business. So my job also requires me to be on. So would this hormonal shift make me different?
(13:52):
Would I be too moody to inspire people to be their best professional selves? So John and I made this decision, but before I committed, I told him I have a couple of non-negotiables okay, I'm in. But we have to be okay with sharing this story. We cannot carry the burden of this alone. And we need all the prayers and the good vibes we can get. I would also like a song request every day while administering the shots. And by the way, you will give me all the shots. Lord bless this man is a Saint. John would pick out a different theme song every night when I received three shots every evening to help grow our little follicles. So songs like shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, do the hot those songs. You get it, the same shots. Those songs are played and I tell you, he did administer every single one.
(14:51):
So let me stop in this story right here and say this. I know that not everyone goes through IVF with a partner. I am lucky as hell to have this. And I'm also privileged as hell to be able to have had insurance that covered most of IVF. I'm recognizing this privilege and wish that our healthcare system would cover infertility treatments for everyone. That is a completely different episode, but something that I think is wildly important. So I wanted to caveat, let's get back to the story. I got a lot more failing to do so to speed it up. We did our first round of IVF and that was considered a fail. We only ended up with one embryo and an embryo is a fertilized egg. So we decided to do a second round from that second round, we received six embryos. And then we decided to take that first one and those six and test all seven for the GJB2 gene.
(15:48):
Now this testing y'all is so insane. They take swabs of John and I's DNA. Then they took swab of our parents' DNA from literally swabs of their saliva. They sent them a kit in the mail. They swapped their saliva. They put said, saliva in the mail and shipped it back. Thank you families for helping us. And then they created a testing probe to genetically screened for the gene. So what came next was truly the biggest shock of all. We got the test results back and all seven embryos had both my mutation and John's all except one, one of these embryos had John's variable and my genetic mutation that is John's genetic makeup. And he does not have a hearing impairment. So the recommendation from the lab and from our doctor was, do not implant any of these embryos. You will have hearing loss and deafness.
(16:50):
We saw this one with John's variable Miami station, and we begged our doctor to implant this one. Although again, their initial recommendation was don't implant any of the seven. So after some, some serious conversations, they said, okay. And I began this transfer protocol, which a transfer protocols where you get ready to implant the embryo. And this includes a shot of progesterone to the gluteus Maximus. Okay? Your booty that hurts like hello, every day on top of a very strict hormonal regime regimen, I should say to prep the body for pregnancy. Now we, at this point had a full squad of people rooting for that embryo and for us, as we began to tell people about this story and just share with close family and friends. So John and I decided prior to this transfer, we're going to take one final trip out West. We thought we were having a little baby moon without a baby.
(17:49):
And we decided to go to Joshua tree, state park and hike prior to this transfer. So we actually found out the gender of this embryo via email. And we kept the email in a PDF. We didn't open the PDF. And we said, let's hike to the top of this three mile mountain in Joshua tree, state park, open the email, find out the gender of our embryo and just be excited.
(18:16):
Hey, failed it! Fam, do your eyeballs hurt from staring at your screen? Do you walk away at the end of your work from home day with your arms out like Frankenstein, your eyeballs glazed over and feel like you need to do a swift face plant onto your bed, which is also conveniently located next to your laptop. If this sounds like you, and I've got something for you. For now, for the next two weeks, you can receive our zoom fatigue, zombie toolkit from improve it! It's a mini course for you and ironically, it's not on Zoom, to teach you why you get those zoombie feelings after being on one too many video calls, how to build boundaries with your schedule to minimize video conferences and give you some best practices for when you have to present on video. We've got video, we've got audio and a toolkit for you to stop the zoomfatigue. Head over to learntoimproveit.com/zoomfatigueminicourse to get yours before it's gone, that's learntoimproveit.com/zoomfatigueminicourse to get yours before it's gone. This course will only be offered for a limited time. We end our sales on April 11th at 11:59 PM. So grab yours before the zoom apocalypse.
(19:49):
So we literally hiked three miles. It was so it just felt forever to get to the top. And when we got there, we opened the email and we found out it was a bowl. So the entire three mile down, we started coming up with names for said, boy, and we landed on Jackson, Frederick, which Jackson means Jack, which is a nickname for John, which means son of John. And John is obviously John. His dad is John. My brother's name is John Mueller. So many Johns in our family. And then Frederick is my dad's name. So Jackson Frederick was the embryo's name. And we started telling people because we wanted them to root for him, send him five, sent him love. So family and friends were rooting for Jackson and they were so excited for our transfer date. So we went through this three week medicine protocol.
(20:40):
And two days before we were going to transfer Jackson, we received a phone call from our doctor. They had spoken to the board and they would not transfer this embryo because it was a liability to their practice. What it was like a record stopped, scratched, halted. Our world fell apart, another fail. And this one stung fricking worse than the hormones. I was injecting into my Heineken daily. Okay. We had to mourn this loss and I'll tell you what. I only allowed us to sit in a week. I'm an action oriented person. So I got to quickly thinking of what we could do to fix this and being the stubborn person that I am. I said, okay, we're going to do a third round of IVF and we're not going to test any of these embryos because we don't have to test. We chose two and this would be the same as we got pregnant.
(21:41):
Naturally, we didn't know the genetic makeup. So we knew we were having fertility issues. It wasn't happening naturally. So let's do the IVF non-screen. So we did a third round and we retrieved two embryos of the two. We implanted one in friends and family were rooting for this one so much. So when we found out it didn't work, another fail, more heartache, more confusion, more sadness. So we decided let's take a break from IVF it's it is an emotional and physical and mental journey. We saw it. Let's continue to try naturally continue to not work. It lasted for another couple of months, when then I again, became antsy. And since we were leaving behind the entire genetic mutation testing, why not try something called IUI, which is a less invasive procedure, still a for T infertility procedure, but it's less invasive than IVF. So we tried that.
(22:45):
Another fail, something in my heart kept calling me back to the embryo. We named Jackson. So I started to dig and I went on Yelp to find other fertility doctors in Chicago. I called five and a kid. You not failed that fam as soon as they heard the word mutation, we couldn't even get past reception. They said, sorry, we can't help you. So I called a six place and we got an appointment and John and I went to this appointment hopeful. And when we got there, we had to wait two and a half hours to see the doctor. And in those two and a half hours, we just knew this isn't our place. We don't want to start a relationship like this. So we walked out even more angry, frustrated and sad than we already were. That appointment fueled my fire even more. And I was bound and determined to find a doctor to implant Jackson.
(23:44):
Now this time I had heard of a newer clinic in Chicago called Vios fertility. It was an all female practice who focused on the patient experience. And I was immediately sold by this kind woman at reception. So exactly the same day that we walked out of this appointment, when the doctor was late, I at my lunch break at work, took a walk and I said, I'm calling Vios. And I was just all heated expecting them to tell me no again. And this kind woman said, I think we can help you. Let me talk to the doctor. I'll call you back. She was just so kind. And I knew it was a special place just because of how empathetic she was. So she got us an appointment, which was just even a great first step. We were so excited. And after a two hour conversation with Dr
(24:34):
Angie Beltsos at Vios fertility. She agreed to implant Jackson. As long as we signed a document saying we were doing this on our own accord. So we had another transfer protocol and a transfer that was so special. Okay. Dr. Beltos thinks of everything. She even had a customized playlist in the transfer room and after they implanted the embryo, there's a little machine. You can watch it all happen. So you've literally watched this embryo, sorry, everyone. It's going to be graphic, go into your body. Okay. And she had on the machine, she typed the words, Jackson, next to this little embryo, printed it out, gave it to us. And then I sat up. So I was laying down and Dr. Beltos says, was at the end of this table, I was laying on and I hugged her so hard and I just started weeping. And I just thanked her so much for believing in us.
(25:39):
And for listening to our story, I'll never forget that hug. I mean, she held me in her arms and I sobbed and John sobbed and it was such a beautiful, beautiful moment. It was in a two week process to find out, did the transfer work? So, you know to those two weeks friends, Oh my God. I mean, it was, you just have to act like you're pregnant. You don't know you're waiting. Am I pregnant? Is this, do I have a cramp? Is this gas? You know, all the things. So in two weeks we got a phone call. I took a pregnancy test and we were pregnant with Jackson. So we were of course a static. I mean, we had made it so much further than we made any other journey. And we of course so had the worry of hearing loss in the back of our minds.
(26:37):
And I remember probably I was about five months pregnant. We went on a baby moon, a real baby moon, this time to Bermuda. And we were in this gym at the resort we were staying at. And there was this cute little girl and her dad in this gym. And it was just John and I and her and her dad. And she was so cute, probably like three years old. She was mimicking John's moves. We started talking to the dad and somehow, literally in the first few sentences of our conversation, he told us that she wore hearing AIDS and had cochlear implants. We told them about our journey. And then we found out that he is a surgeon and both him and his wife after birth found out that they were carriers for the GJB two mutation. And because he was bound and determined to find someone to help his daughter, he researched the best pediatric doctors for cochlear implants.
(27:32):
He found a guy in New York. He gave me this doctor's information in case we needed it. And this was the only couple we met our entire infertility journey who had a genetic mutation had the same genetic mutation as us. I'm telling you the universe is so funny sometimes so funny. So we kept celebrating this life that we were creating. And so we had a baby shower that was basically a celebration of it, complete with a dance party and drag Queens. And when it came time for Jackson's delivery, we were so stoked. I mean, we were prepared at this point for whatever journey we were supposed to go on next. And after a painful induction, what y'all, that is another episode. If you don't know what an induction is, talk to your girlfriends about inductions. If you have to have one because your girl went in blindly and let's, let's just say ignorance is not blessed ask. Okay. Anyway. So after an induction and in four hour stint of pushing this little man came into the world. Now it was a miracle moment in one that I almost forgot because after pushing for four hours and not eating or having my beloved coffee, I almost passed out into a migraine.
(29:01):
So the next day and the hospital, everything was fine. I got some, I, they gave me like a diet Coke and some crackers. I'm fine. I'm fine. So anyway, the next day it was time for them to do the standard hearing test that they do in the hospital. Every baby gets one. So my younger brother happened to be in the hospital room at the time with John and I, again, this is 2019. People could be at the hospital with us, what a time. So anyway, the nurse came in to do the hearing test and you could literally just hear a pin drop on the floor. It was so quiet. We were so nervous. And after what seemed like five hours, she said quietly, his left ear is fine. So she'd been taking the test being very quiet the whole time. We're just watching, staring.
(29:50):
She tells us his left ear is fine. The three of us start screaming and the two of them started jumping because your girl was laid up in the bed with an ice pack in or on days. So they're jumping I'm in the bed. It's all fine. So then we're happy about the left ear. She had to do the right ear. So she starts flipping Jackson round, moving him, trying to get a reading. This felt like two days for still so quiet. And at this point we knew he could hear out of the one ear. So we were happy with those results, but she finally sad. He has passed.
(30:25):
And Oh my God, I jumped out of that bed.
(30:30):
Ice pack fall, and all three of us sobbed and embraced. It was a true miracle. I mean a true miracle. And they give you a certificate in the hospital. If you pass the test and this was so cute, the nurse realized how important it was. She said, you know, I see this as a very big deal. I'm going to go make some copies of this certificate for you. So we were passing them out to anybody who came in the room to visit us. I mean, it was such a joyous time and truly a miracle, a miracle, a miracle so failed at fam 36 plus failed pregnancy tests. Okay. Two saline sonograms, 232 shots, 35 blood draws and ultrasounds. One round of Clomid, three surgeries or retrievals with anesthesia three transfer protocols, an amazing and supportive husband who would Moonlight as a medical administrator, countless hormone pills, doctor's appointments, Kleenexes, and glasses of wine. When allowed. That is what it took to create Jackson Diehl.
(31:44):
That is the power of failing time and time again, we fell. We were in the arena. We tried, we got back up. We persisted. We took every single no. And we said, how can we make this a yes. So that's my first point. Let me cut to my second point, the present and you guys, this one is short and sweet. So I just gave you a full tutorial and download, but this one is super quick. We now have a 20 month old, healthy, silly kind and sassy little boy who feels our heart with love every single day. Without Dr. Beltsos, most likely would not be a mom. I'm sure we would have gone other routes. We're still very interested in adoption, which is an entirely different process, another long, but I know, and I knew Jackson was meant to be ours.
(32:46):
I knew it. John knew it and we both fought like hell to make it happen. So finally, my failed at fam. My third point for you is the future. I want to live in a world where talking about fertility openly and freely happens on the reg where women aren't ashamed of their bodies for what it cannot do and where these conversations happen. Not only in our personal life, but our professional lives, to which spoiler alert one spills over into the other. I mean, look at what happened in 2020, we became more real and more vulnerable than ever before. As we all had to open up our homes, our families, our pets, and our coworkers. We showed ourselves without our makeup on and without real pants or shoes on. And for the love of God, people who wear actual shoes while working from home should be considered modern day heroes, slipper squad.
(33:48):
I see you. Okay. I am you. I want to live in a world where we feel okay to talk about this with our peers, our coworkers, our bosses. I hid my fertility journey from my team for a long time. It was only after I opened up to these struggles that I felt like I could truly show up at work, that my off days weren't happening. Because guess what? I'm human. I'm not perfect. And I'm going through something. I shared this with my all female internal team in hopes that in their future or the future of someone they knew, they could say, I know someone who went through something similar. She persevered. Do you want her number?
(34:39):
I want this for our future, for women to feel empowered by these conversations and for all of us to lean on each other in times when we need support, most that one woman's struggles are heard so that others can succeed. So maybe you listened to the show today, and you said, I'm not resonating with this topic because I have four children. And it all happened quickly for me. And now I'm overwhelmed. We all carry the weight of overwhelmed differently friend. You are not failing. You will persevere. I want you to write down what it is you want for yourself and for your family on a post-it note. And then I want you to share that desire with a friend or a trusted family member, or maybe you're listening to the show today. And you're saying this isn't for me. I don't want children if that's for you.
(35:41):
Oh my gosh. I love that journey for you. But I hope that you can find parts of my story that move you for whatever mountain it is that you're trying to climb and know that sharing your story is so important, whatever it is. So if that's you, I want you to write down the outcome you want. On the other side of that mountain on a post-it note, share that desire with someone, you know, you love and trust, or maybe you're listening today. And you have a friend who could benefit from this story. I hope that you share this with them now as an infertility warrior. I know that a lot of times people felt like they didn't know what to say to me or to John as we were going through this. So a great way to pass it on to them is to say, Hey, I listened to this podcast. I thought you would find it helpful. I'm sending you some love today, friends so helpful, so much love. So go ahead, draft that text right now and send them a link to this episode. And if you are sad friend, who was given this episode from a friend, and you're now listening, I want you to hear me.
(37:03):
You have a plethora of women out there who have been in your shoes. And to have your back, there is an infertility army waiting for you. And we will root you on. I certainly would not have made it through this story without my army. So I want you to write what you want, that desire, whatever future you see on a post-it note. And then I want you to share it, share it with a friend, share it with a family member, share it with somebody other than your partner, because you need a support system. Or perhaps you're listening today and you have one child, but you desperately want another and are having issues, getting that, you know, the drill right down the outcome you want on a posted note and then share it with a trusted friend or family member. Also know I'm going to have my doctor, Dr.
(38:01):
Angie Beltsos says from Vios on the show in a couple of weeks. So stay tuned for that. And finally, maybe you're somebody listening today who really resonates with this. Maybe you're going through it. You're starting, or you're coming out of a season that feels hopeless. You know, the drill post it, share it with a friend. So if you don't feel comfortable sharing with somebody, you know, you can DM me at @keepinitrealdiehl on Instagram, or you can send me an email at info@learntoimproveit.com. And I really would. I really would love cheer you on. So share your story. Let me say, you've got this to you because you do. And if you don't feel comfortable doing that, hear me right now, you've got this by speaking your desires and wants you are letting the universe know you were ready. And you were also building an army of people who can love and support you, whatever your journey might be.
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The future is ours for the taking. We have a rights and we deserve to speak these truths and share them with each other. So we can lift each other up your voice matters, friend, share it, speak it, and know that by sharing you can help so many. I hope this episode served you in some way today that my past present and what I hope to be the future made you realize that our voices have a right to feel seen and to feel heard. I see you. And I hear you failed at fam failure. Fail fricking. Yeah.