Infertility: I don't wanna be cliché but here goes.

Infertility: I don't wanna be cliché but here goes.

   Tomorrow is my fourth wedding anniversary. I'm having a hard time believing it. I've been married for four years. I graduate college this week and we have almost everything ready to head out to California this fall for grad school. Life seems to be going really well, and it is, for the most part.

   My wife and I don't have kids, at least not human kids. We have our dog, muffler, he's the best, but he's the closest thing we have to a child. This was our decision for several years. We decided for a long time that we weren't ready for kids for many reasons, mostly financial, but other reasons as well. We were both happy with this decision for a long time, but sometime in the last year we decided, let's go for it.

  We didn't get pregnant right away. That's fine and normal, but after a few months we decided we'd talk with our doctor. He ordered several tests and even suggested that I take part in a UofU healthcare study for male fertility, I thought "meh" but then found out that they will pay me so I said "Sure!". Meeting with the doctor for the first time, we did blood work, ran other tests, and I gave a semen sample for them to analyze. This would be something I need to do every 3 months.

  I waited several weeks for the results of my test, but never suspected any problems to arise. I get the results and read an interesting analysis. My semen sample had a 0 sperm count. Not low, not dead, 0. For everyone who understand biology, that is bad. I immediately met with my doctor who referred me to a specialist, who referred me to an even more specialist. 4 doctors meetings later and a lot of money in co-pays I had a possible explanation. CBAVD, congenital bi-lateral absence of the vas deferens. Now for the rest of you who didn't study Human Anatomy let me explain. The vas deferens are small tubes that connect the testicles and the urethra. They are pretty much the male version of the Fallopian tubes. According to the specialist I didn't have them.

This is a problem.

  Not wanting to give a false diagnosis or jump the gun, she recommended that I go and get genetics testing done to see if I may be a carrier of some genetic problems that are attributed to CBAVD. I set an appointment and met with a genetic counselor. She explained the basics of genetics and how they work. We worked through my family tree identifying each member that may have fertility issues like me and at the end of it all they took some blood to do gene sequencing.

  I waited for about three weeks to hear anything. I was nervous but honestly excited, almost anything they could tell me would be news, and that's what I want. News, any news is good. I finally get the call and learn some really interesting things. It turns out that both of my parents are carriers of Cystic Fibrosis. I expected this to be followed with "and so am I". It wasn't.

I have Cystic Fibrosis.

  Let me explain that a bit further. By definition a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis is made when both CFTR genes are identified as having a mutation. But of mine do. One mutation is the most common very bad/deadly mutation. the other gene has a less common and much less life threatening mutation. We only use one set of genes, and by chance/luck/blessings? the gene that activated in my is the one with the less common mutation. This is great news for me. 

  In more than 70% of CF cases, the diagnosis is a death sentence. Current scientific treatments have extended patients life so that many live into their mid 30s with intensive daily therapy. I'm obviously in very good health and don't display the majority of these life threatening health conditions, so my doctor and geneticist both assured me that I should not be concerned or take the diagnosis to mean anything close to a death sentence. At the worst I may develop worse lung infections in latter life than my peers, but that will probably be the worst. This is all the good news.

   The bad news is that there is one symptom that is almost ubiquitous among all types of Cystic Fibrosis, CBAVD. For some reason evolution has decided that Cystic Fibrosis is horrible, justifiably so, and that no one with it should ever reproduce, again this is justified when comparing how bad CF can be. This means that I can't have children naturally. I "Shoot Blanks" to say it colloquially. This is not my wife's fault, nor mine. This is just a biological problem that I have. There is no one to blame, it's just how it is, and i'm coming to accept that.

  All of this being said, there is hope. I still produce sperm, they just have nowhere to go. They're just chilling down there having a party. With the advances in reproductive care I can actually get a biopsy to remove a large amount of sperm and use them to artificially inseminate an egg. Through IVF we can then be able to have our own biological children. This is fantastic news. We are really excited for this. This does come at a price of a ton of money, so we'll see when that happens. But I'm trying not to think of that right now.

  For all of my friends out there struggling to get pregnant. Get your husbands tested, it may save you a lot of heartache.

My ALS experience, A tribute Delray.

   Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), has been trending on social media as of late.  A while back someone decided to start raising money for ALS research by dumping a bucket of ice water on their heads supposedly to imitate the feeling of what someone with ALS would feel, a lack of control of the body.

   I do not, nor do any members of my family have ALS, but someone very dear to me had it and he eventually died from it. Delray Waite, the father of my best friend Alex Waite passed away in 2008 after nearly two years of battling this disease, but before we get to that lets go back to the start.
   Delray was my second father. From the 5th grade I starting part time living with the Waites', I say this metaphorically because I still technically lived with my wonderful parents, but they would agree that I spend the majority of my time at their house. Alex was my best friend, his family was my favorite family on the whole earth. I did everything from go on family vacations, boating, regularly eating family dinner, and much more. I was another son. That's why what happened next would end up affecting me more than I could have ever imagined.
   When Delray was diagnosed, I wasn't sure what to think. I remember he had recently gone in for carpal tunnel surgery but was not getting better, that was the first indicator that told the doctor something was wrong. Hearing the news and learning what exactly ALS was, was a blow to the family, what happened after the diagnosis was far worse than I ever imagined.
   Watching from the outside I was able to get a less emotional view on the disease. I watched a man that I respected and loved so much go from an excited talented man who I once watched do a back flip off a diving board, to a body that could do nothing more than sit on a couch with his head propped straight and a button between his knees so he could select a set of words on a screen in from of him that he wanted to say, because his lungs were barely strong enough to support breathing, speaking was nearly impossible.
  In the span of two years the I could see exactly what ALS did to his body, it started out in his hands and feet. It started subtle, he lost his ability to grip things with his hands tightly, this made eating difficult, so all of his cutlery was equipped with foam handle grips to help him hold better. His walked moved from a light glide to a clunky thud. After about a year he could not walk without assistance, he was confined almost permanently to a jazzy electric scooter, he could no longer feed himself and his speech was slurred. Around a year and a half he had a special scooter that he could control with his head, because he had lost control of his hands. His body had transformed from a strong confident man, to a weak, feeble body. The man that I had learned so much from, so many life lessons, so many life experiences now had only one more left to teach me.
   Endurance to the end.

  The worst part of ALS is not that you slowly lose function of all of your body. The worst part is that your brain does not get nearly as affected as the rest of your body.  Imagine your worst nightmare where you want to scream but can't, or want to run away but your feet won't move. Now imagine that being your life. Your brain is working like normal, you can think, problem solve, communicate, do everything like you've always been able to, but your body cannot. As hard as you try or will your body to move, it just won't. That is the worst thing that I've ever seen anyone have to go through.

   Delray was my second father, he helped raise me, and for the few short years that I had the honor of knowing him he taught me more than possibly anyone save Christ himself. Delray never gave up, he never had a negative attitude, he always fought, and more than anything he knew that even though his body was going to die his spirit was going to live on forever.  The best comfort anyone can ever have is knowing that the person that they loved so much is now able to do those things that they could not here on Earth. Delray now has a perfect body, he is no longer in pain. If he wants to move he can, what he thinks he can do. His example has motivated me and sculpted me into the person I am today, the husband I am today, and the father I will be in the future, because he was an incredible father.

  I have not felt closer to any crowd funded project in my life before the Ice Bucket challenge began. I recently challenged myself, not to dump a bucket of water on my heard, but to take an active roll, not only am I donating to the ALS foundation, but I am starting to make donations a monthly activity. If we all join together for a good cause we can change the world. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints taught us that we don't need to do all of the work ourselves. Life is too big for us to do it alone, but if we all lift where we stand, whether we have $5 in our bank account, or $5,000,000 if we all do what little we can, we will change the world. These donations may help that one underfunded Doctor finally find the solution and end this terrible disease.

Delray Waite, the man that inspired me to be the man I am today.



For more information or ways to donate go to This Website.




Photo borrowed from The Waite Family. (I hope it's OK that I used it)

The Millenials, a starting

   So,  I've never seriously tried blogging before,  but I've recently found myself spending less and less time doing things that used to matter to me,  and more and more time learning and absorbing everything that I can find about the current state of the United States government, and the world economy. It's gotten so bad I wrote almost my entire weekly essay for my Book of Mormon class about these subjects.
    Basically, I feel like a lot of people are poorly informed about what is going on in the world right now, I'm not trying to say that I know everything 100 percent and ask that if anyone finds an error in my information that they correct me.
   My whole purpose of this blog is to compare and contrast a rising generation. Generation Y, or more commonly referred to as "The Millenials". As I look and ponder on the state of our country, I try to see a reason for any of it, and the only conclusion that I can see is,  the older generation,  aka the president and Congress, are trying to appeal and appease the millennials. From Obama Care to the utter and complete ignorance and racial violence, everything right now revolves around Us. The Millenials.

Brent Summers