It would only happen to me

...and anyone else out there in the infertility world that can understand how completely devestating this could be.

I went to the lab to pick up dh's final SA results. We have our appointment on Monday with the fancy urologist and we need these results for Monday. This SA we abstained for 4 days instead of 3, hoping that his numbers would increase because each SA has been getting progressively worse. I had called the lab prior to leaving my house to confirm the results were ready but when I arrived they said they were incomplete and it would take 7-10 days. It never takes 7-10 days, it takes exactly 2.5 at this lab. However, sometimes they simply haven't taken the time to input the numbers into the computer but the pathologist has the results already at 2.5 days. I requested a manager and she explained to me that all the results are in the computer except for the morphology, she would print me the results right now that would include everything except morphology & that report was being faxed as we speak from the Cytology department.

She returned in just a few minutes with the SA results, less the morphology, and as soon as I read them I wanted to cry. They were almost perfect. The joys of motherhood were consuming me, as I sat there, with nearly perfect SA results in my right hand and in my left arms laid my sleeping nephew that I was babysitting. I looked at him in that moment and understood that one day, I too would have a baby that might have his father's eyes. I sat in my joyful state for about another 15 minutes until she returned with the morphology report. She handed me a handwritten report, with the pathologists actual handwriting. I immediately looked under the morphology section and noticed that the "Percent Total Normal" was missing, which is what I needed. I asked her about it and she phoned the lab to inquire. While I was waiting I started to read the other notes on the pathology report and noticed that they greatly differed from the printed almost-perfect report that I had been given. Clearly, there was a mistake.

After an hour and a half of research, it was discovered that they have recently hired a new pathologist and after the tenured pathologist performed our SA, they kept the results from the new pathologist and challenged him to perform the SA to see what numbers he came up with. Apparently he's an eternal optimist because all his numbers were nearly perfect. Someone made a "data entry" error and entered in the incorrect numbers. Our nearly perfect SA was suddenly the worst SA we've ever had. Only 2 million sperm, 2% motile, and 25% normal. Devastation doesn't even begin to describe it.

I kept a copy of the handwritten report because under morphology there were several words written, none of which I've seen before in describing my dh's sperm: acrosomal deficiencies, amorphous, bent head. After a lot of google research and a call into our TS M, who is 3 weeks shy of being an RN, we discovered this and this and lastly, this. Devastation doesn't even begin to describe it.