April Fools ~ The fake pregnancy announcement.

I posted the below post on my Facebook yesterday. It got lots of shares, likes, and comments. I also received several personal messages from my facebook friends of encouragement and support, as well as a couple that felt compelled to share their "infertility" story with me. It feels great to know that I have so many that show compassion and empathy know that I am going through something they could never understand. As someone that has recently gone through an IUI (stay tuned for my IUI journal to be posted :) ) and could potentially be pregnant as I type it saddens me to look at other posts and see so many that do not understand and refuse to understand. I imagined what would happen if I posted a "april fools" joke today saying I was pregnant......and I imagined how hurt and devastated it would make so many of my friends and family when i revealed it was a joke. So its not just us "infertiles" that are hurt by this joke. Since Im not the type to engage publicly I decided to "vent" on my blog.

So here is my response to the post I recently read where several made comments like "get over yourselfs" "i dont care, post away" "its just a joke". Everyone is entitled to their opinion...here is mine:

Its sad to see that some don't realize the person they could be hurting but joking about it could be a close relative or friend. Luckily I have an awesome support group of friend and family that know although I dont often talk about the years of fertility treatments, the thousands and thousands of dollars spent, the pills, the injections, headaches, body aches, hormonal breakdowns, the emotional and physical roller coaster that I have been through (and still no baby), something like this is no joking matter. It is bad enough that we have to watch everyone around us have babies, and although we are genuinely happy for them, no one understands its not everyone else that makes us sad, its the disappointment in our own body, our own personal inability to conceive, our own hopes and dreams that have been crushed, that causes us pain. In the last couple years I have planned 4 baby showers, celebrated in births of so many babies, congratulated many REAL facebook pregnancy announcements, and I have vowed to never let my personal journey of infertility ever make me a bitter sour person or interfere with the way I treat those around me because I understand they could not possibly understand how I feel. I do not expect or want people to tiptoe around me and I will not go hide in the closet from the April fools days post or cry everytime I see one, nor will I have to because those that I choose to be friends with on have enough respect for me and those around them to realize what is funny and what isnt.........trying to fool the world on facebook as a Joke....not funny. You wouldn't joke about having or surviving cancer....aids...having a miscarriage or still born??,,,,,well infertility/miscarriage/infant death are medical diseases that affects more people than you know. Some want to compare it to posting picture of your dog/mom and hurting those that have lost a dog....would you joke about your dog/mom dying today?? We all handle things in our own ways, I just hope before you go and try to pull one of the most common April Fools pranks you are 100% certain the person(s) you are trying to fool wont be hurt by it. Besides, there are so many other "jokes", "pranks" and ways to fool people, be creative people.