Surviving combat wounds and infertility
More about Casey:
Casey Jourdan is a Montana native, infertility survivor, and Iraq war veteran.
Casey has received the Purple Heart medal for wounds sustained in combat. As an advocate for herself and other veterans, she’s a TEDx speaker who talks often and openly about life with post traumatic stress and a brain injury.
Since her time in the military Casey married and had grand plans of having kids. Things didn't go as planned. After multiple rounds of IVF and 4 miscarriages Casey and her husband decided to stop treatment and live a new life path; childfree not by choice. She's the proud fur-mom to 2 spunky doggos (a lab puppy and a doxie) and 2 handsome black cats.
She continues to work hard in sharing that message that it's ok to choose to stop trying to conceive and change paths in life. Infertility is hard, trying to conceive is hard, and not everyone gets the outcome they hoped for. Being an infertility survivor doesn't always come with a baby, but it can still be a happy ending. Casey has since started her own business, Boss Lady Central, and lives by the motto "if I can't raise kids, I'll raise an empire."
Casey understands that we all face our own challenges and tragedies in life; but that doesn’t have to slow us down or stop us. Some of her greatest life lessons have come out of her darkest days. She believes in celebrating wins no matter how tiny, that we all need to continue to learn and build a toolbox of people and skills
Connect with her here:
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Truly, in my eyes, every single one of my guests is extraordinary. But I have to tell you that Casey Jourdan, my guest this week, is remarkable. Casey is a military vet who enlisted when she was just 17 years old, only a few months before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. She was deployed to Baghdad at the very start of the Iraq war. And on April 13, 2004-just a couple of weeks before she was slated to return home to Montana, she was hit with a roadside bomb. She suffered a traumatic brain injury and PTSD. Casey received the Purple Heart medal for the wounds she sustained in combat.
Obviously that experience upended her life and her career. And on top of all of that, when she and her husband tried to start a family, they learned that the only way they were likely to get pregnant was to start fertility treatments. And once they realized that IVF was probably not going to work, Casey had to come to terms with being childfree not by choice.
Discussed in episode 37 with Casey Jourdan
Casey’s time in the military
Living with Combat PTSD and a Traumatic Brain Injury and how this changed the trajectory of Casey’s life
Casey’s shift from her career as a counselor to owning her own business
Casey’s ideas about motherhood and what she has believed about having kids
How Casey went from never wanting kids to falling in love with the idea of being a mother
IVF, sperm donation, and the idea of having “kids of your own”
Living with decisions that are painful, but easy
How Casey came to accept and appreciate her childfree life even though it was not by choice
Casey's advice for couples who are trying to conceive