we tried to conceive naturally for a year. That's the magic number right? I knew something wasn't write just after 4 months. I mean, how could I NOT be getting pregnant? While I've never been pregnant my whole life, I just figured once I found the right guy, married him, then tried to have a baby, that is when it would happen. Guess the joke was on me.
After a year of "trying" I went back to the OB (whom by the way I've never met...I always just used my family physician or her nurse for my routine exams) and he decided to schedule me for an HSG test (a test where they basically shoot dye up your va-jay-jay to see if the dye will move through your uterus and flush out the ends of your fallopian tubes or stop short of them.)
They were able to schedule me in fairly quickly for the test. So there I am, spread eagle on the table with a catheter up my who-who, and of course the light at the end of the instrument goes out. A bit more fiddling around and the dye is finally injected. The doctor gave me a few moments, hoping that my muscles would stop contracting so the dye can move through my system. He had me roll to the right, then roll to the left and he kept trying and trying to push the dye through. Eventually he gave up. I put my clothes back on, and made an appointment to meet with my OB to review my results.
A few days later my husband and I are sitting in his office and he tells me the devastating news. That my both my tubes were blocked. He wanted to schedule me for a laparoscopy to try and clean out my tubes. That was it. No explaination of what happened, why, what all my options were. And of course, since I didn't know what was going on, I didn't know what to ask. I left his office feeling uneasy, like I wasn't being told the whole picture.
As soon as I got home I immediately got online and started researching the process. Since I still didn't know what my whole condition was, I finally decided to call an old friend of mine who had her own show on CNN cause not only has she been down the IVF road, but I figured because of her "status" maybe she had some insight on a really good doctor.
After a brief conversation with her, she gave me a couple of doctor's names and phone numbers and as soon as I hung up with her, I called the first one up. They were able to fit my husband and I in for a pre-consultation with the doctor within the next couple of weeks. I was surprised as it took me longer to see my OB than it did to see a specialist.
Anywho....finally the day comes of the pre-consult. My husband and I arrive there and met a kind-faced doctor. He took us back to his office and reviewed our charts (both my HSG and my husband's sperm analysis.) He explained in simple terms what was going on. I explained to him that I am due to have a laparoscopy in the next couple months, but I didn't really understand why and what it entailed. After reading my OB's notes some more, he basically said "I understand what he was trying to do, but that's not going to help you."
The one thing I really liked about my new doctor, was that he never bad-mouthed the OB. He actually complimented him and said he is well respected in the community. But in the back of my head, I'm like "whatever....he was just going to cut me open and not tell me why."
But the news isn't so great. He tells me that my OB was going to try and just clean out my tubes and try to let me conceive naturally again. But the thing is, after you clean your tubes out (especially if you have as much blockage as I did) that you have a window of 2-4 months before the scar tissue builds back up and your tubes are blocked again. He explains that it would be best to remove both tubes, but he wasn't sure if both needed to be removed at the time. In my xray photos, one tube he could tell was in extremely bad condition, while the other was questionable. Of course, I was crushed. Just the thought of never being able to have children naturally was a scary thought. After a few tears, my new doctor goes on to ensure me that there are many options for us. Our issues are practically text book from what he can see and he feels as though it won't take us more than two tries at IVF to get pregnant.
My doctor goes on to tell us that we could qualify for a free study, allowing us an IVF cycle that would normally cost an average of $18,000 for free. Of course, we jumped at the opportunity. Which was kind of funny, cause I didn't remember to ask what the study was for until after we got through our pre-consult formalities. It sounded safe. I didn't feel like I was going to be some sort of science experiment so I was comfortable with it.
He immediately set me up with a bunch of appointments, I needed an updated PAP, some bloodwork done, a series of other tests done just to be sure we can qualify for the study. But I didn't care. I wanted this freebie done, and it was all moving so quickly, I couldn't help but to get excited in the rush of it all. Finally I was going to have a chance at having a baby.
1 comment:
I wish i haden't listened to our OB first. We waited a year as well, then wasted anoter six months w/ doing the ovulation shot then having sex. I wish it was just suggested to us to go straight to In Vitro when we first started when my wife was 39. After 5 IVF cycles we finally got pregnant. It's a journey like you say.
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