Pincushion

So, today is Cycle Day 3, and I head to the local Quest lab on the way to work to get my blood drawn for the tests Dr Pinto wants done (FH and Estrogen levels, amongst others). It's supposed to be a fasting draw, and luckily the lab opens at 7 am, so I shouldn't be any later to work than normal.

So I check in, she calls me back and as I'm sitting in the chair, she starts pulling out vials..........NINE OF THEM!!!!!!! I had glanced at the sheet from Dr Pinto and noticed several check marks, but didn't even register what that meant until that moment!

I just kinda drew my breath in and said "whoa....that's a lot!" The nurse's response "Yeah, but they don't all have to be full"......um....okay, sure! Could've fooled me as she was filling them! Thank goodness for the stint they put in so they don't actually have to stick you that many times!

Last time I donated blood, a few years ago, I almost fainted. With no breakfast in me today, I began to get a little worried that I was driving alone! I headed straight to Sonic and got a smoothie and a breakfast burrito when I was done! LOL!

Calling shortly to make an appointment for Cycle Day 10 per Dr Pinto's orders. I start the Clomid Challange Test (said with booming TV announcer voice) on Wednesday. Wonder how wacky the hormones will make me....I don't remember!

Sooner Than I Thought

Well, this happened sooner than I thought it would! I woke up this morning and had started my period! So, cycle day 1. Guess I'm going to be stopping by the Quest lab on the way to work Monday morning for my blood-work.

Dr. Pinto

Today was our first appointment with the Reproductive Specialist. It was a very informative appointment. We first met with Dr Pinto in his office. He went over our history and discussed the basics of fertility and fertility issues. He did some really cute hand drawings (upside down, no less!) showing us the progression of egg loss as women get older, and how the brain and ovaries work together (or not) and what effects PCOS can have on the ovulation process.

Side Bar

Did you know that when a female baby is in utero at about 16 weeks, she has about 6-8 million eggs! By the time the baby is born, she's down to about 1-2 million. By puberty, 350,000. From that point, we lose, for various reasons, about 3-11 eggs per month! And this greatly increases the older we get, along with diminished quality. Wow! That was eye-opening information for sure!

Okay, back to the post

Dr. Pinto then went over how he likes to start the process. First he wants to determine an approximation of my egg quality and quantity. This is done most easily by blood tests on specific cycle days, to check the FH and estrogen levels in my blood. Until that is determined, he doesn't really want to discuss possible treatments/procedures. He's definitely the type that will tell it to us straight and not waste our time. He'll go over all the results and give us a reasonable expectation on what he thinks our chances are. After the initial tests, if everything looks good, then Kevin will have his 'boys' tested and we'll decide on a plan of action!

He also wants to do a Clomid Challenge Test to see how my ovaries respond. I'm not worried about this, since I've used Clomid in the past; but just hearing him call it that conjures up images of games shows and booming voices! LOL!

Next, he did a sonogram and he didn't see anything that concerned him. He's confused as to why Dr Lopez's office is telling me I have a polyp on my ovary. He agrees with what I found online....polyps don't happen there, cysts do. So, he's not sure what they saw, and he hasn't received their records yet. He thinks it might have been ovulation-related because their sonogram was done on Day 15 (how cool would it be to see an egg as it's ovulating!!!). He said there were signs of possibly PCOS symptoms on my left ovary - about 7-8 follicle masses that weren't released, but nothing serious or harmful (maybe this is why the ovary felt enlarged to Dr Lopez?!?!) He had mentioned possibly doing a hysteroscopy to check out the condition of my uterus, too, but during the sonogram, he said he didn't see any fibrous tissues or anything else, so he's not going to do that yet.

He gave me orders for getting my blood drawn on cycle day 2 or 3 for checking the FSH and estrogen levels, and prescriptions for Clomid and Provera (to take in case I don't start my period on my own soon....I'm due anytime, but with the last few cycles being so whacked out....who knows). He said to do a home pregnancy test on Wednesday if still no sign of a period, and then call them, but more than likely he'd have me start the Provera then.

All in all, I really like him. He seems attentive, told us he'd give us his cell phone number in case we ever had any questions (didn't seem to get it though! Need to ask at next appt!). And he has 3 offices that are all fairly convenient to work (within 20 mins at least). So, we'll see what happens! I'm going to go ahead and start temping and charting again, too....couldn't hurt!

Sonogram Results

I received a call a little while ago from Judy, Dr Lopez's nurse with the results of the sonogram. She says I have a polyp on my left ovary. They recommend getting it removed, but it's not a major, must-deal-with-immediately concern. They know I have an appointment with Dr Pinto, the specialist, on the 24th, and she said I can either have it done in their office or wait to see if Dr Pinto wants to do it.

My first thought was to wait and discuss with Dr Pinto, but after discussing with Kevin, he wanted to have it taken care of as soon as possible. I called Judy back to discuss with her, and she spoke with Dr Lopez. They then confirmed that it's not as high risk as the impression Kevin has, and there is no problem waiting to discuss with Dr Pinto, so that's what we're going to do. Her reasoning, is that he may want to include it in his course of action for our infertility, as the removal process would probably involve a hysteroscopy, which also allows a fairly open view of the uterus, which would for an optimal time to make any other observations regarding the condition of my body and fertility issues. So, we're waiting......

The strange thing is that I feel things on my left side in the area of the ovary, as if I can 'feel' something in the way. Small twinges, occasional bits of discomfort. Amazing how the mind works at the smallest suggestion!

Oh, and internet searches of medical issues is not a smart thing to do. While I cannot find a single website the puts the words "ovary" and "polyp" side-by-side (most mention 'ovarian cysts' or 'uterine polyp'), the majority of items that are coming up are referring or ovarian cancer!!! I know if it was a major concern, she'd have me in right away, but it's still a little scary seeing all that! But what's the deal with the 'polyp' when there's no reference to anything like that on the internet!?!?!?

Sonogram

I was supposed to go in for a sonogram yesterday, but there were horrible storms overnight Wed/Thurs that knocked out some power in the area. The office called and rescheduled me for today. They must have been trying to play catch-up all in one day, because the waiting room was packed when I got there! I felt kinda bad that I got called back so soon when some of the women had obviously been waiting a while, but I ended up only seeing a sonogram technician and not my doctor, so that probably explains it.

I guess I was expecting her to kind of fill me in on what she was seeing. The only other times I had sonograms was when Dr Nokleberg was doing them years ago in Round 1 (that's what I'm going to refer to our initial infertility problems as from now on! LOL!) She would show me the screen and explain what she was seeing. This technician just quietly went about her work and only spoke to let me know when she was inserting or shifting or removing the sonogram wand. She looked at both the right and left ovaries, as well as took several shots of the uterus. At the end, she told me that she will give the information to Dr Lopez and Judy (Dr Lopez's nurse) to review and diagnose, and Judy would be giving me a call probably middle of next week. I'm sure she knows what she's doing and got sufficient pictures and data to give Dr Lopez everything she needs, but I guess it just makes me feel a little weird about it all. How can a doctor make a fully informed diagnosis if she's not seeing it first hand? I guess we'll see.

New Beginnings

I originally created this blog about a year ago with the intentions of blogging our family's journey towards adopting a child from China. A few days later, we found out that dream would not be happening, for many reasons. I'll explain that more in a future post, but for now, I'm going to begin with the new direction our lives are taking us.

A little background, before we had Lily, Kevin and I experienced infertility issues.  We took the drugs, did the injections and even tried one round of IUI (intrauterine insemination) with no success.  After being referred to an RE in 2001, we did one visit, had one additional test (a hysterosalpingogram - HSG dye test to determine if there are any blockages in the uterus or tubes), and took a break.  Shortly after, we moved back to OK for a year, then moved to AZ in 2002, a few months after Kevin had gastric bypass surgery.  All this time, we were not using any birth control, my cycles continued to be out of control (frequently 60-90 days long) and we weren't even thinking about trying to get pregnant.  Then, at some time in late March or early April 2003, the miracle happened and we conceived Lily.  Why God chose this time to bless us, we will never know, but our lives have never been the same since!

Since having Lily, my cycles have been fairly normal (28-30 days).  Other than the mini-pill taken while I was nursing, we have not used any contraception, other than natural planning (avoiding certain times of the month when we expected to be ovulating) and even then, not really 'planning' to avoid pregnancy, just not really trying.  Over the past year, though, we've gone more from avoiding that time to focusing on that time.  We told ourselves we weren't really trying, but that if it happened, great.  I think this was our way of protecting ourselves in case it didn't happen on it's own again.

Now, enough time has gone by that we're ready to admit that we want another child.  Lily is 4 1/2, and she's beginning to ask about having a baby brother or sister (well, usually a sister).   It was time to admit that we were finally 'trying' all along. I'd been procrastinating and hadn't had my 'yearly' checkup in well over 2 years; also, after 4 years of normal periods, my body finally decided to go out of whack and screw with me, giving me a 35 day cycle in Jan, then Feb/Mar was about 56 days!  So, I finally went for my 'yearly' checkup yesterday.

After reviewing my history and the fact that I am now 36 and have tried fertility treatments in the past with no success, my new OB/GYN Dr. Lopez didn't want to waste any time.  She immediately referred me to a reproductive specialist to get us started on this roller coaster again.  She also indicated that my left ovary felt slightly enlarged and she wanted to do a sonogram to determine if there were any issues that could be causing my irregular cycles (cysts, fibrous tissues, etc...).  I go next Thurs for that. 

So, it looks like I will now be using this blog to post about our experiences with infertility, visits with the specialist, our thoughts and emotions as we go through this process, again.  The first time was extremely difficult; I think partly because we felt so much more pressure then to try and make it happen, both for ourselves and for each other and our families.  And we didn't communicate with each other very well about it all.  But this time around, we're older and more mature (hopefully), we have a stronger relationship, and we know what we're heading into.  And, most importantly, we already have Lily, and it's hard to expect another miracle to happen when we were blessed with such perfection the first time around.