RE Appointment Update

Extremely overwhelmed. This is how I felt after my RE appointment yesterday. I spent the rest of my day in a fog wondering how I got to this point. How is this my life? Today I'm able to see things more clearly and actually write, although I can't remember it all. I read in a magazine once that patients forget 50% of what a doctor tells them. I'm going to do my best, so here goes. I was there for nearly 2 hours and I really like the RE and the nurses I dealt with. The first part of the appointment was spent with the doctor in his office going over my medical history and all of my issues. He seems to think my endometriosis is playing a significant role in why I haven't gotten pregnant again. Also, I may not ovulate quality eggs because my luteal phase and my cycles seem to vary so much. He mentioned that on my D&C report and a transcript from another surgery that my OB noted my lining was especially thin. Hmm... she never mentioned that to me. She also noted I may have a uterine septum (a band of tissue in the middle of the uterus) and that my uterus is extremely tilted to one side. I never heard any of that from her either. A thin lining could prevent implantation. A uterine septum could cause miscarriage. A tilted uterus most often isn't a problem but it could hinder the sperm from reaching the egg. Obviously I will never know what caused my miscarriage, but I am extremely frustrated that these things were in plain sight on my medical records and my OB never mentioned them. ::sigh:: At this point though, all I can do is move forward. The RE went over DH's sperm analysis. He has plenty of sperm and the motility is good, but the percentage of normal sperm is a little low. Not alarmingly low, just a little. Hopefully all the vitamins he's been taking will help. But with my ovulation issues and DH's low quality sperm the RE basically said our chances of conceiving on our own are about 1%. I am not a huge fan of statistics and percentages, but that's what he said. Kinda sucks.

We discussed my issues over the last few months with itching and burning. He thinks I may have interstitial cystitis (IC), which is inflammation of the bladder wall. Supposedly it's very common in patients with endometriosis. He gave me a prescription to try and recommended the IC diet. The diet does not sound like fun at all, very bland-- but having an itching, burning vag most of the time isn't much fun either. I don't enjoy having to walk like I spent all day riding a horse. I have some more research I need to do on it before I start the diet. Eczema isn't completely ruled out and there is a test he can do called a cystoscopy for IC, but at this point I want to try the diet and prescription.

So now the plan. Starting with my next cycle I begin the Clomid challenge. I will be monitored throughout by ultrasound and blood work (CD3 and CD10). I will do a shot of Ovidrel around CD12 and also a booster on CD16, which should help my lining. I will have a hysterosonogram done sometime between CD6-12 to determine if I have a uterine septum and where the fibroids are my OB found during my last surgery. We will probably end up doing IUI on CD14, depending on how I respond. The RE thinks I will have better chances with injectables rather than Clomid so if I don't get pregnant the first cycle I may move on. The IUI and procedure estimates ended up being cheaper than I thought, but still an injectable cycle is going to be twice as much because the meds are just so much more expensive. The IUI itself really isn't that costly. Stupid drugs. I love that I have to pay to have a baby. And it might not even work.

I was a little worried about DH's reaction to the cost of everything. I've warned him several times that this is going to be expensive, and he was so shocked about having to pay $150 for a urologist consultation that I figured he would freak out when I showed him all the paperwork at dinner last night.

Him: "Why didn't you tell me you were so screwed up when I married you?" If you know my DH at all, you know this is a joke and actually a good reaction.
Me: "Well, you're not perfect either."
Him: "I guess not."      ::continues eating::

So, here we go!!