Sunday, August 30, 2009

overdue update

Sorry, folks. I just realized that both of my readers are probably waiting to hear about our consultation with Dr. Eyebrows.

We met with him on Tuesday. Basically he feels that if I haven't gotten pregnant after 5 IUI's, there may be other issues - tubal scarring that renders the cilia useless seems to be at the top of his list. Anyhow, he suggested moving forward with IVF.

We had the whole conversation about how many embryos he would recommend transferring. He usually does two for my age group and diagnosis. I'm okay with that. Mr. December, engineer that he is, thinks twins would be super-efficient. I think it's a risk I'm willing to take, but a singleton is my ideal outcome.

Dr. Eyebrows also asked us how many kids we want, ultimately. When we answered "four", he immediately started talking about freezing some embryos now for future use. He went into details of new techniques they're using that get them very similar success rates with a FET as with a fresh cycle. Sounds good to me. And frankly, I'm impressed that he asked. Somehow I always feel like people will assume that two kids are enough, especially in light of fertility issues. I wonder whether he would have flinched if I had told him I wanted ten kids? I guess I'll never know.

He described the protocol - wait until day 21, then start suprefact, wait for my period -

I interrupted right there. I don't get my period on any regular or predictable basis. We could be waiting a long, long time.

For some reason Dr. Eyebrows perked up when I said this. He suggested we do a quick ultrasound to see how things were looking. He determined that it looked like I wouldn't ovulate this cycle (surprised? not me) and my lining was extremely thin (at day 6)... so he informed us we could start right away! And we don't have to wait for a period!

So here I sit, with track marks on my belly, waiting for September 5 - my "assigned day 3". Mr. December feels certain this will work. I tried that attitude last time, and the crash was bad. I think I'll stick with "cautiously optimistic".




ps to Aurelia - I asked Dr. Eyebrows about the tests you mentioned. He felt that the statistical probability was just so low that blah, blah, blah... I didn't argue this time. Well actually, I did. But he kept giving me the "you probably read too much and you definitely worry too much" look, and so I dropped it. Maybe next time.

4 comments:

Karen said...

Sounds like a good appointment with Dr. Eyebrows. I hope this cycle goes really well - and though I think "cautiously optimistic" is a good outlook to go into the cycle with, I am hopeful for you.

Good luck!

Aurelia said...

It's your money and your body, and I'd seriously insist on the sperm fragmentation test, because by the time you figure it out, and embryos haven't fertilized, you've already spent a shitload on drugs.

I'd still megadose you and your husband with folic acid and vitamin D, and cut down on meat. Definitely do more organic for meat and milk and anything else that has a higher level of dioxin.

Has he said anything about the fibromyalgia as a factor? Is there anything you can do to calm down your flares? You just seem to have more of those lately, but maybe it's just my perception....

FosterAbba said...

I don't have anything intelligent to say about IVF, but what I did want to say is that you obviously have more than two readers. :)

Anonymous said...

Do you get to skip the PIO for suppositories?