As you know, my husband and I met with the fertility specialist for the first time yesterday.  In both mine and my husband’s minds, the only way this visit could have gone better is if he would have told us I was pregnant.  To be honest, I knew what to expect but at the same, I didn’t.  After all this was a specialist, so there should be more involved, right?  I had read through the enormous packet of info they sent me immediately after scheduling the consultation and read each page carefully.  Most of it was the patient info I had to fill out, the rest was information regarding IVF and their success rates, and then a tiny paragraph about your first visit.  In that paragraph they let you know that your doctor would sit with you and review your history, at which time I would have to spew out my story for the 1,749,025 time, and I could also expect to have a transvaginal ultrasound.  OK.  I can do that. 

So we get there 15 minutes early, as asked, and sit in the waiting room with All My Children buzzing in the background.  I am nervous.  I am anxious.  I am freezing!  I don’t think the heat was on at all!  (The nurse said it had something to do with the embryo lab upstairs, I don’t know…makes sense, kind of.)  Immediately I am called in so the nurse can take my vitals- weight, pulse, blood pressure, all that good stuff.  Then I am directed back out into the waiting room to find my husband involved in a magazine article, where I proceed to annoy him with questions he can not answer. 

Out of nowhere came a distraction. An acupuncturist playing “Pimp My Practice”.  She didn’t work for the specialist; she instead has an office about 15 minutes from there.  She came in, as if she were a patient, put her baggage down and came over to introduce herself.  My immediate thought was “Are you kidding me, I don’t want to make friends right now, not under the stress I am under for this initial appt.”  Then she handed me her business card and started talking about acupuncture and its benefits to fertility when used in conjunction with the Western approach.  (Notice how I say ‘fertility’ as opposed to ‘infertility’- Have you read The Secret?  If not I highly suggest you click on the link, purchase it and read it from cover to cover immediately upon receipt!)  I do think acupuncture is quite interesting and have spoken to my husband about possibly sessions.  It works by increasing blood flow within the uterus and spleen, amongst other body parts and organs, and helps redirect the flow of energy within.  It totally makes sense to me.  We will see.  I digress, as usual.  So after about 25 minutes and wishing she would find someone else to pimp herself out to, she went to speak with one of the specialists.  Phew!  I didn’t have anything else to say to the woman! 

We waited for about 45 minutes before being called in to meet with the doctor.  He apologized for the wait and led us into his office. There we sat and started our visit with a photo taken of my husband and I, which I thought was cute.  We went over the basics; he reiterated some of the info I had filled out and asked a few additional questions of both my husband and I.  We had a few laughs, which was fun and put me at ease a bit.  He is super nice and I am very happy with him! 

After about 25 minutes he sent me to empty my bladder and then head over to exam room #2, where I would have my ultrasound.  I undress fro the waist down and then the doctor, the nurse, my husband and the UPS man come into the exam room and the ultrasound starts.  NO.  Of course the UPS man didn’t come into the room but everyone else did so it really wouldn’t have made a difference if he had.  All we would have needed then would have been a video camera and we could have made some serious bucks “leaking” that onto the web!  Something I thought kind of funny was that the doctor started asking me about what I do for a living and how I got into it…can we say distraction?  I wanted to say, come on buddy…I have had so many of these done in the past year; they really aren’t a big deal.  Anyway…I won’t bore you with all the details like I already have; I’ll just get down to the plan of treatment:

- My husband and I have to go for some blood work; they need to make sure we do not have any life threatening diseases.
- They took blood from me to see if I in fact ovulated this cycle.  They will call with the results today before 3pm and depending on those results, I can start Provera to bring down my period since today is now cycle day 34 and nothing (although I have serious symptoms- HELLOOOOO Boobage!)
- Once I get my period I have to go down for cycle day 2 or 3 blood work, to start my treatment cycle
- I will then start Clomid 100mg (up from 50mg the past 2 months) days 5-9 and then be monitored via blood and ultrasound constantly to see if I am responding to the meds and detect my LH surge.  NO more peeing on sticks…You were right Nola!
- Upon surge detection, I will be scheduled for an IUI (for those of you who don’t know what this is I’ll explain later)
- We will go 3 rounds this way, Clomid cycles with IUI.  We will decide if trigger shots are needed to release the egg(s) once the action starts.

Without getting all technical on yo azzzzz…I will explain an IUI

IUI- Intrauterine Insemination.  Basically all this is, is putting the sperm right at the ‘finish line’.  They will take a sample from my husband, and pick out the strongest swimmers.  They will then proceed to wash the sperm to get all the fluid off of them.  Then they will load them into a catheter and insert it.  Placing the sperm right at the fallopian tube takes away the distance they need to normally swim, and takes the possible hostile mucus out of the equation.  Often times Clomid can turn the mucus hostile and the sperm can not survive the journey.  Seems simple enough, right?

I have to say that I knew my husband would be amazing throughout this whole journey, but he has even exceeded any expectations I had.  He has been my rock for the past 4 years and continues to get stronger every day.  He is always there for me and for that, amongst many other reasons, he is the best!

Thank you to everyone who has sent well wishes!  Please know that it means a lot and it is greatly appreciated!

So there you have it!  What do you think?  Yeah you, all you people who I know read this blog but don’t comment…how about it?  Show some Love and leave a comment, it’s really easy!