Preface: I have an OB and a midwife. They work in the same office. My midwife handles my pregnancy and yearly check ups and such. The OB handles any abnormal findings, infertility diagnostics, c-sections and the like. The OB is actually the one who delivered Lillian as she was on call that night. I won't lie, I was very glad she delivered her because I think she did an AMAZING job, but my midwife's bedside manners are a little better.
So I had an appointment with my midwife, ML, yesterday for a fallow up from Dec. Everything looks good now, which I expected. I had almost canceled the appointment, but decided I wanted to see her and ask her some questions now that I've had a chance to let this whole hydrosalpinx news sink in. So when she asked how I was doing I told her "Good besides the news I got here last week." She said "That's right, I remember seeing the hydrosalpinx in your report now. Don't stress over it, the last two patients I had with it, it resolved itself." Then we went on and talked about other things for a few minutes. Before I left she gave me a hug and said "I'm glad you came in and I got to see you. It's a great sign that we were able to get the dye pushed through and I'm confident it will resolve itself. You are coming back next month for and ultrasound right?" I told her yes and we said our good-byes, with her adding she hopes to see me soon (my ultrasound is with the OB, not her). ML is one of those people who just makes you feel like she's on your side. And she told me to call immediately if I get a positive pregnancy test before my ultrasound.
All in all I'm feeling a little more hopeful today that things will clear up this month and we will be pregnant soon.
I'm also hopeful that Lillian is making good progress on the potty training. She only had 2 accidents yesterday, and for the way things were going, that's great. She even freaked out last night while we were laying in bed watching a movie and she had to pee and started going in her diaper. (she had a diaper on cause she was exhausted and I thought she may fall asleep).
I've been feeling pretty fat lately. Although my weight is pretty much only fluctuating about 5lbs, I've been feeling huge. For some reason I decided to try on a skirt I bought myself last year as a goal gift, but I haven't been able to fit into it yet. Well it fit this morning. I was able to pull it over my hips and button it! It's still a little tight in the thighs for sitting in it all day, but it fits! Hopefully it will give me the motivation to get back into my exercise routine. I've still been exercising, but not with the energy and effort I should be.
I guess that's enough rambling today...
Showing posts with label Infertility Testing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Infertility Testing. Show all posts
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Hydrosalpinx
That's the technical term for what I was diagnosed with a week ago and I still don't really know how I feel about it.
Some times I feel hopeful and other times I'm quite depressed. At one point I had a list going on my computer with a list of all the emotions I was feeling and why, but then the breaker blew here at work and that list is gone.
I think my 3 most prominent feels are Depression/Sadness, Denial, and hopeful.
Yeah weird combination right? I'm very sad and depressed to be in this situation. I just can't stop thinking about how all I've ever wanted was to be a mom and the thought that it would be a problem never crossed my mind. Which puts me in denial that I will only have one baby girl. I refuse to believe that I will never have another baby. So, I am hopeful that since the contrast dye from the HSG was able to be pushed through my tubes that the fluid will also be able to escape and my ultrasound next month will show little to no fluid. Or maybe I'll even win the lottery and my ultrasound next month will be to make sure I don't have a tubal pregnancy rather than to check for fluid.
What frustrates me the most is that I can't seem to find much information about treatment online. I have found lots of definitions and causes, but not much about treatment. I was assuming that when my OB said in extreme cases the tubes are removed and then IVF is used, but I didn't realize that besides that there isn't much that can be done. I have found a few sites that reference a massage type treatment where they manipulate your tubes to free blockages, but I don't know if it works for fluid. I've also seen a few mentions of larposcopy to clear the tubes of blockages, but again I'm not sure that applies to fluid. I feel like my ultrasound on July 11th is forever away. I just keep picturing fluid flowing out of my tubes and praying that it clears up.
I have also been dealing with lots of pregnancy news lately. While I am over the moon for my brother who's second little girl will be arriving on the 22nd, and for my friend who has been TTC for about as long as I have, who just got her BFP this week, I'm admittedly completely jealous of both of them.
Some times I feel hopeful and other times I'm quite depressed. At one point I had a list going on my computer with a list of all the emotions I was feeling and why, but then the breaker blew here at work and that list is gone.
I think my 3 most prominent feels are Depression/Sadness, Denial, and hopeful.
Yeah weird combination right? I'm very sad and depressed to be in this situation. I just can't stop thinking about how all I've ever wanted was to be a mom and the thought that it would be a problem never crossed my mind. Which puts me in denial that I will only have one baby girl. I refuse to believe that I will never have another baby. So, I am hopeful that since the contrast dye from the HSG was able to be pushed through my tubes that the fluid will also be able to escape and my ultrasound next month will show little to no fluid. Or maybe I'll even win the lottery and my ultrasound next month will be to make sure I don't have a tubal pregnancy rather than to check for fluid.
What frustrates me the most is that I can't seem to find much information about treatment online. I have found lots of definitions and causes, but not much about treatment. I was assuming that when my OB said in extreme cases the tubes are removed and then IVF is used, but I didn't realize that besides that there isn't much that can be done. I have found a few sites that reference a massage type treatment where they manipulate your tubes to free blockages, but I don't know if it works for fluid. I've also seen a few mentions of larposcopy to clear the tubes of blockages, but again I'm not sure that applies to fluid. I feel like my ultrasound on July 11th is forever away. I just keep picturing fluid flowing out of my tubes and praying that it clears up.
I have also been dealing with lots of pregnancy news lately. While I am over the moon for my brother who's second little girl will be arriving on the 22nd, and for my friend who has been TTC for about as long as I have, who just got her BFP this week, I'm admittedly completely jealous of both of them.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
The Good:
B's swimmers are just fine!
My labs! My thyroid is good, insulin and 2 hour glucose test were normal
The Bad:
My cholesterol. It's a little high, but nothing that needs medication or should prevent pregnancy.
The Ugly:
My tubes. Below is essentially what tubes should look like and what they do look like.
B's swimmers are just fine!
My labs! My thyroid is good, insulin and 2 hour glucose test were normal
The Bad:
My cholesterol. It's a little high, but nothing that needs medication or should prevent pregnancy.
The Ugly:
My tubes. Below is essentially what tubes should look like and what they do look like.
Turns out the dilation of my tubes is a bigger deal than the radiologist thought. My right tube is bad to severe and the left is just bad. The dilation is caused by fluid and this fluid has many bad effects on achieving a healthy pregnancy:
~ Egg may not be able to travel down the tube
~ Sperm may not be able to travel up the tube
~ If egg manages to fertilize egg there is a good chance of ectopic pregnancy
~ If fertilized egg does make it to the uterus if there is fluid in there it can prevent implantation.
~ If egg manages to implant there is still a higher chance of miscarriage.
Where we go from here:
As of right now if I do manage to get pregnant they want to see me right away to make sure that I don't have an ectopic pregnancy. In a month they want to do an ultrasound to see if the fluid is going away. If it is we will continue to monitor and try naturally. If not, we will consult with an RE. At this point and time I'm not sure what the course of action after that would be.
I can't even talk about my emotions of all this right now because I haven't yet figured out how I feel about this. On the one hand the OB thinks I have a good chance of it curing itself since we've achieved a normal pregnancy, on the other hand I feel hopeless. I need to do some research.
~ Egg may not be able to travel down the tube
~ Sperm may not be able to travel up the tube
~ If egg manages to fertilize egg there is a good chance of ectopic pregnancy
~ If fertilized egg does make it to the uterus if there is fluid in there it can prevent implantation.
~ If egg manages to implant there is still a higher chance of miscarriage.
Where we go from here:
As of right now if I do manage to get pregnant they want to see me right away to make sure that I don't have an ectopic pregnancy. In a month they want to do an ultrasound to see if the fluid is going away. If it is we will continue to monitor and try naturally. If not, we will consult with an RE. At this point and time I'm not sure what the course of action after that would be.
I can't even talk about my emotions of all this right now because I haven't yet figured out how I feel about this. On the one hand the OB thinks I have a good chance of it curing itself since we've achieved a normal pregnancy, on the other hand I feel hopeless. I need to do some research.
Monday, May 23, 2011
3rd Time's a Charm
Right???
Well it has to be. B told me this morning that if they didn't accept the sample this time, yes they rejected it a second time because I dropped it off too late, that we could forget about having it done.
I don't blame him really. Even I'm getting pissed off and I'm not the one providing the sample. But this morning the guy behind the desk (a different one from both other times) didn't understand why I insisted on staying there until he found the paperwork. I told him "This is my 3rd time trying to drop off this sample, I want to make sure you have all the paperwork and this gets tested." So he finds the lab slip and looks at me and says "I can understand why he's upset about this." Then he looks at the sample that was now a half hour old (you are supposed to have it there within a half hour, which I did, but all the waiting made it longer) and then he says "I will get this right back that and make sure it's tested." That was almost 2 hours ago now and I haven't gotten a phone call so I think we finally got the SA done.
OK, I'm sure you're sick of hearing about B'd woes. On to another topic that I never thought would make me so happy, pee and poop! Lillian did both in her potty yesterday! I was so proud of her. No accidents and she used the potty 3 times! I never thought I would be this excited about it! After she pooped she walked around saying "I pooped in the pot-ee" you know like the conga song, over and over. I love her pride!
Well it has to be. B told me this morning that if they didn't accept the sample this time, yes they rejected it a second time because I dropped it off too late, that we could forget about having it done.
I don't blame him really. Even I'm getting pissed off and I'm not the one providing the sample. But this morning the guy behind the desk (a different one from both other times) didn't understand why I insisted on staying there until he found the paperwork. I told him "This is my 3rd time trying to drop off this sample, I want to make sure you have all the paperwork and this gets tested." So he finds the lab slip and looks at me and says "I can understand why he's upset about this." Then he looks at the sample that was now a half hour old (you are supposed to have it there within a half hour, which I did, but all the waiting made it longer) and then he says "I will get this right back that and make sure it's tested." That was almost 2 hours ago now and I haven't gotten a phone call so I think we finally got the SA done.
OK, I'm sure you're sick of hearing about B'd woes. On to another topic that I never thought would make me so happy, pee and poop! Lillian did both in her potty yesterday! I was so proud of her. No accidents and she used the potty 3 times! I never thought I would be this excited about it! After she pooped she walked around saying "I pooped in the pot-ee" you know like the conga song, over and over. I love her pride!
Friday, May 20, 2011
I Survived!
I am very thankful to be the girl that can say "it was no big deal." Besides having to wait almost 2 hours for my blood work to come back (apparently only verifying that I wasn't pregnant, insert eye roll), everything went rather smoothly.
One thing not so cool, was the nurse having me get on the table and put my legs in the stirrups and then going to get the doctor who I probably had to wait 10 minutes for, in a freezing cold room! Yeah not a position I like to be in for no good reason! Anyway I felt very little pain or even discomfort until the end. It was also pretty need to be able to watch the screen and see the contrast going in and moving through my system. At the end I did get one very big cramp. Unofficial results were that everything looked fairly normal. The one bad cramp I experienced was because he had to add extra pressure to the contrast to get it through meaning there may have been a small blockage. He also said that the right tube is extremely dilated (Like 5 times bigger than the left), but it should not be a cause to prevent pregnancy.
So that was it. Now oddly enough all week I had been stressing because I was pretty sure that I O'd on Tuesday, based on several factors. Well after the HSG I decided to stay home, not because I was in pain or anything, but because my craft room needed some major cleaning and trying to do that with my "little helper" around is about impossible. As you can see she loves to help:
One thing not so cool, was the nurse having me get on the table and put my legs in the stirrups and then going to get the doctor who I probably had to wait 10 minutes for, in a freezing cold room! Yeah not a position I like to be in for no good reason! Anyway I felt very little pain or even discomfort until the end. It was also pretty need to be able to watch the screen and see the contrast going in and moving through my system. At the end I did get one very big cramp. Unofficial results were that everything looked fairly normal. The one bad cramp I experienced was because he had to add extra pressure to the contrast to get it through meaning there may have been a small blockage. He also said that the right tube is extremely dilated (Like 5 times bigger than the left), but it should not be a cause to prevent pregnancy.
So that was it. Now oddly enough all week I had been stressing because I was pretty sure that I O'd on Tuesday, based on several factors. Well after the HSG I decided to stay home, not because I was in pain or anything, but because my craft room needed some major cleaning and trying to do that with my "little helper" around is about impossible. As you can see she loves to help:
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
How Could I Forget???
If you actually read yesterday's blog and came back, thank you. I apologize for the rant, I normally try to leave those things out because, well, we all have days like that, it's nothing new.
So on to other rants... I was worried last week that I wasn't going to be able to get B to provide a sample for his Semen Analysis (SA). Well Friday morning he did it. I was so proud of him, I honestly can't imagine how hard that is to do without being in the mood and possibly thinking about why you are doing it. But then again I'm a woman.
Anyway, It takes me a half hour to get to work, thankfully the hospital (where the lab is) is just off my route. The sample has to be dropped off within an hour of collection for testing. I made it there with 20 minutes to spare. I go in to register and the lady asks for his insurance card and my heart sank, he carries his insurance card. Well luckily we just got new ones and I actually had his. So I go into the lab and give the tech the sample and he asked if B had been fasting. Again, my heart sank, umm no. Then he says or is this for fertility. Way to give me a heart attach buddy, yes it's for fertility. So I tell him when the sample was collected and how long he had abstained. The tech says "OK, you're all set I get this right back there." I was so happy it was over with I sent B a text saying we were good to go.
Now my work is about 5 minutes away, 10 if traffic is bad. I no more than get to my desk and sit down and my phone is ringing. It's the lab. The tech was calling to tell me the sample was rejected. What?! Why would a SA sample be rejected unless it was too old. Which it definitely wasn't. Why, because I didn't put a label on it and the tech didn't look for one! Then the following conversation
Me: well can't you just label it, I just gave you all the information!
Tech: No we aren't allowed to do that.
Me: Well can I come back and label it?
Tech: It won't do any good cause the sample will be too old to test.
Me: So now what?
Tech: I will set aside another sample cup for you and you can submit another sample. I'm so sorry, I should have checked. I called you because I didn't want to ruin his day.
Really?! You didn't want to ruin his day, how about me, now I'm going to have to hear it because YOU screwed up! I was livid, I'm still livid. I was certain that the tech would put a label on it with the information I gave and what testing needed to be done, just like they do with all the other lab work I've had done.
I can't believe I forgot to tell you all about that.
And tomorrow is my HSG. I don't know how I'm feeling about it, but I'm sure glad to know so many women who've had one. I think this is one of those things that you can't completely prepare for because all of the women I've talked to have had different experience. Ranging from "it's no big deal, just a little pressure" to "OMG from the moment it start to the end I was in toe curling pain." Obviously I'm hoping for "it's no big deal," but just in case I have my sister going with me and I've warned my boss I may not be in tomorrow.
It will all be worth it if we can get some answers!
So on to other rants... I was worried last week that I wasn't going to be able to get B to provide a sample for his Semen Analysis (SA). Well Friday morning he did it. I was so proud of him, I honestly can't imagine how hard that is to do without being in the mood and possibly thinking about why you are doing it. But then again I'm a woman.
Anyway, It takes me a half hour to get to work, thankfully the hospital (where the lab is) is just off my route. The sample has to be dropped off within an hour of collection for testing. I made it there with 20 minutes to spare. I go in to register and the lady asks for his insurance card and my heart sank, he carries his insurance card. Well luckily we just got new ones and I actually had his. So I go into the lab and give the tech the sample and he asked if B had been fasting. Again, my heart sank, umm no. Then he says or is this for fertility. Way to give me a heart attach buddy, yes it's for fertility. So I tell him when the sample was collected and how long he had abstained. The tech says "OK, you're all set I get this right back there." I was so happy it was over with I sent B a text saying we were good to go.
Now my work is about 5 minutes away, 10 if traffic is bad. I no more than get to my desk and sit down and my phone is ringing. It's the lab. The tech was calling to tell me the sample was rejected. What?! Why would a SA sample be rejected unless it was too old. Which it definitely wasn't. Why, because I didn't put a label on it and the tech didn't look for one! Then the following conversation
Me: well can't you just label it, I just gave you all the information!
Tech: No we aren't allowed to do that.
Me: Well can I come back and label it?
Tech: It won't do any good cause the sample will be too old to test.
Me: So now what?
Tech: I will set aside another sample cup for you and you can submit another sample. I'm so sorry, I should have checked. I called you because I didn't want to ruin his day.
Really?! You didn't want to ruin his day, how about me, now I'm going to have to hear it because YOU screwed up! I was livid, I'm still livid. I was certain that the tech would put a label on it with the information I gave and what testing needed to be done, just like they do with all the other lab work I've had done.
I can't believe I forgot to tell you all about that.
And tomorrow is my HSG. I don't know how I'm feeling about it, but I'm sure glad to know so many women who've had one. I think this is one of those things that you can't completely prepare for because all of the women I've talked to have had different experience. Ranging from "it's no big deal, just a little pressure" to "OMG from the moment it start to the end I was in toe curling pain." Obviously I'm hoping for "it's no big deal," but just in case I have my sister going with me and I've warned my boss I may not be in tomorrow.
It will all be worth it if we can get some answers!
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