Today I had my plans all neatly laid out. Get an ultrasound at 7:45 and if there was a follicle big enough get the Hcg injection at 9 when the doctor got in. I had to go so early because I needed to be at work at 11 am and I work an hour away from the doctor's office.
Yesterday the nurse calls me to tell me the Hcg is on back order (I'm sure the Hcg diet has something to do with this!) and that if I still wanted it I would have to go to the compound pharmacy in the morning at 8 am, but we couldn't move my ultrasound because the technician was all booked up for the morning. Which means I had to go downtown, get the ultrasound, leave and go to the compound pharmacy, go back downtown and then drive an hour to work. Ok, not ideal, but I could deal with this.
The nurse told me to be there at 7:30. When I get there, the tech. wasn't even there! So I end up waiting til 8:05 to go back into her room. She does the ultrasound and the nurses look at it (the doc wasn't there yet) and tell me it looks good, go get the Hcg.
When I get back the nurses are all ready to shoot me up, but I told them I needed to speak with the doc first. He sits down and tells me everything looks good and there is a big follicle on the right ovary. So I ask him, how big is it? He tells me 8mm. I told him that wasn't big enough! It is supposed to be around 20mm- 18mm at the least. Then he is like, yeah you are right that's not big enough. We should wait until Friday and do another ultrasound to see if it gets bigger. Hold up- one minute ago you were telling me that everything was fine and were all ready to shoot me up with Hcg? Wtf is going on?
Then I told him that I have been having major discomfort with bowel movements and I think that the endometriosis has gotten pretty bad on my bowels. Then he started to get concerned and said, "Gotta be honest with you, this is not good." He says he is going to call the Nashville Fertility Center and consult with one of their doctors and probably refer me to NFC to get treatment. He said that I probably wasn't going to ovulate this month and that I needed different drugs than those he works with. He says that this RE (reproductive endocrinologist) will most likely want me to go on Lupron before beginning any other treatments. Exactly what I did not want to happen. The doc said he would speak with the RE and get back to me today and that we wouldn't be doing the ultrasound on Friday.
I left with the weight of the world on my shoulders. I felt like I wasn't going to ovulate this month and that next month we were going to go to NFC where they would put me on Lupron before doing anything else because of the risk to my bowels. Which would mean a 6 month break. The thought of taking a break didn't make me sad, it just left me feeling helpless.
Jason and I talked about the doctors visits and we both agreed- my doctor doesn't know what the hell he is doing. I am the one who suggested the Hcg last month and then this month I suggested that we do an ultrasound to a) make sure the follicle is a good enough size and b) take the injection at the best possible time. Shouldn't my doctor be leading my treatment? Does he even deal with infertility? Why in the world hasn't he referred me to someone else before now if this is outside of the scope he is comfortable with?
Around noon the doctor called me back and said he spoke to the doc at NFC and he is going to review all my charts. He tells me to schedule an ultrasound for Friday to see if the follicle grew at all and he transfers me to the front desk. So while I am speaking to the receptionist he burst on the phone and is says, "I am SO SORRY! You have a good follicle! You have one that is 25 mm. I misread it. It said 2.5 cm and I thought it was mm. Can you come back to get the Hcg?" Stunned and speechless, I could not say anything. Are you serious?
Thankfully my work appts for the day got screwed up, so I wasn't an hour away. I went to the doc for the third time today where he apologized profusely. I had gotten 2 negative opk's that morning, so I had stuck a test in my purse before I left and peed on it before they gave me the injection. The Hcg would give me a positive opk and I wanted to see if I was having the surge before the injection and what do you know...I got a smiley face! It turns out my injection was being done at a great time. The nurse gave me to the two large injections (which hurts like a motha) and we called it a day. I'm pretty emotionally tapped out at this point. I am glad that it turned out I have a good follicle but did it really need to be that dramatic? Phew.
I wish you luck. I have some questions for you. I am having horrible periods. I started three days ago and the first two days were crazy. I had to change my pad every ten minutes. So much blood and the clots resembled a miscarriage. The cramps were insane. I can not be having miscarriages every other month. Does this sound like endo? Three months ago when I went to the hospital for bleeding the told me I have cysts. I am seriously ready for a hysterectomy.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! I think I would have killed your doctor!! I'm glad he at least figured it out before it was too late for the HCG! When he says that NFC would want you on Lupron first does he mean to down regulate you before stims or actually a full course of Lupron to treat the endo? If that is the case, make sure you do a lot of research on your own first! Also there is a new suppliment/herb out called Pycnogenol that is supposed to be incredible and in blind studies has been even more effective than Lupron for endo, and you can keep TTC while on it! Email me if you want me to send you the info lindsey(dot)L(dot)hunter(at)gmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteSugar- I would definitely talk to your ob-gyn. It sounds like something is not right. I had the same symptoms with my period and I was (am) in pain at other times, especially during intercourse. I am not too familiar with PCOS, but you should do some research on that and endo and present it to your doctor if you think you have those symptoms. My mom told me recently that Grandmom had a hysterectomy when my mom was young.
ReplyDeleteLindsey- I about killed him! I think that they would want me to go on Lupron to treat the endo. They recommended it after my lap but I did not want to go down that route! Is Pycnogenol the same as Pine Bark? I believe SIF recommended that to me, but at the time I was all about trying to control the endo with diet. Obviously, it's not working for me so I am going to look into the Pycnogenol. Thanks for the advise!