Wow! What a weekend... well, what a Monday!
Yesterday I had my appointment up in Dallas to see if I qualify for the IVF study there. My mom came with me because Patrick couldn't get out of work. We drove up Sunday and stayed with my sister, who lives about 20 minutes from the clinic and works for a gynecologist not even a mile from the clinic. Sunday night I had a hard time sleeping because I was so excited for my appointment and because I had started my period earlier that day and my cramps were making me very uncomfortable.
Monday morning we had breakfast with my sister and then made our way to the doctor. As soon as we got there and checked in, a couple came out of the back holding sonogram pictures and grinning from ear to ear. As they went to the window to check out, she told the receptionist, "Its twins! He just told us we're having twins!" Turns out she was seeing the same doctor that I was going to see. I think this is a good omen! ;)
Soon the nurse called me back and led me to the doctor's office. He sat me down and asked me why I was there, when my last cycle was, what my history was, what my family history was, etc. I told him I had started the day before, outlined everything Patrick and I had been through, went over my family history, told him about what tests we had done and what they had found. He seemed pleased that I knew so much, had prepared so well, and was doing my best to stay healthy.
When we had gone over everything, he considered me for a moment, then said, "I normally do not examine patients the same day as the consult, but I think we are going to fast track you, and since you are on day two of your cycle, the timing is perfect."
He went to get the nurse, told her to get me set up in a room, and told her I was going to get a full workup and blood work panel that day. The ultrasound looked perfect (except for that blasted tube on the left, which I showed him where it always looks like it separates and they always think its a cyst or follicle) and he took measurements of my ovaries, uterus, cervix, the left tube, and a quick count of resting follicles.
The only thing that he found that he didn't like was an irregular heartbeat. He told me he was an internist before he became an RE and that he thinks I have mitral valve prolapse and a slight arrhythmia that he wants me to clear with my GP here. He said its probably nothing, but he wants it checked out before ER.
After the examination, he said everything looked great and that he wanted me to start on BCP right away, and come back next Monday for a HSG and pre-Lupron blood work and ultrasound.
WTF, really? Already?
The doctor said that normally they do the testing over two cycles before starting IVF prep and meds, which would have put me into May for IVF, but since I have already done a lot of the tests, and my cycle matched up so perfectly, he is going to condense it down to one cycle for me, putting my ER sometime in March!!!
I then had to give up about 7 vials of blood... which I had to call my mom back for to distract me... to check everything, they handed me a prescription for BCP, and the doctor told me he was very excited to work with me.
At check out, they made my appointment for next Monday to have the HSG and hopefully the IVF orientation, gave me an information packet for the HSG, another packet for IVF, and a run-down of costs. I will have to talk to the financial director to go over my exact costs with the study and getting most of my monitoring done here in Houston, but so far we are looking at a substantial cost reduction.
Patrick will be coming with me this time and will likely have to do another semen analysis since it has been a year since his last one and the doctor wants to make sure "nothing has changed". He's not very excited about that part, but we are beyond excited about everything else!
My mom told me that while she was in the waiting room, a woman came in that was driving all the way from Brownsville, who told her that the clinic was fantastic. She told my mom that if they have amazing success rates and if they had a higher volume like the bigger clinics, they would be #3 in the nation.
I have a very good feeling about this, now. All my fears and uncertainty about what our next course of action needs to be has gone away. It makes me soooooo excited to think that I have a very good chance of being pregnant by April! God is good.
Thank you, God, for leading me to this point and giving me this chance. Please be with us as we take this next step.
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