The Talk

I had an follow up appointment with my ob/gyn yesterday. I had no idea what I was going in for...but found out it was simply to get 5 minutes to talk to the doctor about what "female, normal" means...or more specifically "46, xx", and to find out if I've stopped bleeding. That was it. And, I waited over a half an hour for that. Then I found out that they still hadn't faxed the results to CCRM, even though they promised to do so on Friday and then again on Monday and I had spent all day yesterday with my cell phone attached to my hand waiting for CCRM to call to discuss. I was annoyed. Anyway, even though he didn't receive the faxed results, Dr. G called around 4 pm.

The plan is set. I will wait until I get my period, which should come in a week or two. Then at CD 20 I start lupron and start stimming after I start my next period. He said it is fine to do now since we will definitely do CGH or microarray so that my uterus has time to recover. He hinted that I could take more time in between cycles, but to be honest, I just want to get it over with. I'd like to have the medicine/stimming and egg retrieval over so that I can have those few months while I am waiting for the results to relax and be "normal" without constantly worrying about the state of my eggs. Maybe I'll go crazy and allow myself to ingest some caffeine.

I asked him about whether or not my Hashimoto's could have caused a problem with the pregnancy and he said no b/c my thyroid levels were under such great control. I also had to ask him what he thought of the "female, normal" thing- b/c my ob/gyn said that there is almost no chance that the lab results were from my own tissue- and he explained that it could be the fetus but it definitely could have been my cells that responded and thus were tested. He called it an inconclusive result and said we could go right ahead with another plain old IVF cycle - or we could try some genetic testing. I am going for the testing. I just don't want to go through this again and will do whatever is in my power to try to prevent another m/c in the future. Oh -and even better- they are going to thaw my 2 frozen embryos and take a cell and then re-freeze so that they can send those in with the batch for testing. He said there is some risk that the thawing could cause them to fail....but, I guess, the thing is that if they are abnormal I don't want to put them in and if they were to fail to thaw properly then I wouldn't put them in anyway. I'd rather have strong embryos to transfer. So, we are going to go ahead with this too...so, so far, we have 2 to test.

So, it sounds crazy, but I am really excited to get this started. I hate just sitting and getting older and worrying about my fertility. I really want to know what is going on and what I can do to move forward. So, I still have at least 4 weeks of semi -normal (no shots). I've had some wine over the holidays but am stopping entirely when I get my period so that the month prior to IVF is entirely alcohol free (and I am already caffeine -free). In case some of you are wondering, I read an article a few months ago that said that even one alcoholic beverage the month before IVF can decrease your chances of success by a rather large percentage. However, I've been searching and searching for the article and I just can't find it. But, I'm being cautious.

I'm wondering if I am crazy to be rushing into this again. I seem to respond well right now and as long as my ovaries are well-rested, I should be fine, right? Emotionally, I can handle it...I mean, I still won't be transferring until sometime in May probably....so it is not like I am insisting on being pregnant immediately. The last time I had to have a D&C (when they couldn't find the fetus from my ectopic), I had to wait for the first 2 periods and then I did a flare cycle. So, this is kind of the same thing -2 cycles until I start stimming. It just seems sooner I guess b/c it is a long lupron protocol so I start shots sooner.

Anyway, add me to the list of CCRM-ers who are doing CGH or microarray! I think there are a bunch of us on here blogging now (at least 3 come to mind immediately). For the non-IFers who read my blog - sorry about the technical stuff - if you have questions email me or comment. I've been so bogged down in this terminology for the last 2 years I don't even know when I am speaking in tongues anymore!