Alright so I said I would update the blog- here it is!
The next morning after I wrote my last blog I went into the New Hope Center SO excited to see what the follicles had grown to! They brought a new Dr on board with their clinic and she would be doing my ultrasound. Every ultrasound is like getting a pap smear (HATE THAT WORD for the record) except each cycle comes with 6-8 ultrasounds. So there I lay - feet up in the stirrups turning my head to the side...ya know that moment you want to drift into thinking about whatever your "happy" place is. The Bahama islands are my favorite. It's a bit less awkward with this Dr since it's a female.
Dr. Perez had done the previous ultrasound and seen some follicles as big as 10.5 so I was looking for that 16! Remember? She looks and looks and looks and had a puzzled look on her face. So I start thinking does this lady know what she's doing? My Dr can usually find the follicle sizes in just under a minute! It probably only took her 3-4 minutes but it felt like an eternity in that awkward position. My largest follicle, after taking the expensive $500 shots, had SHRUNK to a 9. "This is very unusual" she said. "They rarely go backwards like this." "Are they hard to see today?" I asked hoping maybe she just wasn't good at her job... and WHERE WAS MY DR! I wanted him so badly in that moment because I KNEW he knew what he was doing.
She said, "I'm gonna go look over your labs and I'll be right back." She comes back and says we need to run more labs today but it looks like in your labs from 2 days ago your estrogen dropped REALLY low. Lets do labs again today and if it really jumps up we might be able to salvage this cycle but sometimes cycles are duds and you just try again on the next cycle."
I was devastated. I knew deep down she knew what she was talking about and that the New Hope Center wouldn't bring someone in who wasn't one of the best. She contacted Dr. Perez to see what he wanted to do. (He wasn't in the office because they were preparing to move locations over that couple day period) I asked her if reducing caloric intake and lots of exercise could harm estrogen levels and she said well not mild workouts but athletic workouts maybe could. I told her how I had lost 14 lbs in almost 3 weeks and her jaw dropped. She said "I think that could definitely have something to do with it." I went to go to more labs and usually my lab tech and I talk about hair or the weather or in this case the holidays coming up and I auto responsed with a chuckle at what she said even though I was in total lala land-shock and had NO idea what she had just said. The tears just started flowing down my cheeks. She said "Sweetheart are you ok?" I nodded "I'll be fine...it's just a roller coaster of emotions sometimes ya know?" She patted me on my back on the way out and told me everything would be just fine. As I checked out the tears just kept coming! I couldn't stop! The girls know me so well there now and the one girl at the checkout desk just jumped out of her chair...walked around to the other side of the window and just hugged me, held me and let me cry. She said "We're here for you through it all. Happiness. Sadness. Tears. Anything we can do or if you just need to talk....we're here just call!"
There was no next appt. to schedule. I just had to wait for results of the labs.
Later that day the Dr called me back with results. The estrogen levels were a little higher but nothing significant but Dr. Perez has seen a few people who experienced the medicine take a late effect working so he wanted to see me back in a week to see if they got bigger.
I was sad for a day or two and then it was time to focus on Christmas! I scheduled the appt. for today (Thursday) and didn't workout this whole week or watch what I was eating. I wanted to rest my body and give it whatever it needed to do it's job.
Brandon and I went in this morning at 11 and I was sure she would tell me this was a dud cycle and we would just need to try again on the next go around. So here we went again. Up in the stirrups and looking into the Bahama beaches sippin on Mai Tai's. She said, "Oh, It looks like the lining has gotten thicker...that's good. Lets check the right ovary....we have a 17.7!!! Where were you the other day buddy! Just wanted to enjoy Christmas I suppose and here's a 16 too!" Oh what a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!! If I could truly put into words with you how excited I was in that moment you would only know half of the joy I really felt! There were no large follicles on the left ovary but we have 2 on the right! So we scheduled an appt. for Saturday! Tomorrow I take a home ovulation predictor test. If it comes up positive then my body has triggered itself to ovulate and Saturday we do an IUI. If it comes up negative then Saturday becomes an ultrasound appt. and as long as the follicles are at a 20 (she wants to make sure this egg is READY) we will do the trigger shot to tell my body to ovulate and about 36 hours later do the IUI. As Brandon and I left the Dr's office I just shrieked and did my little happy dance over and over...even in the car I would shriek- clap my hands and do my happy dance....SOOOO HAPPY!!!!
(An IUI is Artificial Insemination- since the last 2 cycles we did felt so straining on our marriage both emotionally and physically we decided to switch to IUI's from here on out. They are more expensive however they also come with a better success rate. Here's how it works: Brandon goes in the morning to leave his "sample" and they take the sperm and look closely at them....they weed out any that are funny shaped or swim slow/different than they should. This takes about 2 hours. Then they put the best sperm in a syringe that instead of a needle its a tube they insert into the uterus and then I lay there for 30 minutes)
After the IUI we wait 2 weeks for the pregnancy labs! Now...I know this gives you all a lot of insight into where we're at and we always appreciate prayers, good thoughts, good vibes, good energy, fingers crossed...whatever you've got we'll take it! We want to keep it to ourselves for a little while if/when we find out. Praying for 3rd times a charm but in any event...we probably won't post good or bad news for a while so this will be the last infertility post for now.
Blessings to you and yours through this wonderful holiday season. May the peace of God be over your families and may this new year bring blessings, joy, peace, freedom and happiness.
Blessings,
Rose Simpkins
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