Sunday, May 4, 2008

Still Infertile but Finally Losing Weight

Wow, how time flies. QT finally started walking on his own at 18 months and now he's all over the place all the time. He's turned into such a little boy and although I am overjoyed watching him evolve into a real little person I ache for a little baby again.

Let's catch up and I'll start with the part of my life that is actually somewhat successful right now. I've been eating better and have FINALLY gotten back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm still battling my mindless eating. My first week went pretty well but each week since has had more and more slip-ups. It's hard to go out to eat and not over do it or it's hard to not eat the chips once they make their way into they house. Just tonight I gave in to a craving for chips and salsa. Despite these falls, I'm still proud of the weight I have lost and I resolve to do better starting now.

I got serious about losing weight because we will be starting our first ivf cycle this month. Ugh, did I really just say that? Yes, we are going to ivf. The new RE did a whole bunch of tests. I passed the Clomid challenge test with flying colors. The hsg showed totally open tubes. The husband's sperm analysis came back with multiple problems. Low count, low motility and zero normally shaped sperm. We were both pretty shocked given how easily I got pregnant with QT. The husband saw a urologist who couldn't give us any explanation for why his numbers were so bad and how I got pregnant the first time around.

Here's where things started going wrong with the new RE that I had such high hopes for. First, he questioned whether I was being honest about having been trying for a year. Second, he suggested that we just keep trying on our own for another year. Third, when I pointed out that I wouldn't be there talking with him if I just wanted to try for another year with no help, he suggested we do three iui's. Okay, I thought now we're getting somewhere. So, I took clomid for the 7th time and had an iui. I had two decent sized follicles, good uterine lining, and my husband's count wasn't great but wasn't horrible. No success. I assumed we'd move on to injectables but the RE wanted to do another cycle with clomid and an iui. So, I took clomid for the 8th time and had an iui. I had two decent sized follicles, good uterine lining and my husband's count was quite a bit higher. No success. While the RE was doing the iui I asked him what the next step would be and he said that we should try the clomid a third time. Third time? It would actually be my 9th round. When I said that to him he said that I'd only done two. Yea, two with him but six previous with my ob/gyn. He actually seemed shocked and had to go look at my records to confirm that I was telling the truth. We had discussed my history at my consultation and he had all of my medical records so I was really taken aback that he making recommendations without having any clue what we had already tried. He then said that I didn't need anymore clomid. What I need, according to him, was ivf and then he added "which I've been recommending all along." I almost lifted my leg out of the stir-ups to kick him upside the head. Since when had he even brought up ivf to me? It certainly wasn't during the just keep trying for another year speech. And so that is why I decided to get a new, new RE.

The new, new RE is wonderful and is with a clinic with a very high success rate. He did an antral follicle count which came back a tad low at 10. That made him question my clomid challenge test results and so he re-tested my fsh and it came back at 9.5. Anything under 10 is considered normal but the higher number makes my follicle count make more sense. He also performed a hysteroscopy because they suspected a polyp and/or fibroid. Turns out I have both but neither are big enough or in a place that would prevent me from getting pregnant. Now we're just waiting for my next cycle to start and we're on our way to ivf. My advanced maternal age coupled with my husband's sperm issues give us about a 35% of getting pregnant. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time.

I think we're caught up and so I'm off to catch up on some reading.

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