Well, we have made it to the rocky mountains of our forever home in Montana!
I went to the doctor this past week and, overall, it went well. C was able to go with me so that was nice.
After going through the usual 30 minute explanation of my fertility issues to the nurse and then the doctor we finally were able to start talking about what was next. My doctor is very knowledgeable and she better explained everything to me. She was very in-depth and sympathetic all at the same time. I was very comfortable with her and I trusted her. This is obviously a huge deal.
She told me that all of the previous testing that I had done before was only good for one year. I couldn't believe it, well I guess I didn't want to believe it. I dreaded having to do the HSG test ever again. I immediately asked if that was something we needed to do. She said yes. I seriously had tears in my eyes knowing how painful the test was the first time, but promptly agreed knowing I'd do anything to move the process along to have a child.
I told her about C's testing and that my last doctor told us to not even waste our time with IUI and she agreed, given the circumstances. She then decided that we didn't have to do the HSG test if we were going to do IVF. (HSG is a test to see if the fallopian tubes are open). Doing IVF, I don't even need to use my fallopian tubes.
We talked about the procedure of IVF and weighed out all of the options. She told us that there is a facility in Billings, MT (3.5 hours away) that usually has a wait time involved or we could go to Seattle, WA (9 hours away) and have a better staff and not such a long wait time. We asked her honest opinion and she said that we should go to Seattle to do the procedure. She said they will extract my eggs and will make embryos by combining my eggs and his sperm. They will make more than one embryo and they can freeze some to use again in the future.
It's obviously going to be really expensive all around, but we truly think it will be worth it in the end. C is my biggest supporter who is really pushing this no matter the cost. If you know anything about us, I'm the one that is more reserved when it comes to spending money, so I have a hard time understanding the why behind all of this. It shouldn't be this difficult. Honestly, it just makes me angry that this is such the struggle that it is.
She sent me off to do testing at the lab and C another seamen analysis. She wanted to see how many eggs I have left in my lifetime and several other testing (6 vials of blood later!). She is doing the workup to get us ready for the folks in Seattle. We will go back for the results next week. Also, at that time, she will do an intra-uterine ultrasound to do the measurements of my uterus.
She told us in the meantime to continue monitoring my ovulation by using the OPKs (my fancy flashing smiley face pee sticks!).
We left and of course, I was in tears. The husband, bless his heart, doesn't know how to react to that, so he did his best and we went on.
I continued to monitor my ovulation and to my surprise my fancy sticks showed high fertility one day and then BOOM, peak fertility! I ovulated! I ovulated on day 13. This was pretty early compared to my last cycles, so we have a small bit of hope that maybe his [very few] swimmers might make it to an egg.
So, that week was pretty much a roller coaster ride. I keep telling my parents that we are taking up donations to go through with this IVF/trip to Seattle, but in actuality, I wouldn't ask a thing from anyone. Continue to pray for us and always remember no matter the struggle, you're never alone.
Until next time.
~Jess
