The rest of the story

That lovely instrument in the photo above is the cathedar that is used for IUI (intra-uterine insemination). I'll explain more about IUI later. I had acupuncture today so I'm feeling very zen and relaxed as I write this - of course the glass of wine that I'm sipping can't hurt either!

Ok, so here's what happened after the miscarriage. It took about 50 days for AF to show after my D&C. This takes a long time because all the HCG had to leave my system and mine was fairly high. We weren't able to "try" that cycle. I went for my annual exam at the beginning of my next cycle and my OB said that I was clear to try again. We both agreed that I should try for a couple cycles without medication because the pregnancy might have "reset" my body. Those first two cycles were both kinda long - 35 days so I asked for Clomid again. We did one round which failed and then I took a break just because. Sometime during this cycle (this is January) I realized that I was sick of messing around and wanted to move onto a RE (Reproductive Endocronologist), aka fertility specialist. I picked an RE who is supposed to be one of the best in the nation.

At our first meeting with the RE, he encouraged me to do a cycle of Clomid that would be fully monitored, to see how my follicles are growing, how thick my lining is and we would "trigger" when my follicles are measuring a mature size, which means I get a shot to make me ovulate all the mature follicles. I had several visits with Steve, the sonographer, and the "probe" that cycle (well on our way to becoming oh so close friends), and I had 3 mature follicles - how exciting! Here's a picture of what an ovary looks like with lots of follicles. This one looks like it has about 4 mature follies. We had to do a post-coital test that cycle to see if IUI is necessary, which basically is a test to see if my body and Brad's sperm are compatible or not - well they are, we passed with flying colors and I even got to look at the spermies under the microscope which was really cool! They deterimined that because our PC test was so good that we didn't need IUI. That cycle failed, of course. So, onto another round of Clomid. This time, I decided I wanted to maximize our chances and try IUI. I had 4 mature follies - woo hoo! Basically what this means is I bring the "sample" in a cup that I have to hold in my shirt on the drive there to keep it body temp and deliver it to the nurse for washing first thing in the morning. Washing basically eliminates any dud sperm and we're left with only the best. We go back a couple hours later for IUI which involves sticking that lovely cathedar pictured above through my cervix and inserting the sperm directly into my uterus - all for the bargain price of $400! The sperm sample was GREAT! The nurse was all excited and said that we would "for sure" get pregnant this time. I was a bit worried about the 4 follies thing and multiples, but all convinced me not to worry. Obviously I had nothing to be worried about. We found out that the cycle failed while on our Carribean cruise in April, sigh.

So, at my baseline ultrasound after that failed cycle, I had a cyst on my ovary - dang it!! That means that you can't start medication because the cyst would suck up all the meds and only grow larger. A cyst is normally a follicle that didn't ovulate and for some reason just continues to hang around. While waiting around, I decided to give acupuncture a try. I had read so many great things about it helping with infertility and I figured even if it doesn't make me pregnant, if it helps me relax, then I'm on board! I LOVED acupuncture from the beginning. It is so relaxing and the needles don't hurt at all. She did give me this NASTY herbal tea to drink every day which I really didn't enjoy at the beginning but now kind of enjoy. If I add a crap load of honey to it. I stuck with weekly acu appts for several months but eventually gave it up when the Dr's appts became much more numerous making it difficult to squeeze in acu as well. The next cycle, we had a trip planned to San Francisco and the wine country so we had to sit out from meds again because I couldn't have made my probe appointments. Again neither of these "natural" cycles worked. When AF arrived I decided that I was ready to move on to injectibles. This involves giving myself shots in the belly everyday, almost daily visits with the probe, trigger shot when I'm "ripe" and normally IUI. The success rate is higher than with Clomid. I went for my baseline u/s and ARGH!! I had made a freaking cyst on my own. I was tired of waiting so I asked for the BCP (the pill) to make my cycle go by quicker.

My first inject cycle started out fine. Oh yeah, I asked for another HSG because I was curious if maybe the D&C had caused scar tissue to grow and maybe block my tubes. I had that at the beginning of the cycle and it was a completely different experience than the first one. First, the radiologist couldn't get the cathedar in, and that process took about 15 min which was not very enjoyable. Then the dye hurt so excruciatingly bad that I almost passed out on the table. Everything still looked fine so I was hopeful. The shots weren't too bad at all because the needles are really tiny and I was shocked to find out that our insurance covers injectible meds!! That is huge because they are actual hormones and normally cost several hundred dollars. I went for my first u/s to check my progress and my ovaries were going crazy - I had like 8 potential mature follicles, so I freaked out and they reduced my dose. Well, apparently we reduced the dose too much because everything came to a screeching halt and I wound up with only one measley follicle. We decided that it wasn't worth spending $400 on IUI for that which turned out to be a good decision because my wonderful hubby surprised me with a huge surprise party for my 30th birthday that weekend!!! I was really down about turning 30 and not only not having my baby but also not even being pregnant, so I repeatedly told him that I did not want a big deal made about it, but I must say, I so appreciate all that he went through. Our entire family was there and about 20 of our friends!! Anyway, the IUI would have fallen on that Sunday morning (yes RE offices are open 7 days a week) which would not have been very convenient with the whole fam there. Well, we tried the "old fashioned" way and of course it didn't work.

Next cycle - no cysts so off we go with more shots. This cycle was much better, but again, we were in danger of overstimming so we triggered early so only 2 follicles would ovulate. We did IUI this time, the sample was great but nada. So, my RE recommended that we do a lap (laparascopic surgery) and hysteroscopy to take a look at my insides to see if I have endometriosis or tubal issues, and he also took a look inside my uterus to see if there was anything unusual in there. I scheduled that surgery for Friday, Sept 22, and had to go on the BCP until then. My mom came for the surgery which was very nice! It was comforting to have her here with me. Anyway, he found a tiny bit of endo which he removed, found that my tubes are coiled like a telephone cord which he said wasn't great but wasn't horrible and I had a small polyp in my uterus which he removed. Things were overall not too bad and we were given the green light to start trying again as soon as AF arrived. I did get pictures of my insides which is kinda cool! The surgery wasn't too bad at all. I have 2 tiny incisions, one in my belly button and one very low on my abdomen. It was just outpatient surgery and I didn't even tell my boss about it. I would have gone back to work on that Monday but I wound up getting sick.

AF arrived on Oct 2, and I started the injects. This time I responded too well again and had 8 potential mature follies even when backing down on the dose and so my Dr recommended that we cancel the cycle all together - don't trigger don't do anything :(. Well, I never ovulated on my own and I bled in about a week, and of course had ovaries full of cysts. It's onto yet ANOTHER round of BCP. It's so ironic to take BCP when you are desperately trying to get pregnant...

When I calculated when AF would arrive, I figured out that Thanksgiving and Christmas would interfere with any probe appts so I decided that we should just take a break over the holidays for my sanity. I did try an herbal remedy called Fertility Blend which really did help me ovulate earlier but neither cycle worked. Time to go back to the RE. We began our final inject/IUI cycle on Jan 17. I had 3 mature follicles - yay!! IUI appeared to be great and we had so much hope for the cycle!! We knew that we were going to move onto IVF if this didn't work based on the recommendation of both my Dr and his partner, so there was a lot of pressure.

Well, it didn't work :(. So, it's onto IVF. I went in for my baseline u/s and found that I had 3 huge cysts (yet again) so I am currently in the midst of a round of BCP. I also started back up with acupuncture to help with stress relief and to maximize our chances of success. When AF arrives, I will go back to see if the cysts are gone and if they are, then I start ANOTHER round of BCP for suppression of my ovaries, I will be giving myself Lupron shots for 2 weeks to further suppress my ovaries, and then I will start stimming which involves more shots. We are hoping that my egg retrieval will be mid to late April. My RE has a 67% pregancy rate per embryo transfer for women under 35. That's pretty high when compared to the national average but that is not take home baby rate as there is just as much, if not more, chance of m/c with IVF as with a "natural" pregancy. That's all for now - I will explain the actual IVF process on another day...