A minor detour

Thought I would give you and update on our doctor visit from yesterday.  Well you can add not producing follicles to my list of reasons why we haven't become pregnant yet!  At this point its almost humorous what my body is or isn't doing to allow us to start a family.  It wasn't a big blow this time when we were told here is another hoop you are going to have to jump through.  I didn't cry or deem yesterday as a bad day.  I just think I have the expectation that there will be something wrong ( I know, I know that isn't me trying to be positive but its the truth!) at each doctor visit.

I guess I should explain what all went down at this visit.  I had a scan done again on both of my ovaries and uterus.  My uterus looked great and my walls were thick and healthy.  My ovaries didn't have any cysts or abnormal growths on them which was great to hear.  But the one thing that was missing was the growth of my follicles.  I guess I had two follicles that she saw last Friday and was hoping to see some improvement in them by Monday.  Sadly they hadn't changed at all.

So our new game plan is to start taking some fertility meds to see if I can get my body to stimulate proper follicle growth.  I am being put on the lowest dosage with the thought of my history of cysts.  I don't have the name of the medication in front of me at the moment but next month when I start taking it I will write about it for you all.  I didn't have any luck with Clomid so they aren't making me take that again.  I will be getting scans this time to make sure I am not developing cysts!!

Here is our game plan for next month:

-Start medication in hopes that it stimulates follicle growth
-On day 11 get a scan to see if there are any changes from last month
-If day 11 doesn't look good I will come back in on day 13 for a scan
-If I have great follicle growth then we will start the IUI process this month (as in February)
-If there is no change in follicle growth from last month (January) then we will up the dosage as long as there are no signs of cyst growth
-Start the same process over in March

We will do this cycle for 3 months.  We did not discuss what the next step would be if we didn't achieve anything during those months.  I am hoping that we wont need to discuss that at all.  This month is pretty much a waste but our tech told us we can still try to time our intercourse if we want.  But it is very unlikely for us to become pregnant this month according to my scans. That is all the info I have for now so like always I will keep you all up to date with my posts.

-Kate

The Follicle Search

So we had our doctor visit on Friday and we did our scan on my ovaries and uterus.  Unfortunately there was nothing to see during the scan.  We knew that there might be a chance of this because of the day of my cycle I was on.  I needed the scan on day 9 or 10 and of course on Friday it was day 8 of my cycle.  With this in mind we scheduled a 2nd appointment for Monday just incase the tech couldn't see what they were looking for.

Which leads to the question: What are they looking for during these scans??  The tech and doctor are looking for follicle growth.  When I think follicle I think hair and so I was envisioning a hair or line in or around my fallopian tube.  Yeah not so much!  I still don't really understand what I am looking for (thank goodness the tech does!) even after googling ultrasound pictures.  Here is a link that explains what follicle growth is and why its important. http://www.advancedfertility.com/anovulat.htm
I need to add that on this site it talks about PCOS and I DO NOT have that! It just shows the difference between what it looks like when you have healthy follicle growth and what it looks like when it does not happen.

At this point we do not know if I am having any issues with my follicle growth or not.  Dr. Swanson just wants to cross that off the list of reasons why we still haven't become pregnant yet.  But if that is the issue he can prescribe some medication to help with developing better follicle growth.

Best case scenario for Monday is they see follicle growth and its proper length they will prescribe a trigger shot for me to pick up at the pharmacy.  Depending on the scan I will be instructed to take the shot either on Monday or Tuesday.  I will have to give myself a shot in my belly (not too pumped for this one!).  The point of the trigger shot is to allow me to ovulate earlier or on time.  Why is time such a big deal?  Well Preston leaves for Key West for two weeks right around the time that I will ovulate.  And there is no sense in wasting this month if things are looking up for us.  Here is some more info on what a trigger shot is:http://www.justmommies.com/getting-pregnant/fertility-medications-and-natural-supplements/hcg-trigger-shot

I will update you all again next week what happened at our visit on Monday.

-Kate

Keeping Positive!

We had our doctor visit yesterday and it wasn't a bad visit but it wasn't an outstanding visit either.  I was going in with the thought that we could get the ball rolling for IUI.  Preston and I are both very frustrated and ready for a break.  I have all my info gathered for the appointment and pictures taken of all medications we have at the house for IUI (we have the medicine at our house from when we thought we were going to start IUI last spring).  I figured it would be helpful with our appointment if I was able to tell and show him the meds we already have.

So when I started giving out the info about the cycles since I have had since last time we saw Dr. Swanson.  He was very concerned that my cycles have been out of whack.  The 1st cycle after my surgery was 1 week early because of the medication I was on right after the surgery.  Then cycle number 2 was 22 days long.  And cycle number 3 was 28 days and we are still not sure what this cycle holds for us.  He wants to make sure everything is working correctly and there isn't another underlying issue that we have not seen until now.  So we hare currently having a waiting game right now to see if and when my cycle will start.  Right now it is looking like I will be having a regular 28 day cycle.  When my cycle does start this month I am supposed to call the doctor's office to set up and ultrasound appointment.  Dr. Swanson wants to make sure my eggs are looking good and that my uterus lining is thick.  If he sees any issues he will more than likely have me start taking fertility medicine again to help with any issues.

So now the game plan is to see what the ultrasound shows and if I have 3 successful cycles (meaning eggs and uterus looks good on top of a normal 28 day cycle) and we are unsuccessfully able to become pregnant then we will start IUI.  

Also we found out some interesting information about what we have been doing wrong when it comes to of ovulation plan.  We have always been told we are to have intercourse every other day until I have ovulated.  From what we understood was the reasoning behind this was to make sure the sperm count would be good and the volume would be good as well.  Dr. Swanson basically told us that holds no real truth.  He said anytime we have intercourse before I ovulate is just practice.  The only two days that really matter are the day of ovulation and the day after.  So we will be sticking to that plan from now on.

I also have been trying to keep more positive thoughts this month.  One of our new girls at work and I have spoken about why its really important to stay positive and not negative.  Basically it was broken down to me the more negative I am about my situation the more stress I am causing on myself.  I have never thought of how a negative attitude could cause stress on my body.  So I have really made sure that I let things roll off me and not dwell on things.

-Kate