Since Pete had to leave town this morning for work, we had to change our appointment with Dr. T today to a phone call rather than a visit.
First, let me apologize for my slight temper tantrum here on Monday. It is so frustrating when you want to be pregnant and, month after month, aren't.
Dr. T is not a bad doctor. And I feel badly that I implied that he doesn't know what he's doing. He has a much less invasive approach than a surgeon, obviously, so looking at the situation now I think it's not surprising that they would disagree.
Anyway, Dr. T called me this afternoon. We spoke at length about the visit with Dr. H- thankfully these two doctors do communicate through written reports on their patients. Dr. T still feels that I fit the profile, "to a 't' ", of someone with Endometriosis, and still thinks that I may not be ovulating regularly.
Dr. H said I was because my cycles are pretty regular- but he did say that I'm not necessarily ovulating a "mature egg". Dr. T says he doesn't think I'm ovulating regularly. I have pain near the area of the ovaries on the left side during a cycle every now and then, but never pain on the right side. Apparently this pain helps in determining that you are ovulating on that particular side- and a woman's body is supposed to switch off, so to speak, on which side she ovulates from every cycle or so. Because of this, Dr. T says there is even more reason to think that I am probably not ovulating as I should.
I asked Dr. T specifically what we should do at this point, and he said to go ahead with the tests Dr. H suggested, and we'll go from there when we get the results back.
I admitted to Dr. T that my cycle this month has been very different from what we had begun to see (I was beginning to "normalize" a bit), I think due to the stress of possible ovarian surgery looming over my head. He said we can put off worrying about that for a bit, until we get this next leg of the journey taken care of. I got the impression, if we still aren't pregnant in a couple months after Dr. H's tests, that Dr. T is going to suggest us going to Omaha or Sioux Falls for a series of (very expensive unfortunately) daily ultrasounds so the doctors can actually "watch" my ovaries work during the time in my cycle I should be ovulating. According to him, it's the only way (test-wise) to determine if I'm ovulating the way I need to in order to get pregnant or not. Otherwise it's, "try this medicine for awhile, deal with whatever side effects it has attached to it, hmmm- didn't work?, ok try this one for awhile...", and so on until I either get pregnant after a while ("oh, we found the right medicine to make you ovulate I guess!") or still remain very un-pregnant ("hmm, I guess we're going to have to resort to something more drastic than medication").
I did appreciate that Dr. T said not to "stress over us doctors fighting", and to focus on keeping myself very calm and very stress free. I guess I should take advantage of that, huh? Probably won't be told to just sit around like a Victorian lady at any other point in my life, now will I?
Dr. T is honest with us, to his credit, and was trained by the top non-invasive (meaning not jumping to drastic measures like Clomid or IVF right away) infertility practitioner in the US- Dr. Hilgers in Omaha. So, like I said before, my Monday rant was uncalled for, and was the result of a very frustrated emotional outburst. I'm prone to those these days. Ask anyone who's delt with infertility and I think you'll get the same answer- it's a non stop roller coaster ride, with no possible way to get off (unless you suddenly decide, "nah" on the whole having kids thing), and so those going through it are pretty much at a disadvantage, shall we say, at "keeping it together" and on a stable course emotionally. Anyway, I do apologize.
So, for now, we go with what Dr. H recommended, and meet again with Dr. T after the results are in. And, I sit back, try to think only happy thoughts, and try to keep myself from any type of stress so that I can have normal cycles again, so that I can hopefully ovulate as I should, and so we can hopefully get pregnant, and so that if we still aren't getting pregnant my very stress free normal cycle can be watched on an ultrasound monitor to determine if my eggs are mature or are even coming out at all. (sorry if you find that crude.)
And in the mean time, our social worker for our adoption quit, and we have still heard nothing in regards to a birthmom even looking at us.
Sigh.
After a good cry I'm going to sit right here, in my orange 1970's rocking chair, next to the heat vent because it's freezing out, and knit a scarf. Don't come over unless you're bringing chocolate. (weak grin)
First, let me apologize for my slight temper tantrum here on Monday. It is so frustrating when you want to be pregnant and, month after month, aren't.
Dr. T is not a bad doctor. And I feel badly that I implied that he doesn't know what he's doing. He has a much less invasive approach than a surgeon, obviously, so looking at the situation now I think it's not surprising that they would disagree.
Anyway, Dr. T called me this afternoon. We spoke at length about the visit with Dr. H- thankfully these two doctors do communicate through written reports on their patients. Dr. T still feels that I fit the profile, "to a 't' ", of someone with Endometriosis, and still thinks that I may not be ovulating regularly.
Dr. H said I was because my cycles are pretty regular- but he did say that I'm not necessarily ovulating a "mature egg". Dr. T says he doesn't think I'm ovulating regularly. I have pain near the area of the ovaries on the left side during a cycle every now and then, but never pain on the right side. Apparently this pain helps in determining that you are ovulating on that particular side- and a woman's body is supposed to switch off, so to speak, on which side she ovulates from every cycle or so. Because of this, Dr. T says there is even more reason to think that I am probably not ovulating as I should.
I asked Dr. T specifically what we should do at this point, and he said to go ahead with the tests Dr. H suggested, and we'll go from there when we get the results back.
I admitted to Dr. T that my cycle this month has been very different from what we had begun to see (I was beginning to "normalize" a bit), I think due to the stress of possible ovarian surgery looming over my head. He said we can put off worrying about that for a bit, until we get this next leg of the journey taken care of. I got the impression, if we still aren't pregnant in a couple months after Dr. H's tests, that Dr. T is going to suggest us going to Omaha or Sioux Falls for a series of (very expensive unfortunately) daily ultrasounds so the doctors can actually "watch" my ovaries work during the time in my cycle I should be ovulating. According to him, it's the only way (test-wise) to determine if I'm ovulating the way I need to in order to get pregnant or not. Otherwise it's, "try this medicine for awhile, deal with whatever side effects it has attached to it, hmmm- didn't work?, ok try this one for awhile...", and so on until I either get pregnant after a while ("oh, we found the right medicine to make you ovulate I guess!") or still remain very un-pregnant ("hmm, I guess we're going to have to resort to something more drastic than medication").
I did appreciate that Dr. T said not to "stress over us doctors fighting", and to focus on keeping myself very calm and very stress free. I guess I should take advantage of that, huh? Probably won't be told to just sit around like a Victorian lady at any other point in my life, now will I?
Dr. T is honest with us, to his credit, and was trained by the top non-invasive (meaning not jumping to drastic measures like Clomid or IVF right away) infertility practitioner in the US- Dr. Hilgers in Omaha. So, like I said before, my Monday rant was uncalled for, and was the result of a very frustrated emotional outburst. I'm prone to those these days. Ask anyone who's delt with infertility and I think you'll get the same answer- it's a non stop roller coaster ride, with no possible way to get off (unless you suddenly decide, "nah" on the whole having kids thing), and so those going through it are pretty much at a disadvantage, shall we say, at "keeping it together" and on a stable course emotionally. Anyway, I do apologize.
So, for now, we go with what Dr. H recommended, and meet again with Dr. T after the results are in. And, I sit back, try to think only happy thoughts, and try to keep myself from any type of stress so that I can have normal cycles again, so that I can hopefully ovulate as I should, and so we can hopefully get pregnant, and so that if we still aren't getting pregnant my very stress free normal cycle can be watched on an ultrasound monitor to determine if my eggs are mature or are even coming out at all. (sorry if you find that crude.)
And in the mean time, our social worker for our adoption quit, and we have still heard nothing in regards to a birthmom even looking at us.
Sigh.
After a good cry I'm going to sit right here, in my orange 1970's rocking chair, next to the heat vent because it's freezing out, and knit a scarf. Don't come over unless you're bringing chocolate. (weak grin)
