I'm sorry I didn't update my blog yesterday afternoon but we didn't get home until very late last night. We ended up going to dinner & a movie with my family.
The appt. yesterday went pretty well! I really like
The Jones Institute, everyone we encountered was very, very kind and helpful. My husband was able to take off from work to go with me, this was the first time he had attended any of my appts. They ended up having both of us fill out new patient paperwork and they treated us both like patients, not just me. I really liked that, it helped Chris feel more involved in the process.
We had a consultation with an associate doctor, she wanted to know "our story", how long we've been ttc, what we've tried, she wanted to discuss the meds I've been on and how I dealt with them, etc, etc, etc. She had the bloodwork and information from my appts. with both OBGYNs I have seen in the last 6 months. She kept saying all of my bloodwork looked "good." I asked her about the AMH and she said that it's within the normal range. I then asked about the Clomid Challenge that was done this last cycle and she said it looked good, too. In fact, she mentioned that Dr. O may want to put me back on Clomid since I've been ovulating and my bloodwork looked so good. Why was my OBGYN telling me that all my bloodwork was bad?? That my ovarian reserve was low border-line and that the Clomid Challenge shows I don't respond to Clomid??? That's why I'm with an RE now.
She had us go down the hall for an
ultrasound. Dr. O finally joined us and he said my uterus looks really good (yay!) and then one ovary (can't remember which one) had a few small cysts, nothing to worry about. The
other ovary I have a 4cm cyst. Yes, I said
centimeter. I got dressed and we joined Dr. O in his office for more disscussion.
Dr. O said the cyst will prevent him from prescribing any meds this month. He hopes that it will dissolve on its own. He said it's good news that 50mg of Clomid made me ovulate, that the 100mg was probably just too much stimulation for me and caused the cyst. I didn't have any last cycle after 50mg so we can only assume.
Anyway - He told me he wanted all of my bloodwork done again (LH, FSH, Estradiol, and a few others) since it happened to be cd3. He discussed with us our options and the plan he had for us.
We discussed
Letrizole (Femera) &
Follitropin Alfa (Gonal F Injectible). Based on what our insurance covers, we will decide which to do beginning next cycle. Hopefully I will ovulate this cycle on my own (am continuing to chart!) and I won't have to worry about taking Provera to bring AF on at the end of the cycle. I had a terrible experience with Provera years ago.
Starting next cycle, he wants to add
Ovidrel to the mix, to trigger ovulation and Progesterone after ovulation. He gave me like 10 samples of the progesterone plus a prescription. The progesterone is
Crinone (anyone use this one before?). He wants me to do it 2x/day.
I fessed up and told Dr. O that I don't take my metformin regularly because it makes me so sick. So he told me to stop taking it (odd I thought - but I was happy to oblige) and he told me just to take prenatals daily at this point.
I am scheduled for an
HSG next Monday at 1:30. He said it's just protocal for new patients and has no reason to believe there's anything wrong. I've got my antibiotic to begin taking the day before so I'm set.
Dr. O told my DH to make an appt. to have a semen analysis done. They managed to get him an appt. like 10 minutes after we were finished with Dr. O so we took care of that, too. It'll take 7-10 business days for the results of that to come back.
This cycle, he gave us the green light. He said we can do timed intercourse and are welcome to get pregnant, it just won't be with any meds. I'm really ok with that, it gives us a chance to get all of this bloodwork back and so we know for sure where we stand with insurance so we can make a decision.
If we go with Femera, we'll be monitoring regularly with ultrasounds and bloodwork (pretty similar to what I was doing with the Clomid). If we do the injections, I'll be up there much more often for monitoring. (I say "up there" because it's about an hour north of here)
So - I think that's the full update, I hope I didn't miss anything. I am feeling very hopeful that Dr. O can get us pregnant :)
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As you know, I'm not on any stims this month, I'm on the bench due to a cyst. The only real symptom I got while on Clomid the past 3 cycles was hot flashes about 3-5 days after I finished my last pill and it only lasted for one day. Yesterday was cd13, would have been 4 days after my last pill had I been on it this cycle and I had hot flashes off and on ALL DAY LONG. I was miserable. They were the kind that made your head ache, your stomach flip/flop and I literally had to go outside in the freezing cold, blowing 40 mph winds to cool down. What gives? Is this normal? To have 'residual' side effects from a med I'm not even taking anymore? I mean, I can understand if it was a side effect I was having daily or very regularly. But it's not. It was a one day thing during those Clomid cycles and here it is - doing the same thing. Hopefully thise means I'll still ovulate this cycle :)
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