New Dr. = Newly found Hope!

I love my new Dr/new clinic. For one, she's a total believer in acupuncture and supports all the changes I've made and second, she agrees to do the extra testing mid-cycle that I asked for. Yeah!! Why hadn't I found her earlier??

I was also SO happy to hear that my insurance would FINALLY cover some of the expense. The business office had spoken with my insurance company and shared the news that most of the bills would be covered and the others would be pre-pay; I can handle that! Up to now, we've paid 100% out of pocket and as I'm sure you can guess, it's not cheap. The financial stress has started so this will be a BIG relief for us.

We agreed to do at least two more cycles. Same thing: Femara, ultrasound monitoring, hCG injection, IUI. And she said if we wanted to continue on and do more, we could do that too.

After our two month break, I am totally ready to get back into this and focus on positivity. I have a good feeling!

A much needed break

I had two upcoming trips for work and wouldn't be around during the most important part of my cycle (ovulation!) so it was a good time for us to take a little break. This also gave me time to meet with the new Dr. at the new clinic and figure out our new gameplan.

During this 2 month break, I went back on the pill. I know, sounds crazy. Why on earth would I go back on the pill when I'm trying to get pregnant? Trust me, I feel the same way. I was in tears that first day I took that first pill. I pretty much had to force it down. I was doing the one thing that I knew would not allow me to get pregnant, however, I also knew the facts and the Dr. agreed. Getting back on the pill would give me a big hormone boost and improve my chances for the next cycle off the pill. Plus I wasn't going to be around Jason during ovulation anyways..so somehow, it made sense.

Knowledge is Power

Here we are. Four months after we began our journey and still nothing. Not even a glimpse of success, a glimpse of hope that what we are doing is working. Has all this emotional, financial and physical commitment done anything?? Will I ever be pregnant and get to share the joy of motherhood? I can't put into words the heartbreak we feel and the loss of hope we're going through.

The one thing I have gained these last four months, is knowledge. And knowledge is power...right? According to some...ahem Dr. Corfman...it's not.

I set another appointment to meet with Dr. Corfman to talk about the last four cycles, what changes we can make for our last two cycles to make this work, and to just get some re-assurance from him. As any person should for any medical issue, I did my own research on infertility (testing, conditions, treatments, etc) and I wanted to do some further testing to find out why I wasn't getting pregnant. Why was this not working and what was wrong with me?? However, Dr. Corfman was not on the same page as me. He felt the treatment we were doing was efficient and although I asked for additional bloodwork during different stages of my cycle, he didn't agree, he thought it was a waste of time and money. He knew I was not here to talk about IVF as that was not an option for us at this time, but he still said to me "You should really starting thinking about IVF or adoption". WHAT?!? Not only did I feel you were giving up on me, but you even suggested adoption when we haven't even finished our six cycles! I looked at him and said "Am I a patient or a customer to you!". This meeting was over.

The next day I ordered my file and switched clinics.

Groupon meets Eastern meets Western

Have I told you how much I love Groupon? Well..I do. Other than the fact that I find myself spending more money than I should, on obscure deals of products and services I normally wouldn’t, it also led me to the discovery of acupuncture. This discovery was a blessing in disguise.

I bought a Groupon deal for an acupuncture clinic nearby that also had a fertility specialist and even after my first appointment, I knew I had found just what I was looking for and just what I needed to keep me going. I know I needed a relaxation plan and was hoping this could help, but I also had reservations. How could a bunch of tiny needles stuck all over my body really help me relax?? However, the fact I fell asleep on my first session and remained calm for days following, I was sold.

This also led me to another discovery in the form of a book:  Making Babies: A 3 Month Plan . 
This book has been like a bible to me and I recommend it to anyone facing fertility issues. I've had no control over my infertility, but this book allowed me to believe that I did have some control over things in my life that could greatly affect my fertility. It teaches you to mesh Eastern and Western medicine in order to take control of your Plan and maximize your fertility.

With these changes, I had a new outlook. I had hope again and I desperately needed that to keep continuing on our journey.

Losing Hope...

Well, it’s been three months of Our Plan and still nothing. Not even a glimpse of anything has happened and we're already half way through Our Plan. It’s been so hard to stay positive (which I know is so important to do) and it’s getting harder to believe this is going to work. Between the hormones, all the dr appointments and the fertility bills coming in…and no results…I’m starting to freak out. The last thing I need to deter me from getting pregnant is stress.

So I’ve decided to make some changes in my life.  Western, meet Eastern.

Ready..Set...GO!

Our consultation with Dr. Corfman was very positive and motivating. Although my cycles were quite abnormal, this was fixable with medication and monitoring. The sperm morphology results turned out to be okay as the levels reported weren’t low enough for concern that it would affect our fertility. We’d keep Jason on the vitamins and that’s it. At the end of the appointment, I took blood tests and had an ultrasound to check for PCOS and again….free and clear! One more thing checked off our list and off our worries.

The last thing we needed to do was a post-coital test to see if his sperm could survive in my cervical mucus. (you can probably assume what a post-coital test is, so I won't go into details) We had the test a week later and the results were not what we wanted to hear. None of the sperm survived. Although it wasn't good news, we now felt like we had an answer as to why we couldn't get pregnant and now we had a solution to fix this and make it happen. Instead of timed intercourse, we'd do inseminations to bypass the mucus and get the sperm where they needed to be.

We now had a plan of attack:

-          Day 2 of cycle:  Baseline ultrasound to check ovaries and make sure they are clear and also measure uterine lining to make sure it’s thin and ready to go

-          Days 3-7 of cycle:  10mg of Femara (Letrozole) daily to increase my follicle quantity and growth. (Letrozole is a non-FDA approved fertility drug like Clomid but without all the bad side effects)

-          Days 11 or 12 of cycle:  Ultrasound to measure uterine lining thickness and also measure the follicle quantity and sizes in ovaries

Depending on this second ultrasound and the thickness of the lining and the size of the follicles, we time the hCG injection to enduce ovulation. Ovulation occurs about 36-42 hours after injection and that's when we have our IUI (intrauterine insemination).

This was our plan for up to six cycles.
Dr. Corfman was confident to tell us that he didn’t plan on seeing us as patients long. I wish I had gotten that in writing.

Time for some help

It had been a year of TTC and now I was convinced I had no eggs (stupid ovulation kits), so I made an appointment with my OB to ask her for some help. Our meeting was short and constructive. We looked at my tracked cycle for the last year and my medical history and although she didn’t see any issues, our next step was a semen analysis for Jason and an HSG for me. Along with that was a referral to an RE (reproductive endocrinologist).

My thought:  So you mean you don’t just give me Clomid to take and I get pregnant? Nope. Not that easy.

For those of you who’ve had an HSG, then you know how much fun that is. Not. For those of you who haven’t had it, I don’t recommend unless you need to; injecting dye into your uterus and fallopian tubes isn’t as painless as you’d think. But the outcome was all I needed to ease my mind…free and clear! My uterine cavity and fallopian tubes were open and everything looked normal! As for the semen analysis, we had some concerns. The first test showed low count and low morphology so Jason started taking some fertility vitamins I found at GNC and a month later, retested. His levels were higher but the morphology was still a bit low. Although this was concerning…we assumed that we had found the issue and now we’d just need to overcome this and get pregnant!

Our first appointment with Dr. Corfman was December 2^nd, 2010. And here began our journey…