Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Disappointing follow-up


This is what I dreaded for the last 2 years but hoped not to hear.

My appt with Dr. H fell short of my expectations.

  • He brushed off the unruptured follicle as "interesting" but nothing more. My heart sank through the floor. All week long, I was getting excited that perhaps...just perhaps, they had discovered the culprit. But he was largely unimpressed and not the least bit interested in pursuing it further. :( WTH?
  • He spent a half hour reviewing the video of my lap with me...all the while I'm twiddling my thumbs thinking "GET TO THE POINT!". In all, the endo was mild and in his estimation, largely unimpressive.
  • Uterine cultures and biopsies he took were not back yet but he suspects they will be normal. There's a possibility he *may* want to prescribe an antibiotic...or not.
  • Mr. Mike's SA seemed fine...could benefit from some vitamins to boost his motility, but otherwise he was "cleared".
  • He sifted through the Targeted Hormone Study I had done in March. I sat there as he quietly looked at the numbers and jotted notes down without speaking. (That was annoying) My male hormones (who'da thunk testosterone--in a woman--was needed to get pregnant?) were low but he couldn't tell me why or even if that was significant.

In the end, he leaned back, looked me square in the eye and said what I have dreaded for months that he might say--that he saw nothing that seemed extraordinarily out of balance (save the male hormones--about which very little is known or has been studied). He doesn't consider me a candidate for Clomid because based on my history, I'm considered "Clomid Failure" (his words). He wants to experiment with the use of anti-biotics for the "infection" and low-dose cortisol in hopes of elevating my male hormone levels...all in hopes of that having some sort of impact...maybe. All the while, he'll want me to do monthly cycle reviews (for as long as we TTC) over the phone with his nurses and each month send blood to the PPVII hormone lab to be analzyed there...all of which will have to be paid out of pocket.

I cried all the way home last night. I've been crying off and on all day today. I'm numb. I don't know what to think or to feel. I feel like this is a bad dream. This was not the answer I was hoping for or expecting after a week of u/s that seemed to clearly indicate a follicular dysfunction. I am annoyed that he is disregarding the unruptured follicle in favor of making me what feels like a test subject to add data for his research.

I'm more frustrated now than ever before and am wondering what the point of going out there was after all. Mr. Mike wants me to switch doctors to someone who'll pursue the follicular dysfunction. We're both frustrated and truly confused.

On the bright side, being home has been truly medicinal. I'm going to do my best at trying to put all of this out of my mind for the time being and just enjoy the kids being home again. I'll try my best to deflect the "so--how'd it go in Omaha?" question tomorrow at the Thanksgiving table.

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