Friday, March 12, 2010

appt with RE!

14 HOURS AND COUNTING UNTIL NEW ORLEANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DH and I have only been out of town together once, our honeymoon in October 2008. I am so excited because we will be on a mini vacation this weekend, and because we have only done it once before. We both need this much needed R&R after the trials of such a very hard emotional first year of pregnancies and losses. I am so looking forward to our "VIP room service breakfast" Sunday morning, mass at St. Peter's, and all the delicious food!

So I guess my prayers have FINALLY been answered. Even though my appointment with the RE wasn't supposed to be until May 6, God answered my prayers and there was a cancellation! All day Monday I left my phone on while I was teaching in hopes there would be a call, and wouldn't you know it - on Tuesday I had it on silent and I missed the call. I panicked, gave the kids some quick busy work, (which was hard to do as I had 3rd grade at the time and come on, how much Spanish busy work can you give 8 year olds??) and immediately called the office. I had missed their call by about 10 minutes. They had me on hold for at least 10 minutes, but I got an appointment for the next day, Wednesday, at 1:30. I felt my mood lighten and the clouds disperse for the first time in a week and then some! I was so happy, and even had a couple Blue Moons to celebrate with DH at dinner. In my excitedness, I called a sub and didn't realize I could have saved my last paid vacation/personal day because I am off last 2 periods on Wednesday. Oh well, I enjoyed my beers, stayed up til almost 10, and enjoyed sleeping in past 5:45.

We arrived at the office a few minutes early only to find that our appointment wasn't until 2, we were mistold. That was fine although we had to wait about an hour to see the RE as she was running late due to a procedure. I'll start calling her Dr. D. I really really like Dr. D, she is the same doctor I was referred to last May to remove my 2.5 pounds of fibroids. The resident studying under her said he wanted to take pictures of them - he had never seen on that large before (one was a football size, one a softball, and one a golfball!) I remember when I first thought I was pregnant that first time in January 2009, I told my SIL on the phone, I am either more pregnant than I think I am or I have a tumor in my stomach. I could feel them, but honestly thought it was some kind of pregnancy symptom. I had also been up for nights on end with horrible intense cramping and took many, many advil and used a heating pad for several nights. I guess it is a good thing I did miscarry, those are both two no no's when pregnant, but I didn't know.

So when Dr. D walked in, she greeted us and asked us what she could do to help us. She was stunned when we told her we just had our 3rd loss. She was surprised and thought we were there because we needed help getting pregnant. She said, "I just knew you were coming to get some help getting pregnant, not staying pregnant??" My regular OBGYN had not forwarded my paperwork yet to her, I guess because they set my appt up with her for May, so she asked us so many questions. I tried to answer and relate our problems as best as I could remember, but I have such a bad tendency to "zone out" when we get bad news, that there were many things I am sure I never heard my regular doctor say that was important. Everytime we would talk about appointments later, my husband would have to retell me everything that happened after we heard the words, "I'm so sorry, there's no heartbeat, there's been no growth, I wish I didn't have to tell you this". I heard that and then mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm for the rest of the appt.

She asked if our babies had been tested for chromosome problems/balanced translocation. I told her they sent off the 3rd baby last Friday and that our 2nd baby had been tested and we got back "normal female karotype" results. She looked at her notes and said that was most likely MY tissue that grew not the baby's since the baby had already been dead almost 4 weeks when the sample was taken during d&c. She said she is fairly positive I am a normal XXY kinda girl, but she wanted to test to make sure. She asked about my progesterone/hcg levels with the previous pregnancies, all ultrasounds, any bleeding, any cramping, So...DH and I gave blood sample to be tested for karotyping, a blood sample to test my thyroid, and a culture from my uterus to test for bacterial infections. I am worried about the infection test since I have already been taking antibiotics for my d&c. I have been on them for a week now so I wonder even if I had an infection if it would show positive or if the doxycycline already would have cleared it up? When I get my next cycle, I have to call for an appointment to have my progesterone checked soon after the start of my cycle. As soon as they receive my file from my regular ob, she will read over it to see if I need additionaly testing. The results from thyroid and infection will be here in two weeks, karotype in four. Please all of you reading this, pray pray pray it is anything BUT balanced translocation. There is no cure or treatment that is pro life and religiously correct(the treatment is creating embryos and destroying the ones with the translocation, inserting ones without). The only option is to continually get pregnant until one of the embryos does not have the translocation, which means m/c after m/c after m/c.

So, thanks be to God and to our early appointment, I will really be able to enjoy our trip tomorrow to NEW ORLEANS!!!! I just have to get outta my head the possiblility (very rare possibility) of a chromosome problem and just hope and pray it is something easier to fix like low progesterone or bacterial infection. I have a sinking suspicion and gut feeling though that they will not find anything other than MTHFR which is not even a major cause of m/c only a side note if it is the heterzygnous form like I have. Dr. D even told me to quit taking aspirin (not sure why?) and to continue with folguard. Now my patience will truly be tested waiting for these results as well as waiting for my next cycle in order to take the next test. the wait begins...........

9 comments:

  1. Glad you got in early (that's always SO nice!) and there's some action taking place! I will certainly pray that it isn't the balanced translocation (never even heard of that) and excited for you as you head out to the Big Easy! Enjoy!

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  2. I'm so glad you got in early too! Have a great vacation and welcome to the blog community! You will be in my prayers!

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  3. I'm not sure why they would have your progesterone tested after your next cycle starts? That is confusing? Do you know why? Why wouldn't they start testing your progesterone after ovulation?

    That is great news...What were your progesterone levels with your previous pregnancies? Do you know?

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  4. What a relief! I am so happy you got into see the doctor early. Now just focus on that awesome vacation with hubby.

    They check my progesterone at the start of the cycle (has always been “normal” . . . whatever that means) and after ovulation. I hope they do it after O as well.

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  5. So glad you were able to get into your appointment early. I hope you and your husband enjoy your trip to NO. You definitely deserve a getaway!

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  6. Sounds like a good appt!
    I'm not convinced that MTHFR (any of them, even hetero A) is only a "sidenote" in most cases. After reading countless stories of women who have had numerous m/cs, even with normal homocysteine levels, and NO other issues... I'm leaning towards believing there is still a lot Drs have to learn about how MTHFR affects pg and fertility.

    Have you had a complete thrombophilia workup done by a hematologist? You'll want to make sure you get tested for EVERYTHING - PAI-1, Factor V Leiden, Factor VIII, antilupus coagulant, Antithrombin III, Protein S and C, and a ton more I can't remember now.
    There's a great y.ahoo group for women with MTHFR and trying to get pg- I've learned a ton over there, come join us! :)

    God bless!

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  7. I echo TCIE, I waw thinking the same thing....clotting disorder.......

    have fun in New Orleans!

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  8. Praise God for opening up a cancellation for you! I am glad you are now able to enjoy the trip to NO! Have a great time and God Bless!

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  9. Uggggh, I cannot believe that text you had to read ON VACATION!!!! Stupid, silly woman.

    Thank you for your comment. I truly cannot imagine going through 1, let alone 3 losses, and God must find you to be truly STRONG to trust you with that cross. I'm praying for you, and hope you can erase that stupid text message and enjoy the rest of your vacay, deservedly :)

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