Fertility Update for Anyone Interested

Hi, girls

 

I'm sure you can all tell that I don't update this blog any longer, considering my last post was in 2012, but I continue to receive comments and emails regarding my experience with Dr. Vasquez and the Center for Reproductive Health so I thought I'd give an overview for you all.

 

Dr. Vasquez was a great doctor with a wonderful bedside manner; I always felt like more than just a patient to him.  Both my husband and I thought he was a much better doctor than the ones we had seen previously at Nashville Fertility Center where I had already gone through a couple of unsuccessful cycles of IUI.  By the time I started seeing Dr. Vasquez it was strictly for IVF.  After my Lupron challenge I went through the process of one fresh cycle of IVF.  Everyone at CRH was wonderful and if continuing down the path of IVF was in our cards, we would surely continue seeing Dr. Vasquez.
 

I started taking oral birth control when I was 15 years old and although I don't remember my periods prior to starting the Pill, I remember that while I was taking it (consistently for 7 years) my cycles were perfectly regular, 28 days, started my period every 4th Sunday, lasted for 5 days, 2 heavy, 1 medium, 2 light.  As soon as my husband and I got married in February 2005 I went off the Pill because I was ready to start our family.  We were still very young (I was 22 and he was 23), but we had already been together for 6 years so we were ready for children.  I have not used any form of contraception since my husband and I got married and I have never been pregnant.  No miscarriages, nothing.

 

Throughout our infertility struggles and the 3 OB-GYNs and 2 RE specialists I was only ever diagnosed with "unexplained infertility."  It's only been within the last 9 months that I've been diagnosed with PCOS, even though the symptoms have been there for many years...maybe not as many years as I've been married and trying to conceive, but definitely since I went through IVF in 2012.  When I was actually diagnosed with PCOS in late 2014 I had a meltdown.  The hormone doctor who confirmed PCOS after my new primary care doctor initially diagnosed me got to witness ugly crying in that consultation...it was so devastating to hear that I had a problem that wouldn't necessarily hinder conceiving if treated but it was never diagnosed during my years of treatments.  That is the only thing I'll say I was disappointed with my experience with both Dr. Vasquez at CRH and with NFC...no one ever diagnosed me with PCOS and therefore treated me for it :(

Unfortunately I did not get pregnant from any of my 2 IUI cycles or my 1 IVF cycle, and the hormones from the IVF process were too much for me to consider doing another round after I did not conceive the first time.  I never minded the subcutaneous abdominal injections...the needle is tiny and relatively painless...but when it came time to the final "shot in the butt" that I couldn't do myself and had to relinquish control to my husband to do, I struggled, but honestly that was mostly because I couldn't control what was happening to me...insert Type A personality here.  LOL  The final injection is a much thicker serum than the earlier liquid injections, and the needle is much bigger.  I sobbed from the time I gave my husband the syringe to long after the injection was done because that sucker HURT!  The injection site got hard and swollen for a little while after but eventually went away...really I was just being a baby because I couldn't do it all myself.  I was an emotional wreck during the IVF process, and I had my best 2 embryos implanted; so when neither embryo resulted in conception I knew I couldn't put myself (or my husband, for that matter...bless his heart) on the rollercoaster again for the remaining embryos that were sub-par to the 2 I'd already used...I did not have faith that any of them would implant and that I would get pregnant, and as you're all aware, IVF is not cheap.  To me, the uncertainty of the ends did not justify the means and so my husband and I did not do another round of IVF.

 

We did a lot of soul searching after not conceiving and we knew that having a baby was not the "missing piece" to our marriage, and that we knew we could grow old together and that our love was enough, so we did not move forward with either adoption or surrogacy either.  It took me longer to "get over" the idea of not being a mother, but truthfully the more time we spent not being parents, the harder it was to wrap our heads around becoming parents...we travel a lot, and we're selfishly set in our routine of life after 10 years of marriage.  We came to the conclusion that kids were not in our cards and we became okay with that.  Until my PCOS diagnosis.

 

I will say that now that I have been diagnosed with PCOS and am currently undergoing treatment for it, my husband and I have another glimmer of hope that we may conceive.  We have set a timeline, however.  We have given one year to get pregnant, and if by my husband's 35th birthday on May 29th, 2016 we have not conceived we will be done.  For good.  As in taking measures (implant in my arm) to ensure an accidental pregnancy does not happen.

 

I know many of you may not choose to travel the same path we have, but this is the decision that works for us.  We've tried for years to get pregnant, and we're treating this next year as our last hurrah, but if we still do not get pregnant, we are okay with that.  We've made a lot of sacrifices over the years, putting things on hold just in case we got pregnant, and we're ready to not have that hold us back anymore...or hold back our families.  My mom has put off retiring and moving out of the country just in case I got pregnant and gave her a grandchild...now I understand that has been her decision to do so, and I've never felt pressure or disappointment from my mom in not giving her grandchildren, but it's always been something that's been in my conscience.  So, with lots of prayer (and sex!) over the next year, hopefully our dream of becoming parents will be realized, but if not, okay.  Our love is strong enough to weather that, and we'll have a really great time with our many nieces and nephews, and our sweet goddaughter.
 

I am happy to answer any questions you may have, or to just be available to you as a sounding board.  I wish you all success and happiness in your paths to starting your families!

 

 

Xoxo, Katie

Fertility Recap...Coming Soon!

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted since February...or that I started all this fertility testing and treatment four months ago!  That seems like ages!

I haven't updated the blog mostly because I'm lazy, but also because those of you in my life who follow this blog I've personally given updates to you and therefore haven't felt the need to post in cyberspace.  However, in the past 10 days I've had two comments and an email on these posts from other women who are just starting their journeys with Dr. Vasquez and are interested in the follow through of my experience.  Welcome to both of you, Amanda and LaTamara, and I promise that before this holiday weekend is over, I will have posted a recap of all my testing, treatment, and news!

xoxo,

Katie

Meet Archie!

As if preparing for having an infant in the house sooner rather than later isn't enough, we've gone and added a new puppy into the mix too!

We went to dinner at some friends' house a few weeks ago.  These friends have been talking about getting a puppy for many months now and they showed me a picture of one that they'd found on Ebay in the Nashville area.  He was a miniture schnauzer and so precious!  I told her how sweet he was but that I agreed that the timing probably wasn't right in case they needed to buy plane tickets to fly home at a moment's notice due to his aunt's failing battle with cancer, and that waiting until after we got our bonuses in March was really smart and not too far away.

Well, one beer and two glasses of wine later, Elvis looks at the picture and goes into hyper-drive by calling the breeder, asking if she still had the puppies, asking if it was too late to come over that night to look at them, and asking for her address so we could plug it into the GPS.  He instantly fell for this little fur ball to the point that he said that if our friends weren't going to get him, that we would!  (that comment more than pissed me off a little bit because that was their puppy that they wanted)  Now, all of a sudden, our friends were put on the spot to make a snap decision on whether or not they wanted a puppy that night.  Thanks, Spann.

We decided to just go look at the puppies and that if they fell in love with one, that they could put a deposit down on him and wait to pick him up until we got our bonuses.  We had barely stepped foot into the house and both men had latched on to their favorite little buddies, and before we knew it we both were unexpectedly taking home miniature schnauzer puppies!  Our friends already had a name picked out for theirs after a favored Italian motorcycle rider who had recently died in a freak racing accident: Marco Simoncelli.  Since we had not been planning on even getting a puppy in the near future, we had no names in mind for our snuffling little buddy, but on the way home we discussed possibilities.  Since the trademark features of schnauzers is their bushy eyebrows, mustache, and beard, we decided we wanted an old man sounding name.  After running through several other names, Elvis comes up with Archibald, and I agree and say we can call him Archie.  As if Archibald wasn't a big enough name for this little guy, I take it several steps beyond that and bestow his full name upon him: Sir Archibald Oliver Spann.  Yes...Sir. 

And without regaling every sweet thing he does (snuggles, puppy breath, sweet tiny kisses), and every little thing that makes us second guess our decision (accidents in the floor, potty training, sleep deprivation), I'll just say that we are ultimately very happy with that serendipidous moment when he came into our lives unexpectedly and that he has meshed with the family very well.  Maggie is even growing to like him and isn't nearly as jealous as I expected her to be.

Fertility "Surgery" - 2/2/12

I say "surgery" loosely because all procedures are ones that totally could have been performed in the doctor's office.  Let me catch y'all up...

Even though I was toying with the option of having anesthesia for these procedures, it's only February and my $3000 family deductible most certainly has not been met yet.  And I remembered how much I paid out of pocket for the anesthesia, after my deductible had already been met, during my tonsilectomy last summer ($800+), so I elected to go through the surgery sans drugs.  And with that decision, here is how my morning went:

• Arrive at Centennial Women's Center at 8:30 AM, get registered, pay $1000 toward the cost of my stay, go upstairs to the admitting desk
• Sign in, receive restaurant waiting list-like pager, pee in a cup, work the City Paper crossword puzzle until approximately 9:00 AM
• Get escorted back to my room by my nurse Emma (although at the time of introduction I could have sworn she said "Belle"), change from my comfortable clothes into a lavender plastic lined, paper gown with large holes in it for vacuum tube delivered heated air if necessary (I declined; I was already sweating), and begin going through my paperwork
• As Emma discusses the anesthesia procedure, I politely tell her that I am not having anesthesia and she stops speaking.  She looks at me quizzically and says, "Well, you're gonna hafta have something.  They're still gonna hafta give you an IV."  Which I said was fine, but that I wasn't being put under.  She mentioned something about "Twilight" and told me I could figure all that out with the anesthesiologist.
• Elvis leaves to walk over to Dr. Vasquez's office to do his part of the testing (side note, how is it that I have to go through draining 6 pints of blood, an ultrasound, 2 pap smears, and a trip to the O.R. and all he has to do is look through a Penthouse magazine to determine our fertility hang ups???), gets back in time to see me before I get wheeled downstairs by a super friendly, super large orderly
• Arrive in the holding area and am met with a CRNA who begins to tell me about the anethesia.  I tell him that I am electing to not have anethesia and he says nothing.  He looks at me funny and asks if I'm sure.  I tell him yes.  He agrees and begins setting up my IV for my antibiotic
• Five minutes pass and the anesthesiologist arrives to tell me about the putting to sleep and waking back up process of sedation.  I tell him that I am not going to be sedated.  He looks at me dumbfoundedly.  He asks me if I've ever had these procedures done before.  I tell him that of the four, one is a pap smear that I have annually, one is an HSG that I've had before, one is simply a telescope with a camera, and the last is one that my mother has annually at her exams and says is no big deal.  I'm good.  He says he needs to check with my doctor to see if we can move forward with the surgery.
• When he returns, he says that Dr. Vasquez can perform the "operation" with only a blah-blah-blah, something-something.  I say great!  Dr. Sedation then tells me that if I feel the slightest bit uncomfortable, that he will be there at a moment's notice to relax me with a light stream of oxygen, followed by a syringe of anethesia into my IV and that I would be well taken care of.  I thanked him and continued waiting.
• I talked to 3 more nurses after the anesthesiologist, and everyone was down right flabbergasted that I was not being put under for this procedure.  But before I knew it, I was being wheeled down the hall and into an O.R. with a sign that read "Patient Awake.  Please Be Quiet."  As I entered the room my stomach started to flutter and my teeth started to chatter.  Typical nervous reaction for me, but I knew I was going to be ok.
• I scooted myself off of the gurney and onto the operating table.  I put my own legs into the stirrups with the nurses laughing about how strange it was not to be lifting dead weight.  I lifted my butt off the table when the nurse was draping me with cloths, to which she actually thanked me and told me how difficult it is to wedge those sheets under sedated patients' bums.  I chatted with everyone, and Dr. Vasquez and all of the nurses were wonderful at keeping me informed about what was going on, but I could tell that they felt very out of sorts by me being awake.  It was really quite humorous!
• After about 15 minutes of speculum, cathader, pincers, and telescope, Dr. Vasquez told me everything looked good and that he was finished and was going upstairs to tell Elvis how everything had gone.  It took longer for the nurses to prep and break down everything than it did for the entire "operation", which frankly, was no operation at all.  Doesn't surgery require the use of a scalple?
• As I'm being rolled back up to my room, the head nurse tells me that I was a fantastic patient and that in her 20 years of assisting on these surgeries, I was only the second person to ever have it done fully awake.  So crazy to me!  After checking all of my vitals again, I was allowed to have some Sprite and some saltine crackers, and as long as I didn't throw up (from what??), I was free to be released.
• I changed back into my clothes, peed (which was OUCH! the first time after having a cathader removed), sent Elvis to get the car, and then waited for my chariot, i.e. wheelchair, to arrive so I could spring the joint.  I finally got to leave around 1:30 PM.  Five hours and $3,300 later (ultimately the amount I'll owe for everything) I was free to get some Burger King and go home.

So the day went great and now we're just waiting until the 23rd to have our follow up appointment to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together and see how we move forward.

I actually got my first statement in the mail yesterday for my hospital stint.  It's a small fortune, broken down like this:

• Med-Sur Supplies (i.e. "operating tools") - $143
• Lab Urology (pee in a cup) - $240 (!!!!)
• Drugs/Detail Code (antibiotic in my fluid bag?) - $102
• Pharmacy (antibiotic in my fluid bag?) - $93
• Sterile Supply (IV o cathader?) - $128
• OR Services (15 minutes of non-operation) - $4,693
• Total Charges - $5,399
• Holy Crap

But now that my deductible is met by February 2nd, I want to make the most of that by getting pregnant ASAP so that I can take advantage of having the 80% paid for labor and delivery.  This means that I would need to be pregnant by April.  No pressure.

Day 3 of Cycle - Ultrasound, 1/18/2012

I went back to Dr. Vasquez's office today for the follow up ultrasound from yesterday's Lupron injection.  Little did I know that I would have to have more blood drawn!  I assured the phlebotemist, Sherry, that I was certain I had no blood left to give her, and she assured me that I had plenty!  Hmmph.  Luckily it was only one vial today.  After the draw I went to the ultrasound room and had some vaginal cultures (just like a pap smear) taken and then the actual ultrasound to look at my uterus, cervix and ovaries.  Unlike NFC which only had the small screen on the ultrasound machine, CRH had the machine's screen extended to a larger screen so I could see what the tech was seeing.  Never mind that I don't actually know what she was looking at, at least I got to watch.  She took some images of all of the above and I happened to notice that when she was looking at my left ovary that she marked two small spots above and to the right and below and to the left of the ovary.  I don't know if it was for measurement purposes, or if they're cysts or something else, but I didn't ask and she didn't tell.  And I'm not sure if she did the same thing on the right side or not...I wasn't paying as close attention then.  I don't know if any of you all have had one of these types of ultrasounds done before or not, but when the tech angles in at the ovaries it's pretty uncomfortable.  Hopefully those marks are not bad news... just a few more weeks and we can put this puzzle together!

Day 2 of Cycle - Lupron Challenge Test, 1/17/12

Day one of my cycle was Monday so I called Dr. Vasquez's office and scheduled my Lupron Challenge Test for today and tomorrow.  After Vampira drew (no lie) 7 vials of blood, I received an injection of Lupron, which is designed to measure the change of estrodiol being produced.  In 24 hours I go back to the office for an ultrasound.

Can't Live Without

Here are some of my new favorite things:

I bought myself this Keurig B60 Special Edition coffee maker before Christmas when Kohl's was running a fabulous deal on it.  It retails for around $180 and I scored it for less than $90!!  I have at least one cup of tea a day out of this baby, so it has been worth the investment!

Avon Pro Brow Enhancer.  This stuff ROCKS!  It's gel based and has tiny bits of real hair in the gel so that they actually fill in sparse areas and make your brows look fuller!  The first time I noticed the little hairs I thought they were mine after just trimmimg my eyebrows, but it's all part of the wonder of the product.  I blast my hairdryer over my brows after using it to harden the gel and my brows look perfectly groomed all day.  Wonder product!

These gray herringbone TOMS are my second pair of these super comfy shoes.  I also have the red calculus ones.  There are so many styles to choose from and I find myself wanting about 10 more pairs!  The only drawback to them is that I don't wear socks with them and they make my feeties stink!

Sweet Jesus, these chocolate covered Craisins are delicious!  I hate to admit it, but I can kill an entire bag in a single sitting!  These little tart morsels of chocolate are so tasty.  I especially love it when Publix runs a BOGO sale on them!  I have seriously bought 4 bags at once and then hid them from Elvis so he wouldn't eat them!  Shameful.

This little gem is a wonderful addition to our kitchen sink.  It's the Pampered Chef glass cleaning brush, and it's worth every penny of it's $9 price tag!  The bristles are foam and the brush is rounded at the ends so it cleans glassware and stemware perfectly!  Plus it's split in the middle between a longer and shorter end so it cleans around the rims of glasses to remove mouth prints or lip gloss marks.  Genius!  It's by far my most favorite new kitchen tool because even Elvis likes its features so much that he'll wash his own glasses!

Big Bang Theory is one of the funniest shows on TV right now!  It's currently in its 5th season, so I bought seasons 1-4 on Black Friday.  I knew it was going to be a funny show when I couldn't stop laughing during the pilot episode.  So often the very first episode is pretty "meh" but you stick around to see if it will get better.  I laughed from start to finish on the first episode.  I'm on disc 2 of season 4 right now, and have already loaned out the first 3 seasons to two different sets of people.  I will gladly share if anyone else is interested in watching.  You won't be sorry.

I bought this identity theft prevention stamp from Bed Bath & Beyond for $5.  It's self inking and when you stamp a piece of mail that has your name and address printed on it, it prints this indecipherable pattern over the text that makes it impossible to read the infomation underneath!  It's perfect for me because I'm too lazy to walk into the office to shred sensitive materials sometimes, and it's perfect for Elvis who is on red alert at all times that someone is trying to steal his identity.  Buy one.  And if you don't want to, let me know and I'll buy one for you.  With a 20% off coupon, of course.