On the Road Again...

As the famous Willie sings, we are "on the road again"!! What an appointment! I'm up at 3am because my head is spinning so I'm turning to the blog to spew it all out here! First of all, all tests came back NORMAL!! YAA!! Dr. Maxson was wonderful and went over every test, what it meant and each one came back negative which is what we wanted. When he was going over each test and what it tested, our heads were shaking, but some of the words like posphatelykinemethomankeiserfudgeruckers that he said with ease and didnt make any sense, but we just kept nodding like we were at med school together! We were expecting them to come back normal, but relieved to hear it come out of his mouth!

Then he went over, in detail, each stage of our IVF cycle, what he liked, what concerned him, what he would change for next time, etc. This is where we were all on the same page! We felt like such IVF experts as he was spouting off about the details of our eggs, drugs used, and IVF techniques. He recommends trying IVF again and thinks our chances are great because we got pregnant this last time.

He said the m/c had nothing to do with either of us; but rather just what happens in 1 in 4/5 pregnancies. This was great news!! He said our chances of another m/c is not increased which was a relief. It looks like we're going to do the same process again, but he's going to make an ever so slight adjustment in some of the timing and drugs used. We're also going to do acupuncture with this next round.

There are studies out there that acupuncture helps to get your body in order and actually increases pg-cy chances! We'll try anything that boosts those % even just a little. He actually has an acupuncturist on-site they use all of the time and he was very excited that we are going to do this. He said to start it now to get my body in order for another IVF cycle. He likes to have acupuncture done in the months preceeding IVF instead of once the cycle begins. With our first cycle, I asked the nurse about it when the stimulation began, but she stated it was too late to start something like that because it takes my body a few treatments to get used to and it's too much to start during the stimulation phase. He said to go once a week and increase a little once the retrieval and transfer get closer. He even said that after the transfer/implantation, he recommends going to the first floor of his building and have a treatment done immediately following! WOAH! Now that's quick!!

Here's the timeline as we see it:

We need to wait for my next period to start these chain of events, but on day 2 of my next cycle, I will go in for bloodwork/ultrasound to make sure my body is OK after the m/c and D&C. Then I'll go to him on day 7, 8, or 9 for another HSG. This will be my 3rd one in 4 years! yuckie! They're not pleasant as they stick a catheter into my uterus and shoot red dye through it and take x-rays to get a clear picture of my uterus and internals to make sure everything is cleared out from the D&C/mc and see if I'm ready for another IVF cycle. Sometimes the act of having an HSG can help to clear out any remnants leftover. (there's a link in the title of this blog for more info about the HSG)

This will be a big factor to decide when we can start IVF again. We may start the suppression cycle (1 month of suppression, then one month of stimulation)right away or wait a month depending on the results.

When we were at the dr., we talked about having the HSG and then going straight to suppression then stimulation, but the more I look at the calendar, the brunt of IVF will come towards the middle/end of May and we really want to try again when I'm out of school due to the extensive travelling so we may have to wait another month which is fine with me. Either way, we're looking at this summer to start this process; a lot depends on when I get my period and how the bloodwork/ultrasound and HSG turn out, but we're hopeful to try another IVF cycle this summer! (GULP!!!!) OMG! I can't even believe I'm typing those words!

We have a flood of emotions when we "fast forward" and think of all that is ahead of us, so we really just try to take day by day, test by test and focus on all the good in our lives and know this is not a burden we will have to carry with us our entire lives. There will be an end to this someday, some way! We have such an amazing support system in our friends, family and each other that we truly are VERY blessed and can't wait to get to the pot of gold and be stronger for the wild ride on this slippery rainbow!!