D&C

In following our protocol and wanting to duplicate what we did last time, we opted to do a D&C again.  The last time we did a D&C, our doctor found numerous small polyps that were so small that they were undetectable during any ultrasounds.  We wanted to recheck and see if any polyps had returned as well as see if there were any other lining issues.  Plus since I delivered my son by C-section, our doctor wanted to look at that and see how it healed and just double check that there aren't any issues.  Long story short, everything is fine.  He did however find 2 polyps that were undetected via ultrasound and removed them.  For a brief moment I played around with the idea of not doing it this time because it was about $3,000 out of pocket, but I'm sure glad that I did now.For those more interested in the details, the full story is below.

Like with any surgery, there were eating and drinking restrictions starting the night before.  No eating starting at 10pm.  That's always no problem for me, it's the no drinking after midnight that is a struggle.  Luckily I woke up right before midnight and was able to drink two full glasses of water.  This helped a lot in the morning.

My surgery was at 12:45 with a check in at 11:45.  The plan was for my husband to stay with my son and my Mom to take me.  It was a rare rainy day in San Diego, so we left a it early.  I had my surgery at the Surgical Center of San Diego.  This is the second time I've had surgery there and both times they have been really great.  No complaints really.  Always really professional and very nice.  Took about 15 to call my name and then off I went.

Once they go over all the consents and you sign your life away, you then change into your lovely gear and then time to hook up the IV.  This (if you read my previous post) is absolutely the worst part for me.  I know the drill and I always tell them I'm a fainter and to hid the IV once they get it started.  The extra super bummer this time is that the nurse informed me that scar tissue has now formed all over my 1 good vein because I always insist they take it from that one in my left arm.  All my other veins are so small that as soon as a needle hits it, it collapses.  He said that vein has had a lot of trauma and probably won't be a viable candidate much longer.  This really sucks because if that one fails, then my only choice is to go through my hand and a) that hurts so much more and b) it stay hurting because it bruises and stays sore for awhile. Guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it, but for now, they were able to start the IV in the left, tucked it under the sheet and I was good to go.  They let my mom com back at that point and we sat and waited for the doctor.

My doctor here in the United States is Dr. Chang from Hanabusa IVF.  It's always so strange to see him.  He was such a huge part of my life for so long, but being back in treatment is so bittersweet.  Anyways we had a lot to catch up on so we chatted for awhile.  Then after catching up it was surgery time.  Then next thing I know it was lights out and when I woke up I was in recovery.  My loving husband was in charge of picking me up.  It's always so great to wake up and see him.  He is always very sweet ad it also means I can go home soon.

The surgery went well.  Dr. Chang found two abnormal things that he biopsied and sent out for testing.  He then checked my c section scar from the inside and tested its strength to make sure it would hold up to a pregnancy, possible of twins again.  Because we are transferring 2 embryos, there will be a chance of two.  Lastly, about 5 years ago, after suffering lots of pain, I had 4 cysts removed from the vaginal wall.  Three of the cysts were the size of oranges.  When they were removed, that surgeon told me there was a chance they could grow back.  About 6 months ago 1 started to grow back and was increasingly painful.  I asked Dr. Chang to drain the cyst since he would already be in there and he did.   A few days later I received the results of the biopsy and it did confirm that both were polyps. Again, we are so glad that we did the surgery.  Having polyps can severely effect your chances of getting pregnant. So now I have a squeaky clean uterus and am building a nice new fresh lining, polyps free and ready to go!

This adorable pup has been by my side through

 so much, I love her!

This surgery left me much more sore than the time I did it before.  I guessing its because there was more stuff to do this time and more poking around.  I also had a lot of bleeding for about 5 days.  Not enough to be medically concerned, just very sore and uncomfortable.  Took about 6 days to fully recovery from this one and feel back to my normal self, but luckily I feel just fine now so on to the next steps, researching medicine prices but I'll save that for another blog post.

Thanks for Reading,
HEATHER

Trying Again for a Sibling

So here we are, back at it again.  We have two embryos left from our previous cycle so we are moving forward to try for a sibling.  To catch you up, or for those that didn't follow our other blog that continued on from here once we became pregnant, on Dec 29th 2016 we welcomed our son into the world.  However, our pregnancy, wasn't the happy wonderful time in our lives that we had hoped for.  We found out we were pregnant with twins early on.  Then we were told we were about the miscarry one and possibly both and were put on immediate and strict bedrest.  Then we pulled through and held on to both babies.  Then at 12 weeks and 5 days, we found out that baby B had serious issues, his organs were all formed outside of his ribs. (I refer to him as a he, but we were never able to confirm gender)  This meant he wouldn't survive outside of my belly for much more than a few hours at best and they started talking to us about palliative care. We were then told that he was 'breathing' toxins into the amniotic fluid and that with each breath, he was causing harm to baby A.  We were faced with the horrible task of having to say goodbye too early.  But of course this also faced issues.  The procedure done had a high chance of effecting baby A as well, but by doing nothing, there posed an even higher risk of losing both babies.  So on June 25th, at 13 weeks and 1 day, we said good bye to Baby B and hoped and prayed that Baby A would survive.  Baby A did survive, but part of me didn't.  I will never ever forget that day, that procedure, that doctor, it is my forever nightmare. My entire 39 weeks of pregnancy, I was on bedrest or restricted activity for all but 5 weeks.  So to say the least, it was awful.  I will always have a hole in my heart and a little bit of my soul that feels incomplete.  I mourn my baby often.  There aren't a lot of words to explain the pain I feel.  I should have two babies,  my son should have his brother, but we don't and I've had to figure out a way to continue on for him.  It took a lot of therapy and a lot of tears and I still feel like it happened yesterday.
The last thing I want to do is live through another pregnancy, it was by far the worst time of my life.  And I thought trying to get pregnant was awful, but losing our baby was about as low as I have ever felt.  So why are we doing this again?????  Because I feel like I owe it to my son to at least try for a sibling.  I have a brother and I had so much fun growing up with him, and while only children are fine, I just would love my son to have a sibling.  Reason number 2 is that we already created these embryos.  They are just waiting for us and the opportunity at life.  They deserve a chance.

So like I started out this blog, here we are again.  Our last cycle was the only time I became pregnant in 6 1/2 years of treatments so we are going to duplicate that cycle.  That means that step 1 is a d&c in order to create a new and fresh uterine lining.  I will be put under anesthesia, but it will be a simple procedure. We will be doing that in January.  In the meantime I am going to put some focus on getting my body baby ready.  That means a trip to the naturopath and lots of trips to the gym as well on some mental health steps to wrap my head around gearing up for this.  Even though we will be a nervous wreck if it does work, we would love more than anything for it to work.  However, this is our one and only shot at it.  We will be transferring both embryos and so its a one and done situation, either it works or it doesn't.  So we are hoping and praying for it to work and to be able to give our son a sibling.  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we embark on this journey because we will need all the support we can get.
Welcome to our journey of round 2!

Thanks for Reading,
HEATHER

Hysteroscopy and D&C

Last Thursday I had a hysteroscopy (camera test) and dilation and curettage (D&C).  The reason why we decided to do this was by process of elimination. Since we have practically tested everything else and because we had PGS tested normal embryos that didn't implant, maybe I am having a lining issue or a uterus issue.  It is very rare for us to have the history that we have had with 3 IUIs and 5 IVFs and zero implantation having known that we at least transferred 2 normals.  So we decided to do a d&c to clean everything out and create fresh new lining for the upcoming transfer.

My Mom was my caregiver and took me to the appointment. This was full on surgery with anesthesia. I was nervous because I never handle anesthesia that well. We checked in no problem. They told me they would bring me back get me set up and then they would let her back to join me.
It took them three tries to get the IV started. As soon as needles are pulled out, I shut me eyes and look the other way.  The first time something went wrong and I felt the warmth of the blood all over my arm and neck.  Something had come loose and blood went everywhere.  It was just about the time when I heard the nurse yelling to another nurse to come help that I started to go down.  Shortly after I fainted.

After 3 attempts, the IV was finally started but because I fainted, they couldn't start the anesthesia right away.  So my doctor came in and talked to me and they brought my mom back to hang out for a bit.  After a few rounds of normal vitals, off I went to surgery.

I woke up in recovery and my doctor informed me that he wasn't expecting to see what he did.  On the camera he found in his words 'tons' of polyps.  He said it looked like a mushroom field in there.  There was a lot but they were all very small.  He sent them off to the lab and they came back all normal, so nothing to be worried about.  He was able to clean everything and remove all the polyps.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up to high, but the more I read about polyps, the more it seems impossible to get pregnant if you have them.  polyps article  So now with a squeaky clean uterus, I'm not officially prepping for our FET in April.

Thanks for reading,
HEATHER