Saturday, May 3, 2008

Artifici-what?!

April 18th~ I went in for an CD 12 ultrasound to see if the Clomid was working. I had completed my first round of 50 mgs. The nurse calls me back into a room and chats with me about my side effects...a few hot flashes, some head rushes, a bit of teariness and a ton of imsomnia. Then she randomly says, "And are you going ahead with the artificial insemination?" in a very polite voice.

".....What?" is all I manage.

"Well, Dr. VanBabymaker suggested an artificial insemination. Are you going to go ahead with that?"

My brain quickly rewinds back a few days to my HSG. A different RE had done the procedure and had brought up artificial insemination. But....the way he had brought it up was more like, "Hey, do you think we should get pizza for lunch?" He said it so casually that I hadn't really given it much thought....like it was a possibility for further down the road but nothing more. Also, I'm still worried about step one. Did I ovulate? I haven't even really thought about a possible step two.

I explain to the nurse that mentally I haven't really gotten that far and just want to see if I'm even going to ovulate and then I'll talk with the doctor about artificial insemination.

My regular RE, Dr. PacMan comes in, performs the ultrasound and no ovulation. Disappointing, but not that surprising for only the first round of Clomid. One ovary has no follies. The other one has about 20 (!!) but they're all very small. He says to come back on CD 17 and we'll check again. Dr. PacMan asks about the artificial insemination. I want to say yes, I'm in, but I'm hesitant because I have to talk with my husband about this first. I mean, right? I'm not supposed to just decide that on my own, especially when my husband has to do his thing for the procedure. I tell them probably and that I'll let them know as soon as I talk with my husband.

Fast forward to April 23rd and my CD 17 ultrasound. Eight in the morning and I'm sitting in the waiting room. First off, I am hungry. I realized yesterday that we still hadn't done some insulin test that my doctor had wanted during my first consult. He couldn't do it back then because I hadn't fasted. I spoke with the RE office yesterday, who suggested I go ahead and fast so that if Dr. PacMan wants the test done, we can just do it that day. I know it's only 8 a.m. but I'm a creature of habit and so I'm already hungry. Second, I am freaking out because, for some reason, the office was reeeeally backed up with their appointments. Normally, I'm called back to a room within 5-10 minutes of my scheduled appointment. I wasn't called back until 8:25. I have to be to work at 8:40. Today, the nurse practitioner, Tracy, is going to see me. She introduces herself, tells me to get undressed and she'll be back in a couple minutes. I practically jump out of my clothes, hop up on the table, cover up with the drape and then sit there impatiently for the next ten minutes. Grrrrr...now it's almost 8:40.

Fiiiiinally, she comes back. I throw myself back on the table and put my legs up in the stirrups all in one fluid motion. I moved with the never-before-discovered-in-me grace of a gazelle. The ultrasound reveals well over 20 follies on one side and well over 20 follies on the other side!.....but they're all tiny. Sigh.

I get dressed and meet nurse practitioner Tracy in the hall. As we finish up our conversation and I'm about to leave, she says, "I see that you and your husband declined artificial insemination?" Declined? Not exactly. I tell her my husband and I are on board for artificial insemination...and a pizza.

2 comments:

Echloe said...

what the.... are they talking IUI then? weird that it is so sudden. but maybe it is all you need.

Kim said...

crazy! I had the same results with Clomid. I didn't ovulate until I was on Met and drugs. And even then it wasn't until about cd 21 or so! I failed my insulin test horribly and my re thought that was a lot of my problem. Hope things get better for you! We went for the iui b/c it increased our chances each cycle.