Thursday, February 26, 2015
Today is the day. I'd finally called to make an appointment with a specialist sometime in January, but the earliest I could get in as a new patient would be April 15th. The office sent me a packet with something like eleven pages of medical history to fill out. I faxed requests to two previous doctors to forward my medical files.
A few weeks went by and I got a phone call saying there was a cancellation, would I be available to come in earlier than my scheduled date? Heck yes I want to come in a month and a half earlier! Who cares if we're supposed to be going out of town that evening...
I was a nervous wreck all day. I really shouldn't have been. I knew that this was just a basic preliminary meeting. We'd go over medical records, discuss what the doctor thought could be the issue, discuss what our thoughts were about next step options. It's not like this meeting was going to be where he'd tell me I was never going to be able to have my own children. But I guess when it hasn't happened in two years, that's sort of the first place your brain goes.
The appointment was exactly what I thought it would be. We met with one doctor who had gone over all of the medical info before our appointment so she only had a few follow up questions. She discussed different things that could be causing our problems conceiving, went over different tests we could do to further investigate. Then we met with other doctor who sat down to tell us what his thoughts were about the cause of our problems and what sort of steps he thought we should take. But he also wanted to be sure that as a couple, we were on the same page with him. Luckily, we were. I was so happy for my husband to be sitting in the chair next to me, asking questions and being completely honest with the doctor when he said that it sounded like he had a great plan for us.
The doctors suggested we do some blood work, specifically to check my thyroid since we knew that was an ongoing issue, then to run a specific test for PCOS (Poly-Cystic Ovarian Syndrome), and whatever other workups they thought were necessary. They also suggested doing an ultrasound, and depending on those results, we discussed doing a HSG test (Hysterosalpingogram - x-ray of dye inserted into the fallopian tubes). We did the ultrasound right there in the office and they said I "got an A" - everything looked healthy and normal.
I left with papers to take to the lab for blood work. I also left the office feeling like a giant weight had been lifted. These doctors made us both feel completely comfortable and at ease, and trusting that they would help us figure out a plan so we could become parents one day.
We left to go out of town that night. Literally left the doctors office to go home to finish packing, grab some dinner, and drive to the airport. We then spent a week with family, so there wasn't a lot of time for either of us to really process how we felt until after we got back home.
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
As soon as we were home from our week long trip, I called the lab to set up my appointment for a glucose test and other blood work. I've done a glucose test before, it's not fun. I don't really like needles and blood, and I think I'm always really dehydrated because my veins are never cooperative.
When I went in for my appointment the nurse was completely in shock over all of the tests they were supposed to be running. I wanted to cry when I saw the labels for the viles being printed; hoping that I wouldn't pass out since I had to fast for 12 hours before going in.
I was at the lab for a little over three hours. I actually kind of liked the orange glucose drink... it's like drinking a flat Orange Crush. I got cold, and slightly woozy feeling around the two hour mark. But at least I got to sit in a comfy recliner.
The next day I hopped on a plane to head to Wisconsin to visit with my family for about a week. By the time I returned home, I logged in online and saw that all SEVENTEEN of my test results were in. However, I had no clue what any of them meant. Back on the 26th the doctors told me they would call me when my results were in so we could schedule the HSG test - I'd already signed all the waivers and had a prescription for a medicine to take the night before the procedure. I was all set, just waiting for the phone call. I waited and waited.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Finally, today, on the 24th, I called the office to see what was going on. I spoke with a nurse who said all of my files were on the doctors desk with some notes about running more tests, but she said it looked like he wasn't done deciding what we were going to do next. She said she'd talk to him in the morning and then call me back. She apologized for it having been so long, it wasn't like our files got shuffled and lost, he was really working on them in between other patients.
I'm suddenly nervous about what it means that it's taken two weeks for them to not have called. I'm guessing that I won't be getting any sleep at all tonight.
