Off to the RE

Well... I had the shortest cycle I've ever had last month... only 27 days. On to cycle 21 and off to see the RE. Hopefully it won't be a long wait to get in, guess I'll find out tomorrow when I call. I also need to get a cavity filled and my doctor referred me to an ENT about the lymphnode on the side of my neck so I need to get that appointment in somewhere too. It's a good thing we finally have an HR manager at work because it looks like I might have to miss a little here and there with all the doctors/dentist appointments I have to make. Hopefully we can get some answers. Mostly, I'm just praying Ken will hear about his next orders soon and that he will actually get to come home. Ugh.

Stress & TTC

To all well meaning advice givers.... here is an article stating that they have not been able to find a connection between stress and having trouble conceiving.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/health/research/01baby.html?_r=4
So unfortunately.... "just relax and it will happen" is not a cure for infertility... wish it was. Thanks anyway :).

Pregnant? Or Infertile?

So a year ago yesterday, our hopes were dashed when I miscarried. It's not something I try to focus on, but sometimes I find myself thinking about it just a little. I didn't have a melt down or anything in October when we would have had a baby... I felt like I handled all of that well.... but yesterday was a little different. Either I'm pregnant and we'll be ecstatic, or I'm not and I'm officially considered infertile. I am getting the process going for my referral for the RE (reproductive endocrinologist) so we can go next month if the lovely AF ("aunt flo") arrives. I'll be seeing my doctor on Monday to get the referral and my OBGYN has already given me the name of who he thinks I should go to. I'm also planning on having my doctor biopsy the swollen lymph-node on the side of my neck... it makes me nervous and I'd like some peace of mind about it.

Some other news.... Ken went to the urologist to see if he could get some answers on why his morphology has been so low. The urologist checked for a variciole and he doesn't have one (YAY!) and then looked at his previous SA results. He says that since Ken's overall count is higher than most... that it somehow throws off the average (??) and he is not worried about the morphology. This left me kind of confused, since this is very different from what the fertility clinic (where Ken had the SA done) told my OBGYN. The urologist seemed to be very knowledgeable and told Ken about some different studies, so I guess I am just happy that the count being high is in our favor. And we'll see what the RE says if we end up going.

So here's to hoping and praying that I'm pregnant and not infertile :).

CD 3 Bloodwork

So my last blood test came back and my FSH, LH, and estrogen levels are all normal, or "perfect" as my doctor says. Ken was finally able to get a referral to go see a urologist and see if we can find out the cause for his quality numbers being off. If we're not pregnant after this month, I'll be making an appointment to see a fertility specialist (reproductive endocrinologist or RE) and move on to the next step... which is probably IUI. Maybe we'll get lucky and end up pregnant this month... hey, I can hope/pray.

Part 4: Testing, 1, 2, 3

So here we are in phase 4 of our TTC journey... testing, testing, and more testing. We have all our ducks in a row and I'm ready to get this show on the road. When we went to see my Dr., I handed him both of Ken's SA results and all of my charts from the past year. It's clear that I ovulate and don't have a short luteal phase.

The first test I was an HSG. It was AWFUL. So basically what they do is put a catheter in your cervix and shoot some dye into your uterus and take some pictures via a continuous x-ray machine. I was told to take a couple ibuprofen before hand because the test can cause some cramping, so I did about an hour or so prior. Well first the light that was hooked up to the speculum wasn't working properly. So as I'm laying on the table with my feet up and legs open... the nurses are trying to fix the stupid light and get it working again. Gee thanks for leaving me feeling like I'm open for all to see (although I think my gown was actually covering me during this time). So they get it working, kinda, and bring the radiologist in to do the test. Everything was fine... until they started shooting the dye into my uterus... I then proceeded to get the WORST cramps of my life. They take the pictures and I'm finally set free. Cramps are still awful and I'm leaking dye as I'm trying to get my clothes back on... lovely, I know. I even walked funny to the car I was hurting so bad... thank God Ken was there with me. So results come back about a week later and everything is normal. My uterus has a normal structure, no visible issues, and my tubes are open. Awesome... next!

Next is bloodwork. The first set of bloodwork was to check my progesterone level, prolactin, thyroid, and CBC (complete blood count). All came out normal. So I went today for cd 3 bloodwork that will check my FSH, LH, and estrogen levels. I'm sure all of these are fine, so I'm not worried about them. Afterall, I've already done the at home FSH test, I can always detect my LH surge on OPKs, and since estrogen affects CM and I usually have good CM... I'm not too worried. I guess is gives a baseline though so we know what kind of dose I would need for fertility drugs if needed.

I'm not sure if there is any other testing lined up for me after we get these results back. It seems like the next step may be IUI. Ken has an appointment to try and get a referral to see a urologist about his SA results to see if there's more testing he can get to find if there's a root cause to the  morphology issue that maybe can be fixed. Fingers crossed.

Well, at least Ken's schedule lines up perfectly this month and I will be ovulating on or around Valentine's Day and Ken will be home that entire weekend. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and it will happen on our own without having to do any treatments. Wouldn't that be nice :).

Part 3: Starting Over

My OBGYN told us we didn't have to wait to start trying again... so back on the saddle we went. I was curious about Ken's results from the SA (which we thought we didn't need)... so he went to get the report from base medical. All of his numbers were great...except for morphology, only 3% normal. My online research told me the basically each fertility specialist will probably have a different opinion on what to do about it... we can just keep trying and it may not mean much, and some jump straight to invitro. Well, we did just get pregnant on our own... so we decide to just keep trying. The first few months after a miscarriage can be super fertile months, so maybe it will happen again soon. I was still going to acupuncture and following her dietary suggestions so I was thinking this would work.

Well, the 3 months of supposed extra fertile time passed, and still nothing. The school year ended and I officially left teaching for a while. I was hoping less stress would help and maybe we'd be pregnant soon. In June, we found out Ken could go to acupuncture and only have to be treated once and then take the daily herbs and it could help his numbers and quality (unlike having to go weekly like me). So Ken went to his first acupuncture treatment and starts the herbs. Since it takes 3 months for new sperm to fully develop and mature, I'm good with continuing to try and hope it happens.

August comes and goes and it's nice not going back to school. I am really enjoying staying home. the house actually stays pretty clean, I've been able to get a bunch of projects done, and I even had time to paint again. But since we still aren't pregnant.... I'm going to need a job to pay for the acupuncture. When I budgeted for me to quit, I wasn't counting on the extra expense of acupuncture. So I applied at a bunch of places and even had an interview for a library job. I was really pumped and hopeful that I would get it with all my past library experience, but no. So I my awesome neighbor got me an interview at Target. They hired me on working at the Starbucks. After training for just 3 days (and being worried I wasn't getting enough hours to pay for acupuncture), they offer me a job in HR. It was perfect.... normal hours, no weekends, I'm not on my feet all day, and I was actually getting the number of hours I needed too. And best of all, NO STRESS. With everything falling into place so nicely, I thought for sure we'd be getting pregnant any month now.

We pass the 3 month mark (post Ken's acupuncture) and still nothing. Despite Ken's awful schedule, he has been able to come home so we can have good timing EVERY month. We haven't missed a month yet. So we decide if it doesn't happen by December, we'll ask for another SA and get me scheduled for testing. December rolls around and Ken get's another SA. Quantities are still great, morphology actually went up a % to 4% but it's still low, but motility went down 9% and is no low. So Ken goes back for more acupuncture and I get my referral to go to me OBGYN for some tests. It's now been almost a year since the miscarriage and a year and a half since we starting trying.

So January is the month to start my testing. We're going to take a break from TTC this month, which I think will be good for us. We even decided to use the Universal tickets we've had for years and go see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Then we'll see where it goes from the testing.