Better Late Than Never...

So I left work early on Wednesday and Rob was going to meet me downtown to go to our much anticipated RE appointment. It was the first appointment he's ever gone to with me, and other than his sperm analysis last summer he had to go in for, it is his first infertility related appointment. Here is how it went...

I got downtown half an hour early, I think it was the excitement and the nerves that made it just impossible for me to sit at work for any longer than humanly necessary that day. I parked and walked into the building where the offices were, but I didn't want to go in all by myself. How ridiculous is that? I've been to a million appointments by myself, and this one I just couldn't go in. Instead sat on the bench by the elevator and called Rob for the millionth time that day. The first 999,999 times I was asking him if he knew how to get there, when he was going to leave, again " Are you SURE you remember how to get here?"

After I had confirmed that, yes, he did in fact know how to get there since I had told him a couple times earlier that day I sat and waited for him on the bench. As I waited quite a few couples came in and out of the office. I tried not to stare but they intrigued me. I kept thinking "Wow, all of these people are in the same boat as us." It is pretty funny, even after talking to hundreds of women having trouble trying to get pregnant on message boards and reading the IF blogs, infertility is still a really insular thing. For some strange reason it surprised me the amount of couples that went in and out of this office. Really young, not so young and some that were downright old. I swear, one man and wife looked like they just may be senior citizens. I do realize that we're really not the only infertiles in the Portland-Metro area, but it just caught me off guard.

It turns out that Rob did know how to get there. He arrived 5 minutes after my last nagging phone call instructing him exactly how to get into the parking garage. I was so glad to see him, even though he was covered head to toe in mud since he had come straight from work.

Once checked in and in the waiting room we didn't wait long at all until we were called back by Dr. H himself, which sort of threw me off. I'm so used to being called back to a waiting room by a nurse and waiting even longer for a doctor. I've never actually seen a doctor walk into a waiting room to get a patient. We went back to his office and I immediately felt comfortable with him. We sat and talked about how long we'd been trying and went over all of our records that were sent to him. He said we had things that have some really positive things about us and also some things that were negative. Positive, we're young and healthy with no diagnosed problems. Negative, we've been off of birth control for four years and actively trying for two. Not so good.

Dr. H totally shocked Rob by telling us that a couple just starting out TTC at our age only has a 25% chance of conceiving every month, (I sat there smug, I totally knew that YEARS ago...HA). Then he shocked me by saying that after how long we've been trying, statistically, we have less than a 3% chance of conceiving naturally every month. That I did not know! We went over our options, IUI with Clomid, IUI with injectables, or IVF. Our chances with Clomid/IUI are 15%... which doesn't sound great compared to the 60% chance with IVF, but then again I don't have a spare $10,000 lying around. Too bad.

Dr. H was concerned about my hemorrhagic cyst that I had in November. He was worried that if it was misdiagnosed and the cyst was still there it might indicate endometriosis. He suggested we do an U/S since I was at the perfect time in my cycle,CD3, to confirm it was gone. Rob actually sat in on the ultrasound and let me tell you, his eyes went about as big as saucers when he saw the size of the wand. He was like "He's going to put that WHERE?" Yes, now you see what I go through Rob. Welcome to my world. It was nice to have him there, being a part of it and actually seeing that I'm not just skipping over to a doctor's office and having a friendly chat, in actuality that I'm being violated by a wand the size of a those clubs you put on your steering wheel to keep it from being stolen. Not so fun, especially when you're bleeding like a stuck pig on CD 3 and have cramps. The good news, the doctor found 5 and 6 follies on either side but no cyst! Yay!

We went back to his office after the U/S ,(I was really impressed with the amount of time he had set aside for just us), and went over Rob's SA from last year. We had never been given the actual numbers by my GYN, she had just said that "Everything looks good", which was always seemed kind of vague to me. And good indeed, his numbers were all well above what they like to see. Rob got all puffed up and proud of himself, and I had to make a concerted effort not to laugh. Guys and their sperm... so funny.

Dr. H told us that he would recommend starting with Clomid + IUI and see how it goes for the first cycle. I started Clomid on April 3rd, will start OPKs on the 11th and hopefully go in for my IUI around the 14th or 15th if my body behaves and doesn't pull an early ovulation on me. I really feel like this was such a good decision to finally get out of this rut we've been in.

Thank you for all the good wishes! Keep them coming for lucky IUI Cycle #1!

**** I was just about to end this blog when Rob walked in with a dozen roses and a card for me, just because. He is the best husband a girl could ask for. Instead of a quote I'll share what he wrote to me in the card...****

"Thank you for everything that you do honey. I love you so much. Don't worry about anything. We'll be OK, after all you're stuck with me forever. I love you!"

-Rob