Laparoscopies and hysteroscopies and HSG's and D&C's, oh my!

On Monday at 5:30 a.m. I arrived at the Foothills hospital for exploratory slash diagnostic surgery on my reproductive bits. We started with the time consuming admissions process as soon as we arrived and I was shuttled to the waiting room outside the operating suite by 7:15. The anaesthesiologist (boo yeah, spelled that right the first time!) came for a chat about my history of being knocked the eff out (medically, not physically) and I mentioned to him that I have difficult veins. And when I say they're difficult, I mean they are jerks. They look like they're right there, but they're tricking you. They tricked this guy into poking my six times before he finally got in to a vein. Yet again, I've got that junkie look going on.

By that time I'd been walked in to the operating room and had both arms splayed out and strapped down. Dr. Foong has done the briefing and now I've been injected with something nice and relaxing and wow, look at how the ceiling tiles are moving and this is sooo...zzzzzz...

I woke up in the recovery room around 10:15 with some pretty decent pain. I remember telling the nurse that it felt like a 6 or 7 out of ten and she kept pumping me full of morphine until it was all a lovely fog. By the time I was moved to my own room, I felt much, much better, but they gave me an oxycontin anyhow. Great service and great nurses. However, when Derek picked me up at noon-ish, I was nauseous to the point of not being able to really move. From the drugs or general, I'm not sure, but that was the worst I've ever felt after a procedure, ugh. I spent the rest of the day on the couch with a bucket and went to bed early.

Because work is hellishly busy I was back to the grind the next day (yesterday). Luckily, I mostly sit at a desk, but the gas pain in my shoulders and under my diaphragm were more than uncomfortable and I was glad for the T3's. Today, the second day after the surgery, I feel better but still sore, and when I went for my follow up, Dr. Foong told me I'm a trooper because most patients are still at home on percocet's at this point.

The diagnosis? Everything is clean as a whistle. No endometriosis, no adhesions, ovaries look healthy, my remaining tube - old righty - is clear, good healing where they removed my left tube. The only somewhat significant finding, which we already sort of knew, is that my uterus is severely tilted forward. So much so that when she was doing the hysteroscopy, she said she was almost laying on the floor so she could angle the camera in to my uterus properly. This shouldn't affect fertility, it can just cause issues with passing catheters through the cervix during procedures, which we've already had lots of experience with.

Since we're not really doing anything medically until November-ish, we're doing the 'not trying, not preventing' thing until then. She agreed to write me a prescription for DHEA - it's a prescription in Canada and the clinic has to have it specially made because it's not available here - and also has me on CoQ10. There is some evidence that both of these promote healthy development of eggs in certain types of people (FYI, don't take this without talking to your RE if you have PCOS), and it's sort of a can't hurt, might help thing for now. I have three month's worth, so we'll see what happens.

Otherwise, all squared away for the rest of the year. We're coming due for another 'natural' pregnancy, which seems to happen once a year, so we're on the immediate attention list at the fertility clinic, as I'm at high risk for ectopics. We're still holding out hope for a successful natural pregnancy, as many IFers do deep in their hearts, but at least we can still look forward to the FET this fall.

Random Spring Update

I say spring, but looking out the front window at ~20 cm's of snow makes me feel differently.

There hasn't been an update for a few months because we've been in a holding pattern (still in two week intervals despite not officially TTC right now) and I've been focused on work and school the last few months. However, two fairly relevant events have happened.

First, we are done our homestudy through the public adoption system. We ended up with three visits of 2 to 3 hours with the homestudy worker and are expecting our draft report in the next few weeks. We have decided to do 'child-specific' (for S) with the option to amend in 2014 to a general homestudy for our age range (which is 0 to 7). On the topic of S, as far as we are aware, she is back with mom full time with no supervisory order. I won't elaborate, but I can say that my faith in the system is broken. While I understand the goal of Child and Family Services is to keep families together, they are not providing the tools S and her mother need to ensure this transition is successful. Rather, they depend on her respite families like Derek and I, and members of Derek's family, to provide that to S and her mother, not just emotionally and physically, but financially as well. So, we just wait and see. Story of our life.

Secondly, I go in for a laparoscopy, D&C and hysteroscopy tomorrow morning to look for endometriosis, scar tissue from my ectopic and fallopian tube removal, and to clean things out a bit. I've had this surgery before and know what to expect. I'll show up at 5:30 am (ugh), sit in the hospital bed for a couple of hours while they insert the IV (last time they popped a vein - gah!) and do all the paper work, then get walked in to the OR. I'm put under general, so they strap my arms to the bed as they get my legs in position and give me a good shot of valium. Nice and relaxed, they tell me to count backwards from 100...I think I made it to 97 last time. I woke up in recovery an hour later and made my way home around noon. I only yesterday remembered the aggravation (and pain) of the gas they use to inflate the abdomen trying to escape through my impermeable shoulders, so my grand plan to use this opportunity to work on my research is kaiboshed as I'll be horizontal all day. Following this, the doctor will give me a prescription for DHEA (yes, it's prescription here in Canada) and we'll start actively TTC for the summer while waiting for me to finish my thesis and get ready for our FET in November.

I have another update related to our February Skype call with Dr. Hudson at the Victoria Fertility Clinic  that I'll try and post tomorrow as I'm laid up. The long and short of it is if our FET fails this November, we're moving to VFC and doing the three IVF plan. 2014 is looking to be a busy year, though I hope it's busy for one reason - like pregnancy resulting from the FET - over another.