Saturday, February 2, 2008

It's been a long road...

Ben and I started trying to get pregnant in February 2006. Whoever thought it would be such a long road!? I think most people think that all it takes is a few attempts at unprotected sex, and BOOM - you're pregnant. What most people don't realize is that it also takes a body and reproductive organs that are able to play ball!

I started charting my basal body temperatures and trying to figure out when I was ovulating based on those temps and using ovulation predictor kits (OPKs) in April 06. It didn't take long to realize that something wasn't right. I went to see OBGYN Dr. John Carroll in August or September 06. I showed him my charts and told him I didn't think I was ovulating. He agreed with me.

After obtaining my GYN medical records and getting our ducks in a row, Dr. Carroll did a hysterosalpingogram (HSG), which is a procedure in which dye is injected under the watch of x-ray to check out the anatomy of the uterus and fallopian tubes. My HSG was somewhat inconclusive. It appeared that one tube was wide open, but that the other may have a blockage.

Dr. Carrol than started me on a drug called Clomid in October 06. I started off at 50mg, and was monitored by transvaginal ultrasound (u/s) mid-cycle to determine if I was producing eggs for ovulation. The Clomid seemed to be working, as I started producing eggs and was finally ovulating.

During the second round of Clomid in November 06, Dr. Carroll found a large cyst on my ovary that he recommended we remove as soon as possible. A week later, I underwent a laparoscopy to remove the cyst. The cyst was large and turned out to be an endometrioma, a cyst that results from endometriosis (endo).

A week after the laparoscopy, I landed in the hospital for five days with a serious infection that caused me to need a blood transfusion and tube put in to drain the infected abscess. During my hosptialization, Dr. Carroll told us that the results had come back on the sperm analysis (SA) that had been done, and everything with Ben's swimmers looked great! He also gave us our options on how to proceed. We could either continue on Clomid for a few more months, or take some time off to do a drug treatment to reduce any residual cysts that may remain from the endo. I told him I wanted to keep at the Clomid.

Four more months passed on 100mg of Clomid, and I did not become pregnant. It was in April of 2007 that we decided to move on to the next step...

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