Phone Consultation

Well, we talked to Dr. Surrey last night and it went as expected. We didn’t get a whole lot of information because we can’t really get that information until we have tests done. The good news is (I guess it’s good news) he wants me to go ahead and have blood work done here to determine my hormone levels before we travel all the way out to Colorado. He said last time my FSH levels were normal, but my AMH levels were low. He assumes my levels have gotten worse (obviously), but we just don’t know how much worse. So he wants to figure that out first before we travel for more tests. The way he put it was if he has to give us bad news, he’d rather do it over the phone than making us travel to hear it. That makes sense to me and I’m glad for that. It’s just that he kind of made it pretty clear that he doesn’t expect my levels to be that great, and the chance of bad news is pretty likely. However, I have to remember that when we first went to Colorado for a one day work up, we were going for a donor egg one day work up. Then after they did some of these tests, we got the news that we would be able to try with my own eggs. So I guess I’m just praying for a miracle at this point. And I’m glad for a doctor that doesn’t give me false hope.

The nurse is supposed to call me to give me the directions for getting the blood work done. I have to do it on Cycle Days 2-4, which will probably fall sometime around next weekend. I’m assuming they’ll send me a container, I’ll take it to a lab, get my blood work done, freeze it in my freezer, then send it back to CCRM. So hopefully that means I’ll be getting the results in less than 2 weeks. Now that we’ve started, I’m ready to get the show on the road…or at least know the plans ahead of me. It’s still easier this time around though. I have plenty of things to distract me, and for her I’ll be forever grateful!

My CCRM phone consultation

So my phone consultation was last night. It went pretty well, I guess. Dr. Surrey didn’t tell me much of anything that I wasn’t expecting, or didn’t already know. He threw out some idea of tests that I need to be sure to do, to make sure the hubby and I aren’t carriers of certain disorders. He said that women under the age of 40 with a high FSH (that’s me!) tend to be carriers of the fragil x gene – which causes mental Retardation. He also wants to be sure that hubby and I aren’t carriers of cystic fibrosis. He also told me some supplements I could take to improve egg quality, which I will start taking IMMEDIATELY!

The main thing he told me was that he was concerned that at my last egg retrieval I had 5 follicles but only got one mature egg from them. He said that I may not have responded to the trigger shot and that CCRM fixes that by doing blood work the day after the trigger to make sure you’ve responded to it, and if you haven’t they give you supplementary injections to make you respond to it. Or it could just mean that my egg supply is so low that there were never any eggs. If that’s the case there’s not much they can do. Let’s hope it’s the first option! I mentioned that I felt like my RE may have jumped the gun a little bit – that he was so excited that I was actually growing some follicles that he may have triggered me too early, and Dr. Surrey said that was very possible – the he would normally like to see the follicles be larger than mine were at egg retrieval.

Anyway, he wants me to go out and do the 1 day work up with them. He wants me to go through all of the testing for IVF plus all of the testing for using donor eggs. That way if we find out that we need to go the donor egg route, we are already set to do that – no more wasting time! I’ll do lots of blood work, ultrasounds to look at my antral follicle count which will give me a good idea of how many eggs I actually do have left, and an extensive look at my uterus to make sure there aren’t any problems there. Hubby and I will also have a session with the psychologist to discuss our thoughts on donor eggs – which will probably be very beneficial. In fact, I think that’s the part I’m most looking forward to!

So I’ll call today and set all that up, I guess. And then it’s a matter of waiting for my next cycle to begin and figuring out when I can go out there. He didn’t seem very optimistic that my chances are great with my eggs, but I appreciate his honesty nonetheless. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what all of the test results from the one day workup tell us! Colorado, here we come!

Anxiously Waiting

We have a phone consultation at CCRM (Colorado Center of Reproductive Medicine) who are supposed to be number one in the country. The consultation is Monday and I just got a phone call from them to let me know that my appointment time has been postponed an hour. I know it’s just an hour and it’s not that big of a deal, but I must admit that that is going to be one extra hour that I am sitting by the phone and stressing out! I am so ready for that conversation I can hardly stand it! They will either tell me that there is a chance they could help me and I need to go out there for a one day work up so they can get more information, or worst case scenario, they’ll tell me that there’s nothing they can do other than help me with donor eggs. I really think they’ll try to help me. I’m pretty sure they see people like me all the time.

I just wish I could see into the future. The waiting is the worst!