Come on APRIL!

Hello loves!!


I know I haven't posted since I informed you all that I was indeed, NOT pregnant.  It's been a bit of a whirlwind and I know I told you all that I would be doing IUI this cycle, but we actually are not.  When I went to schedule my baseline ultrasound, the nurse informed me that the doctor wanted to discuss some things before proceeding with another round of IUI.  Then she told me she couldn't get me in until the next week.  I'll admit, I was a bit frustrated with having to sit this cycle out, but maybe it was divine timing and it just wasn't my time to do another IUI.

Well, I met with my doctor yesterday to discuss some things.  Now I know I told you guys in an earlier post about the uterine abnormality that was found on my HSG, but I honestly didn't know what it was called and I was actually a bit confused on what it was.  I actually have a cross between an uterine arcuate and a septated (partial) uterus.  Here is a picture--- 

Mine are the two that are circled.  The problem with this, is that it can make it harder to implant and can increase chances of miscarriage of the embryo implants at the top of the uterus.  The theory is that the top of the uterus doesn't have a very enriched endometrium, therefore it doesn't provide enough nutrients for the embryo to continue to grow.  According to my physician, mine case isn't the worst he's seen, but he wanted to discuss surgical options.  We talked about if I have another miscarriage, that surgery is an option that he definitely wants to visit, but for now, he doesn't recommend that I have surgery (THANK GOODNESS). 

The second thing that he wanted to discuss, was changing my medications to make me ovulate.  On my first round of IUI I was doing metformin, letrozole and an HCG trigger shot, but I only produced one 18mm follicle.  We discussed potentially switching to Follistim, but due to the cost of the injection alone and the fact that we would be increasing my monitoring (more ultrasounds and bloodwork), which would increase the cost even more, we decided that wasn't a road my husband and I were ready to go down.  We decided to try clomid instead.  Here is the layout for my next round of IUI that should start in April:

Day 1- Period starts, baseline ultrasound to confirm that I don't have any cysts on my ovaries.  Start 1500mg of Metformin.
Days 5-9- 100mg of Clomid
Day 14- Midcycle ultrasound.

The rest of the cycle will depend on my midcycle ultrasound.  If you remember, my last midcycle ultrasound was on day 12.  We realized that I didn't respond the medication as quickly as others do and that I'm not actually ovulating til much later in my cycle, so he switched my days around.

My doctor seems positive that IUI will work for us and he told me he just knew I was going to get pregnant from IUI alone, but first, we needed to beat up Mother Nature a bit.

I hope everyone has been well & have a safe St. Patty's Day weekend!

No Bun & No Cake

As much as I didn’t want to write the post, I knew I had to.  You can tell just by the title that my IUI this month was a big fat FAIL.  If you remember my post from last week, you’ll know that I had a feeling it didn’t work.  Even having a feeling it wasn’t going to work, didn’t make it in easier to see a negative pregnancy test.  Negative pregnancy tests never get easier.  I was 14 days past my IUI when I could take my test and of course it was negative.  I went to my doctor’s office the next day to verify with a blood test & my blood test was indeed negative.  To be honest, I didn’t cry.  I cried the day before taking my at home pregnancy test, because I knew it had failed, but after getting both results, I didn’t cry.  I don’t cry at negative pregnancy tests anymore—I get angry.

As a woman, getting pregnant is one of our most basic functions and I’m angered that it hasn’t happened to me yet (other than my miscarriage).  

I thought we were going to take the month off from doing another cycle, but my husband and I decided we could and will try again this cycle.  I started my period today, so that means I’ll go in tomorrow for a baseline ultrasound to confirm that I don’t have any cysts on my ovaries.  If I do have cysts, we will have to cancel the cycle, but if I’m cyst free, I can start my medication on day 3 of my cycle (Thursday).  I’ll be discussing will my physician changing my medication from Letrozole to Clomid.  I only had one follicle last month on Letrozole and my physician wants to see more.  He suggested doing injectable medication, but the cost of that is outrageous, plus I’d be going to more frequent ultrasounds and blood work which will take our 500ish dollars a month to well over 2-3 thousand for a month of IUI. 

I do have one big reservation about taking Clomid—the first and only time I took Clomid, I didn’t ovulate.  I was only on 50mg, so I’ll probably ask to start on a much higher dose to try to get as many follicles as possible.

My doctor also wanted to discuss possibly doing surgery on my uterine abnormality.  I’ll be honest when I say that I don’t want to have surgery.  I have some anxiety thinking about having someone (regardless of how awesome they are) do surgery on the very necessary item you need to carry a child.  What if he makes a mistake and I end up losing my uterus—all those dreams of having children are immediately thrown out the window with a mistake.

Cheers to a new cycle of IUI and praying it works this time!