Tuesday, January 3, 2012

What's Wrong With My Lady Parts?

I feel like I've told this same story a zillion times, but I think I can do it once more. A few years ago I was diagnosed with ovarian cysts and endometriosis. Endo really sucks, but mine has only ever gotten to stage two, so I consider myself lucky. Every once in awhile, a doctor will tell us that I have a bicornate uterus. That means that the outside is shaped like a heart rather than nice and round shaped. This has little impact on fertility because blood flow is still good in the uterus. So, we didn't really worry ourselves over it. One doctor did offer to cut my uterus in half and stitch it back together. I wasn't feeling that, which is the reason we left out third fertility doc.

Over the last 8 years, we've seen many fertility doctors, attempted adoption and still ended up empty handed. To say we were frustrated would be putting it mildly. After a dream that I had, which brought me an amazing peace about losing our baby, I decided I was ready to try again. I did some research and found that one of the most successful fertility doctors in our state happens to be a little over an hour from our home. To make it better, he is a war veteran. That was comforting to me. Living with a war vet, I know first hand that they can complete difficult missions under extreme pressure and won't stop until the job is done. Plus, they take care of their own. Considering that getting Chad and I to have another baby was a mission in need of someone like this, we hired him. Of course, Chad had to meet him and decide he wasn't a self-absorbed prick first. His words, not mine.

Our newest fertility doc, did this most awful test where they shoot a crap ton of saline in your uterus. It wasn't fun, to say the least. But, he found that I do NOT have a bicornate uterus. It is, in fact, a septum coming down the middle of my uterus. If a baby implants on it, the survival rate is very meek. From the research I've done, most babies like to settle down in the top middle part of the uterus...right where the septum starts. This carries a miscarriage rate of 80%. Having it removed reverses the miscarriage/success rate to that of a normal woman. The septum, a band of fibers which has no blood flow, can be removed through surgery. We were both thrilled and pissed. Thrilled because after 8 years, we may have found our biggest issue. Pissed because it took 8 years for someone to finally  look into why we couldn't get pregnant.

So, surgery has been scheduled. Three weeks from Friday, I'll have my new, improved ultra uterus. Whoopie! Oh, and I have to be on birth control pills before and after the surgery. How funny is that? Someone who hasn't been able to get pregnant for 8 years has to be on birth control?! Ha! I understand why, it's just funny! In February, we'll decide what our next steps will be. Most likely, I'll want to shoot myself full of drugs and do an IUI. This new doc wants to be aggressive, and so do we. I can't let my new uterus go bad :)

No comments:

Post a Comment