Friday afternoon I went to my OBs office to have my endometrial biopsy. This is only the second time I have seen my OB ever. My family practice doctor has always done my annual exams and with three REs and countless nurses looking at my hooha over the last 2.5 years I just haven't had a reason to go to my OB. The first time I went to see her she did an exam and ordered my HSG to be performed at my local hospital. This time I had to have her pull another favor for me: to do my biopsy as ordered by Dr. School.craft at CCRM. She was more than happy to do it.
As I was waiting for her to enter the room my palms began to sweat and I was really nervous. The last time I had one done I was in so much pain during and for two days after the procedure. My local REs office had done the biopsy, but my local RE was out of town so one of his colleagues did it and ouchy ouchy! She had to put the speculum in three times- yep three different speculums. Not quite sure how big she thought I was, but holy cow it hurt! She had difficulty dilating my cervix and then I felt the horrible scratchy scratch of the gauze as it scraped my lining. I was prescribed Vicodin after the procedure and my lower abdomen hurt for two days. Needless to say, not a pleasant experience.
This time, when my OB entered the room she asked if I had ever had one of these done. After I explained to her my previous experience she said "okay, well, I am going to try to eliminate that pain. Do you mind if I use Novocain to numb it?" Ah, the angels were on my side on Friday! The procedure took about 10 minutes and I only felt a couple of little cramps. While she was conducting the procedure she and I were making small talk. I thanked her so much for doing this procedure for me. She replied that she was "happy to do it" and that she "hopes that this helps us have success". She also briefly mentioned that she had to do some "fancy stuff" to have children, but not as much as I have done. She said that she knows what it is like and she said that she "would have walked over hot coals in order to have a child" when she was going through IF. I agreed. I told her that if someone told me to jump off of a bridge today and that I would be pregnant tomorrow that I would do it in a heartbeat.
I took my specimen (endometrial lining) with me when I left her office since she agreed to do the procedure, but did not want to be responsible for shipping it. I have my lining sitting up on my bathroom counter at room temperature. I will go to the post office tomorrow and follow the detailed instructions to ship it off to Boston tomorrow for testing. My cervix is still feeling not normal and it is a bit uncomfortable to relieve my bladder, but I am thankful that this appears to be the end of my testing before we do another IVF cycle.
I have also started reading more of The Infertility Cure by Randine Lewis. It is a great book and I hope to read a bit more before I make some calls this week to find out more about electro-acupuncture. I want to call the acupuncturist in CO that the CCRM nurse referred me to in order to find out more information and to find some good tips on finding someone locally to perform this on me. I have found two people locally who do electro-acupuncture for infertility, but I want to interview them over the phone before I spend the time and money to go see them. I hope to gather more info so that I can make an educated decision on who to go with. If you remember, this is to improve the blood flow to my uterus.
On another note...DH and I joined a gym several weeks ago. I stepped on the scale and I have lost 7 pounds! I know it doesn't seem like much, but it is progress. As my dear friend, S, told me when I was at the 5 pound weight-loss mark "go to the grocery store and pick up a bag of potatoes. Five pounds is a lot". I still want to lose another 10-15 pounds to get down to my wedding day weight, but everything takes time. With starting a new cycle again in the next couple months I am not sure how feasible it is to continue to lose weight, so we shall see how it goes.
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5 comments:
Congrats on the weight loss! I'm glad to hear that the procedure went well this time. I too read the Infertility Cure and enjoyed it. If you are looking for a practitioner, I have seen two in the Minneapolis area. These are the girls that have come to RMIA to do my pre- and post-transfer sessions. They both specialize in IF, so I'd be happy to pass along their names.
I was hanging onto every word as I'm supposed to do the same endo biopsy this cycle, I'm quite terrified. I will definitely be asking for the numbing injection! So glad to hear that it went much better for you this time. Can't wait to hear your results.
Congrats on the weight loss, 7 lbs is great!
Great news on the endo biopsy! I've heard they can be very painful. I read another blog (Sky's) and she is ready to do hers but is also kind of nervous...its amazing what we go through for this!
About the electo-acupuncture...I used to teach yoga to a woman who was on her 5th IVF. Her major issue was VERY low uterine blood flow. Well, they tried her on everything - including Viagra. The only thing that worked was the electro-acupuncture. After she started treatment, about 2.5 months in, she did another IVF and got pregnant. I saw her and her beautiful little girl a few months ago! I think that is very much the way to go if you have low blood flow! Good Luck!
I'm glad your endo biopsy wasn't that bad this time around and you're healing. I've had one done and didn't find it to be that bad but that is not everyone's experience.
I bought Randine Lewis' book a long time ago and find myself returning to it time and time again as a resource. I am currently working with a TCM (traditional Chinese medicine doctor) here that is affiliated with the Fertile Soul (Randine Lewis' organization) and she has recommended someone in the Fertile Soul network for acupuncture while I am down in Denver for my cycle. She's located about a half hour away from CCRM if you want to check her out - Jane Gregorie at Acupuncture Denver http://www.acudenver.com/. GL!
Kris, BIG CONGRATS on the weight loss. I joined Weight Watchers 4 weeks ago and am down 8 lbs. I would love to be down another 20 before a BFP and if I'd just start exercising, it may actually happen. Good for you for the gym - it DOES make a difference. Not only in order to burn calories but to just change our state of mind.
That's awesome girl!
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