Thursday, November 30, 2006

An Apple A Day

Well I think I like my new doctor. She was easy enough to talk to even if she didn't laugh at all my jokes. The new patient questionnaire was a bit annoying especially when it got to the section that created an opening for you to talk about potential domestic abuse 'who do you live with, do you feel safe...' I tried to skip most of them but they gave it back to me to complete. I told her that my reason for scheduling the appt was that I had been trying to get pregnant for most of this past year and had some fertility concerns. I was going to go with 12 months since that's the magic referral number but wanted to leave some wiggle room for making up my mind. Easy enough, I said it out loud and just left out the on my own part.

Once we got to talking about the details of trying like how long, how often and who my partner was and what our relationship was it got weird. She asked for specifics like his name and then wanted the correct spelling. I was caught off guard and said "X" and now I'm uncomfortable that his name is in my chart and wish that I said something like H*enry R*ollins. If I'm going to make something up I should have aimed higher, right. I suppose we can pretend break up by my next appt. The lying was mostly about not cluing in my insurance just yet but I was glad for that excuse. Turns out I do have some issues and got a referral to a fertility specialist anyway. Apparently I have a large fibroid that is the equivalent of being 5 months pregnant. I knew cookies weren't the only reason that my pants are too tight. Funny thing - once she pointed out where my uterus was and that you could feel the fibroid I was a little disappointed because I thought that the hardness I had felt was muscle tone!

We reviewed my months of charting and she also confirmed that I may have a Luteal Phase defect which I had suspected. This is concerning because the time between ovulation and the beginning of my period wouldn't be long enough for an embryo to implant if fertilization were to occur. I have to go back for an ultrasound to take a look at the fibroid and then potentially surgery to remove it. Once that's taken care of we'll move on to tackling the Luteal Phase defect.

Sunday, November 5, 2006

Two Steps Forward

I've been giving this serious thought for 6 months now and my preference is still to get pregnant with adoption as plan b. Even after my last outburst about how selfish it would be I'm still leaning towards getting pregnant. I'm secretly hoping that it won't have to involve a donor but I haven't gotten lucky with the timing on that front yet.

I have taken some action to get the process started - I called my insurance company a few weeks ago and asked them to send me information on infertility coverage. Looks like I'm out of luck since donor insemination will not be covered. I have to be unsuccesful for 12 months before coverage kicks in. I also finally chose a primary care doctor and an ob/gyn. I have appts later this month and will be asking for a pre conception fertility work up. I do have some concerns because my cycles have been all messed up for months. My temps are all over the place and I'm completely irregular.