Still Searching for that Perfect Appointment

This morning's appointment was a rollercoaster. We waited for about 20 minutes before they called me back. The tech first did a quick check of my lining and found the thickness to be only about 5.5 (it was 6.5-7.0 on Tuesday--WTF?!). She quickly moved on to the doppler to check blood flow seeing that I was visibly upset. Blood flow turned out to be much better this time (2.02 and 2.23), so apparently the electro-acupuncture did the trick. She then went back to my lining and commented on how she could still see the triple pattern (although it wasn't as clear to me on the screen as it was on Tuesday). She spent what seemed like forever taking more measurements of my lining and they ranged from 5.5 to only 6.0. NOT GOOD.

She had me sit up and said she would have me get dressed to wait for a nurse and I immediately burst into tears. B tried to calm me down, I got dressed and they brought us into a little closet of a consult room to wait for the nurse. The nurse came in and said "let's not get upset yet." Uh, too late.

The nurse seemed confused looking at the U/S pictures, kind of stammered around a bit, and then left the room. Apparently I had stumped her. "Step right up and see the circus freak with the thinning lining! Against all odds! We couldn't accomplish this if we tried!"

She then came back and said that it didn't make sense that the lining had gotten thinner unless I had been bleeding (I haven't). She confirmed I've been taking my Es.trace (I have) and the patches (I have). She also noted that the U/S showed a small sliver of fluid in my lining and that it could just be cervical fluid backing up into the uterus. She said it usually goes away once you start progesterone. She then explained that she wanted to have another tech do another scan because U/S can be subjective and it really didn't make sense that my lining would get thinner, especially since I've had no bleeding. We were then brought back out to the lobby to wait again until the other tech was ready for us.

Back for my second wanding of the hour I went. As the other tech was looking at the screen, she said "your lining is fine and the fluid is really small. They might just want to recheck to make sure you don't have more fluid built up before they do the transfer (or the thaw)." My response to this was "my lining is FINE?!" She said it was measuring between 6.4 and 7.2. So definitely better than the first, but still not really any better than Tuesday and not up to the 8.0 they hope to see.

I was so disappointed. We did everything in our power to try to get the stupid lining to grow. The nurse came back to talk to us again and she said that the doc would likely want us to stay on the estrogen and postpone by a week. I was having none of that. This was exactly what happened last cycle. They postponed me for a week and added Es.trace and my lining only grew by a little. I've already been on Es.trace since Tuesday. Then last cycle, they postponed me for a second week and that's when the cystic cells showed up. I just keep thinking that if we wait it won't get any better and it could get worse and I REALLY don't want to go through another D&C. I explained this to the nurse and she said she would communicate my concerns to the doc later today and I should expect a phone call this afternoon. I then told her we were going to be at a wedding and I wasn't sure I'd be able to answer my phone, but I didn't want to miss the phone call. So she decided to go up to the surgery center and talk to the RE on call in between procedures.

At this point I began to understand why they are sometimes so behind and we have to wait for our appointments. It's patients like me whose bodies decide to be difficult and unpredictable that cause all sorts of problems with their schedule.

Back to the lobby we went. We waited for awhile while she waited for the doc, talked to the doc, and while the doc reviewed my chart. She then called us back in to the little closet of a consult room. She said that the doc noted that my lining only got to about 8.0 with our fresh cycle, so she was okay if we wanted to move forward with the transfer this week. And she wasn't concerned about the fluid. Big sigh of relief. I am supposed to stay on the patches, Es.trace, and baby aspirin, take my last Lu.pron shot tonight (yay!), start the PIO shots tomorrow morning (ick), the progesterone suppositories tomorrow night (gross), and start the antibiotic and the steroid tomorrow night. I should also expect a pre-transfer call from the clinic tomorrow. Not sure if they will call this afternoon with the results of my blood draw this morning to check estrogen level.

I asked the nurse if it made sense to continue with the electro-acupuncture and she said it won't hurt anything, so why not. Plus since the last 2 sessions appeared to have worked, I think I'd like to stick with it (no pun intended). So I go back into the clinic on Monday morning for a progesterone check and I'll see if I can get in for another electro-acupuncture appointment on Monday as well. I also asked the nurse about continuing with the red raspberry leaf tea and she suggested I stop drinking it. Her exact comment was "let's not do anything herbal." I got the feeling she thought I was silly for trying it in the first place. Funny how different these appointments go depending on which nurse (and apparently which U/S tech) you get that day.

Although I don't have an overwhelming good feeling about this having a shot in hell at working, at least we get to make some progress, do something new, get further than we have in the past. That in itself is a battle won. We reasoned that if we got cancelled this cycle, it still counts against one of our 3 FET attempts in the shared risk program (this would be #2 cancelled before transfer). Since we have 18 frozen embies to work with, we don't think we have anything to lose by giving this cycle a shot. Even if it doesn't work, at least we gave it a chance, right? I'm exhausted and it's only 11am.