You probably think the title of this blog is some kind of clever joke--but it's not. I'll explain in a moment.
Brian and I had our first visit to the Reproductive Endocrinologist (aka special baby making doctor) on Friday morning. It was all the way in Troy, so we had quite a hike from here. We are going all the way to Troy because that is the only clinic on this side of the state that our insurance will cover. And since we are VERY fortunate to have coverage for this at all, obviously most people don't, we felt we couldn't discount that coverage merely to go someplace closer to home. The reason that our insurance will only cover this place is because it is considered the best of the best when it comes to this stuff. So that's good! If I have to go someplace, it's nice going to the best.
So, we get there, and all the paperwork is done, insurance card was scanned in, etc. The front office ladies seemed very impressed with our coverage. On a side note--obviously many of you have never looked at prices for IVF, etc (I'm very glad you haven't had to). Did you know that a first round of IVF costs $10,000? And subsequent rounds, if you already have embryos stored, still cost $4,000? We will not be needing IVF (and we wouldn't do it anyway--that is where we draw a personal line), but if we did, wow. I now fully understand why many people have to mortgage their homes to have children. (Although, I wish they would just take that money and adopt and help a kid that's already here. That is our personal feeling on it.)
Anyway, we meet with our doctor, Dr. Miller. He's probably in his early to mid 40's, pretty normal looking white guy with a female resident with him who was sitting in on our consult. So, we start going over my medical history and the history of all the losses. The first thing that I notice about this doctor is that he's REALLY intense. Like, he would NOT break eye contact with me. It was so much, I had to look away at times, you know what I mean? But at least I felt I had his whole attention, which is nice. Brian agreed. We went over all those tests Dr. Thai ran on me over the summer, and he told me that she was really quite thorough in her testing. And this is where the mutant part comes in. Well, Dr. Thai never discussed this with me (she just told me everything was fine and I didn't see it in the records until a few days ago--long story), but it turns out I do have a gene mutation called MTHFR.
MTHFR is the name of a blood enzyme that is screwed up when you have this particular mutation. I have 1 bad copy each of 2 different genes affecting this. Now, you can have 2 bad copies of these 2 different genes--that's really bad. My scenario is borderline. Dr. Miller said that Dr. Thai probably didn't say anything because its not proven to be a cause of anything. If I had the two bad copies of those genes, that's a different story. Anyway, this can cause blood clotting, and what it definitely causes is bad uptake of Folic Acid. So, she had put me on baby aspirin and progesterone, which he seemed to feel were perfectly appropriate. He is also going to put me on mega high doses of Folic Acid, which may help the situation and would definitely protect my baby from neural tube defects if we do have a viable pregnancy. When I say mega high, I mean 4 times the normal amount a pregnant women should take, so I'm going to be swallowing a ton of pills. I am fine with that given the alternative! If I had those 2 bad copies of the gene and had the definite issue, I would need to give myself shots of blood thinner every day when I'm pregnant. I wasn't looking forward to that, but I'll do what I have to do, obviously. But, he stated its not indicated with me (although I know from my research some RE's will prescribe it anyway), and actually, a ton of people have this gene mutation and never have a problem. (So you may be mutants too and not even realize it!)
Anyway, he seemed pretty optimistic about the situation. He stated that he feels my prognosis is good to have a baby. He is going to do some more testing on me. On Cycle Day 3 next time, I have to go in for blood testing and a basic ultrasound to check out my ovaries. (See how the follicles look, etc.) The blood testing will check my LH, FSH, prolactin, estrogen and progesterone at that point in my cycle. Those are all hormones that affect ovulation and pregnancy, and they will tell a lot. He even said depending on how those levels come back, the possibility exists that I could be put on Clomid. I'm not EXACTLY clear why I would need that when I have no trouble conceiving, but it has something to do with inducing a stronger, better ovulation, and helping the hormonal and chemical conditions be ideal in the womb BEFORE you ovulate, rather than just treating it after. And then, a few days after that, I need to get another ultrasound, but with this one, they're going to shoot saline water up my hoo-ha and check out the structure of my uterus itself. There could be some uterine malformation going on that could be causing this and inhibiting growth. Some that are fixable and some are not. I've been told this is "uncomfortable," which may mean "horribly painful," so, we'll see. We hope to have this testing done before we go to Florida the first week of March (a post on that is upcoming). So I'm really hoping my cycle is regular so that can happen.
Before I go, I wanted to thank everyone for the support and well wishes. We really do appreciate how kind everyone has been through this mess. I will keep you somewhat up to date, although I hope you all do understand that if we do try again and get pregnant, we keep that to ourselves until we're ready to tell, for obvious reasons. Bye!
Brian and I had our first visit to the Reproductive Endocrinologist (aka special baby making doctor) on Friday morning. It was all the way in Troy, so we had quite a hike from here. We are going all the way to Troy because that is the only clinic on this side of the state that our insurance will cover. And since we are VERY fortunate to have coverage for this at all, obviously most people don't, we felt we couldn't discount that coverage merely to go someplace closer to home. The reason that our insurance will only cover this place is because it is considered the best of the best when it comes to this stuff. So that's good! If I have to go someplace, it's nice going to the best.
So, we get there, and all the paperwork is done, insurance card was scanned in, etc. The front office ladies seemed very impressed with our coverage. On a side note--obviously many of you have never looked at prices for IVF, etc (I'm very glad you haven't had to). Did you know that a first round of IVF costs $10,000? And subsequent rounds, if you already have embryos stored, still cost $4,000? We will not be needing IVF (and we wouldn't do it anyway--that is where we draw a personal line), but if we did, wow. I now fully understand why many people have to mortgage their homes to have children. (Although, I wish they would just take that money and adopt and help a kid that's already here. That is our personal feeling on it.)
Anyway, we meet with our doctor, Dr. Miller. He's probably in his early to mid 40's, pretty normal looking white guy with a female resident with him who was sitting in on our consult. So, we start going over my medical history and the history of all the losses. The first thing that I notice about this doctor is that he's REALLY intense. Like, he would NOT break eye contact with me. It was so much, I had to look away at times, you know what I mean? But at least I felt I had his whole attention, which is nice. Brian agreed. We went over all those tests Dr. Thai ran on me over the summer, and he told me that she was really quite thorough in her testing. And this is where the mutant part comes in. Well, Dr. Thai never discussed this with me (she just told me everything was fine and I didn't see it in the records until a few days ago--long story), but it turns out I do have a gene mutation called MTHFR.
MTHFR is the name of a blood enzyme that is screwed up when you have this particular mutation. I have 1 bad copy each of 2 different genes affecting this. Now, you can have 2 bad copies of these 2 different genes--that's really bad. My scenario is borderline. Dr. Miller said that Dr. Thai probably didn't say anything because its not proven to be a cause of anything. If I had the two bad copies of those genes, that's a different story. Anyway, this can cause blood clotting, and what it definitely causes is bad uptake of Folic Acid. So, she had put me on baby aspirin and progesterone, which he seemed to feel were perfectly appropriate. He is also going to put me on mega high doses of Folic Acid, which may help the situation and would definitely protect my baby from neural tube defects if we do have a viable pregnancy. When I say mega high, I mean 4 times the normal amount a pregnant women should take, so I'm going to be swallowing a ton of pills. I am fine with that given the alternative! If I had those 2 bad copies of the gene and had the definite issue, I would need to give myself shots of blood thinner every day when I'm pregnant. I wasn't looking forward to that, but I'll do what I have to do, obviously. But, he stated its not indicated with me (although I know from my research some RE's will prescribe it anyway), and actually, a ton of people have this gene mutation and never have a problem. (So you may be mutants too and not even realize it!)
Anyway, he seemed pretty optimistic about the situation. He stated that he feels my prognosis is good to have a baby. He is going to do some more testing on me. On Cycle Day 3 next time, I have to go in for blood testing and a basic ultrasound to check out my ovaries. (See how the follicles look, etc.) The blood testing will check my LH, FSH, prolactin, estrogen and progesterone at that point in my cycle. Those are all hormones that affect ovulation and pregnancy, and they will tell a lot. He even said depending on how those levels come back, the possibility exists that I could be put on Clomid. I'm not EXACTLY clear why I would need that when I have no trouble conceiving, but it has something to do with inducing a stronger, better ovulation, and helping the hormonal and chemical conditions be ideal in the womb BEFORE you ovulate, rather than just treating it after. And then, a few days after that, I need to get another ultrasound, but with this one, they're going to shoot saline water up my hoo-ha and check out the structure of my uterus itself. There could be some uterine malformation going on that could be causing this and inhibiting growth. Some that are fixable and some are not. I've been told this is "uncomfortable," which may mean "horribly painful," so, we'll see. We hope to have this testing done before we go to Florida the first week of March (a post on that is upcoming). So I'm really hoping my cycle is regular so that can happen.
Before I go, I wanted to thank everyone for the support and well wishes. We really do appreciate how kind everyone has been through this mess. I will keep you somewhat up to date, although I hope you all do understand that if we do try again and get pregnant, we keep that to ourselves until we're ready to tell, for obvious reasons. Bye!
2 comments:
Thank you for sharing your story along the way. Love the title of the blog. Glad that the Doc is hopeful for you!!! :)
OMG, MTHFR? WTF! R U A TMNT?
<3, K8RS
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