100%

Well, good and kinda not good news. FINO called back last week with my lab results and information about my insurance coverage for the surgery.

Good news first, the insurance will cover 100% of my surgery! Yay!  The surgery is scheduled for December 12th at noon. We will have to be there at 9 am to be admitted, etc.

Now the kinda not good news. My labwork results are in and everything looked good except my LH level. It was too high for that early in my cycle (I was day 4/5). She said my level should only be that high around ovulation. So after the surgery we will have to recheck that test. They just want to make sure that it wasn't a lab error, etc.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving because I know that I did! We spent the whole day with my family and it was wonderful! Then we spent the weekend deer hunting. It was an amazing week! Here are some pictures of the week!

Ryle, my Dad, and Bryan frying the turkey




Sweet Abby on Thanksgiving Day



Ryle and I on Thanksgiving Day

Black Friday Crossfit WOD

Ryle and I on Black Friday

Happy Day

Well it was a great day! We had our appointment with FINO. And we just loved the whole experience! From the moment we walked in the door, everyone was friendly and welcoming! We loved the whole staff. I think that it was a great idea to switch doctors. Dr. Dunaway seems like a perfect fit. We were there a total of two hours. We gave our history, took our picture, talked, gave some blood, had an ultrasound, and set up a time for my surgery. Yikes - I know, surgery!

He thinks that I should have already had a surgery to "explore" my insides. According to him, I should already be pregnant. He thinks that there may be an underlying cause as to why nothing has worked so far. So as of now, we will go back to FINO on December 12th for an outpatient surgery. It's not a big deal. The whole surgery will last about an hour and is done laparoscopically (sp??). They did say they will let me spend the night simply because we are 4 hours away. So all together, I will miss about three days of work. Which at this point, if it will give me some answers, then I'm all for it. He will also "flush out" my tubes during this procedure.

After the surgery, we will discuss our options as far as IVF. We didn't really discuss that today, because he wants to make sure that there isn't another problem before we spend 10-15grand on IVF. Which makes total sense.

I just feel like a weight has been lifted off of me. This is the first time that I have left a fertility clinic with a smile on my face! I even left knowing that I'm going to have surgery and was still smiling! I can't stress enough how much we liked him. He was very down to Earth, friendly, personable, funny, and he seemed to care! He took the time to explain every single thing that we asked about. He went with me to get my blood drawn and was still talking/explaining things. We left knowing exactly what the plan was and felt confident about it.

They will call me later this week with the labwork results and to confirm the surgery. As of now they are "holding" the time/day for us. He just wants to make sure all of the labs look ok before we offically book it.

Well it's been a long day of traveling. 8 hours in the car and I'm exhausted. Hope this all makes sense! Thanks for the kind thoughts and prayers :)

FINO

Ok, well after my "crawl back in bed kinda day", my week started to get better. Ryle and I talked for a while about switching doctors and we both think that it may be a good idea. We now have an appointment with The Fertility Institute of New Orleans, which I will refer to as FINO. Instead of driving to New Orleans, we will drive to their Baton Rouge office. This is a 3 hour drive - only an hour or so longer than the old clinic. Not too bad honestly. We will be seeing Dr. Dunaway - on their website, it says that he specializes in PCOS. So I think this will be a good switch. Our appointment with FINO is on Nov. 14th at 1pm. I still have an appointment with the clinic in Shreveport for Dec. 2nd - just in case we don't like this new doctor!


Also, a dear friend of mine gave me an early Christmas present. It's an endurance bracelet. I love it and hope it helps me endure this TTC journey that Ryle and I are on. The charm on the end is a turtle which is just perfect - for two reasons: 1) the story says that turtles are the symbol of fertility and protection and 2) I gave this family a pet turtle that they named "Stony" (the kids think that this will help me remember "Stony" forever!) I just love it! This was exactly what I needed this week!

The headaches have gotten better as well. I'm still taking the 500mg of Metformin, but I'm also taking the 50mg of Zoloft. I haven't had a "terrible" headache since I started the Zoloft ... maybe that was the key!

Crawl Back In Bed Kinda Day

There are no words to describe my day today other than this: it's the kind of day that makes you want to crawl back in bed! I wanted to call the clinic to make sure that we didn't owe them anything because it seems like every time we go over there they always say that we owe them more money. I just wanted to be prepared this time and not caught off guard. Well good news first - we don't owe them anything! Yay!

Bad news: she tells me that the doctor I have an appointment with RETIRED and I no longer have an appointment for IVF consult! My response: WHAT? Why didn't ya'll call me?! Basically they were not going to call me until they found another appointment time. She said they didn't know when I would be able to get in because they are only down to one doctor now - it could be a long time. I mean seriously were they going to let me drive two hours over there without calling me to tell me that I no longer had an appointment?! I was not a happy camper and let her know it.

I immediately hang up with them and call Ryle. I'm crying and he's meeting with a farmer, but I guess he could tell that something was wrong so he talked to me for a minute. I told him that I had convinced myself to go to Natchez for Thanksgiving. I knew it would be hard, but maybe since we were supposed to see the clinic that week and get a game plan in place that I would be ok. But now that I can't see them, what am I supposed to do? I'm just so pissed off.

The clinic did call me back around 3 and said they can squeeze me in on December 2nd. Which means I will have to take off work now but oh well I guess.

I also went to see my doctor today to ask her about the headaches and to see if there was another clinic I could go to in town. Well no other clinic near by. I would have to go to Dallas, Houston, Jackson, or New Orleans. She said she would suggest New Orleans, but that makes it very difficult with my work schedule. We are going to look into it though. It wouldn't hurt I guess. And nothing I can do about the headaches except to stop taking the Metformin. She said it could just be my body adjusting to all the changes its making. I don't want to stop taking it, because I think it will help. Two weeks ago when they did all of my labs, my insulin level was 25 - it should have been under 17. So that's why I'm going to keep taking it and hope that the headaches will go away.

I am also starting my Zoloft today. She told me to cut it in half and only take 25mg instead of 50mg for a while until my body adjusts to the Metformin. Ryle doesn't want me to take it, but I need it. I'm starting to feel sad and blah all the time again. I so hope this helps because I don't know what else to do.

Now I'm going to go do some research on the fertility clinic in New Orleans ....