Over the last few weeks, we have gotten all of our test results back from Dr. Gada's office. Everything came back normal, which is good news. We met with the doctor today to discuss our next steps. We had a really good chat about everything. We have two options: test the embryos or proceed with another frozen transfer with a different protocol than we've tried before. The new protocol would exclude lupron (yay! that saves nearly $700 and dozens of shots) and use a higher dose of estrogen to prep me for transfer. We'd also use baby aspirin (because it doesn't hurt and some doctors believe it helps so why not?) and vitamin D supplements (my levels were slightly low). We also discussed how many embryos we should transfer. He went through the usual one is safest, but also said that two would not be something he'd necessarily refuse. Because we have had so many failed transfers, he is okay with us being more aggressive by transferring two embryos. As you may have guessed, we have decided to do another transfer and wait on testing the embryos.
We are excited to try again, but have a few steps before we get to that. We need to transfer the embryos from our first clinic. This involves a bunch of paperwork before I can go pick them up and drop them off in Southlake. We also have another hurdle before we attempt another cycle....
The last few weeks, I've had a pain in my left ovary area. I assumed it was my endometrioma twinging, but part of me was scared that it's actually my one tube blocked and swollen like what was wrong with my other tube. The doctor offered to do a scan to ease my mind. (This is where the title of this post comes in.) Turns out my tube is fine; it is my endometrioma causing my pain. It's gotten so big that the doctor has said surgery may actually be an option before a transfer. He said we are borderline needing the surgery; it could be helpful, or it may not be necessary and a frozen transfer would work just fine without it. It's up to us to decide at this point.
We have decided to go ahead and do the surgery before attempting another cycle. Insurance will cover the robotic surgery and I'm already aways into my out of pocket max this year, so we won't pay as much as we would next year. Looks like we may get to itemize our taxes again and deduct our medical expenses. Plus, cleaning out the endometriosis will help my fertility (or at least my pain levels). Surgery is planned for October 7 at the moment. Hopefully recovery goes quickly and we can go straight into a frozen cycle immediately after.
One of these days we will leave the doctors office with good news....
