First RE Visit

I arrived at MAMC (the hospital on Lewis) and, as usual, it was jam packed.  I parked in the first spot I could find--which happened to be the second to last furthest one away from the hospital. I practically run inside since I only have 15 minutes until my appointment is supposed to start. I went in the door that I always go in and ask the little retiree in the red vest if he could please direct me to the infertility clinic? He tells me it's in the main part of the hospital and that I have to go all the way down a hallway, make a left, and take the elevator to the third floor.  Again, I practically start running. I get on the elevator and get off on the third floor--there are no hallways or desks or anything, just a maintenance closet.  I get back on the elevator and ask a nurse if he could tell me where the IF clinic is...he doesn't know. I ask a Resident and she can't help me either because she hasn't had a 3rd floor rotation yet. I get on a different elevator and just start walking around on the 3rd floor until I find a sign--"Infertility THAT WAY." I finally found the check in desk at 1328--my appointment was scheduled for 1330. It's a damn good thing I have long legs or I would have never made it!

I got called back by a nurse pretty quickly which was great because I was worried about waiting 2+ hours the way Mike and I did for his ortho appointment. I waited a few minutes until two residents (2LTs) came in the room to take my history. Sometimes I really dislike being seen at a teaching hospital. He sat down and said, "Tell me about your history." I'm pretty sure it was like opening the gates for a race horse--I unloaded and probably talked for 5 minutes straight without letting him get a word in. :) I'm not sure if I intimidated him or what but when I handed him my charts and said, "See? I ovulate on my own and I'm just not getting pregnant!" he looked at my charts with a confused face and immediately handed them back to me. Okay...thanks. I'm so glad I took 20 minutes of my time this morning to print all of these out for you to not even look at.  Maybe it's because he's suprised that I had already been charting--I know that is one of the first things they will counsel a couple on upon arrival in their clinic. They will suggest charting and intercourse timing before testing so luckily we get to bypass that step. The other annoying thing was that he asked me the same exact questions I had to fill out on the IF Clinic Intake Form--sexual history, medical history, periods, past pregnancies, etc.  Mike and I filled it out together before he went TDY. If they're not going to read it, why did they make me fill it out? When he asked if we drank alcohol I replied, "Well...it is football season." :)After taking my history they went to talk to the doctor and they decided to do a vaginal ultrasound. Luckily I had already, ahem, prepared for this possibility and made sure everything was nice and groomed.

I really liked that Dr. C explained everything to me as he was performing the ultrasound. He took some measurements of my ovaries, told me that I probably ovulated from my right side this month, and that everything appears to be normal.  There is some fluid surrounding my uterus which he says they will keep an eye on but is nothing to be overly concerned about. I asked him about having blood work done and he said that the blood panel requested by my OB/GYN (in June after the ovarian cyst was discovered) showed normal hormone levels. I asked him if it mattered that the blood was drawn at a random point in my cycle and he said no because everything was within normal ranges. He said there may be a need in the future for CD3 and CD21 blood work but they are not ordering it at this time.

The next step is to wait for my period to start and then call to schedule an HSG--the test where a catheter is used to inject dye into my fallopian tubes to check for blockages.  Obviously we need to make sure I am not pregnant before doing this test so I get to play the waiting game for a few weeks. If that comes back all clear, Dr. C said we will discuss trying out some treatments/drugs to stimulate follicle growth in order to increase our chances of achieving pregnancy!  That's the game plan for now! I'm glad to finally have the ball rolling and now I can move on to stressing about the HSG. Ha.



The torture chamber.