High-Risk Classification

On Monday Dec 19th, I went back to Dr. Weltman, who happens to be a perinatalologist (lucky me :-P), to discuss where we go from here.  I have been classified as a High-Risk Pregnancy for being at risk for preterm labor.  As of right now, I do NOT need to limit my activity, NOR have I been put on bed rest.  They just want to keep a closer eye on me and baby girl.  If I go into labor before March, then I need to go straight to INOVA Fairfax, as they are better equipped to deal with a baby that small.  If I go into labor in March or after, I'm safe to go to Potomac Hospital (which happens to be across the street from my house).  Both Hospitals have the same Neonatal doctors on rotation there.
She gave me a referral to INOVA Fairfax Hosptial for perinatal ultrasounds to monitor Baby Girl.  I need to go back every 4 weeks.  Which isn't too bad.

So now I've got three doctor appointments every four weeks: one for Hashimoto's, another for routine OB appointments, and another for perinatal ultrasounds.  I'm exhausted just from going to the doctors.  Another downside with being classified as High-Risk is that I now have a husband that over-reacts to every ache, pain, groan, and moan.

Amniocentesis and the Waiting Game

On Monday Nov. 28th, we drove up to Fairfax to the Genetics & IVF Center for the Amniocentesis.  I gotta admit that I was rather nervous about the whole thing.  We met with a Genetic Councilor to go over the blood test results, and to discuss what we should expect from the Amnio an when we should get the test results back.  They often times try to get and give preliminary results to the expectant parents about 3 days after the test is done and the final result after 10 days.  The genetic councilor asked all about our family history, and after this interview, we were take back to on of the exam rooms for the Amnio.  Before they take the sample, they do an in depth ultrasound, and if you want to, you can find out the sex of your baby.  We found out, much to our surprise, that we are gonna have a baby girl.  When they were taking a look at baby girl, they did NOT find any physical indicators of Down Syndrome, which was rather reassuring, but they did notice that the Amnion had not fused to the Chorion.  They did give us a picture of Baby Girl, which is always exciting.  Then the doctor takes this needle that's about 6" long and jabs it in my stomach.  Oh my god it hurt, but Dr. Stern was very careful not to hurt baby girl.  He told me it would only take 30 seconds, oh no, it was more like 2 minutes.  But then we were done, and the waiting game began.

Jennifer (the genetic councilor) called us on Thursday Dec.1st with good news from the preliminary test results.  Baby girl did NOT have any chromosomal abnormalities.  So from a genetic aspect, she's perfectly healthy.  Now we just had to wait on the final results.

We got the final Amnio test results back on Tuesday Dec 13th.  We had good and not so good news.  The good news was that the prelim results matched the final results.  The not so good news was that the lab was only able to grow and cultivate one cell instead of 18 - 20 which they feel more comfortable with.  So they want me to come in again and at minimum have another ultrasound, and possibly have another Amnio.

So we went back to the Genetics & IVF Center to talk with Jennifer and Dr. Stern.  This time when we got there, we had the ultrasound done first.  Dr. Stern took another look at baby girl, and again did NOT see anything physically wrong with her, however, what he did notice was that there was an even greater gap between the Amnion and Chorion than before.  So based on this and what he saw from the ultrasound, he didn't feel that it was necessary to do another Amnio.  He then classify me as being at-risk for preterm labor, but wanted me to talk to my OB to see where to go from here.

Not So Smooth Sailing

At 16 Weeks (around Nov 17th) I went to my OB for the normal routine 16 week check up.  They took a few vials of blood to test for this, that, and the other.  Nothing to worry about, or so I thought.  A week later my doctors office calls me back,  the blood test came back abnormal and want me to come in and discuss, so I made an appointment for the next day (Nov. 23, the day before Thanksgiving, and the day we leave for NJ).  My doctor told my that the combination of different markers in my blood indicated that my baby had at 1:10 chance of having Down Syndrome.  The alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), unconjugated estriol (uE3), and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) make up the standard tests, known together as the "triple test." Sometimes a marker called inhibin A is added, making the "quadruple screen." These tests are independent measurements, and when taken along with the maternal age, can calculate the risk of having a baby with Down syndrome (For more info click here).  The doctor wanted to discuss my options and wanted to know what I would do with this information.  I've waited so long for this baby, there was no way that I was gonna terminate this pregnancy, but I still wanted to know if the baby had Down Syndrome.  I wanted to have the heads up so that I can do everything in my power to take care of my child, no matter what.  So Tim and I decided to have an Amniocentesis done to know for sure.  We called the Genetics & IVF Center in Fairfax to make an appointment.  We were able to get in for the following Monday (Nov. 28th).

Endocrinology Results

I went to see an Endocrinologist at George Washington University back in October to see what is going on with my body.  They took some of my blood to run a whole battery of tests.  Like a week later, my doctor called and told me that my TSH levels (Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone) were low, so they wanted me to go back in December to retest my levels.  I went back to GW on December 12th to get my blood redrawn, and I just got my test results back today (December 19th), and my TSH levels were rather high this time.  So I have been diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease (autoimmune thyroiditis).  In the general scheme of things this isn't a big deal, but it answers a lot of questions and explains my fertility issues.  This also classifies me as a high-risk pregnancy, this sounds scary, but really isn't.  The silver lining to this all is that I finally have answers and insurance covers everything 100%.

False Negative........

So apparently the clomid treatment worked.  I'm pregnant.  I'm due the first week of May, so I'm about 12 weeks along. I couldn't be more excited.  Now it's doctor's appointments every four weeks for then next sixteen weeks.

Step Two.....Phase One......Experiment A - Failed

Taking the clomid didn't work..... at all.  Not even a little bit.  So I've made an appointment at George Washington University Medical School to see an Endocrinologist.  Hopefully I will get some answers then.  Unfortunately, my appointment isn't until mid-October.  So it's more of the waiting game.  Oh well.

On to Step Two.....Phase One......Experiment A?

So I went to the doctors and the first thing they had me do was take a blood pregnancy test.  The doctors and I both knew it would be negative, but I guess they have to be sure.  So now they want me to take Progesterone for 10 days and then wait until I start to bleed and then in 5 days start taking Clomid (Clomiphene) for 5 days, then wait three days, and .........."have fun" every other day for a week.  Wait two weeks take a pregnancy test, and then make another doctor's appointment to see what's going on.  Rinse and repeat for a total of three months.  If this doesn't work, then I need to rinse and repeat for another 3 months with a different dosage, and so on and so forth for about a year.  At which time we reassess the situation and either move on to the next step or continue for another year.

Wow I'm exhausted already.  Well it looks like I'm off to the pharmacy.  Here goes nothing, so wish me luck and check back in a month or so for the results of Experiment A of Phase One in Step Two of Project "Spawn".....(ok I think it's funny).

Step One: The Natural Way...

Step one: Stop taking birth control, and you'll get pregnant.  Seems simple enough, but oh no, not for me.  After being on birth control for several months (which they say that the duration of being on the pill should have no effect on the difficulty of getting pregnant), I have stopped in order to see if mother nature will take over where science has stopped.  It's time to see if all I need was a little boost to get my systems running as normal.  I am now supposed to keep an eye out for when I'm most fertile and calculate my ovulation days.  However, in the past three months, my body has decided to not cooperate with what the doctors have told me for sure would happen. According to all the signs that I can see, the birth control did not jump start my reproductive cycle, and I have stopped ovulating.  Isn't the pill supposed to stop ovulation anyway?  So we can safely say that Step One has officially failed.  No ovulation = No babies. I always knew it wouldn't be that easy, which is why I'm starting the process now.  Noting worth having ever comes easy right?

You know, it just doesn't seems fair how some women can just seemingly look at their partner and get pregnant, while I seem to do nothing but struggle.  Clearly, my body has a mind of her own.

Wednesday July 13th, 2011 shall commence Step Two: Clomid.  Wish me luck.

Before it even started.....

I'm not what you would necessarily call fat.  I'm about 5'2" tall and weigh about 130 lbs, but on more than one occasion I have been approached by various people (and some of them will even put their hand on my stomach) and they will ask something like, "When are you due?" or "How far along are you?" or even "Are you pregnant?".  I would just blush and smile at them and say, "Nope I'm just fat, but thank you."  Sometimes I would be nicer, but not really all that often.  I didn't really need the reminder of how difficult it has been to get pregnant, and to be honest, it really hurt my feelings.

I have what is known as Anovulation which has seemed to have caused Secondary Amenorrhea and Hemorrhagic Ovarian Cysts, and so therefore I am infertile.  I've seen the doctors about it and they aren't exactly sure what is going on with my body.  There is no cure for Hemorrhagic Ovarian Cysts, but there are preventative measures that can be taken, which include taking birth control or having my ovaries removed.  Neither of those methods leads to pregnancy.  However, the doctors wanted me to take birth control in order to stop the cysts from forming every few months, so I didn't want to until they started to get worse, then I finally agreed to take the birth control.  Let me tell you that when one of those suckers burst, it is incredibly painful and there is a lot of blood, and I do mean A LOT.  Before I get to the next part let me tell you a quick little story........

Many people I know would ask me when I would start a family.  I would simply just say that I can't.  Many would leave it alone but others would ask further questions, not knowing my medical history.  Because they didn't know, and truthfully probably didn't want to know, I would say things like, "I can't right now with Tim and I both being in school, it would just be too much to handle."  Again, some would leave it at that, and some wouldn't.  For those that wouldn't leave it alone I would then explain why I can't have children without medical intervention.  Some would get it and some wouldn't.  

So after much discussion with Tim, we decided that it's time that we start the process.  The way we figure it, there are about 5 or so steps to parenthood.

Step One: The Natural Way
Step Two: Clomid
Step Three: Injections
Step Four: IVF
Step Five: Adoption

It will be up to Tim and I and the doctors to determine at which point we will move to the next step in the process.

What to expect before you're expecting...

After suggestions that I've received from my wonderful cousins Clark and Pam, and my husband Tim, I'm writing a blog to record my adventures and misadventures of becoming an expectant mother.  I've come to realized that getting pregnant isn't just as simple as having sex, and infertility is more common than I originally thought.  This journey has so far been very frustrating (but I kinda knew it would be), and I hope that in sharing my frustrations I can help others out there struggling with getting pregnant to know that they aren't alone.  While this is just an introduction, I hope that you continue reading my journey towards motherhood.  Support is the key to success.