Lap consult scheduled

February 7 we get to make another exciting day trip to Long Island (there really needs to be a sarcasm font) for a consult on my repeat lap.  I am so not looking forward to doing the prep for that again, but I'm really just hoping things go smoothly (as in we do not get another massive blizzard) & we can maybe sneak in surgery by the end of February since I took the 1st week of March off for vacation (no plans, just chillaxin' for hubby's spring break) anyways.  My last lap was almost 4 years ago & they found nothing, but who knows?  I have an infertile friend who was told it was all good only to have a CCRM consult where they took out a ton of endo. 

 

Once I get my period post lap, we can cycle, so in theory I could be stimming in as little as 2 months.  I'm guesstimating based on prior experiences that if that was the case I could end up with retrieval/transfer right around my 35th birthday.  I wonder if I'll get a special gluten free cake that says "Congrats on being AMA now too!"?  

 

I plan on taking FMLA time when the IVF cycle itself starts.  Even though most monitoring can be done locally & they say stress does not affect outcomes, I call bullshit.  And honestly, I have such hatred for my job that anything I can do to lessen cortisol levels will be beneficial to my mental health regardless of pregnancy or not.  My therapist agrees this is a smart idea thankfully so if HR decides to be assholish (I doubt they will be) I have back up. 

 

When we do cycle we will do either a micro Lupron or straight Menopur stim.  Lupron was the only med I've been on (and I've been on a boatload) that ever gave me side effects (I was a zombie; slept 12 hours a day & was still exhausted) so I'm kind of "meh" at the idea.  However, women who are shitty stimmers like myself often do well on such a protocol.  It's kind of similar to what we did for IVF #2 (the only good stim I had) & honestly, I totally trust Dr. B: I know many women who have had way worse issues than us end up with a kid (or more!) working with him.

 

In addition to the stim we will be adding 2 other meds: Prednisone & Lovenox.  Prednisone is a steroid that will supposedly help with my immune issues & make my body not so hostile to an embryo.  It also has the lovely side effect of making you legit psychotic (ever hear of "roid rage"?) & we don't give it to patients @ work unless absolutely necessary because of this.  I've already warned my husband; should be fun.  Heh.  Lovenox is a blood thinner used to help with implantation.  An infertile interwebs friend had some of these drugs left over & was nice enough to mail them to me.  I hope they work as well for me as they did for her.

Immunology bloodwork results

I received a phone call from Dr. B this afternoon.  Yes, he said 4-6 weeks for results & we only did the bloodwork 3 weeks ago.  What’s this, a doctor that calls you himself & does it sooner than the time frame given?  Be still my heart!

For the 1^st time in almost 6 years of TTC I can finally utter these words: we have answers.

Starting off, my husband & I have some haplotype issues.  Specifically, the concerning one is we have a matching HLA type (AA haplotype).  Fascinating yet bizarre.  Genetically, we are quite different (he is Tamil, I am a mix of Portuguese, Hawaiian & Irish) so one would like Darwin’s theory of genetic diversity leading to fitness.  Guess not. 

The good news here though is our chromosomes are normal which I was slightly concerned about since Vid’s parents are second cousins.  Gotta love (or not, in reality; ha!) arranged marriage. 

I also have a high level of anti-nuclear antibodies & an 8.1 extended haplotype as well as TH2 dominance which point to my body attacking foreign bodies, a.k.a. embryos.  Also, based on the T2 he is recommending a repeat lap to check for endo as in his experience there is a huge correlation.  Given my testing positive for so many inflammatory immune things, he said he’d be remiss not to order it.  The dude he recommends is on Long Island so I will have to check with my insurance & pray it’ll just be a matter of an out of network co-pay.

My AMH is on the low end of normal @ .79.  According to all the charts I’ve seen on Dr. Google, that is about average for a 40 year old woman.  I will be 35 in 2 months.  It’s not low enough to be considered DOR but basically the sooner we get pregnant the better (no shit!) because when I am actually 40, we’d most certainly have to venture into donor eggs.  I have no interest (or funds) to do that.

The shocker: I have fucking celiac disease.  My husband, you know, the one who shits like a buffalo & has the gas to match whenever he eats anything with gluten?  Nope.  Totally odd.  He grew up in South India where it’s a rice-based diet & never has GI issues when he visits home & eats the traditional diet.  I’ve been begging him for years to get tested & he never has.  But now we know.  And I, the queen of carbs who has a gut of steel (seriously, I’ve eaten in some very shady road side stands in developing countries with no issue) has fucking celiac.  This was me today upon hearing the news:

I am so sad it’s pathetic.  I don’t want to live in a world without bagels or pizza.  Yes I know there are gluten free options out there but they’ve hella pricey & often taste like ass.  Alas, having a kid is more important @ this point than having a bowl of pasta.  And once I give birth, I am eating ALL THE CARBS in celebration!