Adventures in Baby-Making || A Trying to Conceive Blog

These last few days have just been killer. It seems as though my cramps get worse and worse with each passing cycle. Thankfully I think the bad part is over this time around. I stayed in bed all day yesterday with the heating pad and spent a large portion today relaxing on the couch. I did take some Aleve and Celebrex together...not sure if I should be mixing medications like that, but it did seem to help a great deal, so I'll have to remember that for next time. This is really making me wonder if I do have some endometriosis going on in there. It sure would explain all this pain. Anyways - we still haven't heard back about Adam's semen analysis results yet. I'm kind of afraid to call, so I'd rather just wait to ask at my pre-op next Wednesday. If it's bad news, I'd rather just not know for now. My surgery is in less than two weeks now and I'm definitely counting down the days! My only real worry is how I'm going to make it back up to the third floor condo a few hours after my stomach has been sliced open. I am definitely NOT taking the elevator. Every time we use it, it breaks. That would be a nightmare...and knowing my bad luck, it would happen on surgery day.

I'm going to back track a bit and talk about my HSG experience. When the doctor explained to me what it would be like, I thought it sounded like it'd be a piece of cake. I was told to take an Aleve before I got to the hospital because it could get pretty crampy. I figured it probably couldn't be too bad because my cramps are so debilitating during my period anyway, this couldn't possibly be too much worse. So on the morning of May 2nd, I popped an Aleve and Adam and I headed to Radiology at the hospital. Dr. Dabinett met us there and talked to us for a bit about what she would be doing, how it would feel, etc. So, I laid down on the x-ray table while she did her thing. It pinched a bit at first, and then as soon as she injected the dye in, the mother of all cramps started...and I thought my AF cramps were bad! It was extremely uncomfortable, but it was over pretty quickly thank goodness. As soon as it was over, Dr. Dabinett explained what she could see on the x-rays. The good news was that my tubes were not blocked. The bad news was that I had a congenital defect of the uterus - either a septum or "horns" as she said. She explained that this doesn't necessarily hinder conception, but it does increase the risk of miscarriage. She told us that I'd probably need surgery to repair this and that she'd have her office call me to schedule an appointment where we can do some more tests and make a decision. She also told me to stop taking the Clomid for this cycle (I was on my third pill at this point) and use some form of birth control. Okay - not what we were expecting to hear, but at least the problem was caught early and before I even had the chance to miscarry. I was feeling pretty good when I went to the restroom to change back into my clothes and out of that horrible x-ray gown. As I was changing, I started to get really light-headed and felt like I was about to pass out. I don't know if it was the pain, the bad news, or both combined, but I really started to feel awful. I think what really set it off was the fact that Adam was feeling the same way and I was getting really worried about him. So, they laid me down on a mat on the floor for a while to see if that would help me start to feel better. They paged Dr. Dabinett and she came all the way back to the hospital to check on me. She told me a few stories and helped perk me up a bit, but I still felt like I would pass out if I tried to move. I was probably on the floor for a half an hour after the procedure and then the radiologist decided to move me into a holding area to make me more comfortable and to keep tabs on my vitals. Apparently I was looking pretty pale and freaking everybody out. So, they helped me onto a stretcher and moved me down the hall where they proceeded to take my blood pressure (it was very low) and draw blood to check my blood sugar (normal). I was still having quite a lot of cramps, so they also gave me some ibuprofen. It took me quite a while to start feeling better. In fact, it wasn't until they lowered the head of the stretcher to let the blood flow back to my head that I finally started to feel a bit better. They took my blood pressure about every 10 minutes and it slowly returned to normal each time. I finally got to leave about 2 hours after the procedure was done. Since I had felt so badly afterwards, I was told to go home and take it easy for the rest of the day. No problem! I still had pretty severe cramps on and off for the rest of the day and mild cramping for a couple of days afterwards, but then I was as good as new. In all honesty, yes, the procedure itself was pretty painful. But, I think it wouldn't have been such a big deal if all of the aftermath hadn't happened. I'm just hoping I won't ever have to do this again, but I'm not counting my chickens.

So, I've decided to start a TTC blog (trying to conceive for those who aren't familiar with all the pregnancy related abbreviations). I am pretty much just focused on this aspect of my life right now, so I thought it would be nice to keep our family and friends up-to-date, as well as good reading for other women who are trying to conceive. I'm currently scheduled for surgery on June 13th to remove the septum from my uterus. I'm not really nervous about the procedure...just incredibly anxious. It's put a halt on our baby-making efforts for at least the next couple of months. They are also going to check for endometriosis while they're in there, since it runs in my family and I am showing symptoms of it. I'm not going to go into detail about our TTC background - that's in the 'our story' section. We have been trying for a year and a half now and considering we're both young and healthy, this isn't the journey we've expected to be on right now. Seeing the diagnosis of "infertility" on my bill, was heartbreaking. But, we know with a little help from Clomid, surgery and God's grace, we'll pull through. If I've learned anything from this experience, it's that nothing in life comes easily. I'm definitely learning to appreciate what we already have and I'm very optimistic about what the future holds.