Laparoscopy

I felt like I have slept all weekend long. I'm still recovering from my laparoscopy that happened just 3 days ago. I'm still foggy and under some pain killers so I'm sure this post will sounds like someone is loopy!

Day of Laparoscopy

Friday morning I had to check in at 11am at the Newport Beach Center. I had been fasting since last night but was fighting a huge headache.  Joe and I drove out there and were ready to get this done. I got there and the waiting room was empty. I finished paying and filling out paper work. They took me back to change into a hospital gown, get my blood pressure, pregnancy test, and weight.

Pre-op area

 After that they got me in bed in the pre-op area and Joe came back to keep me company until they were ready to take me to the room. The hardest part was the head ache I had from grinding my teeth at night and not being able to take anything in the morning, so I was ready to have them put me out!! 

I also talked with my anesthesiologist about how every time I go under I wake up throwing up. He was very nice and assured me he would do his best to keep me not vomiting. It was really relaxing then, I got my IV and started with fluids. Dr. Anderson came back to let Joe know he would come out after and let him know how it went. He also said it should be about 30 mins.

Laparoscopy
They start off by going through your belly button with the camera and then if they need to do more they make 2 more incisions...here's a little what was going on... 

Post-op

 Next thing I knew I was waking up and going in and out of it. I wasn't feeling nausea at all so I kept trying to sleep more. When I started feeling more pain they were able to give me some med threw my IV. When I was fully awake Dr. A came over and said he talked with Joe about everything but he was shocked and he found a lot of Endometriosis it took him longer than he planed, but was able to treat and clean it all out. This is great news to know I have been suffering all this time with this and found the hidden explanation to our infertility. 

What's next?

As for whats next well...so far I have heard of everyone opinion but the one that matters most is my Dr. and I go in again on Friday to see him and discuses it all.  

So for the rest of the week I'm keeping to myself and staying up on my meds and bed rest. Because he had to clean out a lot more it took almost 2 hours so my recovery time is a bit harder and longer. 

For now this sweet girl is helping us study up on our new condition. 

IVF Consultation & Laparoscopy

Last week  my husband and I went in for our consultation with our RE, Dr. It was good sitting down with him and talking about our goal. We knew we were going to start up IVF as soon as we could and started to look forward to this process.

He quickly talked about our history and then mention laparoscopy surgery then moved on to how we would do IVF. We talked about my cycle days and what my calendar would look like. I also learned  that my Dr has done a lot of studies and test that have found in the past 3 years that you have a greater success rate doing a frozen transfer (FET) and not a fresh transfer because it gives your body a month after the egg retrieval and your body has a break from all the drugs you use to producee so many eggs, which means the IVF is a 2 months processes. 1st month you have all these drugs to help make your body produce anywhere from 10-20 eggs, then retrieve them all, then wait until your cycle comes the next month and when it's time for a natural egg to drop they implant 1 embryo.

It didn't help that our family planed and booked a vacation to Hawaii beginning of May for my Dad's 60th Birthday and Dr. A said their is no way he will do an IVF transfer the month before Hawaii and let me go on a plane when I need to be monitored closely. 

One reason why I love our Dr. is he knows the importance in working with your natural cycle and not putting me on birth control before IVF to group me in a certain time table for him, but that will work best with my body.   

There was just so much information and a lot only has to due with me as a patient. Not every person will have the same map to achieve pregnancy as me and that's why its always good to follow your dr's suggestions. 

He educated us about PGS (Pre-implantation genetic screening) read more here.Then I asked him point blank, well you are my Dr...what do you recommend we do next? He said well I was the one that brought up Laparoscopy, since we have achieved one pregnancy through IUI, and you have no physical change to why it shouldn't work again we should do the laparoscopy to see if their is anything going on, like Endometriosis, scar tissue, cyst, fiber tumors..etc....
Doing the laparoscopy is also a treatment that can clean everything out if he finds something wrong...that could actually help us get pregnant doing an IUI after.  If not we just move on the following month for our IVF and egg retrieval.

Many are familiar with Laparoscopy and even have had it done to achieve a pregnancy. It is the only way to medical confirm you have Endometriosis, which I never thought I really had, but after reading a lot, thanks Google, many women never have the symptoms I thought you had to have. It will first be looked at to see the outside of the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, and internal pelvic area. Then if something like scar tissue or more is found it can be treated.

Both my husband and I feel really good about doing this first, so after talking, praying I called the nurse the next morning and since it has to be done between your 5th-12th day after you start your period I have to time it out. So one week from  today I'll go in for the laparoscopy. 

We have the 2 opinions after that and although I keep thinking on which one should we do, Joe and I have decided that we will decided AFTER Dr. A goes in for the laparoscopy. 

I am so grateful for such a great dr that is crazy smart. We learned so much about how he does IVF. 

I called my friend after who had IVF from Dr. A back in 2011 and we talked and found out soo much has changed in the short amount of time! The things they have learned are fascinating to me and I will continue to study everything about IVF to know more. 

On top of all of this I'm trying to change everything to better myself to take this whole process on. I'm seeing a therapist for infertility and work on how to deal with the ups and downs, also the huge jealously, guilt and pain. 

I started back at the gym and my daughter absolutely loves the daycare there so we try to go every other day because I know after we do the transfer and all through the first trimester my dr does not allow any exercise. So I feel like I need to get it in while I can. 

The last but most important is my nutrition. I'm the worst at this but it's so much easy to think this will only hurt any chances to have another baby if I eat this donut or drink this soda.

To help my mind set and support I started reading a book again called 

infertility; help, hope and healing that I read back when we first started trying and I'm grateful for great reading that is more uplifting. Also another infertility blogger recommends another book for IVF that I plan to read next called Infertility Inferschmility.

So here's to my next few months