Friday, February 22, 2013

Answers and more questions

Our appointment with Dr. S started at 7:30 so we had some time to kill after work.  It wasn't reasonable to drive all the way home, frantically prepare a meal and eat in 45 minutes, then head out again fighting traffic each way.  Dave found a great card and gaming store about 20 minutes from work and 15 minutes from Dr. S's office.

**Warning: Nerd Alert**  Dave has recently gotten me into Magic: The Gathering.  We picked up a set of two core decks for 2013 a few weeks ago.  I'm usually not into card games, but did enjoy playing.  The store we stopped at yesterday had a great selection of Magic cards and used video games.  Like two kids in a candy store we went a little nuts.  Ended up buying two fat packs (set comes with 9 booster packs and a ton of land cards), one each of Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash.  We also bought a Game Boy Color and a few games.

There was a nice little Italian restaurant next door so we stopped in for dinner.  Some red sangria helped calm my growing nerves.  Dinner was great and we somehow resisted the urge to geek out and start opening our cards at the table.  After dessert and coffee it was time to head to the office.  This was our first time going to the main office of the RE and it was in the back corner of a terribly confusing and poorly lit office park.  We were the last appointment for the day so we went back right after signing in.

Dr. S jumped right into our results.  He said almost everything had come back fine, but there were a few anomalies of interest.  Both of our disease panels came back negative, not a big surprise.  Dave's semen analysis was amazing.

Total count: 121 million
Motility: 85% (>40% is normal)
Morphology: 8% (>3% is normal)
They also did a sperm wash, which isolates the sperm and is standard protocol for an IUI cycle.
Post wash total count: 101 million
Motility: 100%

Dr. S actually shook Dave's hand saying he only saw 100% motility post wash maybe 3 to 4 times a year.  We were both really excited at that point, neither of us imagined his numbers would be so high.

It was time for my results.  Most of my blood work came back fine, except for Prolactin.  Prolactin is secreted by the pituitary gland and elevated levels can cause irregularities in menstrual cycles and suppress ovulation.  Normal levels should be <25, my level was 34.  The other bad result was with my CD 3 ultrasound.  As you may recall, I had to repeat the ultrasound on CD 4 since my lining had been too thick.  Well the uterine lining should be around 3 to 4 mm thick on CD 3.  My lining was 12 mm and 11 mm on CD 3 and 4 respectively.  Dr. S had not yet received the results for my HSG and promised to track them and call me the next day to discuss them.

So, the plan is to retest Prolactin and do another ultrasound on my next CD 3 to see if the issues have resolved themselves.  If my Prolactin is still high then I will have a MRI of the pituitary gland to make sure everything is fine.  If my uterine lining is still too thick we'll do an endometrial biopsy mid cycle.  I made the mistake of googling that, no likey.  Any treatments for HSG related problems are TBD.

Once everything is within the normal ranges I will start Clomid the following cycle.  Now I'm just waiting to ovulate, hoping this cycle will magically work out.


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