Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Decisions, Decisions

IUI #3 is officially underway! I saw Dr. A this morning and my CD3 ultrasound looked good. I was convinced I had cysts with all of the ovary pain I was having, but I didn't. Yay! We are repeating IUI #2's protocol. I am soooo happy this will be my last round of Clomid! It makes me miserable :(

While the u/s tech was doing her thing, I asked Dr. A what he suggests if this cycle doesn't work. The first thing he said was "Don't give up hope, #3 could work!" Even though I don't think it will, it's nice to have that positivity from your doctor. He said we have three options, all of which I already researched: a laparoscopy to check for endometriosis, IUI's with injectable meds or IVF. Mr. B and I have discussed these options already and are leaning towards IVF. There are many reasons. Starting with the laparoscopy: I am absolutely terrified of surgery, plus I feel like it is unnecessary at this point. If we tried IVF and it failed, then I may consider a lap. Next is IUI's with injects: Injectable meds are expensive. Since we have no coverage, I would rather spend that on injects for an IVF cycle. Also, there is a risk for over-stimulating. IVF: the odds are the highest for success. It is the most costly, but seems like a more practical use of our money. Hopefully we won't even need to make this decision, right?

I know that everyone is different and it's ultimately up to us, but I would love to hear how and why you decided on the treatment plan you did, especially if you have an Unexplained diagnosis.

xoxo,
Mrs. B

10 comments:

  1. We went through the same thought process, although never really considered a lap. We did IUI#4 with injectables, because our clinic has really cheap Gonal-F. It was still twice as expensive as a Clomid IUI cycle, but nowhere near the cost of IVF. Plus it was a good chance to see how I responded to injectables.

    IVF though was always the next plan. It gives us the best odds, and a chance at figuring out what the underlying problem is. Although now having been through IVF#1, I still have unexplained IF. Go figure. Added bonus, I now have 5 embryos frozen with my 35 year old eggs, so if this one works and we want a sibling in the future, we don't have to deal with all this IUI/IVF crap again. And IVF was a lot easier than I expected it to be. It was scary, but I'm so so glad we did it when we did.

    It's pricey, but we got creative with paying for it. We used a 0% interest credit card, which gives us one full year to pay it off without paying any interest. We like to make our credit cards work for us. :)

    Good luck!!

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  2. Yay for no cysts! I would suggest doing at least 1 IUI with injects as sort of a "practice run" with the drugs. That way you and your RE know how you respond to the meds before the big show/IVF.

    Good luck!! And I hope you don't even need to consider anything past this cycle :)

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  3. Wishing you tons of luck this cycle =)

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  4. Best of luck on this cycle! I'm bracing for IUI as well. Just a bit confused now about this early spotting that I'm experiencing and hoping against hope that it's implantation bleeding.

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  5. Hi Mrs. B, I actually am in recovery from having a laparoscopy last Thursday. Before the lap, we were also unexplained with multiple failed IUIs. The main reason we wanted to do the lap before moving on to IVF is because IF there was a chance that something was unhealthy or abnormal, we wanted to know BEFORE we spent thousands on IVF. For us, it turned out to be the right decision because the doctor found a substantial amount of endometriosis on my left ovary, tubes, and peritoneum. We were so thankful to finally have answers (and a REAL diagnosis) even if it meant that the answers came in the form of an incurable disease. My doctor was able to remove most of the endo except what is on my ovary because that would have been too risky and he didn't want to have to take any healthy ovarian tissue with the endo. He said that our chances of conveiving are higher now that the inflamed/infected/bad/abnormal (whatever you want to call it!) tissue has been removed and sees no reason why we shouldn't conceive without IVF now that the problem has been dealt with. Obviously it's a very personal decision. My husband HATED the idea of me going into surgery but we knew that it was for a very good cause. My pain on my right side, my healthy side, is nearly gone. A week later, I am still moderately sore on my left side where he did all the scraping and cauterizing. He said I should be back to normal in another week or so. The overall experience wasn't nearly as scary as I was expecting. My anesthesiologists gave me a shot to help "relax" (i.e. totally zone me out) before they even took me back to the OR. They gave me good drugs and so far the worse part of the recovery has been the constipation after the anesthesia. Please feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions! I'd be more than happy to answer them. megsthefragglerocker at hotmail dot com
    Best of luck to you in your decision!

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  6. Thank you all for your responses! I really appreciate them and they are helping me think things through.

    You all know I am rooting for you too :)

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  7. I went straight for IVF as I had a time issue (age) My intuition was correct - got pregnant 1st round! I believe in listening to your inner voice over everyone else. Keeping you in my prayers

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  8. Mrs. B whatever you decide my prayers are with you! I know you will do what feels right to you. I wish you all the luck in the world and hate it has had to come to all of this. Truly hope IUI#3 is it!!! <3

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  9. I'm in OC too and I wonder if we used the same RE. Mine was also DrA! (my blog is ocw2010.blogspot.com). I hope you don't have to go the ivf route and I do get your concern about skipping an injectibles iui cycle to go straight to ivf. I went through the same thought process. Especially since I was 100% oop for treatments and meds. However, DrA said that you have no idea how you will respond to injectibles until you do them. And that perhaps trying them out with an IUI cycle is worth it before making the big investment into IVF. That made sense to me. I found out I was a high responder to injectible meds when we did the IUI cycle. So even though that IUI was a BFN, my RE was more prepared and knew how to dosage me more accurately when we finally did IVF. I wish you a lot of luck. If you ever have questions, email me at 10yearstogether AT gmail
    - Diane

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  10. Thanks Diane!! I think we do go to the same Dr. A :) We have decided to do the injectables with our 4th and final IUI. I actually follow your blog. Congrats again!

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