Monday, May 08, 2006

I had a doctor's appointment

On Friday I went to see the doctor (finally) which was somewhat of a disappointment. I had not been to that practice before and I explained to them that my previous doctor had moved and had a very busy schedule now so that's why I was changing doctors. The doctor was very sweet and she asked me about my medical history, how long we had been trying, etc but she did not seem that concerned about my inability to get pregnant so far.

She said that one year of trying wasn't really that long and was not an indication of anything wrong. She also said that about 30% of pregnancies end of in miscarriages but many people don’t realize it because they don't monitor their bodies that closely so when a very early miscarriage happens they just think they got their period.

By the way, someone on the blog asked me what a "chemical pregnancy" was. It is basically a very early miscarriage where the egg and sperm connect and create an embryo but the embryo never attached to the uterus and is expelled from the body. It could be for many reasons but usually it's because either there is something wrong with the embryo so it's not viable and was never going to become a baby anyway or because there some kind a hormone deficiency in the mother's body (usually progesterone) to sustain the embryo development. Chemical pregnancies usually happen in the 5th or 6th week of the pregnancy and according to my doctor usually don't indicate any future problems conceiving but I'm still worried that if I had it once I may have it again.

Anyway, the doctor did a very quick exam and pap smear (I think this is standard) and told me that since we've been trying for a year, most insurances will cover the cost of infertility treatments if we want to go that route. She suggested we keep trying for a few more months because we did get pregnant once before (the chemical pregnancy) so she thinks that means we can get pregnant again naturally. But she did recommend two infertility specialists to me and said that if I wanted to I could make an appointment with them and start doing some tests. She told me that she can do the first test, which needs to be done on the 3rd day of my period and they test to see what my reserve of eggs is. After that, I can set up an appointment with the fertility specialist so they can test my husband's sperm and if both of these test don't show problems, then they can start doing more tests.

I know she probably sees many people in my situation and one year of trying does not seem like a long time for her but for me it is a lot and I cannot even imagine waiting a few more months so I'll call the fertility doctor this week and schedule an appointment. I know some people out there have been trying to get pregnant for years but I am just getting so tired of this. It's very nerve-wracking and it makes our sex life a little weird because it feels like we have to do it on command and in certain positions only and then I have to lie for 30 minutes afterwards with my legs in the air - it is just too weird. I wish I was one of those people who got pregnant easily!

My sister in law went to see a Native American healer last week. His name is Ted Silverhand, he's fairly well known in the Native American community and he does healings and is also a medium. My sister in law has been suffering from anxiety for a couple of years now and someone recommended to her to try to go to a healer instead of popping pills because they correct your energy levels, recommend meditations, etc. I was a little skeptical at first but definitely curious about what he was going to say. Most of the stuff that he told her was rather personal so I'm not going to mention it but I have to say that I was amazed at how much of the stuff he said was actually true (stuff that happened in the past and he had no way of knowing). But one of the things he mentioned was that we were going to get pregnant soon and have 2 kids in the next 5 years. After all the disappointments and the waiting, at least that makes me feel a little better and more hopeful. Yes, he could be a hoax, but he was right about so many other things so I'm hoping he's right about this as well.

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