An Apple a Day...

I love apples. Honeycrisp are my absolute favorite. I could literally eat them everyday. But they're supposed to keep the doctor away, right? Then why am I fully booked for the next few months with doctors?

Appointment rounds 2 and 3 occurred today. Round 2 was with a low cost IVF clinic in Atlanta. I know what you're thinking... sketchville, right? Well there are some definite shortcuts, and I'm not sure yet how they might affect quality of care. The doctors rent hospital space to perform the IVF procedures. That's apparently the biggest cost savings. Other things I noticed: there is no full time receptionist. Most of the time, it appears you leave a message and someone calls back. Second point of interest was the ultrasound machine. It's portable. Huh? The monitor part basically looks like a laptop. Sam assured me it was legit.

I bring up the ultrasound machine only because there was some frustrating information gleaned from it. The doctor immediately sees something and exclaims, "how interesting". I'm so sick of people all up in my space exclaiming over interesting things about my who-haa. Anyway, I digress. Apparently I have a "large uterus". Does this mean I can fit more than one baby more easily than most? Because multiples is starting to sound better and better. (Don't tell Sam) Even more crazy was that I have a fibroid! What?!?!?? I've had about a million ultrasounds in the last 3 months and NO ONE has said ANYTHING.

So now I'm in a dilemma. Do I believe this old guy, who well, is old, but also crazy experienced and has a resume a mile long with his ultrasound machine/tough book? Or do I believe all of the other doctors? Believe that they would have said something if it was there?

New doctor, the old guy, he's precious by the way, wants to do a saline infusion sonogram. He wants to see exactly where the fibroid is attached. If its a problem with implantation, then I get to have a laparoscopy to have it removed. Yay?

As you can imagine, I'm confused. Where did this come from? Why is this the first I'm hearing of it? Is it really there? Is this "the answer"? Was it this simple all along? I won't jump there, I'll let my mom run down that rabbit hole. But wow! Talk about shocking news.

Before I call my RE at my current clinic, ACRM, and freak out, I'm going to wait for next Monday. I have another appointment (3rd IVF consult). It's a new doctor and they said to expect a physical exam. I'll make sure to ask, "do you see any polyps, fibroids, cysts? Anything I should know about?" Depending on what he says, I'll have to make some decisions.

Ultimately, today was confusing. About half of what my current RE has said, this guy disagreed with. He wouldn't put me on progesterone; he thinks my numbers are fine. He doesn't think the tests recommended to us are worth the money. He's not in a rush to move on to IVF. He was very concerned that I might have a missed PCOS diagnosis (here we go again). I asked why and he said my AMH was high, really high. 5.4 is apparently either a gift straight from God or an indication I have PCOS. He was going to refer me for some insulin test, but then during the exam, he did a good once over my face, INCLUDING a chin rub! Geez old man! I apparently passed his PCOS test because he dropped it after finding the fibroid.

It's becoming more and more clear that infertility has some murky waters to wade through. The doctors don't see it as black and white, and that's frustrating. Especially when it seems like it will probably take exact science, exact proportions, exact combinations to yield a baby. I sure would like to get a miracle and not need them anymore. They are all so frustrating!