The Center of Reproductive Medicine

Today was the day that I would be meeting my new doctor....  a fertility specialist named Dr. John Crochet.  Basically during this appointment we would be talking about my issue in a consultation room and then doing a full exam, along with some ultrasounds.  During the consultation we went through everything.  I gave him all of my records and test results that I had been doing with my OBGYN that ultimately led us up to this point, and we discussed the ins and outs of my issues.  Dr. Crochet was under the impression that the toxic fluid in my right fallopian tube, the hydrosalpinx, was possibly falling back into my uterus.  He said that the entire environment inside of me was toxic.  I wasn't even making embryos because of this.  There was no way for my egg to meet up with any sperm.  At this point, there was no way for me to get pregnant with this tube inside of me.  This is exactly what I had expected to hear.  

We then went into the untrasound room.  During the ultrasound he was looking for my ovaries to check the size, etc. of them.  The left one looked normal, but had a cyst on it.  The right one also had a cyst on it, but he could barely even see the ovary because the tube was so large and dilated.  He then checked my uterus.  It had no fluid in it, and looked normal.  This was a good sign!  Next we looked at my right tube, the hydrosalpinx. He wanted to put pressure on it, to see the fluid and how dilated it was.  As he was pushing on the tube, he said.."Wow, I've never seen this on an ultrasound before!  This is remarkable and kind of cool!"  Basically, when he was pushing on the hyrdrosalpinx, you could see the fluid falling back into my uterus.  My uterus was now partially filled with fluid.  This confirmed all of the speculation and diagnosis from previous exams.  This fluid was also going towards my 'good' left tube.  It was killing off any sperm in the area, and not allowing my eggs to develop properly.  This right tube had to go if I were to ever want to get pregnant without InVitro!

Before leaving I went into the lab to get some bloodwork done and check my egg count once again.  I wouldn't get these results until my Pre-Op appointment was set.  

At this moment, I was crushed.  It felt more real then it ever had before.  The doctor told me the fertility medications would be useless at this point.  Instead, he put me on birth control to get rid of the ovarian cysts.  How did I go from thinking "This could be the month!", to being on birth control!??!  It was quite devastating.  I would stay on  birth control until the day of surgery.  I was told to skip the sugar pills and go straight into the next pack, and do this for 4 months.  We would be suppressing my periods in hopes that the cysts would be gone before I went in for surgery.   

As much as I didn't want to have surgery, it was what I had to do if I ever wanted to become a mother one day.  At this point I knew my next step would be to start the birth control, and check my calendar to schedule the big day.