Dr. Appt. Update

Jamie and I are going for the follow-up SHG this Friday.

*crossing our fingers and hoping for good news*

Everything with this cycle is still looking REALLY good, so I feel myself getting my hopes up that maybe we won't have surgery again. Almost sounds a bit too good to be true, but you never know!

I never realized that all the terrible cramping that I used to have was probably due to AS. I have had literally almost NO cramping with this cycle. I've felt a small twinge here and there, but nothing more. It's amazing!

And now for an embarrassing confession. I actually sat down today and figured out what my due date would be if I got a good report from Dr. Dunn on Friday and got pregnant this cycle.

October 5, 2008.

An October baby! Another Libra! Okay, yes, my hopes are officially high now. Hopefully I am not setting myself up for disappointment.

Results in 5-10 days

Okay, here we go! I just went to the restroom and discovered that today is the start of a new cycle. It's SO different...I have ZERO cramps. This is so promising! For the past few years my cramps have been so intense that I've needed 4 advil just to take the edge off. Today I don't feel a thing!

I'm getting excited to call the doctor and set up the SHG. I am going to call first thing tomorrow morning and try to get an appointment for Friday. That would be cycle day 6. If we don't get in on Friday, then we will have to go on Monday or Tuesday of the following week since the test has to be done between cycle day 5 and 10.

It's time to get some results!!!

All fired up and no one to call!

A few weeks ago I received a bill for my surgery. I already paid out of pocket $1,083 to the surgical facility and $193 to Dr. Dunn. For those who are keeping track that is $1,276 for surgery AFTER insurance. I was already pissed about that. We are shelling out over $400 a month for insurance, and I think it's a bunch of bullshit that it doesn't pay more towards treatment.

ANYWAY...when I got this additional bill I just about went through the roof. I started to get really angry, but then I decided to wait to receive my explanation of benefits from the insurance company before getting too excited.

I got that in the mail today. I am an accountant and it took me nearly an hour of sitting and comparing the statements to make sense of them, so I think a regular person would be completely out of luck. It really infuriates me that insurance companies make things so difficult to understand. The whole system is designed to screw over the average person. Luckily for me, I am not average.

A close examination of the situation indicates to me that I am owed somewhere around $230 back from the surgical facility and I owe somewhere around an additional $425 to Dr. Dunn. I'm already annoyed as hell and it's too late to call and bitch at anyone tonight. Now I am just working myself up for the battle that I will have to fight tomorrow that will no doubt involve at least an hour on the phone with United Healthcare and the surgical facility trying to convince someone to send me the refund I am owed so that I can put that towards the balance due to the doctor.

I can't wait.

Oops

Well, my efforts to chart are not going very well so far! Jamie bought me an electric blanket, which I LOVE, but I think it is really messing with my ability to get accurate basal body temps. I haven't even tried to take my temp on the mornings when I'm using the electric blanket.

I've been telling myself that I need to start turning it off before I go to sleep, but with the cold front headed this way, I don't know if that is going to happen or not!

No more estrogen!!!

At least for now!

I just took my last estrogen pill. It is hard to believe that it has already been 4 weeks since surgery. I'm beginning to get nervous and excited. Mostly nervous, though.

Dr. Dunn said once I discontinue the estrogen, it may take a few weeks for my body to gear up again and realize it needs to do its thing. Based on what he said, I should expect a period anywhere in the next 4-6 weeks. I think the quality of that period will tell me a lot about how successful the surgery was.

I will just be waiting...and waiting...and waiting.

When my period arrives, I am instructed to call the office immediately to schedule another SHG. It has to be done between cycle day 5 and 10. That will be the definitive answer to how my body has healed.

I feel so incredibly excited when I consider the possibility that in just 4-6 weeks I could be completely released to my regular ob/gyn and actively trying to conceive again. But it scares me at the same time, because I know how disappointed I am going to be if Dr. Dunn tells me that I haven't healed well enough to get pregnant.

I will still have recourse if that is the case - another laparoscopy/hysteroscopy. But I am soooo hoping that it won't be necessary. I have butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.

I've decided to start a new chart tomorrow and pretend that it is the first day of a new cycle. We are under STRICT orders to be sure to be very careful and prevent pregnancy (on the off chance that I could actually conceive while on the estrogen), so I know for sure I won't get pregnant this first cycle. It's been a real pain, but Dr. Dunn feels strongly that he doesn't want us to get pregnant until he is certain that all is well due to a higher risk of possible miscarriage if I still have scar tissue.

I still want to chart so I can tell if and when I ovulate, because that will let me know when to expect a period and keep my obsessing to a minimum (maybe).

Surgery Pics

Okay, I finally got around to playing with my camera, and I think I actually was able to edit these and make them look decent. I think these pictures are amazing. It's remarkable what doctors can do these days and the precision of the tiny tools they use is hard to believe.

This is my liver. It has nothing to do with my Asherman's, but I thought it was a really pretty liver, so I am sharing! I was pleased to see that it survived my college years unharmed (kidding...sort of...). Hey, you have to keep a good sense of humor!

This next shot is my appendix (I think):

And now to the good stuff - here is my right fallopian tube opening as seen from the inside of my uterus. It's a really nice, open tube! You can also see some of the healthy endometrium. It appears as the red area. The white areas are scar tissue and/or areas where the endometrium has never grown back. In a perfectly healthy uterus, you would see that reddish lining all over.

In contrast to the right side, this next photo is a picture of the left side. You can see the tube opening, but it is quite blocked by a lot of scar tissue. Also, you can tell that there is basically no healthy endometrium on this side in contrast to what you see on the right side.

Obviously the right side is much better looking than the left.

Here is a picture of one of my fallopian tubes from the outside. It's hard to see, but you can see a dark spot at the bottom of the tube. This spot is where the dye ran through and spilled out from the other side...this is a great sign, because it means that the tube is not obstructed. Dr. Dunn got the same result on both sides, so we know that left tube is open even though it looks pretty bad in the picture.

When all was said and done, all of the scar tissue was removed. It seems hard to believe that is possible! I still look at these pictures in amazement at what can be accomplished in this day and age. Hopefully that little bit of healthy lining has been thriving on the estrogen and has multiplied and spread throughout the cavity over the last few weeks.

I only have 4 more days on the estrogen left...and then we shall see...