How we met our RE...

So in my last story I think I sweepingly covered our close to a year of trying to conceive. Well, I went to the dr after about 6 months for a pap smear and just to get bloodwork done and rule out any physical problems. I hadn't had a check up in a long time so it seemed like a great idea. Well, God is just so awesome because he led me to the perfect GP very indirectly. I had an appointment planned with my parents dr but the day of the appointment, the clinic called and that dr was out sick so I said, fine I'll just take whoever is there. Well, I met Dr Perkinson who has the kindest man who- get this- had battled infertility himself. His wife got pregnant after 13 months of trying and he knew how I was feeling and how hard what I'm going through is. Well, he talked to me for a while and I found the whole thing very reassuring.

But I wasn't planning on doing any tests or anything until I got to 12 months and I figured then I'd go to an Ob/Gyn. Well, a couple of months later, I had to go back to my GP for an throat infection and he was so kind and asked all about how our 'ttc' efforts were going. We were at around 8 months by then and he suggested I go ahead and call an RE and get an appointment and start testing and so forth. He recommended Houston Fertility Institute and I left with a referral.

To my surprise but delight, my husband agreed with moving ahead and a month later, after 9 failed cycles, we met our RE. Of course, we were so nervous about this initial appointment even though in reality absolutely nothing really happened! But we did plan our upcoming tests and I was relieved to know that we'd have answers within a month or so.

Well, I will give the quick version now and maybe another time I can go back and describe the emotions and the humor of fertility testing. But, we discovered that I seemed to be ovulating normally (which was not a surprise since I had been using OPKs the past few months). Al's semen analysis came back very positive (and his self esteem has been soaring since discovering just how healthy his swimmers are!) and my HSG showed open tubes but a very tilted uturus.

On the day of the HSG, the RE threw out the idea that an IUI could help correct for the tilt of the uterus which may (but may not) be making conception difficult. From my research, a tilted uterus often has no effect but in absence of any other reasons, it seems like trying to 'fix' that hindrance is the best place to start...

So in the month almost since my HSG I've pretty much designed my own treatment course and tomorrow I go to the RE and hope that he agrees with me! I am hoping to start on Clomid this cycle and then do three rounds of IUI the next three months. Right now I just have to believe that it will work and I will get pregnant. I can't worry about that not working either and what all that would mean so I am choosing to embrace optimism and believe that within the next four months, I will have a beautiful baby in my belly!

OK, that's all for now- I'll update about tomorrow's appointment!