Meeting With Our RE & Random Beauty

It's random blog time! First order of business, the business...

We saw our RE (Reproductive Endocrinologist, ie: fertility doctor) on Friday. We sat with her and talked for close to an hour and a half. She is the doctor who helped us have our daughter. We adore, respect, and trust her judgement. In a nutshell if my losses were completely due to chromosomal abnormalities, there aren't any fertility drugs with any supporting data that can help, however there are a couple of things that could be worth a try. There is always the possibility that my losses were due to something in addition to the chromosome problems.


I am being tested for a couple of things. We will do the Clomid challenge if I'm not pregnant this month to recheck my ovarian reserves and FSH to see if that has changed in the past 3 years. I just got my blood drawn for PAI testing, which is an insulin based blood clotting disorder test. I'll also do a glucose tolerance test (like they do to test for gestational diabetes). She thinks I probably have a little underlying PCOS (things that make her think this are my irregular cycles, gestational diabetes with my daughter, high cholesterol, acne). If the tests look like my body isn't doing as well as it should be with insulin, we'll do Glucofage which should be helpful. I'm really hoping all comes back normal because I'm terrified this could be leaning toward diabetes as I get older (even though it doesn't run in my family). This was what she was mainly focused on figuring out. There are some other tests we could do, but this seems the most likely additional problem.

As for treatment, we will start on Clomid next month and just do Clomid for a few months. My lining was always a little thin on it before, but we did have our little girl, so it could very well work again. If we see (from mid cycle ultrasounds) that my lining isn't looking good enough, then we will talk about other follicle stimulating meds. We could also do HCG trigger shots and IUI if we wanted, but we aren't going to do that quite yet. We are basically just trying to up our chances with more eggs and a normal ovulation pattern instead of irregular cycles.

I feel good having a plan in order and having talked it all through with her. I'm really hoping I'm just pregnant on my own this month, for obvious reasons, and also I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed with the thought of starting the whole infertility process and more testing and procedures and the cost.

I'm currently 5DPO and looking forward to testing! Here's my chart...

Second order of business, random beauty. It's January in the Midwest and it's cold, snowy, and dreary. I just need to surround myself with beauty to keep my spirits up! I wanted to post some of my favorite photos (taken by either myself or my husband) of some of our favorite places. If we can't be there right now, we may as well enjoy the photos and dream of being there. We love taking photos and are trying to learn more techniques. It's one of our hobbies. Lets all breathe in the smell of the saltwater air and feel the sand in our toes at my favorite place on earth - The Don CeSar on St. Pete Beach, Florida...

and of course, who can resist cute-kiddo-on-the-beach photos...

When I'm stressed out or having a bad day these photos can almost always bring me to a happy, hopeful place. I will try to use the serenity in these photos to help me move forward with positivity in this new year.