One more sleep

In a little more than 12 hours I will be at the hospital getting ready for surgery.  I'm really trying not to think about the details, so I'm managing to stay pretty calm.  I have my ipod ready with a relaxation track to help me sleep if I need it.  I will post tomorrow (or maybe not till Friday if I'm too drugged when I get home) with a play-by-play of what happens when I get there.

Q & A

1. How big is my septum? 

    7mm.  Dr. M assures me this is actually quite shallow as septums are concerned.

2. Will you be able to remove it all with one surgery? 

    Absolutely

3. What is the difference between a septum and a bicornuate uterus? 

    The outside of the uterus is dipped along with the uterus in a bicornuate uterus.  

4. Is there a difference in treatment?  

    Surgery is not performed on a bicornuate uterus.

5. How do you know it's a septum and not bicornuate?  

    According to the 3D ultrasound done during the hysterosalpingram, my uterus appears normal from the outside.

6. Will you do an HSG at the same time? 

    No need, we will be doing a LAP

7. Will I see you before/after the surgery? 

    Yes, but I likely won't remember seeing him after due to the drugs.  He will bring D in and tell him everything.  Hopefully my mom too because she will be more likely to remember what he says. 

8. How long can D stay with me before the surgery? 

    This question didn't really get answered.

9. Does it matter when in my cycle the surgery is done?  

    No

10. Is there any potential that I will lose a tube or that the tubes become blocked because of the surgery?

     Definitely not!

11. What can I expect in terms of recovery? 

     I will be very groggy from the anesthesia, and maybe nauseous as well.  The nurses in recovery will give me something for the nausea. After that  I may have some abdominal tenderness "like a bruise" at the incision sites.  The incisions will be so small that they don't even require a stitch, only 5mm. I may experience some pain from the gas the insert into my abdomen to expand it so he can see.  They will try to remove as much as possible, but the gas can travel up to my shoulders and cause pain.

12. What pain killers will I be given?  

     Naproxen and Tylenol 3

13. How long will I be off work? 

     Friday.  He thinks I should be better after 1 or 2 days... I'm not so sure.

14. Will I have a balloon inserted? How long will it be there?  

     No, not for a septum as shallow as mine.

15.  Will I need to be on estrogen or progesterone after?  

     No, not for a septum as shallow as mine.

16. When will we be able to start to TTC?  

     After one complete cycle. I will likely have a period within 10 days of the surgery, and because it's so soon, he wants us to wait one full cycle after that. So, January.

17. Will any pregnancy I have after this be automatically considered high risk?  

     I didn't ask this question... I was nervous and skimming down this list.

18. What are the risks during pregnancy as a result of the surgery?  

     Same as the last question.

19. What will my first cycle after surgery be like?  

     Very heavy.  I usually have a few days of spotting before AF arrives, but he said it will likely begin suddenly and very heavy, with no warning spotting.

20. Will we do any drug treatments right away?  

     Yes, we will continue with the Femara.

21. How any timed cycles will we do before moving to IUI?  

     I didn't ask, I'm still holding out hope that I won't have to.

22. Is it possible to build up a resistance to Femara? It worked great in cycle 1, then cycle 2 was long and no ovidrel, cycle 3 was upped to 5mg and was short, cycle 4 is also at 5mg and was long. 

     I didn't ask, I chickened out.

23. From the research I've done, septum's are often associated with recurrent losses, since I have never had a pregnancy or a loss, what are my chances that this will solve my problem and actually get me pregnant?  

     I didn't ask, I chickened out.

24. In each of the 3 cycles that I did a trigger shot my period came exactly 11 days after the injection leaving me with an LP of 10 days max.  Is that long enough?  

     No it's not long enough, that's called a Luteal Phase defect.  The corpus luteum that is left behind after the egg is released from the follicle is not producing enough progesterone to prevent the lining of the uterus from shedding.

25. Should I be on a progesterone supplement after the surgery?  

     Yes, we will add that into my cycle in January.

Good bye 20's

When I was 21 and living in TO on my own I was feeling rebellious.  I had recently broken up with my high school boyfriend and was looking for ways to be sexy.  So one day I went up to the village and got a navel ring.  I'm not showing off my ring anymore like I used to in the bars in university, but I still never wanted to get rid of it.  I still wanted to hang onto that part of me... however brief that period was.

Saturday night I realized that one of two things was going to happen today.

1 - By some miracle I would be pregnant and I would eventually have to remove the ring because of my ever expanding belly.

2 - More likely, my period would show up and I would be having surgery in two and a half weeks and would have to remove the ring so that surgical instruments could be inserted through my belly button.

Either way, the result was the same.  My 20's are officially over.  I likely won't put it back in after the surgery because I'm still hoping that scenario number 1 will still happen eventually.  And after that... who wants to see a navel ring in a flabby mommy tummy anyway?

Epic Fail

All the signs are here... the cramping, spotting, headache, etc.  Aunt Flo is just around the corner.  Early I might add.  Bitch!

Four medicated cycles, all failed.

Now I'm officially moving on to the next step. Surgery.

It's scheduled for December 1.

I don't know exactly what will happen.  I don't see the Dr. for the pre-op appointment until next Monday.  I have a ton of questions for him that day.

1. How big is my septum?
2. Will you be able to remove it all with one surgery?
3. What is the difference between a septum and a bicornate uterus?
4. Is there a difference in treatment?
5. How do you know it's a septum and not bicornate?
6. Will you do an HSG at the same time?
7. Will I see you before/after the surgery?
8. How long can D stay with me before the surgery?
9. Does it matter when in my cycle the surgery is done?
10. Is there any potential that I will lose a tube or that the tubes become blocked because of the surgery?
11. What can I expect in terms of recovery?
12. What pain killers will I be given?
13. How long will I be off work?
14. Will I have a balloon inserted? How long will it be there?
15. Will I need to be on estrogen or progesterone after?
16. When will we be able to start to TTC?
17. Will any pregnancy I have after this be automatically considered high risk?
18. What are the risks during pregnancy as a result of the surgery?
19. What will my first cycle after surgery be like?
20. Will we do any drug treatments right away?
21. How any timed cycles will we do before moving to IUI?
22. Is it possible to build up a resistance to Femara? It worked great in cycle 1, then cycle 2 was long and no ovidrel, cycle 3 was upped to 5mg and was short, cycle 4 is also at 5mg and is long...
23. From the research I've done, septum's are often associated with recurrent losses, since I have never had a pregnancy or a loss, what are my chances that this will solve my problem and actually get me pregnant?
24. In each of the 3 cycles that I did a trigger shot my period came exactly 11 days after the injection leaving me with an LP of 10 days max.  Is that long enough?  Should I be on a progesterone supplement after the surgery?

When I have some answers to these questions, I will come back and share them.

For now, I'm catching up on the Twilight Saga in preparation for Breaking Dawn on Friday!