In August 2010 I had laparoscopic surgery. The doctor confirmed that I had extensive stage four (the worst stage) endometriosis. It appeared to be very aggressive. She removed the cyst from my right ovary and also removed as much of the endometriosis as she could, but did not dare touch anything on my left side. My left ovary was twisted up and adhered to/pushing into my intestine. It was encrusted in a web of scar tissue and adhesions. Fixing it would require a much more complex surgery than they had prepared for and I could lose part of my intestine as well as my left ovary. It was much safer to let it be though unfortunately it would continue to plague me. When my endometriosis flares up every month, so does my intestine. It was nice to know I wasn’t crazy but also crushing because I had assumed that the surgery would help my life and health return to normal. They also discovered that not only did my left fallopian appear to be useless; my right tube was full of scar tissue and did not appear to be of any use. They recommended IVF so that we could bypass the tubes completely.
We didn’t just enter into doing IVF willy- nilly, but I’ll save that for another post. Things suddenly started happening at light speed. I did the necessary classes and got over the first scary self-injection and soon I was mixing Menopur and dialing amounts of Follistim like a pro. Injecting yourself isn’t as nerve racking as you would think. After the first few times it seems as routine as brushing your teeth. The thing that surprised me the most was the time and energy suck that is IVF. Once you start it seems to consume you. Every moment of every day is devoted to some aspect of the process, you are not your own.
picture of my medications
The egg retrieval left me throwing up and in horrific pain for three days. Every day they called to let me know the status of the embryos. On day three they called to say that two were ready and that I should come in the next day for the transfer.
I was nervous and excited going into the transfer. Everything seemed to be going well. We had two embryos to transfer and two to freeze. Things appeared very hopeful, but the transfer did not go well. They said my cervix was “difficult” and they almost could not get the catheter through. After a lot of pushing and quite a bit of pain they were able to complete the transfer but it already wasn’t looking good. It was categorized as being a “traumatic transfer.” Now we just had to wait. The waiting part is the worst. After two weeks they called. It didn’t work. They will review my case and get back to me….at some point. About a month and a half later they called and I made an appointment to come in for a consultation.
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