The Past Year

Ryder Garrison made his perfect arrival on March 8th 2008. Robbie and I could not have been happier. He was exactly what we had hoped and prayed for.

We decided since it took a while to get pregnant with Ryder to just not prevent pregnancy after he was born. We knew that we really wanted to have another baby eventually. I went in for my yearly OB/GYN appointment in August 2008. I voiced my concern about possibly having trouble conceiving again. I had been told by numerous people that pregnancy "changes" your body and it will reverse it. I thought I would go back to normal. I thought I might ovulate on my own. I thought it would be easier this time... I still had not had a cycle since Ryder was born. It had been 5 months and since I did not breastfeed, I should have had 3 cycles by now! My doctor told me that I was not ovulating on my own and I would have to take medicine again to start having my cycles. She said whenever I wanted to try to get pregnant again she would prescribe me Clomid. I went home and talked it over with Robbie. We thought about it and prayed about it for about a week and made a decision to just go ahead and move forward with trying out the Clomid. Dr. Cole started me on Prometrium to induce my cycle and then gave me a round of Clomid. 50mg and I took it Cycle Days 3-7. I went in on Cycle Day 21 to have my blood work drawn (Believe me... this blood work stuff is a piece of cake now!) to check my progesterone level to see if I had ovulated. It was 1.2. Negative for ovulation. So, I took Prometrium again and did a second round of Clomid. 100 mg Cycle Days 3-7. This time my Cycle Day 21 progesterone level came back at 15! Completely unexpected! It was consistent with ovulation, but I did not get pregnant. Since I ovulated, I actually started on my own and decided to try a third round of Clomid. 100 mg Cycle Days 3-7. This time my progesterone level on Cycle Day 21 was less than 1. I had not ovulated... By this time it was December 2nd. Dr. Cole decided to refer me to Dr. Ke, a Reproductive Endocrinologist. My appointment was set for 6 weeks later... January 12th.

My initial appointment went really well. Although, looking back, I think I was kind of naive to think that I would get pregnant within a month or so.. That obviously has not happened yet! Dr. Ke suspected PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) and did blood work to test multiple things and to confirm this diagnosis. He prescribed me 850 mg of Metformin twice a day. I would have to take this every day until I am through my baby-making years. He gave me Provera (a different progesterone drug) to start my cycle. When I did start I was to call and schedule an appointment to have an SHG to check for polyps on my uterus.

On February 17th 2009, I went in for the SHG. It was very similar to the HSG. It was painful. Lying there exposed on a cold metal table for 30 minutes with a catheter stuck up there and being injected with dye (which caused severe cramps) to check for uterine abnormalities. The doctor found several polyps on my uterus.

Feb 26th was my second RE appointment. He scheduled my surgery for March 13 to remove the polyps. He also confirmed that I had PCOS.

March 13th - My surgery (Hysteroscopy). Dr. Ke removed 2 large polyps as well as scraping my entire uterus to remove multiple small clusters of polyps. He started me on Provera to have a cycle again. I am still not having cycles on my own.

April 20th was my third RE appointment. He started a plan to get me pregnant. I had lost 14 pounds in the past 3 months, so my chances of conceiving with having the surgery and using the Metformin were at the highest percentage if I used ovulatory drugs. He started me on Provera again to induce my cycle. He prescribed me 2.5mg of Letrozole (femara). He said I was Clomid-resistant and that Letrozole usually worked better in patients with PCOS. I took this Cycle Days 3-7. Yesterday was Cycle Day 21, so I went in to have my blood drawn to see if I ovulated. I found out the results today and my progesterone level was less than 1. Not consistent with ovulation. The nurse is supposed to call me back on Tuesday to let me know if I will go to retest my progesterone on CD28 to test for late ovulation. Until then... just waiting! I do not think that I ovulated this cycle, so hopefully he will up my dosage to 5mg of the Letrozole.. We will see! I will update next week when I find out for sure. My next appointment is scheduled for June 22.