OK, getting up to speed....

Whew, I finally have time to sit down and talk about my doctors appt. on Friday. Ironically, I have more downtime at work right now (it's exam week) than I do in my personal life on the weekends or evenings, but anyways.

So, I met my husband in Charlottesville on Friday (He was coming from the NFL game in Washington the night before) and we proceeded to meet our new RE. Right away I knew I would like this clinic. The waiting room was a very private, comfortable setting with couches, coffee tables, and an available water cooler. The front desk persons were extremely nice, and check this out, when it was time to call us back for my appt. the doctor himself came out to call our name and introduce himself!! Basically we went into Dr.W's (not to be confused with my ob Dr. Wonderful, however that could be interchanged) office and he went over my medical history.....HSG, lap, S/A for the hubby, medicated cycles, IUI's, and the m/c. Then he asked us questions about our family history, we discussed a little bit about my CF, and he asked the basic "do you smoke/drink" health questions. Next he sat back at his desk and goes "OK, now that the basic stuff is over with, what do you want to do from here, what are you expecting from me?" Um, did I just hear you right?!?! I'm sorry, I am a bit shocked you actually asked what I want....does this mean you actually care and/or acknowledge the fact I am a well educated patient? I believe so, and thank god for that!

So, as for treatment I told Dr. W that DH and I wanted to try one more IUI and then move on to IVF, he nodded his head and says that is certainly one option, but he also suggested trying at least two IUI's before deciding about IVF because we know I can get pregnant. Although he knows we are not new to the RE bit, he wants us to try and start with a clean slate with him; now that we know what protocol works (the clomid/injects combo), we can start from there and work our way up. I liked this idea and appreciated the fact he wasn't an IVF pusher since my last RE was talking about it during our first appt. I also suggest going to all injects, and Dr. W said that we could definitely do that if we wanted, however usually once we find the protocol that works in getting pregnant to at least give it one other go (and to save some money), since getting pregnant and staying pregnant are two completely different issues. He also mentioned that his all inject cycles have a higher success rate of achieving pregnancy (basically because it helps produce more eggs) but in either cycle, clomid, combo, or otherwise (other than IVF) he doesn't want his patient to have more than 4 eggs, and if they do he usually cancels the IUI. Perfectly reasonable in my book, so we are good there. However, we still have the issue of which to do first, combo or all out injects, and I would like others opinions on this so I will post a separate blog on this debate.

After the initial consult he did a brief exam; the usual-pelvic, u/s, etc. Which, btw although my lefty is still hiding behind my uterus the wand didn't hurt like they have been in the past, yay! All is well in the pelvic department, the cysts on my right ovary are gone and I have lots of atrial follies just waiting to grow for my next cycles...whoo-hoo! All in all I really liked this doctor!! I actually walked out of his office feeling like an intelligent, respected patient....and THAT is definitely worth driving 2.5 hours for!