whew!

Yesterday's appointment with the RE was seriously long. Marathon length for sure. We discussed everything. All of our diagnoses, all of our previous cycles, all of my surgeries, The Coach's surgery, our timeline, the good, the bad and the ugly. And it all went very, very well.

First we discussed the specifics of our most recent cycle--you remember, the one that was going perfectly and then BAM! my stupid gallbladder decides to ruin it--she was very, very pleased with how all went during that cycle (up until the cancellation, of course). She believes the dosage of Follistim I was on (150iu) was perfect for me and she wants me to stay on that dosage for our next cycle. She "loved" my follies, E2 and lining from that cycle so that was good to hear...too bad the flucking cycle was ruined.

We also discussed my FSH levels. Now, my FSH isn't technically high...it is just high for my age. It is still well below my clinics "cut off" if you will. So, while it is something for us to be concerned about in the future (as my levels will only continue to increase), my RE said it isn't something she is concerned with now. She doesn't believe that is what is keeping us from getting pregnant. So we won't worry about it. Although I will continue to down wheatgrass shots and royal jelly like crazy. Can't hurt, right?

We also went over The Coach's post-surgery SA that was done at his urologist. Everything is *perfect*. Morph was totally normal, counts are excellent, motility is great. She's ready to kick us off of the MFI train. Me? I'm a skeptic..always have been, always will be. I want to see at least one more SA proving his sperm is this fantastic. Then maybe I will believe. But, again, good news.

We talked with her about what will happen next...she recommends couples do 4 inject/IUI cycles before moving on to IVF. We've done 1...well, 1 that got us to the actual IUI. That was back in October. So we plan to try 3 more IUIs with Follistim starting in August. If all of those fail, we will be back to The Coach's season and will be wait listed again due to his insane schedule. I guess maybe IVF next summer? Who knows...

She did say she believes we can get pregnant via an IUI. She said due to our ridiculous time constraints, if she didn't firmly believe we had a decent shot at this, she would recommend IVF immediately. At least someone believes...

And, at the end, she did mention that if my IUIs all fail, she would potentially want to do a lap. I've had 5 surgeries on my abdomen in the last 5 years. That's crazy. She thinks there may be a decent amount of scar tissue in there as well as possibly some endo. Of course IVF bypasses all of that and would sort of deem the lap as unnecessary but she does think it would still be worth it. Just to really get a good, full, clear picture of what all is going on in this messed up tummy of mine. I really, really hope we don't get to that point. That would be surgery #6 in 5 years and I'm only 24 and have no real, life threatening, seriously medical conditions. Nuts.

So...after The Coach and I take out vacation (!!!) we will be back on the treatment train. Hopefully this next cycle goes off without a hitch!