The visit

If I had to describe the far away clinic in one word, it would have to be impressive. From the physical place, the kindness of everyone we met, to the knowledge that was shared with us, it was all impressive.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We had a painless flight out, even arrived early! A good omen, I thought. I look for those good omens everywhere now. Didn't sleep very well that night, mostly because of a bad mattress and a snore-y husband. But I was up and ready to go in the morning.

We found the place with no problem, and checked in. Met with the doctor first, I'll call him Dr. Famous. He was very approachable, and relaxed. Which put us at ease. I've read many things about this doctor, and I found him much more approachable and kind than what I read. Which was nice. Since we had talked to him a month ago, and nothing had changed since now and then, we didn't have much new to talk about. But we went over all that we'd do that day, which turns out to be quite a bit.

So over the course of the next 6+ hours, we did more than I think we've done in the last year. Mr. P donated some of his swimmers (his comment on "the room": a bit more spartan, but more current reading and media, so overall thumbs up), did fancy ultrasound with a separate monitor on the wall so I did not have to crane my neck to see the screen (how great is that? they actually want you to see your scans!), we gave a ton of blood (me: 7 vials, Mr. P: only 3. grrrr), met with our nurse for almost 2 hours, met with a really great genetics counselor, and I had the coochie cam. Literally, a fiber optic camera pushed up into my uterus. Which was not so fun.

So what did we learn? Well, a lot of the data is still being tallied. We'll have to wait another few weeks to get all of the genetic testing back. And I have to wait towards the end of my cycle to do the endometrial biopsy locally. But we did learn mostly good and and a few not so good things.

The good: I have good blood flow to my uterus, meaning electro-acupuncture is not needed for me. My Day 3 FSH was down into the normal range again (8.6!), and I have 12-16 resting follies. Which is great news. Mr. P's swimmers are doing well. We are eligible to do the clinical study involving PGS, specifically microarray/CGH. This was one of the big draws to the far away clinic, and I am very glad we can hopefully have our embies looked at for abnormality before we put them back in.

The not as good: I have a very small fibroid pushing on the lining in my uterus. It was only seen on u/s, and Dr. Famous did not see it protruding into my uterus on the coochie cam. It is located on the inner part of the uterus, on top of which the lining develops. And it is small. He said it is a toss up as to whether it has been interfering with implantation, and a toss up if I should even remove it at all. He left the decision with me. We discussed it, first with the doctor, then with just me and Mr. P, and then with the nurse. Mr. P and I really don't want to delay another cycle to have it removed, and discussed other options. In the end, we decided to have it removed during the wait after retrieval, before FET, when we wait about 6 weeks for the PGS results. It does mean another trip to the far away clinic, but if it is one less thing I have to worry about interfering with getting pregnant, I have to do it.

So that is it. We will get additional test results back over the next few weeks, and I'll get my protocol and cycle schedule next week. As of now, it looks like stims begin in mid to late September. With the fibroid surgery, PGS wait, and the holidays when their lab closes, I think FET would be in January. We might be able to squeeze in the schedule for mid-December, but I'm preparing for January.

I'm feeling very good about the choice of going with the far away clinic. The difference between them and the care I've gotten at my old doctors is huge. Things my old RE would not even consider as issues are just the areas the new clinic is taking most seriously.

The only bad part of the trip was getting back home. Thunderstorms diverted our incoming plane to another city. After that long day, and the cramps and spotting I was having after the coochie cam, I could not bear waiting around for hours and hours hoping that plane would make it to the far away clinic city, only to get home at 2 AM. Mr. P took one look at me, and changed our flight for the next morning, and booked us in a nice hotel. We got to the lovely hotel, I went horizontal right away, ate yummy room service and was asleep by 9pm. But up again at 4am, and finally got back home at 10am Friday. So it was a long trip back, and I'm still feeling worn out. So the plan is a restful weekend, and begin getting all of the new info from the far away clinic organized on Monday.