Interesting couple of days.
Literally hours after I peeled my wife up off the ground following her negative test, her period started. So she called the Dr, and they said to come in on Sunday for an ultrasound.
Couple hours later, she wasn't so sure she had her period. Now, I'm no expert on periods. I spent my late teens and twenties praying that my girlfriends would get their periods. Now I pray that my wife doesn't. That's the extent of my knowledge of what you all call "AF" (still haven't figured out what the hell that stands for).
Anyway, something wasn't right. Blood had stopped. There was some initial blood, but then no more. She thought little of it, and went to bed.
Saturday morning there was still very light spotting. Not a normal period. No one told her that this might happen, no one ever explained squat. (Background note: we use a state of the art medical facility in Boston, one of the premier fertility clinics in the USA. The level of medical technology is outstanding. The level of personal care is ABYSMAL. Seriously, I think there is an inverse relationship between quality of medical care and level of douchebagginess.)
So M calls the nurse on Saturday morning to ask her opinion. You know, "Is this normal? Do you think I'm having my period? Does going off the pregesterone make you spot first?" The reason I say she had to call the nurse, instead of the Dr, is because she has not SEEN or SPOKEN with the Dr. since her initital consultation MONTHS ago.
Anyway, nurse had to be paged at home (didn't start work until 11am). So I can understand she was pissed to be bugged at home. And I know her job is hard. I know she works very hard, and is underpaid. But give me a fucking break. No one held a gun to her head and made her be a nurse. I digress.
The nurse said, and I quote, "Oh PLEASE. Only YOU know if you are having your period".
Then the nurse said the M should just skip this month anyway, since she would likely be "riddled with cysts" from her last failed cycle. She said there was really no need to get the ultrasound on Sunday.
M decided to go today anyway. Not ONE FUCKING CYST anywhere. And, it doesn't really matter when your period actually started anyway, since they control everything anyway with all the wacky drugs. And M confided in the ultrasound technician about the weird period. The technician said "oh, yeah, the spotting? That's normal. Should last a day or so until the normal flow. You did the right thing by coming in". HELLO....she had to hear this from the ultrasound technician?! Would it have been so hard for the nurse to say that?
So if we had listened to that mean nurse-bitch, we would have missed a month for no reason. And the clock is ticking, baby. We don't exactly have a lot of time to waste.
Deciding to go in for the ultrasound anyway was one little exercise of control that we have had. Thank God we did it! Unfortunately, after the failed IVF, we have to go back for 3 IUIs before we get back to IVF. So we have to use the procedure with a lesser chance of working 3 times before we can get to the procedure that yields better results, even though that same procedure just failed for us.
My wife is convinced that IUI has never worked for anyone, ever. Can anyone in blogland please prove her wrong?
My 5 year old daughter says some crazy-ass things. Some of them are listed here.
6 comments:
AF = Aunt Flo
Oh yes, Asshat nurses. You'd think that those who work with infertiles would be a tab more sensitive... Thank goodness you guys had a decent ultrasound tech. Does your wife read blogs? She's probably find A LOT more info in blogs than she's ever get from the stupid nurses that should know better.
Yes, IUI does work for some people. It's just a numbers game. I was quoted that it's a 3% greater chance of getting a postive using IUI than from just a monitored Clomid cycle with trigger. I believe that a "monitored" cycle increases your odds 10% so overall - so your AT LEAST 13% great chance of getting a postive doing IUI than the 'ol natural way.
What a bitch that nurse was. That's just insane.
Kellie is right about the blogs. I wrote a post complaining that IUI never works for anyone and got an entire book of responses from people saying it does work (not for them, but for people they know - LOL).
I haven't even got to IUI yet - so I can't say - but I sure do hope you get some great results from it.
I go to the best RE in the state - and it is the same thing. It is like pulling teeth to get ANYONE to call me and even then they don't want to answer my questions - what is up with that? Let the janitor call me back, at least he might be kinda friendly and willing to talk to me. You have to let them all in your personal "junk" and they are so unpersonable. Nurses can sure make or break the experience - wish Drs new that.
IUI didn't work for us, but we only tried two cycles before backing out.
IUI worked for us. With Follistim not with Clomid. Well, I guess technically it worked with Clomid but we miscarried and then....
You get the picture. We have unexplained infertility, the most aggrevating diagnosis possible.
Of course IUIs work. Sometimes. But not very often. If your problem continues to be male factor (not clear from your post about IVF whether it still is an issue) then IUI can help. In people with unexplained infertility, IUI raises your chances about 3-5% over your chance of trying naturally in any one month. At your wife's age, that makes it around 13-15% in any one cycle - ie not very much. A recent scandinavian study showed that just sendign couples home for 6 months resulted in the same number of pregnancies as putting them through IUI. I am therefore the anti-IUI queen, as I was the same age as your wife when we started the infertility treatment and it just seemed like a right royal waste of time. But given your insurance it looks as if you have no choice. It might work, it might not. And it's (a little tiny bit) better than trying on your own.
Post a Comment