MORE Blood in Urine... shit.

Ok... So since May 24 I have been trying to get rid of this bladder infection. I have done 3 rounds of antibiotics (1 week of nitrofurantoin, 3 days of 1000 mg of Cipro, and then 10 days of 500 mg Cipro... for those who care) and the fucking blood in my urine is STILL there!

They are running another culture.. but I will be leaving on vacation before we can get the results. My doctor didn't want to give me more antibiotics. They gave me a slightly stronger than AZO Standard over the counter medicine and told me to take it until I get back. Then... he wants me to see a urologist. He said (via the nurse) that didn't recommend another round of antibiotics. I will call on Monday and see what the culture says... if there is still infection then maybe he will call something in... but he is worried that I may have some sort of cyst or other problem... but I think it is still the e coli bacteria that they found...

So... please pray that this doesn't flare up and ruin a single minute of my wonderful vacation. I really REALLY need this trip.

OK.. back to laundry and packing.

cd 11

cd 11 - Clomid has been taken. Only small side effects so far... headaches and bloating have been it. Some people close to me may question my mood... but that person better keep his cake hole shut if he knows what is good for him. (hee hee hee.. I love you honey.)

I think I STILL have my bladder infection. I take my last 500 mg of Cipro today and I still have slight symptoms. If you remember this is my 3rd round of antibiotics. I go back to the doctor tomorrow for another urine dip because my doctor doesn't want me to go out of town without access to more antibiotics if I need them... jeez. This is getting OLD.

I had my sonohysto on Tuesday. I was really nervous and then when I got there we had insurance problems. At first they told me my test was going to be $1575 OUT OF POCKET!!!! Auuuuggggghhhhh!!!! I was freaking out and almost in tears... because I had been told by Nurse Awesome that it would be covered as "diagnostic". But Nurse Awesome was out that week and another nurse was filling in. It was about 40 minutes before they finally called Nurse Awesome and she was able to talk them through the complicated coding issues. Listen to this... they had to code it as "Habitual spontaneous Abortion" so my stupid insurance would pay. (Which is true since I have m/c'ed twice...) but still it is just stupid how crappy insurance is about infertility.

So when I finally got into see Dr. Wonderful... get this... he actually APOLOGIZED for the stressful insurance thing! Whhhhaaaaaat? He told me if Nurse Awesome would have been there then there wouldn't have ever been a question because she knows the insurance in's and out's. My SIL also passed on my blog address to him so he had even visited my blog! OK... admittedly that is very strange for me... but so far he is still Dr. Wonderful... so we are ok.

The $1575 test took about 3 minutes.

My ute looks perfectly NORMAL. No fibroids, cysts, or signs of endo. When he filled my uterus with water I watched it expand on the screen and they took 3-d pictures of it from all angles. The coolest part for me was that he told me that he was at a good angle when he put the water in and he could see it flow through one of my fallopian tubes! So we know at least one of them is clear! We were not at an able to see the other one but there is no real reason to think that it would be blocked. So one more "Normal" to add to my chart!

Can you believe that old Dr. Untrustworthy was going to do a lap on me without doing this 3 minute test to look for signs of endo out scarring??? Wow.. I am glad I went with my gut and found a new doctor who is more conservative with the surgery.

I will start OPK's today and see if I can see a surge with that and pretty much leave for a fun filled vacation and hope for the best.

OK... time to go pack and get ready to leave in four days for Florida!!!!

PS.. I hired a new teacher... I am cautiously hopeful... but only time will tell.

cd 3

Plan for the month... cd 3...

1. Start 50 mg of Clomid on cd 5... (had a u/s last week and everything is clear)
2. Sonohystogram scheduled for 12:30 on Tuesday... cd 8
3. Continue Cipro for another 7 days... hopefully it will knock out the bladder infection.
4. Hire a fabulous new teacher... I actually found one I am sort of excited about... but I have to wait until next week before we can get her hired... pray nothing goes wrong.
5. Plan for my vacation!!! We are now in the 2ww!
6. Lose 15 - 20 pounds in the next 10 days to be in prime swimwear shape (suck).

Mr. D. is in all day rehearsals for his latest show... I am at home alone and very bored! There are a million things that I could be doing... like housework... or planning for school next year... or crap like that... but I am just sitting on my sofa... vegging out... I think the Cipro is still sort of kicking my ass. But I have got to do something before I go crazy watching bad tv and surfing the net all day... Maybe my work today will be to make a "to do" list to get me started on all the crap I need to do but don't want to... and then I could start working on the list tomorrrow...

Or maybe I could just go to the pool.

I would be the worst ever stay at home wife /mom...

OK.. seriously... I have got to find something to do... as soon as Oprah is over.

Busy Busy Busy!!!!

I have been in a crazy situation since Thursday trying to get the word out about looking for a new teacher.. I am scrambling because this is sooooo late in the game... (He should have resigned in March so that I could have a great choice of new teachers... but now the pickings are getting slim.) Oh well at least he is gone.

I found out last night that Mr. D. secretly booked our vacation longer than he told me!!! After the condo we are going to Orlando for three days at the Hilton across from Seaworld and we are doing Seaworld for several days and DISCOVERY COVE where we get to swim with dolphins!!!! I had never really heard of Discovery Cove but it sounds amazing! Then we will stay a few days with my Grandma like we did last year and hang out at Disney. This vacation is much more extravagant than usual for us... but this has been a rough year at school and since most of my vacation is being eaten up with the stress of trying to get rid of "bad" teacher and now having to hire a new person... once we get to our vacation we plan to RELAX!!!!

I still have my bladder infection.. I have to call this morning and tell the doctor that the 3 days of Cipro didn't get rid of it. Is that common???? It must be a monster infection.

OK.. that is it short and sweet.. I have to head out to Central Administration to pick up several resumes and then start the interview process. I will let you know how it goes.

YAY!!!!!

HE RESIGNED!!!!!!!!

Hip Hip Hooray!!!!!!! You have no idea how excited I am! I have my first interview set up with a possible new teacher tomorrow! I can't believe that my strong arm approach worked!!! OMG!

I will write more later!

Blood in urine.. not good.

I have been sick this week...

I saw the NP again today for a cd 19 u/s... no follies... no cysts... just waiting for AF... probably didn't "O" this month. They also rechecked my urine for this infection and there was blood in it... So no wonder I have been so sick... So I am now on Cipro mega-dose for 3 days to (hopefully) clear up this bladder infection once and for all. On top of that I am having other major stomach issues... I thought that I had a stomach virus because I have been sooo nauseous and have had such bad stomach cramps and a low fever... but now I am getting a little afraid that I may have developed an ulcer. So as soon as I get this infection under control I will decide if I need to see a gastro-specialist about the other stuff. Basically I just feel terrible and have been spending my days on the sofa eating things like potatoes because I am not really handling food well... no vomiting... just pain and burning in the gut when I eat and pain and burning in the V when I pee... It has been an awful few days.

There has been no update since I asked my teaching partner to resign last week (on the advice of my principal) but he is refusing to resign. He is soooo unhappy teaching with me... he needs to leave but I am not sure why he now wants to "make things work". So that is adding to my stress and I am doing my best to ignore the problem. I guess I need to go back in and talk to my principal again... but right now I am just to week and worn out to deal with it right now. I feel that this is the main reason for these tummy issues... obviously.

I talked to the NP today about my fertility plan... I thought I would have to skip July because I will be out of town around "O" time and I thought that they would insist on monitoring but... She said I could go ahead and do clomid next month (just without a trigger). And the best thing is that since I was clear today in my scan I won't have to have another one... I will just call in when my period comes and she will call in the clomid for me. I am also planning to have the sonohistogram on cd 7 or 8 next month... so at least we are moving forward a little bit.

Sorry for the lack of posting... hopefully I will be feeling better in a couple of days and I will have some some to post about my dramatic work situation. So much for my sunny lazy summer break.

uggghhhh.

Happy (crappy) 06/06/06

The morning did not start off well.

First... Dr. New was wrong about the price of his sonogram.. remember he said "about $70" well they are $140 each... not such a super saver deal after all.

Second... The cd 13 u/s showed lots of little follies but none over 12mm. Three posibilities:
(a) I "o"ed already... actually with the cramping I have had the past 3 days (that is suddenly gone this morning) and the clear thin cm I have been seeing this is a real (but weird) possibility. Bad news... only had sex once yesterday afternoon... so probably missed the egg.
(b) I am going to "o" late this month... NP wants to do another u/s on Monday... crap... $140??? Can I do this???
(c) I am not "o" ing this month.

Third.. I have to call my insurance to find out why the told NP that I have not met my deductible this so I need to pay my sonogram out of pocket (even though she can code it as PCOS not infertility). I have NEVER had to pay for a visit like this except my co-pay. I hate insurance companies!

Ok.. that is it... It is only 9:20 AM and it has already been a very crappy morning. All this on top of my shit work situation. OK.. gotta go call BCBS and yell at them.

The visit...

Sorry that I have not posted abou my doctor appointment yet. I am just taking some time to process everything because a lot has transpired in the past couple of days.

First... my teaching partner decided to send me an email (or two) telling me that basically he hates working with me, thinks I am a horrible person, and that he thinks I am to hard on my students. Grrrreeeeaaaattttt. Since he is in such a terrible and scary work position you would think that he would be looking for another job right? Nope... He (so far) is planning to stay... he just wanted to make sure I knew how much he hates working with me. There is so much more to this story... but my fingers could never type it all.. You all know what I think of him... but I have tried very hard to remain friendly since we work so closely together. Now I have to decide if I need to take these emails to my principal and try to figure out what to do next... or do I ignore it all? Tough stuff. It really sucks.

My doctor appointment was very interesting. I met with New doctor for over an hour and we just went over my story... Again.. there is so much to the story... but the highlights are...

He does not think I need to have a lap... at least not this summer (by the way.. I did not tell him that I was opposed to the lap.. only that I wanted to understand why I would need one..) Basically he thinks that none of my doctors have followed the standard procedures and run the proper tests to try and figure out what the problem is. He also thought that Dr. Untrustworthy was super-over priced and did not have the aggressive type approach that he feels I need. He also told me that he doesn't think I need IUI's and that IVF is so far in the future that we shouldn't even discuss it at this point...

Here is my new plan... On Tuesday I will have a cd 13 u/s to see what I am doing on my own as far as ovulation... (if I would have seen him a week earlier we would have started clomid..) If there is a good follicle I will get a hcg shot (which he couldn't believe no other doctors have offered me in the past when I have had good follies) and then follow up with a progesterone test 8 days later. He says we need to figure out if I am having trouble ovulating or if I have low progesterone or if it is both... there is a difference... If you ovulate and have low progesterone you would have trouble staying pregnant so you would need progesterone supplements BUT if you are not ovulating that will also cause low progesterone readings... but progesterone supplements are not going to help the problem and you would need something (like clomid) to stimulate better ovulation. I have known this and have remained frustrated because Dr. Untrustworthy just "decided" that I was not ovulating well enough even though we consistantly saw follies that we 16-18mm on cd 13... So this month (asided from the possible hcg shot) we will go au natural and see what my body does on its own... remembering that I have been pregnant twice on my own with no assistance.

Next month... we will do a "clomid challenge" Full monitoring starting clomid on cd 5. Then after ovulation (again with a possible hcg shot... and a possible IUI if I feel like I "really" want to try it... even though he says he would not really recommend it yet) we will do another progesterone test... this time to see what my body does with ovulation but without progesterone supplements to see what my "real" progesterone readings are... if at that point they are still low... we will stay on the supplements forever. We will also do a sonohystrogram at the beginning of this cycle to get a good look at my uterus (he said this is more reliable to him than a HSG... and he would never do a lap without at east doing this teat first...) I can't believe no other doctor has done this test on me considering how many procedures I have had done. He called it "painless" But inflating your uterus with water and doing a 3d u/s seems like it may be a tad "uncomfortable... any one done this?

So.. after 3 or so monitored clomid cycles (which if you remember I have never had a monitored clomid cycle) if things still seem "unexplained" we will revisit the possibility of surgery.

The rates at this office are much more reasonable... for example Dr. Untrustworthy charged a flat rate for ultrasounds- $550 per cycle... regardless of how many you have... New Dr. says they charge $70 per u/s and you rarely need more than 3 a cycle... that is a huge difference. He said that the only thing that would cost a little more is that he insists on using non-generic clomid... he says that the generic is not the "exact same" and that he has had much better results with the real deal. Interesting....

They also have "special walk in hours" from 7:15 - 8:30 am every morning for when you need an u/s or a blood test... you don't need to have an appointment and they get you in and out very quickly so you do not have to deal with getting off from work. He also made me promise that if I ever felt like I wasn't being treated fairly financially to let him know... he said things like monitoring are mostly billed for the doctors time (not because of expensive equipment etc..) so he would rather work with me financially to get me pregnant and let the insurance kick in and pay him when he delivers our miracle baby.

This doctor (who we really need to name) feels really strongly about trying to help me... mainly because he is the reason my "infertile" siter in law has four sons ranging in age from 12-17... in fact she was the first IVF he ever did back in 1994. My SIL used to travel with him and talk about IVF.. they are both really involved with RESOLVE. Their families are very close and I think I will get great care from him because he loves my SIL so much. I am now known around the office as a VIP because I am DD's SIL... and many of the nurses remember her even though her twins are now 12. Dr. "New" even told me that he owes his practice and his specialty in infertility to my SIL because she "single-handedly"built his practice. I came in to the family much later and never really new all this about my SIL... (but the way... this is not the SIL I have complained about in the past... it is Mr. D's brother's wife.)

I have left out at least a thousand details... but these are the basics... So... I have a plan... the visit was very positive... and I feel a little hopeful. We will see how long that lasts.