My Superman Doctor

Can I just take a moment here to sing the praises of my incredibly wonderful doctor? It's not often that you hear somebody talking about how great their fertility doctor is when treatments continue to not work, but....

The man just called me. From his cell phone. On his day off. The reason? He said we had been on his mind the last two days and he just wanted to call and make sure we were both ok. Just typing it makes me tear up. Can I tell you how wonderful it is to be treated like a human being during this? It makes me hate my last doctor all that more.

I told him we were going to take a few months off and probably get started again in September. He thought that was a great idea and told me that we should blow off some steam this summer and party it up (I assured him that was not going to be a problem....and now that it has officially be "presribed", we're more than all over it).

I also told him my idea of doing a little "homework" this summer on my off time. My ideas: Basal temp charts, OV kits from CVS and bloodwork on Days 11 & 12 to monitor my LH surge and maybe get a better grasp of it for next time. He seemed to think it was all a little unnecessary. I ovulate normally and all the temp charts will do is confirm that (again). He said the ovulation kits really just register when your LH hits around 12 - which mine consistently hovers at right before my surge...so really those stupid things are only good for the fertile people of the world that can't count (Day 14...have sex y'all). He said the bloodwork might be a good thing to have as a comparision for the next cycle, but he also mentioned that my last two natural cycles were "consistently different." Different because I'm such a quick surger, that literally a few hours difference in when my blood was drawn would make it all useless. So...I'm still making my mind up with the bloodwork. We'd have to pay totally out of pocket - which I don't mind if it will help. But if it's not going to be that useful later on, do I really want to be that involved with trips to the lab for my "summer off", or is it better from a mental perspective to really forget this crap for a few months? I'm still deciding. I'm 60% for the bloodwork anyway, 40% against it. I'll decide later.

Anyway, I probably stayed on the phone with him for a good 15 minutes. I just can't say enough about how sensitive and understanding he is.

OH...he spoke with another of the doctors at the clinic and it turns out that they have had another "remote patient" before. Some chick from the Eastern Shore used their clinic (took her 5 cycles before they were able to harvest...damn the timing issues of Natural Cycle). They were able to work it out where she did her ultrasound/bloodwork from home and didn't have to be in Arlington until the critical few days before her retrieval. My doc said he was going to do a little more research on that and get back to me. The bloodwork is a cinch - we're really close to a LabCorp (which is who does their bloodwork)....if they can just work something out for my ultrasounds, we'll be set.

That would be fantastic! I told him I really underestimated how hard it would be without J being around. The first NC, wasn't too bad because all the critical stuff at the clinic fell on a weekend, so J was with me during all of it. But this time it was during the week and J gets hardly any vacation time....I was on my own. Hopefully they'll be able to work something out - that would be a huge weight off my shoulders.

In the meantime I think I'm still going to set up an appointment to talk to the doc in the next fews weeks. I wasn't expecting him to call, so I wasn't organized. I still have some questions/concerns, but I need to get them down on paper before we talk again. Also - I'm wondering, if I'm such a quick surger - is there any kind of drug I can take to slow that? Tiny doses of Lupron? Any alternatives? I need to do a little research before I set up my appointment.

One thing he did say which kind of raised a red flag for me, was my follicle was on the small side when I surged (18.6mm). It was 19mm the first time (you're supposed to be close to 20-21). He said that sometimes if the follicle is still small when you surge, it could lead to an immature egg. But then he also said that some women just have smaller follicles, they surge quickly, and their bodies are just able to spit out mature eggs and that's just the way their system works.

During our 2 conventional IVF cycles, the doc guessed at the reason they didn't work was egg immaturity. Of course conventional IVF vs NCIVF is apples/oranges...it's just one more thing I need to talk to the doc about.

And if there IS a drug that will delay the LH surge, would that help with maturity - give the follicle more time to grow?

Loads of questions more to ask......