Monday, October 16, 2006

Let's give the infertile girl a heart attack

Yeah, that's the game they were playing at the doctor's office today. I called and they squeezed me into the urgent care clinic at the gyn clinic. Anyways, they asked me if I had gotten the results of my HSG from August and I said yeah, they told me it was normal. The nurse then tells me, oh, the notes here say that you have uterine fibroids and/or polyps. My jaw dropped, um, nobody told me that. The nurse then says oops, well then I didn't tell you either. So, after examinging me, she brings in one of the gyn doctors. The doctor looks at my test results and tells me that during the HSG the technician saw areas that didn't fill with the dye. This usually indicates the presence of fibroids or polyps. I'm like, okay, so how do we find out for sure? She says the fertility doctors will have to decide if they want to 'go in' and check things out or what, but that it's all up to them. She then examines me as well. When she is done and about to leave to check with the fertility docs about what to do for me, I ask her "I know from the pamphlet here in your office that fibroids are non-cancerous growths, but what about polyps? Can they be cancerous? (see, I'd read the pamphlet and started freaking out during the 15 minutes it took the nurse to bring the doctor in). She says oh no, 99.9% of the time polyps are non-cancerous. It's not life-threatening, don't worry. So, I ask what about fertility-threatening? She stutters a bit and says well, yeah, we'll let the fertility doctors talk to you about that, we're just worrying about the bleeding today. So she leaves to go talk to the fertility doctors, while I sit in the room and try not to pass out! Hello, did she just basically tell me that I might not be able to have children and then leave me hanging?! Yup, she sure did.
Now, she comes back into the room and tells me that the fertility doctors don't want them starting me on birth control to stop the bleeding yet. She then tells me that it looks like the plan will still be do to injectibles and IUI once we get this recent problem taken care of. I said I am so happy to hear you say that because you really freaked me out with the whole fibroid/polyp thing. And you know what she tells me? "oh yeah, that. Well, the fertility doctors always do their own evaluation of the images from the HSG and they didn't see anything to be concerned about on yours. That's why they told you it was normal. Apparently the technician must have seen a shadow or something and automatically assumed fibroids or polyps."
Hello, why the hell would you tell a woman going through infertility treatments that she could have something wrong with her that could compromise her chance of conceiving before checking with her doctor?! I was terrified!
So, as of right now I am still not positive what is going on. The doctor today told me I am definitely dehydrated and have lost a lot of blood, but that my body is handling it well. Apparently I am producing blood cells fast enough to replace the ones I am losing without going into shock or anything. I need to drink a lot of fluids and watch my blood sugar. I also need to go see the REI (reproductive endocrinology and infertility) doctor tomorrow at 1, instead of 8, because at 1 all of the doctors will be there, whereas at 8 they won't be. Is that a bad sign, that for some reason they want all of the fertility specialists there when I come in? I'm a little worried that maybe they have bad news for me. But maybe they just want to make sure that everyone agrees on a new plan-of-action for me, to make sure we do whatever is best for my current problem while still considering my future treatments? Guess I will find out tomorrow....

No comments: