Monday, September 24, 2012

Ewe's doctor visit

3 miscarriages meant being sent to an OB/GYN for a whole bunch of tests. 6 miscarriages meant being sent to a Reproductive Endocrinologist. I didn't expect the RE to do a whole lot because I already had a whole bunch of tests done a few years ago when they discovered I had Factor II.
My appointment began with sitting down with a nurse practitioner and going through my whole history. I had a headache after talking about the details of 9 pregnancies. (Note to others: EVERY time you are pregnant whether a birth or miscarriage-make notes to yourself of length of pregnancy, any complications, if a miscarriage then how long the pregnancy, if you ever saw a heartbeat, if you had bleeding was it before or after ultrasound, etc. You never know when this will be helpful. It is much easier to write down right after the birth/miscarriage than try to remember a few years later.) I did the best I could do to remember. Between my memory and my records that I had sent from several doctors I think we pieced the history together pretty accurately.
Then I met with the RE and she gave a little lesson explaining pregnancy and tests they can do, I didn't learn anything new. Because I won't do procedures like IVF for moral reasons and they already know I have Factor II so I would do heparin injections if I get pregnant again, there wasn't a whole lot else that they can do.
There are about 5 days a month in your cycle where they will do a special ultrasound to check for abnormalities like polyps or fibroids. I praised God that it was one of those days in my cycle so I was able to have this done today. When I went to check out the billing lady said it saved me $450 to do that today instead of making another appointment. Plus I was able to get it done today and not have to make time to go back again. I praised God that nothing abnormal showed up so no surgery is required.
I did have one blood test done to check for one more thing and I have to wait for those results. So we are back where I started-continue taking baby aspirin daily, if I have a positive pregnancy test then begin heparin injections and take progesterone.
The bill today was almost $400 and I don't know if insurance will cover it. It was worth every penny and the two hours at the doctor's office for the peace of mind to know that I have done what I could do. I don't know what the future holds for our family size, but I do know that God is the one holding our family in His hands. It gives me great peace to know that God determined our family size, not something that Ram and I did. I haven't gone through menopause yet nor have we ruled out adoption, so we may end up with more than 3 Lambs. No matter what, I have a lot to be thankful for-Ram and 3 healthy Lambs.

I thought about this post all day and wondered if it was TMI to post this on my blog. I finally decided to post it because something I say may be helpful to others with recurrent miscarriages or Factor II. Plus I have several friends that knew about my appointment and it is easier to post here to update them.

1 comment:

Emommy said...

You're in our prayers, Ewe!