i've been sitting (and laying, eating, sleeping) on my couch for four days now. it's actually quite a comfy spot, and honestly i'm a little sad to graduate back to my bed tonight, although i'm sure that sentiment will change once i sink into the memory foam topper. i promise all this lounging isn't from couch potato laziness though - it's doctor's orders! i had surgery this past tuesday to once again clean up the lovely endometriosis.
let's rewind a little bit. i saw a new fertility specialist back in august based on a recommendation from an old friend. he and his wife have beautiful twin girls after struggling with infertility for years. i have to say that i am impressed with this doctor - he has fantastic bedside manner and seems to be more of a risk-taker while still being straight-forward about our situation. based on my most recent bloodwork and sonograms, he told us that we had a 25-30% chance of ivf being successful, but that it was still worth the effort to try with my own eggs. the sono showed that my left ovary was making just enough follicles to qualify as an ivf candidate, but the right one could not even be visualized. surgery was also a necessity if we were to move forward.....so after a lot of talking, thinking, and praying, we decided to go for it. but this meant that i was once again faced with the reality that one of my fallopian tubes would be removed for sure, and the doctor would make the decision about the other one during surgery. this time around, we were ok with that.
the fantastic news is that during surgery, the doctor uncovered the right ovary from all the mess and discovered that it was healthy and making eggs! this is the one that was the most ravaged from endometriosis and we didn't really have much hope for it before. so it seems that the past year of eating healthy, taking supplements, getting my hormones leveled out, and prayer have really made an improvement! after surgery, the doctor told seth that this bumps up our ivf chances to 60-70%, which is normal for a woman my age. i cannot even describe how happy i was to hear this when i woke up.
because of the time my body needs to heal and with christmas right around the corner, we will most likely start the process in january. i'm so glad to have something to look forward to. i'm sure some of you might be wondering when things changed, but over the last several months i never felt completely at peace about turning in the adoption papers, but i also wasn't emotionally stable enough to brave ivf again until recently. i think i need to know FOR SURE that i've exhausted all possibilities of having my own child before we turn to adoption.
so that's where i am. sorry to keep y'all hanging for so long. i follow up with the doctor in a week and a half, so i'll post when i know more. :)
