I'm sure many of you are eagerly awaiting the next installment of our fertility saga, so here's the latest.
On Thursday we finally had our followup appointment with my doctor. As I'm sure you remember, I last saw her in early March at which time she ordered all sorts of blood tests and an HSG. I was supposed to followup with her in mid-April, but she got called into the hospital and my appointment got pushed back a month to 5/12/11. I was frustrated, but tried to tell myself that it was helpful because she would then have all the results in hand, including the follow-up ultrasound regarding my ruptured ovarian cyst (which I had only just done on 5/6). So by the time this work week rolled around, I was super excited to see her in order to start putting all the pieces together, to hopefully finally yield a diagnosis / explanation for all our fertility troubles (and for my pain), and to start a treatment plan.
Since I was so excited, Mike and I got there about 10-15 minutes early, hoping she might even be ahead of schedule (or at least on time) for our 8:40am appointment. Alas, she was already behind - but that's okay, I told myself, because we were ready to wait as long as it took that day in order to get answers!
When she walked in the exam room, she jumped right in. Essentially, she said, she had done all the basic tests and had just been hoping that I would get pregnant before this appointment. (Okaaaayyyyy...) She said she didn't really know what the problem was, so she just referred us to a reproductive endocrinologist (aka, fertility specialist).
Part of me was relieved to have "permission" to take the next step, but part of me was also annoyed at having had to wait a month to hear that she had no idea what was going on. Furthermore, I became at bit angry at not being taken seriously when I was explaining to her the weird pains I'd been having on my right side for the past 3 days (which, thankfully, have since gone away - although that does NOT mean that the pains were all in my head, as she seemed to be implying).
But, in the end, I'm choosing to focus on the fact that it was helpful to get at least some direction for our next steps.
She gave us a sheet of recommended REs since there aren't any in the Park Nicollet system. The two she highlighted were the U of M and the Center for Reproductive Medicine. Interestingly, I had read good things about both of these places when I had done some preliminary internet research, heard good things about both of these places in informal conversations with friends, and seen most of those doctors' names on the list of "Top Docs for Women" in Minnesota Monthly magazine last year (see: here). We talked about it a bit, and both agreed on the U of M because (1) we are both biased toward university medical centers for specialty care, (2) that clinic is a bit easier to get to than CRM, and (3) they have two in-house psychologists who specialize in fertility stuff.
After spending a ridiculous amount of time on the phone with my insurance company to confirm that their doctors are in-network, I was finally able to call to make an appointment. I opted for the first available appointment which is only a few weeks away! I'll be seeing Dr. Phipps - I've never really had a male physician before, but all the REs at the U of M clinic are male so I have no choice but to get used to that! At least he looks nice in his picture.
We already filled out their 15-page "patient information packet" with all sorts of details about ourselves and our family history. So now we just wait for the next couple weeks. Please keep your fingers crossed for us that we're really get some answers at this next appointment!
On Thursday we finally had our followup appointment with my doctor. As I'm sure you remember, I last saw her in early March at which time she ordered all sorts of blood tests and an HSG. I was supposed to followup with her in mid-April, but she got called into the hospital and my appointment got pushed back a month to 5/12/11. I was frustrated, but tried to tell myself that it was helpful because she would then have all the results in hand, including the follow-up ultrasound regarding my ruptured ovarian cyst (which I had only just done on 5/6). So by the time this work week rolled around, I was super excited to see her in order to start putting all the pieces together, to hopefully finally yield a diagnosis / explanation for all our fertility troubles (and for my pain), and to start a treatment plan.
Since I was so excited, Mike and I got there about 10-15 minutes early, hoping she might even be ahead of schedule (or at least on time) for our 8:40am appointment. Alas, she was already behind - but that's okay, I told myself, because we were ready to wait as long as it took that day in order to get answers!
When she walked in the exam room, she jumped right in. Essentially, she said, she had done all the basic tests and had just been hoping that I would get pregnant before this appointment. (Okaaaayyyyy...) She said she didn't really know what the problem was, so she just referred us to a reproductive endocrinologist (aka, fertility specialist).
Part of me was relieved to have "permission" to take the next step, but part of me was also annoyed at having had to wait a month to hear that she had no idea what was going on. Furthermore, I became at bit angry at not being taken seriously when I was explaining to her the weird pains I'd been having on my right side for the past 3 days (which, thankfully, have since gone away - although that does NOT mean that the pains were all in my head, as she seemed to be implying).
But, in the end, I'm choosing to focus on the fact that it was helpful to get at least some direction for our next steps.
She gave us a sheet of recommended REs since there aren't any in the Park Nicollet system. The two she highlighted were the U of M and the Center for Reproductive Medicine. Interestingly, I had read good things about both of these places when I had done some preliminary internet research, heard good things about both of these places in informal conversations with friends, and seen most of those doctors' names on the list of "Top Docs for Women" in Minnesota Monthly magazine last year (see: here). We talked about it a bit, and both agreed on the U of M because (1) we are both biased toward university medical centers for specialty care, (2) that clinic is a bit easier to get to than CRM, and (3) they have two in-house psychologists who specialize in fertility stuff.
After spending a ridiculous amount of time on the phone with my insurance company to confirm that their doctors are in-network, I was finally able to call to make an appointment. I opted for the first available appointment which is only a few weeks away! I'll be seeing Dr. Phipps - I've never really had a male physician before, but all the REs at the U of M clinic are male so I have no choice but to get used to that! At least he looks nice in his picture.
We already filled out their 15-page "patient information packet" with all sorts of details about ourselves and our family history. So now we just wait for the next couple weeks. Please keep your fingers crossed for us that we're really get some answers at this next appointment!
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