ChezPerky

I took Provera over a week and a half ago for five days and… nothing. Well, nothing except some really visciously bad PMDD-like symptoms. And now I wait.

At the end of this week, in all likelihood, I’ll call Ye Olde Fertility Clinic back and ask WTF is going on and they’ll tell me to come in for bloodwork (you know, to make sure I’m not pregnant – don’t worry, I’ve already POAS’d to make sure, and well, I’m not… duh). And after the bloodwork I imagine they’ll give me more Provera. Which theoretically will induce a period, at which point I can start BCPs.

And if it doesn’t induce a period… well… I don’t know what then.

And I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired of the schedule changing. I’m tired of recalculating when stims might start and, consequently, when my hypothetical retrieval and transfer could be. I’m tired of thinking things like, “Well, as long as we start by X day, it shouldn’t interfere with Rosh Hashana.” For heaven’s sake we had an extra month’s lead time to avoid the High Holidays! This was not supposed to be a problem this time. You know, just like Passover wasn’t supposed to be a problem. Or Shavuos. Or, you know, Shabbos last cycle.

I get it. I get that I’m not in control. I don’t need to be reminded of it at every turn.

As I wrote to a friend this morning I’m having a hard time looking forward with a lot of optimism…

“Even SuperDoc doesn’t seem particularly optimistic about this upcoming IVF cycle. It’s pretty disheartening when the doctor is the one that isn’t super optimistic.

He said if I’d asked him in January what he thought my odds would be going into my fourth initiated cycle (which is essentially where I am right now by HIS count… my count is a little different, but I know where he gets his number)… he said he would have given me about 80% odds of a successful pregnancy back then. But now that he’s seen the outcome – two failed cycles, and one canceled due to low response (he’s not counting the one that didn’t get to stims)… he doesn’t have that kind of optimism. He said he’d maybe give me about 30% odds on this cycle.

He said, “I definitely think we’ll learn a lot from this cycle, and it’s going to be key to your ultimate success.”

I paused, took a deep breath, and thought about the implications of that statement.

And he said, “I mean, of course hopefully you’ll just be pregnant at the end of this cycle…”

Right.

I’m not trying to be a negative nelly about it – I just… with the IUI cycles even though I technically had more at stake (having never had a successful pregnancy before), none of my negative cycles hit me the way these do. These cycles? No matter how much I prepare myself for the failures, no matter how much SuperDoc himself prepares me for them to fail? They’re devastating. Even though I have four beautiful children at home. Maybe because of it.”

I admit, I much prefer his honesty to meaningless platitudes. I don’t want to hear him just blindly say, “I know this is the one” without scientific basis for saying so. But I admit I’m growing weary. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m the patient that keeps going despite a doctor who secretly thinks there’s really no point. I don’t think I’m there yet. But … will I be there soon?