Yesterday turned out to be the “real” CD1, so I was able to go in for my LE today, as planned. SuperDoc walked in, and I (ever the optimist), quipped, “You know, I think you should just cancel me now and save yourself a lot of time and trouble.”
“Well, you know, it all depends on your ovaries. Are they going to cooperate today?”
“How should I know? I don’t know anything about ovaries, you’re the one who went to medical school, after all. You’re the one who should know something about ovaries.”
“I may know something about ovaries, but that doesn’t mean I know anything about your fickle ovaries.”
Hey, now. Don’t go insulting my ovaries – they’re sensitive souls, you know! Why, isn’t it bad enough that SuperDoc called them “goldilocks ovaries” last month? They may just have overheard that remark and if they did… well, the backlash might not be pretty.
SuperDoc peered at the ultrasound image of my left ovary – “Well that one looks fine… and the right ovary… also looks good. The thing is, your ovaries haven’t been acting PCO anymore. I think that’s what’s been going on.”
“I’m cured! The triplet pregnancy cured me! It must have scared the heck out of those overly-perky ovaries and taught them a lesson!”
SuperDoc grumbled something incomprehensible, but the gerbil in my head was running furiously in his exercise wheel. No, really. This theory had some merit. After all, I pointed out, I lost a ton of weight during and after my pregnancy.
“How much weight did you lose?”
“About 50 pounds.”
“That is impressive.”
[to be fair, I actually lost 70, but I gained back 20… but I wasn’t about to admit that then and there]
SuperDoc continued to make non-commital grumbly noises, while looking through my chart on the computer. He said we should be good to go with 75 units of Luveris and 225 units of Follistim starting tonight and we’ll see how these finicky ovaries of mine respond this time. What happened to not insulting my ovaries within their hearing range? Clearly he doesn’t understand their sensitive nature. I’m back on Sunday for monitoring, bright and early. Yee-haw!
“That is, unless my e2 comes back at 437 today. Then I’m just a puzzle.”
“I don’t foresee that happening. But you’re right; with you, we just never know.”
Yeah. I’m all kinds of fun. I think doctors must love puzzles though. Wouldn’t it be boring if all cases were totally straight forward? If they prescribed the same course of action for every patient, why, their jobs would be positively dull! What would be the point of medical school, residency, fellowship and all the associated torture that goes along with those things? I think doctors live for the “interesting” patients. It’s the patients themselves that long to be “boring.” “Interesting” is a distinction I could live without. “Puzzle” is another.
But back to this cure. I’m actually becoming more convinced of it the more I think about it. Seriously! One of the most common things that PCOS patients are told when they are diagnosed (if they are overweight) is that if they lose weight they may find a reduction, or even elimination of symptoms. I lost 50 pounds fairly rapidly. After I delivered my babies, I started getting regular periods, even while nursing three babies. Every single month for thirteen months, I got a period. For the first time in my life, I could predict exactly when my period would arrive with near to-the-minute accuracy.
From my first ultrasound back at Ye Olde Fertility Clinic, I noticed that I didn’t have 30 follicles per ovary anymore in my antral follicle count. In fact, I worried I was over-suppressed on the Lupron. Further, I haven’t responded to the Follistim with my usual ridiculous overabundance of follicles – rather, I have produced lead follicles, something I was never capable of doing with my IUI cycles and something which is undesirable in an IVF cycle. I attributed this to the Lupron, but even on a reduced dose of Lupron, and somewhat increased dose of Follistim … no dice.
The pieces all fit. My infertility may not have been cured, but the PCOS? Is she still alive and kicking?
I need a double blind controlled study. So all you PCOS patients out there – how about you sign up for a triplet pregnancy and see if your PCOS is cured, okay?
Get right on that, won’t you?
ChezPerky 