Introducing Dr. Cutie

I'll admit it.  I have a bit of a thing for nerds.

Remember Dr. Green from the original ER cast?  Ummm....YUMMY!  Forget George Clooney!  Anthony Edwards made my toes curl - and still sends things aflutter in me when I think of him.  Dr. Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory?  Yes please!!!

I know its kind of strange.....but that's just me.  My husband chuckles a little uncomfortably when I gush over a quirky, cute nerd on TV.  He worries that makes him a nerd too, since of course I find hubby unbearably attractive.  I reassure him that although he does have some nerd-ish elements (which I do find strangely hot), he's a 6'4" manly man rock star truck guy! (grunt!)

So.... I think I might have a wee bit of a crush on my new family Doctor. 

AWKWARD!

He is young as far as doctors go.  Right about my age I would guess.  Hubby came to the appointment with me and Dr. Cutie entered and I could see hubby's reaction - he gave me a little knowing smirk and a shake of the head.  Sigh - he knows me too well!

Dr. Cutie introduced himself and said  "So you're here to discuss fertility issues.  Whats been happening so far?".

I pulled out my files (I caught a slight flinch of surprise from him at the amount of well organized paper I pulled out!).  I explained that I was on CD 54 (now 55...but who's counting), that we'd begun trying January 2010, that my cycles could have been timed with a stopwatch before that but after we began trying I stopped having cycles for 4 months.  I explained the last year and a half of super irregular cycles, acupuncture, naturopathy (he did not blink an eye at this - I felt no 'judgement' from him), chiropractic, supplementation, etc.  Explained the night sweats since I was 30 that have stopped since doing the naturopathy & acupuncture, but that I do still get 'waves' of heat.  I don't feel that they are really 'hot flashes' as they feel milder than what other women describe (although, come to think of it, I also have quite a high pain threshold, so maybe my judgement is out of whack there....maybe what I experience as mild is really quite intense for other women...).

When I proceeded to the part about going to the specialist in May, I said... "I went to an appointment with.....and I'm sorry if you know her, but.....that HORRIBLE woman over at X Clinic."   I explained how we were treated and written off and he said that he's not surprised, that its not the first he's heard stories like that.

After telling my tale (during which he took endless notes on his Mac computer....I LOVE nerds!), I explained that I wanted some answers and I wanted him to run a battery of tests on me.  I said I want to be checked for PCOS, Ovarian Reserve and check my tubes, and that I want a requisition for day 3 blood work.

He explained, sort of, that you can't really 'test' for PCOS...you just diagnose it if cysts appear consistently, and that you don't really 'treat' it either.  He expained every woman gets cysts now & then.  That sort of let some wind out of my sails a bit.  (Does anyone know, as I forgot to ask, is it still possible to retrieve my own eggs for IVF if I do indeed have PCOS?)

He said that as for the other stuff, we'll run some tests.  He gave me the blood work requisition & also added another for mid-cycle.  He said since my cycles are so irregular and since I've kept such detailed records, that I should average out the length of my cycles for the last year and a half.  Whatever that average # is, divide it by 2 and then add 2.  So if the average is 30, then I go for a second round of blood work on day 17 (15+2).  He figures with such irregular cycles that's the best guess we have right now of 2 days after ovulation - although it is a long shot.

Also, he gave me a requisition for 3 ultrasounds - 1 pelvic, 1 trans vaginal, and 1 sonohysterogram which is apparently the one where they check my tubes.  The requisition notes say "37F (I think that means 37 yr old female) Fertility workup, oligomenorhea.  R/O uterine, tubal pathology"  I looked up Ogliomenhorhea if you are interested :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligomenorrhea


He then added something to the effect of "The difficult thing about fertility problems is that we often don't figure out what is happening or why.  So we can run these tests and it may just show that everything SHOULD be working just fine. We may never find out why it isn't."

Bummer.  Big, Ugly, Smelly, Pimply, Bummer.

But I liked him.  So did Hubby.  He might even take Hubby on as a patient which would be SO nice.  We assured him that he is very low maintenance.

So now, next week, I go get poked and probed...and I am SO hopeful that the pictures will tell us exactly what the problem is and that there is a way to fix it.

Then, once again, I will be relying on my trusty nerds to take care of it all for me!

Hugs.
~SCS