Dr. Ahlering

Well, Jamie and I met with Dr. Ahlering yesterday.  So far of the three RE's we have met with he is my favorite. 

All of the tests I have had so far include blood work and an HSG (xray where they insert contrast dye into your uterus so that an xray can be taken of the dye spilling through your ovaries which shows if your tubes are open or not).The results of the HSG came back saying that I have slight tubal damage and one of my tubes is dilated but nothing further has been done to look into this.  I know there are a few more tests that could be run and haven't been and that leaves me quite confused.  How can we take such a drastic step as IVF when we don't have all of the answers?  First, I still want to know what inside of me isn't working like it should.

Dr. Keller said she would like to do a laproscopy and look at my tubes and ovaries, etc. to rule out or find problems but it was an elective surgery.  How can a surgery that could give further explanation of a medical problem be elective?  I really struggled with this.  Dr. Ahlering agreed with me.  He said why do an HSG to find out if your tubes are okay if you aren't going to look further into the problem once you find it?  AMEN!  This man is speaking my language.  He wanted to run some more tests.  Thank goodness I thought.  Finally someone who wants to do the leg work and try and find more answers for us rather than throwing IVF at us.  And for the record, Dr. Ahlering mostly agreed with Dr. Silber in saying that Metformin will only help those that have Insulin Resistance increase their odds at having a baby.  So I am staying off of it.

Now, this is the difficult part...we have seen three Doctor's.  I really favor Dr. Ahlering.  But there is only two outcomes to the testing he will do-if he finds problems we do IVF or if he doesn't see any problems with further testing it's IUI.  Jamie and I can take all of the tests, bloodwork, etc and find out more answers-but in the end there are still only two possibilities for us when it comes to having a child- IVF or IUI.  As Jamie pointed out, when there are only two possible outcomes and you know the odds of the IVF are double of the IUI-does the further testing really matter?  Wow, I guess not. 

We will probably do some more blood work and Jamie will do a DNA Fragmentation test but beyond that I doubt we will do the laproscopy.  Right now, we are in a sticky situation.  Jamie is changing jobs in a week so our insurance will be in limbo.  We have to see what his new insurance covers and part of our decision may be based on insurance-if they will cover most of an IUI ($2500.00 a cycle) maybe it's worth trying for a cycle or two.  If not then it's probably going to be a better choice to go with the IVF (approximately $13000.00 to $15000.00) a cycle.  If insurance won't cover any of it, it will come down to cost but I am rooting for Dr. A.

We have a lot of little duckies to line up before we can take the next step.  All I know is that every time I leave one of those appointments it's all I can think about for the next few days.  I guess the focus in the short term is moving in to our new home on Friday.  A lot to do still and still proving to be a great distraction as always.