Wednesday, February 14, 2007

IUI Day

There is only one doctor in my clinic's practice that I don't care for. Well, actually there's another one that I don't like at all, but I never have to see him, because he works in the middle-of-nowhere-in-Virginia most of the time. Anywho, there's only one doctor I don't care for at the Rockville Office (out of 6). There's nothing particularly wrong with him, he just rubbed me the wrong way once, and I've been holding an unreasonable grudge ever since. Guess who was covering IUI appointments this morning? Bleh.

Undeterred by the thick layer of ice on our cars and on our roads, since ovulation waits for no one, S left early this morning to head to the clinic. He returned home just as I was leaving for my appointment (he had to get to work) and told me that the roads were not pretty, but they were better than they had been at 7am. Fair enough.

The roads, in fact, were terrible. The Beltway wasn't bad, but my neighborhood streets, 270, and the roads near the clinic were absolutely dreadful. Ah well. At least I made it on time. Only to discover that Dr. Annoying would be doing the IUI. Bleh.

I don't know how to put it delicately, so I won't bother. But... it's the first time that I've heard a slurping sound at the end of the IUI. Seems a little off to me. Plus, and I really meant it when I said I don't know how to put this delicately... usually after the IUI I lay there for five minutes, and then get up. It's not uncommon for me to feel... um, a dripping feeling as I stand up. What has never happened until today, however, is feeling that dripping feeling as he pulled the catheter and speculum out. It felt like all of those little swimmers came pouring out of me. Now, I recognize that there probably wasn't much spillage, and it probably doesn't matter, but it still seems off to me.

Plus, there were only 5 million swimmers today. The only other time the count has been that low was last month, which we attributed to Seth having a pretty high fever that day. Every other time the count's been between 20 and 40 million. Anything over 5 is acceptable to the clinic, which is fine and dandy, but still. I'm not upset about it, because even with 20 million the odds are really low and I don't have a lot of faith in this IUI anyway. But S said he felt like an underachiever. I told him it served him right for getting such a puffed up ego about the counts for the first four IUIs. Hah!

Also, I'm incredibly crampy and nauseated now, which never happens. I'm certain the nausea is from the cramping (yes, the cramping really is that bad). but the only reasonable explanation for the cramping is the IUI. While I've experienced mild cramping while the catheter is being inserted, I've never had severe cramping and certainly not for this long after the procedure. I mean, it may be me projecting my dislike of Dr. Annoying on this whole experience and maybe nothing was off or wrong or anything and I'm overreacting. But I'm still annoyed.

Oh, while I was there, I snooped around in my record (what? It's not MY fault they leave my record up on the screen after they leave the room!) to see what my E2 and LH were on Monday. My E2 had risen from 302 to 427, but the LH had gone down from 4.38 to 3.18. So now I'm even more confused about why they triggered when they did, even though I know that ultimatey the reason was because they were concerned that going one more day might mean I had too many mature follicles. But Still!

Anywhozit. Dr. Annoying has no sense of humour, which is funny, because the administrative staff swears that he's very funny, but he's always very deadpan and serious around me. Bleh. When we were talking about the fact that the IUI was on Valentine's Day, I remarked: "Who said romance is dead?" and not only didn't he think I was being funny, he gave me a rather horrified/offended look. whatever.

Followup Appointment with Dr. Amazing on Friday. We'll be signing IVF consents that day as well as finalizing my protocol and timing for an upcoming IVF cycle, pending a negative beta on March 1st. The fun just keeps on coming! :)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Karen!

Sorry I haven't been around in a while but I'm back just in time to cross my fingers for your IUI today. Thanks for caring about me while I wasn't around, sorry I didn't see your comments. It's going to take me a while to get caught up on your blog, in the meantime just to let you know I think your "romance is dead" joke was VERY funny! Maybe he just needs to remove the stick!

Jennie

Kris said...

I would have laughed at your remark, too.

Good luck with the cycle.

Baby Blues said...

Sorry Dr. Annoying had to be the one to perform the IUI. It's uncomfortable as it is. Now the dreaded 2ww... Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Isn't it amazing how working with a doctor that you don't like can so tremedously affect how you feel about what they are doing? Yes the cramping is probably worse than usual because you were uncomfortable with him doing the IUI and that's also why your questioning if he did it right. May this IUI be the sucessful one despite the added discomfort.

Kellie with an "ie" said...

I have never nor will never meet Dr. Annoying, and I find him annoying. Fingers crossed for him to stay far far away from you from now on.