1st Appointment with Dr. Craig

Today we had our first appointment and let me tell you - we felt every one of your prayers and cannot thank you enough!

First off - We LOVE her! She put me at ease instantly and that is VERY hard to do. She is a straight shooter but so confident, funny and personable! We started the appointment off with going to her office and sitting down and talking. She had already studied our file so now this was a time to listen to us and for us to hear her. We were able to talk about our history and our goal. She was able to give us ideas on what she thought and what she wanted to do. When we left her office we all had a plan.

After we got done with the consultation - we went straight in for some testing. The cool thing about the OU Reproductive Medical Center is that everything is done in that office. There is no going to the lab for bloodwork or this office for something else - it is all done there. In a regular looking doctors office we had blood drawn and an ultrasound done on me. JR also had to have another seman analysis ordered because they have a fertility urologist on staff - one of the 3 in the US and they look for things that regular hospitals don't.

The TransVanganal ultrasound confirmed what she thought was wrong with me - so officially I was diagnosised with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome -PCOS. If you do not know what that is then you can read about here. I had done research on the internet and found this and thought it sounded dead on but never knew if it was me or not - but she confirmed it. There is such a peace that comes with knowing what is wrong!

So now treatment. Since we have already been trying to have a baby for a year and a half so she let us know that she was not going to try things multiple times. She will try it once, and if it doesn't work then it isn't going to work. She said that at a Fertility clinic they are equipped with tools that will allow us to know if it is working as you are taking it and know when to move on. So to start off she wants to find out what will allow me to ovulate. PCOS causes me not to. It is not curable, only treatable. This is why I always felt normal on Birth Control - it was treating my PCOS. So she is starting me off with a very high dose of Clomid. I have already taken 6 months worth of this drug, but not near this strength. She is going to do blood work and an ultrasound on a certain day of my cycle to see if this dose works ( By doing this I do not have to do temperature charts (blood work tells more), and ovulation predictor kits because they are not accurate with PCOS). If not, the next month we go 1 higher. There are 3 levels of high clomid she will try, if those do not work then we move to another drug. We will only do the highest of that drug. If that does not work we will try injectable hormones (which are very expensive). Hopefully by this point one will prove to be the 'magic dose' to make me ovulate. Now the big part - once we find the magic dose - then the next cycle she will give me the same dosage that worked and we will schedule intra-uterine insemination (IUI). This is basically where they take his sperm and inject it into me on a certain day once they get my egg to drop. (Don't forget that it isn't just me, but him with the problem as well so this is a way to treat both).

Now if none of the above options work - or if they work and we go to IUI and it doesn't work after 2-3 attempts, then we will be progressing to Invitro Fertilization (IVF). IVF actually has the highest success rate of any of the procedures - but also is extremly expensive (remember insurance doesn't cover anything!). She decided on the process for multiple reasons. Mainly she doesn't want my body to be put through more than it has to. She also knows though that we have been trying for a while and we are coming to her for answers. Her second reason was we are starting at the cheapest option since it is all out of pocket. If that works, then not only does my body not have to go through as much, but we will not be out as much.

She did warn us that as much as we have already endured all of the hormonal rollar coster through our clomid cycles that we BOTH need to get ready for the extreme rollar coster we are starting. She is giving me a massive amount of hormones and she said to expect extreme hot flashes, extreme moodiness, headaches, and be prepared to be emotional at the drop of the hat. Anything I have ever felt in the past cycles - get ready for it tripled. These are things I hate, but have dealt with and know it will be even harder this time.

So in the process of all of this we were able to get a lot of questions answered. Here are a few you may have:
1. Is there a chance of being 'octomom' or 'jon and kate plus 8' and her answer was absolutly no. She does an ultra sound before injecting the sperm and she can see how many eggs I produced before hand. That way if there is more than one - we know ahead of time.
2. Did being on Birth Control so long cause my body to not work right? Here answer was no - actually birth control helped me more than anything. When you have PCOS your uterus keeps filling and your lining doesn't shed (during your period) and BC helps me shed it. One of the main causes of Ovarian Cancer is to much pressure and weight on your uteran wall when you are not shedding the lining.
3. WHEN we have a baby - do we ever need to worry about Birth Control again? Yes - as I said above, it is actually HEALTHY for me to be on. In PCOS patients basically the brain is not talking to the ovaries. So Birth Control acts as the messenger ( so does clomid - which is why it helps fertility).
4. Will we be able to have a 2nd child naturally? No - as soon as we are ready for a second baby we will ditch the birth control and make an appointment with her. It is not impossible to get pregnant without her - but the example she used is a friend of hers has PCOS and it took her 12 years to get pregnant without help. Why wait and wonder and allow the PCOS to keep getting worse since I will be off Birth Control when the answers lie in medicine to help my brain and ovaries talk.
5. What caused me to have PCOS? I inherited it. There was nothing I could do to prevent myself from having it. I am not sure where - I haven't found the connection in my family - but she said it is there somewhere and most likely will be passed down to our kids.

Today was an excellent day. We have a diagnosis, we have a plan of action and we have hope - something we haven't had in a while. JR was asking her questions and getting involved - he even felt comfortable talking with her about everything. Usually he thinks of things and I research it or ask since it is my body - but even though it is my body it is our journey and he really feels that after today. She put us at ease - even though she never promised this would happen. I am so thankful that we live in a time where medicine has progressed and a place like this is an option!

So once again thank you dear friends for your prayers. Today would not have went how it went without God's merciful hand on us. I didn't sleep at all last night because of how nervous I was, but as soon as we sat down with her all my nerves magically disappeared! Please keep Dr. Craig lifted up in prayers. Not only on our behalf - but on the behalf of everyone she sees. We all go to her desperate - our last option - and that is a lot of pressure. Please keep JR in your prayers as he has to live with a woman that is fixing to be extremely hormonal! And please pray that this goes by fast - that treatment works in the beginning. Thank you all so much for being such wonderful friends. I had my phone turned off this morning because we were preparing for the appointment and getting all the paperwork ready and when I turned it on afterwards my phone was flooded with text messages from you guys checking on us. JR just smiled and said how great it was to have so many people that care. We cannot thank you enough for your love and support!

J&M

P.S. - Here is a video of Dr. Craig working on a 'special' case! Click HERE