So, my OB comes in to the exam room and says very encouragingly (he he, if that's even a word),
"They're making progress!"Then he proceeds to tell me that his son is a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE) at Johns Hopkins! I figured his son was an OB because back in 2000 or 2001 he actually did some clinical work with his dad and I met him then, but really, an RE at JOHNS HOPKINS???? Holy crap! That's like the Tajma Hall of medical facilities! My OB goes on to tell me that he called his son on Monday night and consulted with him about me and my situation. His son told him that although 2 cm is ideal, follicles can do well at as small as 14mm (of which I had several this size and bigger). His son, the RE, recommended we do the hCG trigger shot this month, but if it didn't produce a baby for us, he recommended Clomid, hCG and IUI for next month. My OB had to explain what an IUI was. I had seen it talked about on some of the threads at BBC, but I didn't know what it was. An IUI is where they take sperm from my husband, wash it, and then implant it into my uterus at the same time they give the shot of hCG to trigger the release of an egg. I kind of thought of it like a blind date and the sperm and egg didn't know they were meeting :) As for the trigger shot this month, my OB told me he'd still like to give my follicles one more day to grow, and that I needed to come back on Thursday for the shot. He said they weren't even going to do the ultrasound, so it would be a quick visit.
I scheduled the shot for during my lunch on Thursday. The OB's office is just around the corner from the ED and I figured I could go and be back in my 30 minutes. I didn't want my manager to feel like I was taking advantage of his kindness and understanding. So, Thursday, instead of eating my lunch, I clock out of work at 11:57 and run over to the OB office. The secretary tells me, after I've paid my co-pay and the cost of the shot since it's not covered by my pharmacy insurance, that my OB was called to a meeting at the hospital, and since this was the first time I would be getting the shot, the nurses wouldn't give it to me without the OB present. Then she says,
"You should understand, being a nurse and all."I did understand that anytime you get a shot of medication for the first time, you could essentially have an adverse reaction. Regardless of what I knew, I felt SO defeated. I was angry at the office for not calling me and informing me that there would be a problem with getting me the shot at that time. If they had called, I could have put my lunch off until later. At this point, there was no way I was going to be able to go back to the OB's office later. We had been slammed in the ED all morning. And there was no way I was going to ask my manager to leave when we had people on top of people in the ED and everyone was working their butts off to keep things going. I just couldn't do that to my manager, or my co-workers. With tears in my eyes, I went back to work and clocked back in at 12:14. About 3 minutes after my return to work, while I was sitting in the bathroom crying, my cell phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out and look at it to see that it's my OB's office calling. It's one of the nurses at my OB's office telling me to come right back. I asked her, "Will this take long, I just got back to work?" And she said "They shouldn't have sent you away. I'll pull you back as soon as you get here." So, here I am again, cloking out at 12:17 and running back out to my car.
I get to the OB office, and my nurse pulls me right back. She told me that she came out to the waiting room to get me, and the secretary told her that she had sent me away since the OB wasn't there. The nurse said she flipped out saying, "It's just (my name), she's a nurse in the ED for Christ's sake!" We laughed about it a little. I felt that if I didn't laugh, I would cry. My nurse was very appologetic. You could tell she felt terrible.
Needless to say, I got my shot yesterday!!! They gave it to me in the hip and it wasn't bad at all. It's sore today, but I always bruise after being stuck. AND, my temp shot up this morning!!!! Maybe this will be the month!!!! If not, I do feel good knowing our situation was reviewed by an RE, at Johns Hopkins no less, and we have his plan in place for the next cycle if this one don't produce a baby.
As for work, I clocked back in at 12:38 or so, so I did go over my alloted 30 minutes by a smidgen. But, my Charge RN was so supportive. I told her she had to watch me now, in case I have an adverse reaction! She just laughed at me and told me that I was in good hands, that we could handle it. I always wonder if I did the right thing by talking to my co-workers about my infertility. I mentioned in an earlier blog that most of them are pregnant right now themselves. But I can honestly say that I've found nothing but support and love from all of them. I've learned that some of them had difficulties in their TTC, and it's comforting to hear their stories. The others, who just seem so unfairly fertile :) are just as supportive and caring. I have so many prayers being lifted up by my co-workers. And when they know I'm in my two week wait before testing, they are on eggshells with me. In fact, in the past three weeks, I've had three co-workers now tell me that they would carry my baby for me if it came down to it. How sweet is that? I may not always love my patients at work, but I do love my co-workers. They make it bearable to go back to that chaos every day.
Now... we enter our two week wait. Hopefully at the end we'll get a big fat positive pregnancy test (BFP).
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