The Adventure Continues

I have debated for quite some time about whether or not I would write about this publicly or not.  I did not write about it in real time with our last adventure and I slightly regret it.  The parts that I did write about were written in retrospect and a lot of the emotion was lost.  I have no idea what to expect this time other than it's going to be pretty crazy.  I know, I know, what in the world are they doing now??  Well we are trying for another baby!  Eeeeeek! I know that may not sound exciting or even like an adventure to some, but trust me, we never do anything without it being an adventure especially when it comes to reproducing.

Back in August I finally made the appointment that was offered to me at a year post-open heart surgery.  Honestly I didn't know if I want to hear what the cardiology and maternal fetal medicine teams had to say.  Then the conversation came up about having another baby and after several months of a cruel inner battle with it I had to be honest, I was not willing to let it be, I really wanted to at least try to have another one.  If we are meant to be one and done I'm okay with that too, but I needed to put forth an honest effort to appease my heart and mind.

So first step, find out if it was safe to do so.  To my shock the cardiology team said they were going to give it a thorough look over and would give me the honest answer.  When they said this I thought they meant I'd hear back from them. No, they asked if I was in a hurry and they would go talk and research right then and there.  Turns out the ejection fraction numbers never indicated heart failure, not even close.  They said they were more than comfortable in removing the diagnosis of postpartum cardiomyopathy completely.  That my valve, which was leaky prior to pregnancy but functioning and considered "mild", most likely just wore out during the pregnancy. For quite some time the questions of what caused what has been on a lot of minds. They went on to say that all my vitals on and off the medications were great and saw no reason to continue all the "precautionary" medications and that since the bad valve has been replaced I was probably in a better place to take on a pregnancy than I was with O. Whew. Did that just really happen?

Referrals were put in and phone calls were made.  We ran into an issue that on paper it wasn't clear who I needed to see.  Since we did fertility treatments, prenatal care and delivery with civilian doctors the last time, there was none of it in my medical history that they could see.  After several months of debate the reproductive side decided I needed to be cleared by the maternal fetal medicine side, who had no appointments for what seemed like forever.  Once I saw him he was more than happy to help get things going and even decided that we were on a serious time crunch to make this happen with an upcoming deployment nearing. Yup, I know this, trust me I know this. I already like him, he totally gets it.  His suggestion was to get going on storing up swimmers so that we could do IUI and erase the stress of H's schedule. Um, so we are going to do this without H huh?  Oooookay.  I can do this right?  Surely I won't be the first do try this?  I have searched, so far I cannot find anyone else who has ever blogged about this so that is another reason I chose to write in real time as this adventure plays out.  Aren't. You. Lucky.

Once I was cleared with MFM, the reproductive side said I needed to lose a little bit of weight, so call back when that has happened.  Okay this is where it gets kind of tricky.  I have PCOS, which causes all kinds of issues, weight gain and infertility are the two that happen to be the worst for me.  When I'm on the pill I tend not to gain weight as easily, however when I go off of it, baaaad things happen.  The year we got married and decided to "just go with it" I gained an insane 60lbs in 6 months.  So going off of the pill was scary for me, and I went off of it in August right after I was cleared.  It was December now and I had gained about 7lbs already.  I needed someone to help me treat the PCOS not just say, "call us back when you've lost a bit of weight." My obgyn on the MFM side took me back and we started upping the metformin dose that my PCM gave me but never monitored.  He also put in a referral for a nutritionist. Have I mentioned how much I like this guy?  He listens, he even calls me back so there is nothing lost in translation with nurses. In the meantime we had to get started on H's testing.  This of course can't possibly happen without it being an adventure, but before I write about that, I need to make sure H is okay with my possible oversharing...

♥ g