An Update on the Baby#2 Plans

Let's see, where did I leave off . . .

Oh yes, I think the last time I actually posted about this little project was in October, right after Shrike's fibroid surgery, when I said that they'd removed it all and didn't expect there to be any more issues with it.

Well, not so much.

When she went for another mock transfer in November, Dr E discovered that a bit of the fibroid had pushed out of the uterine wall, and would require a second surgery. This time it would be less of a big deal though, and could be done in their farther-away office (where we did our IVF and weekend/holiday monitoring before) rather than in the actual hospital.

That sounds like a good thing, except that office is still an hour and a half away, but unlike the hospital, it doesn't allow children at all, so we would have to figure out how to handle it with Peeper.

Dr E consulted with TN (the study coordinator) and said that she told her this wouldn't throw us off for prescreening, we could screen with the beginning of her next cycle, then start on the pill, get the fibroid out and then get off the pill the following cycle.

So, on day one, I called and scheduled the prescreening, and left a message about it with TN.

She called me back later that day to say that no, we had to deal with the fibroid first, because if she sees it and "officially" knows about it, she would have to kick us out of the study, with no chance to get back in.

Yikes.

So, scratch that plan.

As it turned out, we scheduled the fibroid removal for while Peeper and I were in Texas. That timing worked well for the doctors, and I figured that if it "had to" be then, it was out of my control that I couldn't be there.

I could handle that a lot better than just sending her off to do it without me, and neither of us was comfortable with leaving Peeper for the seven hours or so that it would take to make the trip.

So, she did that on December 30 (her dad drove her down there) and last Friday, she had another mock transfer which this time showed that her uterus is all clear, with nothing funky going on. Finally!

We talked to TN last week, and she said that (assuming the mock went well, which it did) after a cycle off the pill (which she's in the middle of now) Shrike will be ready to prescreen.

Oh, except that they might not be ready for her just yet.

The study is running patients through in batches of twenty, and as of that conversation, they had eighteen prescreened and approved and ready to start their IVF cycles. So, basically she was just waiting on two women to start their periods and prescreen, and then they'll stop prescreening while all those women cycle. When they're done, they'll start prescreening again and do another twenty.

The odds are that by the time Shrike's next cycle starts in early February, they'll have that round full, but they should start prescreening again before she starts the following cycle in March.

So, what's most likely going to happen is that she'll prescreen in March and, assuming that everything still checks out (it's all checked out fine in the past, and there's really no reason that anything should have changed significantly since then, but we still won't believe it until we see it), she'll start the IVF cycle in early April, for a theoretical January 2012 due date, if things pan out as we hope.

I'm thinking I'll email TN next week, just to confirm that they have filled their twenty slots (I can't imagine that they wouldn't have) so that I can go ahead and firm up my plans for a trip to Texas in mid-March, between the prescreening and the beginning (knock wood) of the actual IVF cycle.

Of course, we are going to eventually (within the next 2 - 3 months, barring more delays) have to come up with a plan for making this trip tp the clinic without Peeper, or at least for her to not be allowed to go in once we get there.

Shrike's okay with going on her own for the various monitoring visits (there will be several and they will all be at the 90-minutes-away location) but I would very much like to go for the prescreening (it will include a discussion about the study protocol, consent forms and such), and really need to go for the first appointment of the IVF cycle, to get all the detailed instructions for the medication protocol (because Lord knows, Shrike won't remember a thing they say) and I am absolutely going to be there for retrieval and transfer, if we actually make it to that stage, as well as (knock knock knock) any baby-looking-at ultrasounds.

Right now, when Shrike's parents watch Peeper, it's usually only for a couple of hours, while we go to Dr T's or dinner or a MOMS-only activity with MOMS Club. She's done longer stretches (3 - 4 hours) just fine, but she's not used to it, and that's still a far cry from six or seven hours.

So, we need to discuss all this with them, and lay out a plan for some longer practice-run visits, a> to work up to that length of time, instead of suddenly jumping from 2 hours to 7, and b> to practice while we're in town, and can to go get her if it's not going well.

I think she'll probably do fine, but it's not fair to any of us to try to do it without preparation.

So, to that end, we've got tentative plans for her to go over there for about three hours tomorrow evenings, while we go to dinner - and then to Lowes, to exchange the ceiling tiles.

How's that for a romantic night out?