Thursday, May 31, 2012

Why I had a Diagnostic Laparoscopy

It has been a couple of weeks since my laparoscopy. Immediately after it I did not feel like typing up a post. Then catching up on things after the surgery kept me even busier. So I am finally getting to it now. This post is meant to discuss why I had a laparoscopy in more detail. I will describe the procedure in another post to follow. I felt like before I talked about the surgery, you should know why it needed to happen.
     I have posted a little about my journey up to this point but will recap that and add a little more info about that here.When I was young, in high school and early college years I took birth control to regulate my periods and help make the cramps less painful. This oral contraceptive also made my period lighter so I was no longer soaking a pad and tampon every month. My doctor at the time felt I might have endometriosis but did not feel that I needed surgery if the birth control worked well for my symptoms. I concurred as well as my mom and dad. I began taking birth control and remained on it from the time I was fourteen until I was 25. My current OB/GYN is aware of all of that and has been from day one. When my husband and I finally reached that exciting time of being ready for a child, I stopped taking birth control and saw my doctor. Everything was in order. We didn't get worried for the first few months because I knew it would take a while for the birth control to leave my system. After a few months I got impatient so we began using ovulation predictor kits (OPK's for those using infertility speak). I also received a diagnosis of a cyst on my left ovary during this time. By this time an entire year had passed. I went to see my doctor. He ordered a progesterone level and a hysterosalpingogram. (there will be a post discussing this in detail in the future). Both results were normal. We tried for an additional three months. This brings us to the Lost Month which I have already discussed and won't bore you with again. It also takes us through the awkward moments in which I found a former nursing student to be my physician's new nurse.
      On the second try, I actually got to meet with my physician. He was not called away from our appointment to assist in anyone's cesarean or deliver a baby. We discussed our options. The two major ones laid on the table were starting a medication called Femara or having a laparoscopy and then beginning Femara. We chose to do the laparoscopy since we didn't know if I had endometriosis and taking another round of medications would be fruitless if the endometriosis was causing the infertility if it existed.I didn't want to waste three months taking medications and then have to waste cycles waiting for surgery and to recover from the surgery. We discussed the possibility of trying intrauterine insemination ( IUI - a form of artificial insemination). My husband, my physician and I were all in agreement that we needed to wait for the surgery to be complete before we moved to that step. The decision for the laparoscopy was made. I felt some anxiety related to surgery but ultimately peace, feeling that God was with us in this decision. Also feeling so grateful for the physician God has allowed me to work with. I knew I would be in good hands with him. The date was set, my instructions given and we were on our way. I will soon post about the day of surgery and then separately about the recovery from the surgery. Please feel free to ask questions or comment. I will answer to the best of my ability and would love to hear from those reading this blog.

1 comment:

Shankarabarathi said...

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