Surgery

After three unsuccessful months of trying with medication and trigger shots, we sat back down with our doctor. He told us he thought my potential endometriosis was playing a larger part than we initially thought and we had reached another crossroads.We could either move forward with surgery to hopefully take care of the endometriosis the doctor suspected I had or we could move forward with IVF.

IVF scared both of us. I know two couples who conceived via IVF and both told me it took them a very long time to be ready. The costs of IVF are overwhelming - you're typically looking at either one cycle at around $12,000 or you can purchase (at the office I was at) a "guaranteed" set of cycles at $20,000. That got you four cycles of IVF and if you weren't pregnant at the end, they would refund you the cost of the procedures. They do not refund the costs of the medications and those are typically what are so overwhelming. Plus, IVF is very taxing to your body. We decided we would try the surgery.

It took about a month and a half to schedule the surgery - We based the surgery around my cycle and then had to postpone it another month because of a previously scheduled trip to visit my family.

The day of the surgery we were at the hospital bright and early. I was called back into pre-op. They got me in my gown and booties and then let Mike come back. I was poked, prodded, spoken to by several different hospital staff members and finally the anesthesiologist came. He smiled, held up a needle and said "Bar's open." He injected the happy juice into my IV and the world became a soft and hazy place. Everyone laughed and called me a cheap date and then I was kissing Mike see you later (they don't say goodbye in pre-op) and I remember being pushed to the operating room. The only thought I remember was thinking they should clean their hallway - it was filled with extra hospital beds.

The very first thing I remember after surgery was being pushed in my bed towards recovery. I heard someone say "Nope, didn't find a single thing, clean as a whistle." I knew somehow that they hadn't found any endometriosis. I started crying and the nurse asked me "Honey why are you crying?" I couldn't answer yet, but inside my heart was breaking. I was so sure there would be a REASON why we were having such difficulty getting pregnant and if I didn't have endometriosis, it meant I had unexplained infertility. Which meant...a game plan just got harder.

It's a strange place to be in, wanting the doctor to find something wrong with you and being heartbroken when there is nothing wrong.

While I was in recovery, my doctor talked to Mike in the waiting room. Turns out, my gut feeling was right. They hadn't found anything. No endometriosis at all. The doctor talked about reasons he felt that I might be having difficulty obtaining pregnancy but we knew now with 100% certainty that it wasn't because of endometriosis.

After I woke up some more, I was moved to another step down unit. Here I had to eat, drink, and use the bathroom. Once I was able to do all those things, I could go home. Mike was allowed to be with me in this unit and I was eager to get out of the hospital so I completed my steps as soon as I could and then we were home. I had the surgery on a Thursday morning and by Monday morning I was back at work. We scheduled another meeting with our doctor and got ready for the next step in our plan.