The next step was to try ovarian stimulation via clomid and IUI, to the tune of approximately $700/cycle (all out of pocket since insurance does not cover fertility treatments). We tried our first IUI cycle in February 2009 with no luck but our second attempt, in March 2009, resulted in the faintest possible positive line on a home pregnancy test. We were cautiously hopeful that this might be it!
My first beta HCG (blood pregnancy test) came back later that day at 19 but it should have been around 100. Immediately, my Dr's nurse was warning me that things didn't look good. I continued to get betas taken every other day or every 3-4 days and, surprisingly, the levels continued to rise at a good rate but they were still well below where they "should" be. However, we were trying to stay positive and starting to get excited b/c the numbers were increasing really well and there are plenty of stories of perfectly healthy babies that had low rising beta numbers to begin with.
At 6 wks 2 days we had our first ultrasound (u/s) but there was nothing in the uterus. So, the Dr. determined that it was most likely ectopic. I was devastated ... I just couldn't wrap my brain around the idea. I had no risk factors what so ever and had absolutely NO typical symptoms. I went in for a second opinion u/s the following day at an independent imaging center but it showed the same thing, an empty uterus. However, they did not see anything in the tubes either. This was strange because my beta numbers were high enough at this point that a mass should have been visible SOMEWHERE. Two days later we went in for another follow-up u/s with the Dr. I was expecting/prepared (but not happy about it) to receive a methotrexate shot to terminate the, presumably, ectopic pregnancy. Shockingly though, during the u/s not one but TWO gestational sacs showed up in the uterus. It was a miracle (just happened to be Good Friday)! So we were back in the hope boat.
The following week my beta numbers started to really slow down but they were well in the 20,000s range so that's not totally out of the ordinary. That week's u/s showed that both sacs had grown in size but it appeared there was still nothing in them. So, we had to wait another week wondering if we were really "preggers" (it's amazing how LOOOOOONG a week can seem). The next u/s appt finally rolled around (I was 8 wks 3 days at this point) and sadly the results showed that the larger sac had barely grown at all and the smaller one was getting smaller and they were both still empty. The Dr informed us that it was not a viable pregnancy and I ended up having a D&C two days later, which was Friday, April 24, 2009. It was an incredibly hard month of waiting and not knowing, being handed a spoonful of hope and then a bucket full of disappointment.
Unfortunatley, as if we hadn't already been through enough, the universe was not finished toying with us. On May 28 I had a follow-up appointment b/c the hormone (hcg) levels in my body were not decreasing as rapidly as they should have been. The Dr. did another u/s and found a mass of pregnancy tissue ("remnants" is the lovely term they use to describe this) still remaining. Therefore, I had to have yet another D&C, making me the lucky recipient of not ONE but TWO D&Cs for the same failed pregnancy! It was a pretty awesome couple of months to be sure (note sarcasm and eye rolls)!
My Dr. called the day after the procedure to discuss what he found. It turned out, I had an 'atypical' shaped uterus (we already knew this from the previous HSG), which is shaped more like a "T" than an upside down triangle (normal shape). As it turns out, there were these two small 'pockets' on the outer edges of my uterus (i.e. at the ends of the top cross bar on the "T") and the residual tissue mass was lodged in one of those pockets. The Dr said it was also 'unusually adherent' tissue, therefore that's why my body couldn't pass it by itself. He indicated that he did "some work in there" to try and reshape the uterus a bit. I'm not exactly sure what he meant by that but we were hoping that might explain our otherwise unexplained fertility issues and help with future attempts! On Friday, June 19, 2009 I got my last blood test and the results FINALLY came back as negative (almost 3 months after we got that initial positive home pregnancy test)!
The next two IUIs we tried both resulted in pregnancies as well (August 2009 and October 2009) but sadly, they too failed (luckily though no more D&Cs were necessary). We did one more IUI in November 2009 without success. At this point I was beyond frustrated and decided to consult another RE to get a second opinion and see if there was something we may have missed, meanwhile I also started seeing an acupuncturist on a regular basis.
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