Specialist update

On Friday, barely an hour after my last post about the specialist was published, I got a call from their office. He had a change of travel schedule and had an opening on Wednesday after Memorial Day weekend. My girl got us on the schedule for Wed morning and made sure that all the paperwork I submitted was received and added to my electronic file. Bless her.

We booked a hotel and drove in on Tuesday evening after work. Traffic wasn't terrible and we were in by 10:30 pm, parked the car, and went walking around the city looking for dinner. We were passed out asleep by midnight.

The appointment was this morning. The office was recently remodeled and everything was bright and clean and new. The doctor couldn't have been nicer, but beside that he was sharp and engaged. He had a methodical way of thinking that I appreciated. It was about two hours long including going over all our history, answering a lot of his questions, tv ultrasound, and a plan of action.

Among a bunch others, his recommendations include:

• Glucose/insulin test
• Toxins test
• CD138 stain to check for inflammation in the lining
• Hysteroscopy (if pics from the one I had in Jan don't show what he's looking for - need to have those transferred over)

In addition, he had recommendations for future IVF and FETs, mainly to change up the medication and protocol. So in short, everything. All of our appointments will be done locally with our new RE so we won't have to go back and forth to see him, but he will still be managing care from his office and be in contact as we go on.  After the appointment we got lunch and joined traffic to get home. The whole trip was basically 24 hours. 

I hesitate to say that I'm hopeful. I am encouraged so I guess that's a form of hope, but it's hard to let go of the baggage we're carrying around in the form of multiple losses. Continued failure weighs you down. He seems to really understand the field in a way that gives him the ability to take a bird's eye view of the situation and make suggestions for improvements. Other REs have the exact same tools but just aren't looking for the same things. I hope we're able to rule out a bunch of things, or even figure out and treat issues, and that it brings us closer to success. At the very least it's something to do while we wait for my husband to recover from varicocele repair. Maybe I am hopeful just a little bit. 

Specialist

When I first called in March for an appointment with the recurrent pregnancy loss specialist in New York, I was told that he was booking in October. What could I do?  I didn't believe we'd have to wait that long but I took the appointment and prepared to wait until the first opening.

I call weekly to find out if there are any cancellations. I already know not to call first thing Monday morning. Not only because the morning shift receptionist is slightly more grumpy, but also because no one has had a chance to cancel yet. Tuesdays before noon are the sweet spot. At one point I was able to move up from Oct to Sept. Score. After that it kind of got stuck there for a few weeks. Now when I call I'm being told that he's booking in March 2019.

While my husband was in surgery on Tuesday I got a call from the girl I always speak to in their office. She didn't leave a voice message and by the time I returned the call an hour later the spot had already been given away for Wed morning. However, my girl told me that if the couple does end up showing then we can have their spot. Yes, I told her that would be fine and that I would definitely take it. She said she needs them to show up before she can shift things on the schedule but that I'll get a call again the next day. It worked out perfectly because, all things considered, as important as this appointment is, realistically there was no way we could make it to NY hours after surgery. We would have needed to get on the highway four hours after getting home from the hospital and spend the night driving. Not so great right after a procedure that makes it uncomfortable to sit.

The next day I got the call back. Good news and bad news. The good news is that the couple did show up so their appointment became available. The bad news is that the doctor had his own waitlist of people he's trying to get on the schedule. My girl said she advocated for me, saying we've been waiting a long time and that the appointment was all but promised to us. He apologized and asked her to apologize to us but apparently these other folks had priority. It wasn't all bad news: I got their spot which is in July. So it wasn't as soon as I wanted, but still sooner than September. Sweet! I also really appreciate that she advocated for us. She doesn't know us personally but still went to bat - I feel very grateful.

At this point I know that I need to get all the paperwork submitted right away so that if there is another last minute cancellation we don't have to scramble. I don't know what we expect him to tell us or what he can do, but I know that I don't want to keep trying the same thing and have the same results over and over. He may say there's nothing we can do but he may not; and for that it's worth the time and effort to go see him. Clearly he must have something to say if he's booking a year out. We'll see.

Shabbat shalom.