Second Opinion

  
I cannot stress this enough in the world of infertility & so wish I had gotten one sooner.

Having PTSD, I loathe going to the gynecologist. LOATHE it! It’s my 10 for anxiety producing situations. But, as I’ve been bleeding for over 2 weeks now, I begrudgingly made an appt. with a nurse practitioner in the office of the gynecologist I wasn’t able to get in with until the end of summer.

When I told the nurse prac. what was going on, she said, “We don’t like 14 day periods, bless your heart.” She then ask me a slew of questions about my periods, did an exam (while telling me to try to relax a handful of times), & then we talked again.

First of all, the blood that has been flowing out of me is def. coming from my uterus. She said that she saw both old and new blood.

Second, she felt that I def. needed a laparoscopy to rule out endometriosis. I have a surgical consult with the Dr. I originally couldn’t get in with until the end of July in two weeks.

&, lastly, she ordered blood work to check my thyroid, noting that could both mess with cycles & play a role in infertility, as well as a vaginal ultrasound I wasn’t able to get today. I have that this coming Monday.

After the appointment, as anxious as I felt having to go through with the appt, my initial reaction was that the nurse practitioner I had just seen had done more for me than our RE ever did. I had informed her and her nurse that he ordered an HSG on me when we first started seeing him & that had been clear but I had NO other testing done. No further testing after 3 failed IUIs, no further testing after 2 failed IVFs. None. I had once asked him about blood work & felt as if he thought it was a waste of time, noting that, “I can order it but I think it’s a waste of money. It would be 200-300$ just for that.” Well, FYI sir, 200-300$ is a whole hell of a lot cheaper than the 20,000 plus we’ve spent up to this point. Just saying.

All in all, I feel really validated from an infertility standpoint & am hopeful that I’ll get some answers from the testing that was done today & the upcoming ultrasound/consultation.

I wanted to share this to stress the importance of getting a second opinion. If you are having second thoughts about your care, there’s most likely a reason. Address & don’t waste thousands of dollars like we potentially did.

Here’s to hoping answers are on the way……