Post OP

I was really groogy when I awoke from being under anaesthesia.  I really wasn't awake.. I was coming out being drugged. I felt myself gag automatically with no warning.   Even though I had no food in my stomach, I remember waking up and vomiting..I felt my head turn to the right side and then the left, spitting up. Then I heard nurses voices and I felt asleep.  I am not sure how long I was asleep,
I heard a nurses voice trying to awake me and I opened my eyes.. I looked around and I feel out.  Right then I heard a voice say "Gosh! She is out like a light". Then after a while, not sure again how long it was, I finally started waking up. I was feeling nauseated and I was in that  "holding room"  as before.  I didn't feel pain even though I was prepared to. I felt sick to my stomach and they
gave me something for it and it made it instantly better. They put a breathing tube down my throat and that hurt the most. Considering I was just cut on. I was thinking that tonight I was really going to feel it once the medicine has worn off.   Once I was completely awake they took me to another room, where I was there alone. It had a bed, tv and chair. My husband and family came back to see
how I was doing, I was still coming out of the effects of the anesthesia and I was still a little nauseated.  Beside my bed, I had graham crackers, peanut butter, seven up.. My mother came in with a
pretty candle.  The nurse eventually came in and asked if I needed to go to the bathroom.. Which I did. I forgot!  Anyway, she helped me to the toilet, undress and go. It wasn't difficult to get out of the bed, but I felt a dizzy but not in pain.  I would have thought that I would feel pretty weird with a stranger helping me in such an "intimate" situation but I really didn't care.  I laid in the bed for a couple of hours, I felt pretty good and ready to go home except for a scratchy throat.  I finally was ready to go home and when I go to the car I had to kind of lay down in the passenger seat and not sit up because that did hurt.

More later..

My Corrective Surgery

I had corrective surgery on March 8, 2007. I was really scared because I never had any surgery before. I talked to the doctor and he sated that it was out-patient so there should be any problems at all.
They would take care of me.  My procedure was a laproscopy.

This is how it went -

I had to stop eating by 12:00 p.m. the previous night and that means no food or water. They told me that I would vomit if I had any food or water in my stomach.
I got there at 6:00 am and the procedure started at about 8:30 a.m. and it took only one hour and a half. They checked me in and my husband and I went into a room
where they made me change clothes to a hospital gown and lay in a bed. When I get nervous I have to pee.. just like a child so I think I peed about 7 times in the adjoining bathroom.
I waited for a while and then a man came in a wheeled me out into another room.  He was really nice and
cracked jokes and made me laugh and feel less nervous. It was surreal just like in the movies where you see the camera following the person on a "gourney???"
being wheeled while doctors are working on them, like ER or something.  While he was wheeling me through the halls, he was telling me that he just got his drivers license and he is going to try not to hit the walls.

We went into a room where there was a lot of people..I guess the "holding" room. Anyway, there were lots of nurses there and people waiting for surgery.  He wheeled me
toward the area where they wanted me and a nurse came over and took my blood pressure, vitals, then another nurse started an IV and was looking for my veins. I have great veins
so it was pretty easy for her..  Can you believe, I was so nervous.. I had to pee again!!!  I tried to forget about it and listen to the nurses talking around me.

This is something that I didn't know.. They take a swab of some anethesia and swab my arm. It numbs that area and when they put in the IV I could feel NOTHING!!!
Amazing, that was great!!

The nurses talked to me and explained everything that was going to happen. That gives me a sense of peace, to have information. I dont like the unknown.. at all.
Before I had the surgery, I looked up the procedure laproscopy to see what they do in the operating room..

Ok. A nurse gave me something like a "valium" in my IV and it only took a couple of minutes to work. Really fast. I forgot about everything, I began to relax and
not care.  Worked like a charm!

Another nurse grabbed my hand and told me that she would be there the entire time with me.

After that, the new guy came and rolled me into the operating room.

It was very cool and sterile looking. They pushed my bed to this stationary table and told me to scoot onto the table, which I did. Something else I didn't know. The
table was stationary and didn't move. Ok. I also noticed that it was a small table. I am not a very big person but it wasn't very wide. I wonder what they do for bigger wider
people?? they wouldn't be able to fit. My arms almost started to dangle but I put the over my waist.

I saw my doctor and he smiled at me and I said hello.

There was three other nurses there and the one that came with me. They started to talk about something wierd - We were in this conversation about snoring..
Do I snore, do they snore.. amusing.  My mind was wondering.

Then I awoke in the recovery room.

Sperm Testing

Sperm Testing

The fertility doctor had to also check my husband’s sperm. He needed to get a sample of the sperm and one day we had to go pick up a small plastic container with specific instructions to keep everything sterile. The specimen had to be taken and then within 30 minutes, it had to get to the lab for diagnosis.

My experience – Once we read the information about the sperm sample, I guess some men worry if there will be enough, etc. He only needs to ejaculate one time and that should be enough for the sample. There are certain things that he cannot do to get the ejaculate. He can only masturbate to get the sample and everything has to be clean. He has cannot touch in the sides of the container. (Make sure that you read all the directions).
Once you have the ejaculate, you have to take the container and make sure the sample stays at body temperature. So you have to put it in the brown bag, and not put the sample in your purse or on your car seat, you have to literally put the sample under you clothes near your skin to keep it warm. Once you get to the lab you take it out from under your clothes and give it to the lab. –

We will talk more about sperm tests and outcomes later.

HSG

I took a HSG (trying to get the definition) and they wanted to look at
my fallopian tubes.

This is the procedure - This is what happened to me:

I went into a room and changed my clothes to a hospital gown, everything off including underwear but I could wear socks.

I laid on a table underneath an x-ray machine. They insert a thin tube into your
uterus and send some methyl-blue dye up into your tubes. If it goes out through
the tubes it is not blocked, if it doesn't it is blocked. Because things go outside your tubes in not up through your tubes it may be a little uncomfortable.

Ok. This is completely my experience. It was painful..for about 1 minute I had deep
cramping. Now this is coming from someone that has had very bad cramping all of their life due to menstrual periods. So I should have been somewhat used to it. I held the hand of the nurse and gripped the table with all of my might.. The were counting down..10 more seconds, 9, 8, 7..I felt as if I wanted to rip the tube out from between my legs.. but I wanted to finish this so I just tried with all my might to deal with the pain. The test was pretty quick.

Finally it was over and the doctor started talking to me and showed me that
I had a left blocked tube. When I looked at the x-ray machine I could see the picture of the dye coming out of one side but not the other.

The nurse later while I was walking out of the room and was dressed, asked me
how I felt and I said ok but it hurt a lot. She said that some women feel as if
it hurts and some women it doesn't bother them at all.

I guess I was the unlucky one.

next thing my doctor wanted to do was to unblock the tubes (left side), check the other side (right side) and check my uterus.

Fertility Life Lines

Fertility Lifelines gives you a one year free subscription to conceive magazine. This magazine has great topics about infertility. You can get
information regarding adoption agencies as well as infertility treatment information and to cope with infertility emotionally. Also, you get savings on fertility meds.

To find out more - www. fertilitylifelines.com

copyright 2007

Post - Coitus Sperm Testing

I just heard about this and I am passing this along.  Please check with your doctor to see if this is an option.

If you have a male that doesn't want to have his sperm tested for whatever the reason..

There is this thing called Post coitus sperm testing.

You make an appointment with you doctor for the morning.  You plan for sex that morning and when he climax you have viable active sperm in your body
for a couple of hours. You run to your doctor and he can get the sample of the sperm that is inside of you and test it.

A great day to make a baby

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

In the beginning ....

I tried using different fertility calendars online and I charted my fertility for months on end.  My periods were normal but nothing was happening.
I awoke in the morning and took my temperature and charted it on a online chart, started counting days after my period....on the 15th or so
a woman normally ovulates.. and that would be sex day...  I spit into a lens that when it dried you could tell when you
were ovulating... There was so many things that I did to try to get pregnant.  I checked myself for mucus in the cervix and I had a chart
that told me, on this day when you see this...this is happening.. when you discharge is clear..this is happening and so on.  So, I would run to the bathroom
and check myself.. how did I feel moody??? happy? Irritated?  I logged the information daily, but still my period kept coming.
I really didn't think that I had a fertility issue or fertility problems because I just thought that for some people it takes a while.
But once my doctor told me that after the age of 35 if you are trying for 6 months and nothing happens to contact them.. So I did.

I made an appointment for the doctor at a fertility clinic and my husband and I went. He told us that he would have to give us
some tests and not to assume anything or jump to any conclusions.. He explained how everything worked and that he needs
to run some tests on us to see what could be happening to our bodies.. I mean, one of the worse things about infertility is having to wait for everything
wait for tests, wait for procedures, wait for insurance to pay before the next item.. wait, wait, wait.....

One that thing was really cool about what he said. "He said that with the couples that he has seen, infertility usually is not just because of one person.
Either the man or the woman. It is usually a combination of BOTH.  There is an issue with the man and woman that creates a problem that causes them
not to conceive".

WHATEVER.....I was thinking.  Boy, I really thought it was my husbands problem..I mean, I take care of myself, exercise and eat right. I don't do drugs and I am a "social" drinker.
It must be because of him....

Did I have a rude awakening..


One Tip -
Prices for procedures vary dramatically per doctor... for a doctor that  I contacted  testing sperm cost $50.00 but another doctor a similar
sperm test  costs $110.00.  Make sure that you check prices for everything and check doctor. Check the doctors success rates
as well as reputations.

Sperm Testing -
check for size, motility, etc.  
I will give a better definition later.