Thursday, February 15, 2007
Frustration
I am the first to admit that I only do my best at what I feel is important.
ie. I make sure my dogs are trained enough to comfortably live with, but they will never be waiting for me to give them a command before they act. My beagle thinks that is just fine, and she'll just go ahead and keep "cleaning up" the food that is within her reach.
On the whole fertility subject (before I'm able to give it up, I need to get things off my chest a bit) we have finished another unsuccessful attempt at getting pregnant. While there are a whole slew of reasons this try may not have worked, I am so frustrated that this was the ONLY time our nurse went to find a doctor to help.
For anyone who hasn't gone through a fertility treatment (or infertility treatment, which is more appropriate, I guess) a woman starts out with a vaginal ultrasound to see what her ovaries are doing. Then medications are administered, usually by herself or her spouse/partner, and her progress is monitored with frequent visits and ultrasounds. When her ovaries seem appropriately stimulated, a drug that initiates ovulation is administered. Two days/ 36 hours later, she and her spouse/partner go in for an insemination. It's pretty simplistic here, but the hormonal influx and scheduling challenges really make life insane.
We did all that, and I am so upset. Before we started the infertility treatments 3 years ago, tests found that I had a tipped uterus, which is within a normal range for the placement of a uterus. This tipping does cause a curve in the cervix as it enters the uterus. Pretty basic stuff. After my pregnancy two years ago, my cervix also apparently got longer. I don't understand that part, but it was also known prior to starting this series of attempts.
After all this knowledge about the challenges my body was presenting, I still had only nurses doing the actual inseminations. The first time, I thought the nurse was going to cry because she was having such a tough time getting the tubing to pass through into my uterus. She finally found a more experienced nurse to take over, but I think she had botched it before then. The second time, the same inexperienced nurse did the whole thing, and said it was tough but went well. The third time, we had a very experienced nurse, who after she had two attempts, she said this was too difficult. She actually went to find a doctor to do the insemination! Hallelujah that there is actually someone who put the importance of the procedure before their own ego.
I know in some jobs, having an off day just means that you didn't finish everything, or that a few customers went home without the best service. But with the fertility part of the medical profession, all treatments are expensive and the emotional toll the process takes on patients is excruciating. We go in soon to discuss this last series of attempts with our doctor. I can't wait for him to tell me that I should have gotten pregnant, because I have a pretty strong argument as to why I haven't.
ie. I make sure my dogs are trained enough to comfortably live with, but they will never be waiting for me to give them a command before they act. My beagle thinks that is just fine, and she'll just go ahead and keep "cleaning up" the food that is within her reach.
On the whole fertility subject (before I'm able to give it up, I need to get things off my chest a bit) we have finished another unsuccessful attempt at getting pregnant. While there are a whole slew of reasons this try may not have worked, I am so frustrated that this was the ONLY time our nurse went to find a doctor to help.
For anyone who hasn't gone through a fertility treatment (or infertility treatment, which is more appropriate, I guess) a woman starts out with a vaginal ultrasound to see what her ovaries are doing. Then medications are administered, usually by herself or her spouse/partner, and her progress is monitored with frequent visits and ultrasounds. When her ovaries seem appropriately stimulated, a drug that initiates ovulation is administered. Two days/ 36 hours later, she and her spouse/partner go in for an insemination. It's pretty simplistic here, but the hormonal influx and scheduling challenges really make life insane.
We did all that, and I am so upset. Before we started the infertility treatments 3 years ago, tests found that I had a tipped uterus, which is within a normal range for the placement of a uterus. This tipping does cause a curve in the cervix as it enters the uterus. Pretty basic stuff. After my pregnancy two years ago, my cervix also apparently got longer. I don't understand that part, but it was also known prior to starting this series of attempts.
After all this knowledge about the challenges my body was presenting, I still had only nurses doing the actual inseminations. The first time, I thought the nurse was going to cry because she was having such a tough time getting the tubing to pass through into my uterus. She finally found a more experienced nurse to take over, but I think she had botched it before then. The second time, the same inexperienced nurse did the whole thing, and said it was tough but went well. The third time, we had a very experienced nurse, who after she had two attempts, she said this was too difficult. She actually went to find a doctor to do the insemination! Hallelujah that there is actually someone who put the importance of the procedure before their own ego.
I know in some jobs, having an off day just means that you didn't finish everything, or that a few customers went home without the best service. But with the fertility part of the medical profession, all treatments are expensive and the emotional toll the process takes on patients is excruciating. We go in soon to discuss this last series of attempts with our doctor. I can't wait for him to tell me that I should have gotten pregnant, because I have a pretty strong argument as to why I haven't.
Labels: best effort, fertility, frustration, infertility, professional
¶ 3:22 PM
