Thursday, August 14, 2008

"It's Not a Tumor"

says me in my best Arnold impression!

The MRI of my pituitary was clear!!! I was relieved to say the least. Dr. M will treat my excess prolactin with a drug that I take 2x per week, starting tonight. The MRI did show some "mild abnormalities of the white matter in my frontal lobe." It could be some kind of vessel or tissue disease or it could be nothing, or it could be from a fall or a bump on the head as a child. Thanks, that makes it so much more clear Doc! It is pretty uncommon to see in someone my age & we can see a neurologist if we want, but unless I start to present with "neurological" symptoms, it is something we can just file away for now. I think we will watch and wait.

As for the polyps, the bad news is that he is almost positive it is back based on the HSG. He wants to do a SIS next month on cycle day 5ish. Then, if a polyp is confirmed, he would like to remove it using a new, less invasive laser surgery. I had them removed via hysteroscopy before. He would also like me to go on BCP during extended breaks since I seem prone to polyps.

Although I can start BCP for IVF #3 as early as next month, we decided we will wait until Oct or Nov. Dr. M's theory is that will be 3 months after Sean's surgery and will be into his first sperm cycle post op. Typically, the most improvement is for a varicocele embolization is noticed during months 6-12, but we may see slight improvement in 3 months. Sean & I have already been on a 3 month break and another 6 months + is not very appealing and probably unnecessary. We are not doing the embolization expecting miracles, just trying to alleviate some pain and discomfort and preserve what little sperm Sean does have.

In other good sperm news, we got the preliminary report for Sean's SA and it was his best one ever! Almost 3 million sperm and 41% motility! That is incredible for him - usually he is less than a million post wash. Dr. M advised we freeze a sample, so we did that with this SA and ended up with 6 vials. Woo-hoo!!!

We spend the day at Hopkins tomorrow doing all of Sean's pre-op testing and hopefully we will get the clear from the surgeon in the afternoon. His surgery will be Weds. Aug. 20th if we get the go-ahead.

Oh, and on the PCOS self-diagnosis, Dr. M said I could have a "touch", but he thinks it is a non-factor at this point and does not want to test or treat for it. Fine with me. Damn that Dr. Google! :)



Thank you all for your love, support, prayers, emails and kind words over the past week! It means the world to both of us!

7 comments:

Lisa said...

I am glad to hear its not a tumor!! I just found out I have elevated prolactin and have been following your blog. I am a fellow TTTCer btw : )

Kristen said...

What beautiful news!!!! I am so happy to hear it isn't a tumor, Emily! Thank goodness!!!!

I hope your appointment went well at Hopkins and that everything is back on track for a 2009 baby!!!

Lisa said...

OK, sounds like all good news, sweetie!!! No tumor - woo hoo!!!! And, if it is a polyp, the fact that it can be removed less invasively is wonderful!

Jill said...

So glad to hear the good news!! Thank goodness!

I can't believe our PCOS diagnosis didn't pan out...lol

Jill said...

BTW, I knew we were very similar--I love "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol!! One of my favorite songs!
It will always remind me of my intertility. When I had my first ET, I actually sang the entire song to my embies as I still laid on the table. I just felt so strongly that those embies would take and I wanted to sing to them from the moment they were back in my uterus.

I haven't felt that positive about anything I've done since that day. But, hopefully, that will change sometime soon. :-)

poppy.f.seed said...

I just found you through another person's blog. Great news on the mri & SA. My husband had varicocele surgery last winter. Hope your husband's treatment, etc go well.

poppy.f.seed said...

I figured I'd answer your question over here. After the surgery, DH had improved counts(we think, only did one SA) they were 10million, with 3 million motile. But, still bad morph. We did IVF 6 months after his surgery. When we did the icsi we used it on 8 eggs and 7 fertilized. Of the 6 eggs we used 'natural' fertilization, only 1 fertilized. So, like you, ivf + icsi is the way to go. We were told less than 1 %(actually .25) chance as well(pre-surgery). My guess is it is still about the same.