Today's RE Appointment

I had my post-op appointment with Dr. T this morning. I went in expecting to hear the worst and it was a good thing I had prepared myself. He said that I have pretty severe endometriosis. My uterus is actually pulled back and fused to my colon. There was endo on my appendix so that is why he removed my appendix. The opening of my left tube is blocked and my tube is very swollen with fluid. Dr T. suspects that I have hematosalpinx, which is blood collected in my tube. During my period some of the menstrual blood actually goes back into my tube and just collects there. The one bit of good news is that my left ovary is fine. There was no cyst on it, my tube is just so swollen that on the ultrasound it was too hard to distinguish between the tube and my ovary. What looked like an ovarian cyst on the ultrasound was actually the end of my tube. Dr T. said that with the severity of my endo it is very unlikely that I'll be able to have a spontaneous conception. My chances of getting pregnant the old fashioned way without more surgery aren't zero but they're pretty slim.

So what are my options now? Basically Dr T. I have two options. The endometriosis isn't a life threatening condition so I can choose to just let it be and if I want to get pregnant then I can try IVF. My other option is having another, more extensive surgery to remove all of the endo, try to unblock my left tube and remove the tube if it can't be unblocked. Dr. T said that my recovery time with the second surgery will be longer than with the first and in 95% of cases he is able to remove all of the endo with the scope so I wouldn't have any larger incisions.

I know that we can't afford IVF. One cycle of IVF costs about $15,000 and our insurance won't cover any of it. I'm not in a hurry to have another surgery with all that we have going on right now. The soccer season won't be over until mid-May and we also have who knows how many court dates and attorney appointments coming up for Jarrod. Dr. T said that I can basically have the surgery anytime so it's up to me to decide when is the best time. I'll take some time to let it all sink in and then discuss it with Danny before deciding but I'm pretty sure another surgery is in my near future.