It seems as if I may have received a belated birthday gift this morning.
My long-awaited yet sorry excuse for a period arrived on Friday. It was nothing to write home about, pretty much three days of spotting. I waited to see if things would “pick up” but they never did so I reluctantly called my RE yesterday and left a message explaining the situation. I told them about the steroid shot that I suspect screwed up my cycle blah-dee-blah-blah-and-I’m-hoping-we-can-do-another-round-of-pro*metrium-and-give-it-a-chance-to-work. I didn’t want them to start singing the D&C song.
I was hoping they’d simply call in a prescription for more pro*metrium and I’d be on my way with the next cycle but noooooo, they wanted to see me for an ultrasound and perhaps an SIS (saline infusion sono*hysterograph) to see what was going on.
So maybe, just maybe I got my panties in a bit of a twist about it. I spent much of last night in imaginary conversations with my RE that went a little something like this:
ME: Ummm, Dr. VA, I haven’t had an actual period since my Valentine’s Day ultrasound where y’all pronounced my uterine lining “too thick to procreate”. To the best of my calculations, no period = no improvement. So what you really want is for me to drive 3 hours round-trip so your nurse practitioner can take one look and say, “Yep, lining’s still too thick and that will be $147 please”.
Dr.: Well . . .
ME: Seriously, do you really need money that badly?
Dr. VA: Of course not. It’s just that . . .
ME: . . . and another thing! I had a great period the first time I took the pro*metrium. It didn’t work this time because of the steroid shot I had. Why do I suddenly now need more testing when we haven’t given this medication a fair shot at working?
Dr. VA: Well I . . .
ME: . . . and what about the fact that I had hyperplasia several years ago and my gynecologist was able to resolve it with medication rather than expensive testing and surgery? Is she just smarter than you? Hmmmmm?
Dr. VA: (offended squawky noise)
ME: . . . and if you think that the second time I lay eyes on you is going to be in an operating room, you have another think coming!
Dr. VA: I don’t think . . .
ME: That does it! I’m switching RE’s! I’m going to find someone who actually LISTENS to their patients and isn’t completely money-hungry! DAMMIT!
Dr. VA: (calling for security)
See, just a tee-tiny bit upset.
Of course, I never actually said any of those things to my RE or anyone else but instead put on my big girl panties (which I had to untwist) and marched in this morning for my ultrasound.
And you know what? My lining is significantly improved.
Last time it was 1.6mm in one spot and 2mm in another. Today it was .98mm.
I have absolutely no idea how that happened.
I’m still not where they want me to be but I’m making progress and I’m happy with that. I start another round of pro*metrium tonight. No SIS needed at this point.
So I guess that maybe, just maybe the doctor does, on occasion know best and that sometimes your unbelievably uncooperative body can actually surprise you. Not quite the birthday surprise I was expecting, but I’ll take it.
