The Pre-Journey Surgeries

When you are younger, you pray, "Please let me get my period! But when you are older and trying to get pregnant it goes to, "Please don't let me get my period!" In March 2014, after not successfully getting pregnant on our own, our Dr referred us to FCI and Dr Jacobs. The initial meeting was a little emotional hearing about all of the possibilities of what could be wrong or what our options may be. Dr. Jacobs explained the initial testing. The husband is tested first because the testing is so much easier! (All Shawn has to do is give his sample in a cup!) If all looks good with his swimmers, they move on to testing me. The testing involves ultrasounds, bloodwork and more. Shawn did his test and everything came back good. He had great morphology and numbers. They might just be a little slow. (He is 42!). I go in for my saline ultrasound. During this procedure, they fill my uterus with saline via a catheter. This allows them to see the uterus full. My ovaries look great and I had a great number of eggs for my age. (36).  They did find a growth inside the uterus. Dr Jacobs said that it took up the whole space inside my uterus and it was a blessing we had not gotten pregnant because it would have turned into a miscarriage because there was no room for the baby to grow. It was like having a quarter inside the space of a half dollar. It may not seem like a very large mass, but when you figure the space constraints, it is! After consulting with my OB/GYN, Dr. Rosenberg, it was decided that this mass needed to be removed. I was scheduled for surgery April 11th. The surgery was to be a simple, in and out, snip and scrape procedure. During the surgery, I started losing fluid and blood. Dr. Rosenberg was not able to get the whole mass because he was worried my uterus would collapse. He cut the blood supply off and hoped the remaining piece would be shed with my next period. When I came to in recovery, the nurse helped me to the bathroom so I can be discharged. I remember sitting on the toilet and the next thing I knew I was back in bed. I had passed out because my blood pressure had crashed. The doctors decided I was going to be kept overnight for observation. I was admitted into the OB/GYN wing. It is weird being on that floor not having a baby! My abdomen was so full and swollen I could not sit up or bend. The pain was ridiculous. The doctors determined that my abdomen had filled with the blood and fluid from the surgery and I possibly had a thermal bowel injury. They used a heat tool to burn off the mass and it could have burned through the uterine wall to the bowel. I was finally release 4 days later! After a month, I went back to Dr Jacobs for another ultrasound to make sure that it was clear to move forward with trying to have a baby. We were all stunned when the mass was back and bigger than it was when it came out a month ago. Seriously, I shocked the doctors. They did not understand how it could have grown so large so fast! I was scheduled for another surgery. This time they were not going to use heat or glycine. They were going to do a new procedure called myosure, that looped around and pulled off the mass instead of burning it. Going into this surgery, I was so scared of the same thing happening again... I remember praying as they rolled me into the operating room, please let this go smooth! I know I have the best doctor and I trusted him 100%, I was worried about my uncooperative body. This time was magic! Dr. Rosenberg said it went so much easier for me and for him and they got it all! But now, another 30 days I had to wait for another ultrasound! When the day came, I was so nervous... The ultrasound tech showed me the screen and Voila! My uterus was empty! When you are trying to get pregnant, that is the only time you will ever be so happy to have an empty uterus! Normally there are three stages to the start of fertility treatments. The woman usually starts off taking medication to help build up the uterine lining and releasing of the eggs. If this does not work, the next step is to have the man's sperm inseminated into the woman at the ovulation cycle. If these steps fail, then there is the IVF. Since we had problems with the tumors growing in the uterus, the doctors both decided if we wanted to, we should go straight to IVF. We were all for it! Why waste more time trying these other options when we had the best insurance for fertility and it covered 4 attempts a year. Next came all of the prepping and decision making to get to the IVF step!

So many needle marks!

One month after being removed it is back

The tumor inside my uterus through the surgical camera