Real Therapy

28 August 2010

Yesterday was another landmark day. My IVF protocol arrived in the morning, so it was great to have the plan ready to start after this month's break. One surprise was that the Dr. is recommending ICSI, even though the sperm appear fine, because we don't have a reasonable explanation of why the IUI's didn't work. The RE is placing us squarely back into the unexplained category -Darn! Hubs was a bit taken aback at first, but after talking through it and reading the materials we agreed that it just makes sense. He didn't care for the part where the sperm tails get chopped off, but after reading about what I would be going through he figured he could handle that. If you're going to go as far as IVF, why not take advantage of the full meal deal. I'm not likely to produce a plethora of eggs, so we might as well try to increase the fertilization rates.

The counseling session with the skilled fertility therapist, helped immensely. I feel better than I have felt for a long while. The therapist understood all of the medical lingo and what it all means, and what the experience of this is like. A number of times she told me that even though it feels like I'm coming apart at the seams, she thinks I have excellent coping strategies in place and thought I'd done well to get this far. You ivf.ca ladies (and Rick) can pat yourselves on the back for that one. Thank you blog.

One interesting thing about balancing work and IF that she pointed out was that they used to recommend women with IF avoid triggers such as infants and pregnant women, the newer studies show that women who don't/can't avoid these triggers actually fair better in the long run with resolving IF after they stop treatment or become pregnant. On the other hand she said there was no need to be a martyr and that after an upsetting test result or stressful procedure taking a bit of time from work was not a bad idea.

She really thought that in many ways the IVF might be less stressful than the back to back IUI's with injectables that we've been through. Ha! I'd always heard people say the opposite, but I can see where she's coming from with that one. She thought we could do some work with my anxiety, to help cope with the upcoming IVF cycle. The next appointment is in a couple if weeks and I'm already looking forward to it. Honestly it was the best $100 I've spent.

After the therapy session I met with another patient from my clinic who is on a parallel path. Hubs had already had enough uterus talk, so he left us to our tea and it was like I blinked and two hours went by.

So now it's time to put this stuff away for a while. We're taking this week off to do a kayak trip, and have a real rest before IVF is on the doorstep. I feel like I can let is go now for a couple of weeks. Wine and coffee are back in my life for a short while. Ahhh....