OK - here we go

We got done with our call with Dr Sch. I had heard from Dr M. and read on the internet that Dr Sch. is a straight shooter, and he dishes it out as it is, and many people think he's too direct. I was wondering how bad it would be, but I loved his directness!! I like to be told things as they are - don't wrap bad news in candy wrappers for us!

So anyway - Dr Sch called, and he was really nice. He too mentioned that my file is really thick but he's seen what all we've been through. 

The one thing that caught his attention was my uterus. Here's the history. In 2001, before we started TTC, an OBGYN had told me that I had a bicornuate uterus. He had also done a couple of tests and told me that I would have no trouble getting pregnant, but staying pregnant may be an issue. The first RE we went to said I had a "slight septum" but it wasn't bad. Our current RE says I have a "slight indentation at the top of my uterus" but it's nothing to worry about. 

Dr Sch said through my file he has seen various doctors have said various things about my uterus. In his words "People are saying crazy things about your uterus". He wants to see for himself and make his judgement. He also thinks that if in fact there is a septum or that I have a bicornuate uterus, that could be an issue that we need to address first. That could have caused my m/c, and the chemical pregnancy as well as the ectopic. 

Other than that, he told us a different method of PGD that they use, which seems to be better in a few ways:

1) The embryo is left untouched till day 5. In the regular PGD that we'd been doing, they take out a cell on day 3, and the cell could potentially have turned into part of the baby. By day 5, they can differentiate the inner cell mass from the part that will make the placenta. They take cell or cells from the placenta part, thereby not "damaging" the baby. 

2) But in this method, they have to freeze the embryo and do a frozen cycle. That is because the testing is started only on day 5, and beyond that, they cannot keep the embryos in culture. 

3) The advantage of doing a FET is that they can control the hormones and make the uterus environment as close to "natural conception environment" as needed. During a fresh cycle, hormones are totally out of whack and given how complicated our case is, he said it may be best to control as much as we can.

He said they have done this type of PGD on 30 people so far, and have had 70% success rates. This is a very high success rate - and he said they don't normally offer this technique to everyone, because it is still pretty experimental. But again, given how complex our case appears, he wants us to be part of this. 

We were concerned about freezing and thawing our embryos and the survival rate. We have seen in the last 4 IVF's that we are left only with 1 or max 2 normal embryos after PGD. What if the normal ones don't survive the thaw? He said they have a new method of freezing called vitrification, and with this method so far they have not lost a single embryo to thaw! 

The other method they use is CGH, but he was not sure they could test balanced translocations with that. 

So he wants us to come for a day and get our 1 day work up done - he will probably add a couple of tests for us to check my uterus - 3d ultrasounds etc. If something needs to be fixed in my uterus, he will do that, and if not, we can figure out the next steps at that point.

The funnies:

1) When he said "People are saying crazy things about your uterus", DH raised one eyebrow and looked at me. I almost started giggling! (Picture in mind - my uterus is a low moral "out there" kinda gal!! )

2) Dr Sch said "I am interested in your uterus" and DH silently went "Whoa! Easy there!!"

Dr Sch also told us he is shocked at how knowledgeable we are on the topic, and that we appear "very bright" :-)

And now for my bonus of the day - I had taken an appt with Dr M for next week, to discuss our call with Dr Sch, and see what he thinks. So today, 30 min after I got off the phone with Dr Sch, I got a call from Dr M's clinic. They wanted to know if I wanted to see Dr M today instead, since they have a cancellation. Yippee!! I'm so happy, because now the call is completely fresh in my mind, and I can make my decisions a little quicker!!