"Progress" report....

We're back in CA after our visit at CCRM. First things first - both DH and I were VERY impressed with CCRM. Completely state of the art, completely contemporary, very courteous staff, very professionally managed place! It seems pretty evident that the nurses, genetic counselors, coordinators - everyone they hire, is just top of the line! Very very impressive!

In this post I will list the findings from today. We will talk about my feelings and emotions later in another post.

• The sonography tech. who did my 3D and Doppler ultrasounds seemed to try to "get the right angle" during the 3D u/s a lot. I asked her if all was well, and she said "Your lining is thin and I'm not able to get a pretty picture for the doctor to look at. I'm trying, but the lining is pretty thin". That really would only mean that I am early in my cycle. So nothing to worry about. She mentioned that the blood flow to my uterus seemed pretty good, and that the Dr would discuss everything in detail with me.
• The genetic counselor looked at our PGD reports and said she had seen very few couples with such high abnormal embryo rates. She was surprised that we were getting so many abnormal embryos. She mentioned that the head of their lab is trying to talk to the genetics labs to figure out if we can use CGH or Microarray instead of the regular FISH PGD on our embryos. They are going to find that out and let us know. The one interesting thing she asked was if we had ever had DH's boys go through FISH testing for aneuploidy. We haven't. She thinks it may be beneficial to know what percent of DH's sperm is unbalanced. That way we will know if our PGD method is working well or whether it seems to be giving us false negatives. They have included the aneuploidy test on DH's sperm sample and will let us know the results. 
• Dr Sch did my hysteroscopy - he is unbelievably skilled! I did not feel the speculum at all! I did not flinch even once! The procedure was the usual - mildly uncomfortable, but nothing to complain about. But he didn't say much doing the procedure. He just asked me to come to his office for a regroup. 
• During the regroup, came the revelations. So my uterus is "funky" according to Dr Sch. What he means is, I have a strangely shaped uterus. Usually, women have a triangular shaped uterine cavity. Sometimes women have a septum or some other anomaly which may be fixable surgically. Some women have a T shaped uterus, where the uterine cavity is shaped like a T. Most specialists would not attempt to fix a T shaped uterus because there isn't much room to "cut" or "snip off" anything. Dr Sch says he has worked on trying to fix T shaped uteri in 15 cases. 
• Here is the killer - my uterus is not only T shaped, it also has a dip on the top - like the other doctors have told me. So, in Dr Sch's words, my uterus is "tiny". Being that it is not septate, or has nothing protruding in it which can be simply cut off, there is really no way to correct it. However, Dr Sch wants to attempt to surgically try and increase the space in my uterus. Scrape a little of the top indentation, scrape some of the sides to widen the space, and then put a balloon in my uterus for a while, so it doesn't develop scar tissue and fuse back. He's not sure it would help, but he wants to try. 
• So we're not dealing with one issue here. We are dealing with a couple of rather unusual issues. DH's balanced translocation, and to top it, my "funky" uterus.  He said if I had a Fertile Myrtle family member or friend who has a perfect uterus and offers to carry a baby for me, maybe I should think of that (It's a whole different matter that this scenario could be extremely complicated). But if I have to think of gestational carriers in the traditional manner of searching through an agency etc, then we should try with this surgery option and do one last IVF as our last hurrah. 

We obviously have lots to talk about. Chances, percentages, risks, costs, coverages, etc etc etc. I will post the story inside my heart in a separate message soon. But for now these were the facts that we found out today. 

For those that remember that I was worried my paperwork had not reached them from my current clinic..... I was right. It was my stupid gut that said it, and I saw for myself today. My current clinics records department has sent only a very cursory "summary" kind history to CCRM. Get this - this "summary" did not even mention my 2nd and 3rd IVF!!! No record of my stim protocols, my responses, outcomes - nothing - nada!!! Dr M is a sweetheart - DH and I love him as we love our own dads! His clinic is awesome - the nurses, coordinators - everyone. But they are part of a large hospital, and the records department is another thing altogether!! 

Big bone to pick - some people are going to get some interesting phone calls from me tomorrow. They're probably sleeping peacefully right now, oblivious to what awaits them tomorrow!