My Path to Secondary Infertility

• August 2007 - Married Mr. T
• August 2007 to September 2008- Enjoyed the life of a newlywed and bought a house in the suburbs.
• June 2009- After being lectured repeatedly by my doctors that I was gaining too much weight, dealing with PUPS and having my water break in public we proudly welcomed Toddler T to the world.
• December 2010- Leave Toddler T at my parent's for the weekend and go to a friends' wedding with the belief that T # 2 will be arriving in the next 10-12 months.
• February 21, 2011- Excitedly call the nurseline to schedule my 8 week prenatal appointment.
• February 22, 2011- Leave work violently ill. Zofran and Reglan do nothing.
• February 23, 2011 - Speak with the on-call doctor and hear the words "early ultrasound to detect viability."
• February 24 to March 15, 2011- Back and forth with the doctors' office. Multiple blood tests. Things continue to be bleak
• March 16, 2001 - Made it to my ultrasound day. Change of plans as severe pain sends me to the ER instead. This is the first I hear the word ectopic pregnancy as it relates to me.While getting the much anticipated ultrasound,  I say "Something isn't right" then wake up to see Mr. T's face turn white and he tells me "I think you just had a seizure." I am brought to surgery in a jiffy.
• March 17, 2011 - Discharged, told I was good to return to work on Monday (36 hrs later). I wonder what it takes these days to get a medical excuse from work? Head home, take a shower, complain of feeling light-headed and am brought right back by Mom-Nurse. Become very short with the ER staff (So, not my nature.. they are Mom-Nurse's comrades). Listen to new ER doc bemoan the current health care system and call my case a typical example of how insurance companies dictate treatment. I'm not in the mood for a debate on health care as I find that it is getting more and more difficult to see. I pass this on to Mom-Nurse and she too gets pale and leaves the room. I then receive a blood transfusion and find it much easier to see.
• March 18, 2011- Leave the hospital looking 5 months pregnant. Feeling fantastic about that side effect to surgery.
• April 1, 2011 - Follow up with my doctor and am told that I will have many more children. 
• April 4, 2011- Give my notice at work with mixed emotion. But mostly excited to stay home full time with Toddler T.
• April 24, 2011- LAST DAY OF WORK
• August 15, 2011- Anxiously call the nurseline to set up my second 8 week prenatal appointment. 
• August 16 to August 26, 2011 - Lab work looks great, nausea sets in, early ultrasound scheduled. I am beginning to accept that happy days are here again.
• August 26, 2011- Ultrasound cannot confirm intrauterine pregnancy. Sent to ER and D&C preformed.
• August 27, 2011 - Pathology report cannot confirm that fetal tissue was removed with the D&C, HCG level continues to rise. The next doctor states she is 99% sure that it is ectopic, but in the stump of my right tube.  Laproscopic surgery scheduled for later in the day. Surgery reveals that the ectopic pregnancy was actually in my left tube. Tube remains and the doctor is confidant that this issue has been resolved. She also recommends IVF
• September 12, 2011- Call from the doctor that my labs aren't good and that I need to leave my vacation to come back and get a shot of methotrexate. (Is anyone noticing a pattern here of the doctor's consistently being proven wrong?)
• September 13, 2011- Leave the beach and head home for methotrexate. Meet Dr. Specialist. He is tan. He is cocky. He is very sure that he will fix me right up.
• September through October 2011- Weekly blood tests and ultrasounds. 
• October 14, 2011- First official consult with Dr. Specialist. He remains cocky and convinced that IVF is our best bet, that my issues are tubal and not hormonal. This will be easy.  (Now please remember, so far, every doctor has been proven wrong)
• October 28, 2011- Start BCP. IVF or BUST
• November 14, 2011 - Start Lupron. I'm told that I've been prescribed the long-lupron protocol. The 'Gold Standard of IVF'. For what Mr. T and I  have just paid out of pocket, I'm sort of hoping the drugs will inject themselves.
• November 28, 2011 - 2nd monitoring appointment. My body is not responding well- the stimulation phase of the protocol is put on hold.
• December 1, 2011 - Start my combination of Bravelle and Menopur.
• December 5, 2001 - Monitoring appointment, things continue to look far from textbook. Meds increased. High level ultrasound scheduled for later in the week. The nurse talks to me about using this cycle as a learning process and mentions the idea of cancellation. I feel a familiar sense of dread creeping into my psyche.
• December 9, 2011 - Cycle cancelled. I am labeled a poor responder. I am not a slam dunk and I appear to have hormonal issues on top of my tubal issues. This cancellation is emotionally more difficult than two ectopic pregnancies. Remember, when all this started, I was referred to IVF for tubal issues. I am 34, healthy, never had a gynecological problem in my entire life. Not one.
• December 14, 2011 - Consult with Dr. Specialist. There is no glad-handing. The summer tan has faded. We are somber. I am furious. Apparently, I have a BIG hormonal issues. My AMH level is low. My doctor tells me I have the eggs of a 39 year old.  We talk about diminished ovarian reserve, egg donation and adoption. The plan is try a stronger, more aggressive protocol, the Micro-Flare Protocol. We will try this in January. We will pray that it works. I am not ready to look at the other options mentioned. I leave the office and cry most of the way home. I tell Mr. T, that I feel cheated and that I am not ready to face the fact that this may not work. 
• December 15, 2011 - Looking for an outlet,  Toddlers and Test Tubes is created.
• January 4, 2012 - CD1 Bloodwork and ultrasound. Start birth control in preparation for a January/February IVF cycle.
• January 28, 2012 - Begin Microdose Flare Protocol. Filled to the brim with equal parts hope and fear.
• February 3, 2012 - Second cancellation. The nurse informs me that she's never seen a reaction like I had before. Ever. Hit a new low, emotionally. By the end of today, I left a voicemail for an acupuncturist and for a 2nd opinion with a new group.
• February 6, 2012- Dr. Millionpicturesonthewall, tells me that I need to consider a new protocol with 4x the stimulation medication and to not take too long to make my decision because time was not on my side.
• February 8, 2012- 2nd opinion consult with Dr. Neutral. Some ups and some downs. A plan was put in place to get back to basics and re-evaluate EVERYTHING. 
• February 11, 2012- First acupuncture session. 
• March 6, 2012- CD 3 blood work and ultrasound. FSH comes back at a whopping 19.8 and I begin to hyperventilate while talking to the nurse. I also make a mental note to ask the acupuncturist about adding wheatgrass or traditional herbal medicine to lower that number. 
• March 7, 2012 - Clomid Challenge to begin, HSG scheduled for next week.
• March 12, 2012 - HSG reveals remaining tube is completly blocked. Per the doctor "Pregnancy will never happen via that tube."
• March 14, 2012- Meeting with Dr. Neutral to review next steps. Egg donation and adoption are off the table for now. We will go full steam ahead with one final attempt at IVF with my own eggs. Estrogen Priming Antagonist Protcol, continued accupunture, start metformin, melatonin, DHEA and antioxidiant blend
• March 19, 2012 - Mock Embryo Transfer and saline sonogram- Both looked great.
• March 27, 2012- Start Estrace. Cycle is officially starting
• April 2, 2012 - Cycle Day 1
• April 3, 2012 - Cycle Day 2 bloodwork and ultrasound. All is good to go. Start Stims
• April 15, 2012- Egg Retrieval. Three eggs retrieved.
• April 18, 2012 - Transfered two embryos
• April 29, 2012- After two long weeks, I got our good news. Big FAT Postitive. 
• May 7, 2012 - First ultrasound, confirms one Tiny T.