Waiting sucks!

So I don't know how much of this I have posted, if any. And because I am too lazy to go back and check, I might be repeating myself a little bit! A couple of months ago I found an article on a website for women with PCOS. It was about a procedure that is not very well known but is done on women with PCOS who are thin and don't respond to other treatments for PCOS. The article intrigued me and so I printed it off and gave it to Dr. S to find out what he thought about it. I just wrote up a little note asking him to look it over and maybe let me know what he thought, then I left the note and the article with the receptionist at his office. I didn't hear from him for a couple of weeks so I called in to see if he had had a chance to look it over. Come to find out not only had he looked it over, he had been researching the procedure and having people check to see if my insurance would cover it. He had also contacted the OR at the hospital and found out that they have the machine necessary they just needed to order the needle required for the surgery.

Let me back up and tell you a little bit about this procedure. In women with PCOS they generally have high or abnormal levels of androgens or male hormones like testosterone. This is a main cause of PCOS. These hormones are produced by the stromal part of the ovary in women (the stromal area is located in the center of the ovary) while the egg follicles themselves produce the estrogen and progesterone in women. The procedure/surgery that I found online is called Ovarian Diathermy. It's main goal is to destroy parts or all of the stromal area but to try to preserve as much of the ovarian tissue (or follicles) as possible. There is a similar procedure called Ovarian Drilling that is done but it is known to destroy follicles and create scar tissue on the ovary. Diathermy uses a cauterizing needle that can be inserted into the ovary from different points to cauterize and destroy the stromal tissue. In studies done, women were found to begin to have regular cycles and ovulate on their own within a few months after having this surgery. Their follicle count also went down and the few that had to go on to do IVF because of tubal or male factor reasons, had better egg quality. So you can see why I was intrigued by this procedure.

So anyway, I have been waiting to hear back from Dr. S on where we are with being able to do this procedure. Last I heard, about a month ago, was that he was waiting to hear what size of needle he needed. I called last week for an update and heard back this morning that they just received the needed equipment this morning and will be scheduling someone to come out and get everything set up and ready for surgery. I am hoping that because this was my idea, Dr. S will let me be the first to have the procedure done. I have heard from so many different people that he is already suggesting the procedure to a number of his infertility patients. It is so crazy to me that from some random article I found, many people in our area might benefit. I just hope that it works, for me and for everyone else! It is looking like everything might be ready to go the first of the year. I was hoping to get it done in December while I have a break from school and work is a little bit slower but they told me that it might take up to 3 weeks to get everything ready to go. So I will try to be patient and just hope that my insurance will cover it so that we don't have to try to come up with the extra dough in the next few months.

I can't tell you how excited I am. I am not thinking that this will be a miracle cure and I will get pregnant on my own because of it. But I am very hopeful that my egg quality will improve and when we get to do the IVF again we will have some good quality eggs to work with and less chance of another miscarriage.

So that is my update. I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving and gets to eat all the good food you want, spend time with your loved ones and remember the things in your lives that you are thankful for.