The medicine worked!

Just a quick update: My hematologist's nurse called yesterday. My blood responded well to the DDAVP! It was nice to get some good news! So we're definitely on track for surgery on July 8.

Rescheduled again!

Yep, my surgery has been rescheduled again! I still haven't heard the results from the medication they gave me on Thursday. The hematologist called my fertility doctor yesterday and explained my diagnosis and the plan for giving me the medicine before surgery. He seemed to expect that the results from the medication would be good, because when he talked to her, he still hadn't gotten them back yet. So the fertility doctor called me and told me we would have to move my surgery to the hospital rather than the surgery center. She told me the time would likely change. Later I heard from the surgery coordinator and she said that we had to reschedule for July 8 at 1pm. That was the first time that both the doctor and hospital were available. So it's pretty frustrating, mostly because we've been preparing our lives again, and because I'm on the birth control, and by the time of my surgery I will have been on it for 5 weeks! I've told them I need to change to a different brand, because this particular one is making me so sick and I've started losing weight. Thankfully, I don't think the surgery will get moved around again. At least I hope it won't!

Quick update on surgery next week

I heard from my hematologist yesterday. Based on the results from my recent bloodwork (plus the tons of bloodwork he's done in the last month), he diagnosed me with von Willebrand's disease, type 1. It's a bleeding disorder, milder than hemophilia. He told me to come in this morning and they would try a medicine called DDAVP, which could temporarily help my blood clot normally. If it works, then they can give it to me next Thursday for my surgery. So I went in this morning and they administered the drug through an IV. It made me feel pretty bad, and the nervousness caused by my birth control pills made the situation a little worse. But I survived! ;) They drew more blood to check and see if the drug worked. I should be getting the results in the morning. I'm praying that it worked so I will be able to have the surgery next week. I went ahead and canceled my appointment with the other hematologist for tomorrow, but I'll work on getting a second opinion after the surgery.

That's it for now! I'll post again tomorrow when I hear from the doctor.

Surgery next week

As some of you probably know from facebook, my surgery last month was canceled. I happened to have an appointment with a hematologist two days before surgery. I had seen him once before because I had been having some unexplained bruising on my legs. It turns out that my blood was too thin, probably because of the aspirin I was taking. The hematologist thought it would be too risky to do surgery with my blood so thin, so he talked to my doctor at the fertility center and they canceled the surgery.

After more testing, the hematologist told me a week later that it was safe to reschedule. I told my other doctor, and they started working on the scheduling. Then a week later, my hematologist decided that my surgery should be postponed again! It has seemed that he has been changing his mind without really looking at all my records/tests. He keeps running the same tests over and over. And there have been several other problems going on with him, that aren't really worth explaining. So I spoke with my doctor at the fertility center and she was very understanding. She has scheduled my surgery for June 24 at 11am. She also got me an appointment with another hematologist this Friday to get a second opinion. The surgery still depends on the hematologist saying it's safe. So we're cutting it pretty close!

Please pray that I will be able to have the surgery next week!

I should be getting some more bloodwork results this week from my first hematologist. I'm hoping that maybe he will clear me for surgery, so we won't have to rely on the new doctor, who may want to do more testing. It's been hard on us (me, especially!) to go back and forth on the surgery, to keep preparing for it and then have it canceled, and we'd really like to get this over with so we can hopefully get pregnant soon!

I'm currently on birth control (sounds crazy, I know!) to allow them to do the surgery at any point, rather than having to wait for certain days in my cycle. The pills are making me very nauseated and anxious every day, but at this point I don't think it's worth trying to find a different one with my surgery (hopefully) only a week away. Please pray that the side effects ease up and that the birth control doesn't have any other adverse effects on me after I quit taking it.

One really good thing that has come out of all this is that the first hematologist found out that I do not actually have one of the blood clotting disorders that we thought I had! Apparently, the high-risk OB misinterpreted the results back in November '08. So I don't actually need to take aspirin. Since I quit taking the aspirin, some of the strange symptoms I've been having had cleared up! So I've wondered if it's possible that maybe the aspirin was playing a part in keeping us from getting pregnant. I'm very glad to learn that it wasn't my hormones that were causing those symptoms all along!

I'll post an update on Friday after my appointment, or sooner if I hear from my first hematologist. Thanks for praying!