Finally Some Answers...

Once again more medical stuff for my record (I've included lots of links for your benefit if you're interested though)...

This past Wednesday I had my appointment with Dr. Foulk. He's a Reproductive Endocrinologist at Utah Fertility Center. The appointment went really well and I finally got some answers as to why I'm having such a hard time staying pregnant. I told him my entire fertility/pregnancy history and had him pretty curious at that point. I've had so many different complications over the years and I think his medical brain was trying to piece everything together-I'm quite the complicated puzzle :) As soon as we finished reviewing my history we went right over into the next room and he performed a "water ultrasound." Pretty much right away he determined that I have an incompetent cervix. None of the water he was injecting was staying in my uterus, it would just come right back out. Ttalk about feeling like you majorly peed your pants... he said something to the fact that I was getting a major douche and would have the cleanest vagina in town... LOL! Sorry if that's tmi, I couldn't help myself! He also said it's usually pretty hard to get the catheter through the cervix (because it's suppose to be really tight and closed) and it went in really quick and loosely, pretty far into my uterus way too easy. He tried three separate times to inject a huge syringe (and all those other fun tools) full of water with no luck of it even staying in long enough to capture pictures on the ultrasound screen. Usually a incompetent cervix can't be diagnosed until you are pregnant (and having complications and dilating prematurely) and so it's crazy that mine is already in that state while I'm not even pregnant. He finally had the nurse get a big cup of water and she kept injecting water as fast as she could so he could capture some images real quick. Talk about a workout for my cervix... I was cramping pretty bad the whole time and he felt really bad that my day was starting out this way. I was actually happy though and told him to do whatever he needed to do because I was finally getting answers, finally everything was starting to make sense. During the ultrasound he found that I have a Septate Uterus which is a wall that partially or completely divides the uterus longitudinally into two cavities on the inside making the capacity a lot less, less room for a baby to grow. Mine is 1.51 cm long (the average non-pregnant uterus is 4 cm long) so it is in between 1/3 to 1/2 divided which he said is pretty significant. Also the right side is a lot smaller then the left side, so if a pregnancy were to implant on the right side there is even less capacity than half of a normal uterus. I know for sure that this last pregnancy I lost at almost 16 weeks was on the smaller right side :( I specifically asked the ultrasound tech. during one of my ultrasounds and was told it was on the right side. I'm not sure on the two I lost before this last one, both at almost 11 weeks. He also saw some Uterine Adhesion's while performing the ultrasound. The combination of these issues makes for lots of complications during pregnancy :( Also he dispelled a couple former diagnosis's that I've had. He wasn't able to see the Fibroid that I was recently told I had and that we thought might be a big issue... still a bit confused about that one, I can't imagine it could go away that fast. Also for years I've thought and been told I have a Bicornuate Uterus and it turns out I don't, I have a Septate Uterus. I guess with regular ultrasounds they can't really tell the difference, and so they just always call it that because it looks kind of heart shaped but bicornuate uterus's are heart shaped on the outside and septate uterus's are normal on the outside (like an upside down triangle) but divided on the inside. He was able to get a clear picture and distinguish between the two during the procedure. Which is good news because a bicornuate uterus can't be fixed but a septate uterus can. So I'm scheduled to have surgery early next month and Dr. Foulk will remove the septate wall and open it all up so I have a normal full capacity uterus. He will also remove any adhesion's or anything else that isn't suppose to be there. Then if I become pregnant I will have a Cervical Cerclage placed (ouchie!) pretty early during the pregnancy to (hopefully) keep my cervix from dilating prematurely and miscarrying as a result. I know it sounds weird but I'm really happy and at peace with all of this. It's so exciting to have real answers and feel hopeful at this point... here's to a happy surgery day!

Wednesday 4/6/11