RE: Carol Anne

[Guest guest]

Glenda, What a day for you, please know that I am thinking of you on this

blustery day in Indiana. We lost the twins due to an incompetent cervix, I

have seen pictures. My husband and my parents got to hold them and tell

them goodbye. Thank you for welcoming me into this group so warmly,

sometimes coming in to this computer is the best part of my day. I hope

this week gets better for you, Carol Anne (I added my middle name to avoid

confusion from the Carol in California!)

[Guest guest]

Hi Carol! Thank you for your wonderful note, I read the other one you sent

as well, it sounds as though you knew more about you than your doctor did!

Believe me, I meant that as a compliment. I think I remember you being from

California, right? My husband and I vacationed in San Francisco and Napa

Valley this summer, it was one of the prettiest places I've seen, you are so

lucky to be on the West Coast. I am grateful to be in this group and have

support from lots of new friends. Today I'm re-cooperating from our 4th

surgery, but we are hopeful this is the one! Thanks for writing, Carol Anne

(I'll use my middle name so these is less confusion!)

[Guest guest]

Hi Carol Anne,

I do love it here. I moved 6 years ago form New

Hampshire. You just can't beat the weather.

You said that you had four surgeries, were they close

together? I ask because I too had surgery on Friday

9/21 and I am having my second this Friday the 28.

I agree the support group here is great. Without this

group I would not have found Dr. Indman. As you can

tell I am not to pleased with my ob/gyn, but I do like

Dr. Indman.

I hope that your last surgery was the " final " surgery.

Take care,

Carol Swanson

hopeful this is the one! Thanks

> for writing, Carol Anne

> (I'll use my middle name so these is less

> confusion!)

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Thanks for giving me my first laugh of the day! You crack me up! I'll

be anxious to hear about your appointment today!

Gwen

[Guest guest]

Well, I'm sorry you still have some residual scarring, but it sounds

VERY minimal! Which is great! And wonderful that your cavity is

bigger now. I am quite SURE that Dr. Valle will be able to fix you up

quite nicely.

I'll post as soon as I have result tomorrow. Thanks for the kind

thoughts.

Gwen

[Guest guest]

Well, your message was wonderful, very true, and caused me to burst

into tears here in my office...so thanks for that!

You are right of course, spending some time, just the two of us,

reminding ourselves of just how lucky we are to have each other and

our life together is just exactly what we need....whether I happen to

be bleeding or not. I am hopeful that we might actually be able to

get through the weekend before I start to bleed so maybe we WILL go

dancing afterall.

(I am reminded of that final scene from My Best Friend's Wedding

which includes the phrase " But By God! There will be dancing! " ....I

think I may make that our theme for the weekend.) And hey, assuming

that beta number is down or non-existent today then at least we can

go ahead and order a bottle of wine with dinner as we had planned to!

(And I'm going to demand that they use that tall silver " free-

standing " wine bucket - whenever I see a couple with one of those

next to their table with a bottle of wine in it I think " How

Romantic! " )

Enough about me....I can completely understand your feeling down last

night. Believe me, when I found out I had to have a FIFTH procedure I

was like - " I CAN NOT TAKE BEING POKED, PRODED AND EXAMINED FOR ONE

MORE MINUTE!!! " I really felt sick to my stomach at the prospect of

yet another surgery. BUT, Dr. Valle was so confident that this would

be " it " and that this would be the VERY LAST surgery I would need

that we went ahead and trusted him and he was right!

And I believe that I was in a very similar position to where you find

yourself now. An open but slightly smallish cavity with one adhesion

band that still remains. It took Dr. Valle less than an hour to

repair mine and he was down-right bubbly afterwards and full of

optomism and hope. He is a miracle-worker that man, I swear.

So chin up young person! I know the prospect of another surgery has

to be daunting, but this isn't just any other surgery, this is

surgery with VALLE and it WILL make the difference I just know it

will!

Hang in there...

Gwen

[Guest guest]

Well how GREAT that you actually get in a week earlier!? YIPEE! I'm

so glad that worked out and the EVIL DARLENE was WRONG WRONG WRONG as

usual....what a WENCH!!

Yes please! - Let's keep the " dinner date " for Friday the 2nd...I

cannot wait to meet both you and Nick. I'm sorry you will have to

drive up and back the same day this Friday, but glad you get to see

Valle sooner rather than later!

I am sorry to hear about your father's job. I work for a

manufacturing company as well (in-house attorney) and things are just

BLEAK! We laid-off a whole other bunch of people last Friday and are

in the process of closing 3 more plants as well...so dismal. My job

seems pretty safe through at least the end of the year, but after

that, who knows!?

Thank you for the compliment about always being positive. It really

is just a survival mechanism because if I didn't stay positive I

would be over the edge and into the abyss before you could even say

the word " abyss " ! It's the only way I can cope by focusing on what I

DO have and what I KNOW WILL be instead of what I don't have and what

is right now.

I'll be VERY EAGER to hear about your appointment on Friday....and a

word of warning, Valle has this thing about punctuality. He just

HATES it when his patients are late....(although he often runs late

himself but is always apologetic about it)...so give yourself some

extra time to get up here Friday morning.....GOOD LUCK!

Gwen

[Guest guest]

I'd love to see you on Friday morning when you are done if you have

time! There is a little coffee-shop just downstairs from my office

and we could grab a quick cup before you head back to Indianapolis if

you like. My office is less than a mile from Valle's office, but I

will tell ya' that parking near my office is next-to-impossible right

now because Wacker Drive is just all torn up, maybe we could meet

somewhere in the middle? Why don't you give me a call at the office

when you are done tomorrow and we can figure out what time (and

parking situations!) will allow.

My doctor is a cool guy, GREAT bedside manner and very caring and

thorough and concerned. I love him. I too was relieved to hear that

he thinks this chemical pregnancy was unrelated to Asherman's.

Chemical pregnancy refers to the situation when the egg and sperm do

meet up and the egg is fertilized forming an embryo (actually a

zygote at that stage) but the embryo fails to properly implant in the

uterus. So, you have the " pregnancy checmicals " in your system which

causes the positive tests...but because of the failed implantation

you never actually have an " attached embryo " which is what many

doctor's consider to be the definition of " pregnant. " That is why it

is referred to as a chemical pregnancy.

As for your second question, some women have " hypothalamic

amennorrhea " (I am sure I must have spelled that wrong) which

basically means that have a malfunction in their hypothalmus

(sometimes referred to as Sheehan's Syndrome) which causes the

hypothalmus to " under-release " the hormones necessary to cause

ovulation. The FSH, estrogen and LH levels of women with this problem

will all be unnaturally low and will need supplementation in order to

stimulate the ovaries to function and the lining to build up each

month. So, if you have a very low estrogen level it may be that you

suffer from this type of syndrome. There are also other groups of

women that suffer from this same problem, those that go into early

menopause, those that have unusually low levels of body fat (like

marathon runners and anorexics for example).

So, if you do have any one of these causes and have a low estrogen

level then I am not surprised to hear that you weren't getting

periods. And yes, I would agree that you would need " external "

hormone supplementation to get your hormone cycles functioning as

they need to to cause ovulation and menstruation as well.

I don't think you need to worry about it if you have a lining of 8mm

with a triple line, that is excellent! Obviously the " artificial "

hormones are working if you have an 8mm lining!

I pushed the " M " button on our fertility monitor this morning to

start a new cycle. Today is CD3 and we will plow forward with more

peeing on sticks....which reminds me, I need to get to the store to

buy more sticks! I'm out!

Hope your day is going well. Will look forward to seeing you possibly

on Friday but if not then next Friday!

Gwen

[Guest guest]

Carol Anne: That's fine - Friday night is still good with us, just

give us a buzz. You had also mentioned Sunday night and that is fine

too, we're pretty flexible, so just let us know!

How did I know you would look like you do? That's simple...I have

ESP! Okay, it was just a good guess....

Hope calls you back soon....and do give her a buzz later today

if you still haven't heard. Looking forward to seeing you again soon!

Gwen

[Guest guest]

Carol Anne: That's fine - Friday night is still good with us, just

give us a buzz. You had also mentioned Sunday night and that is fine

too, we're pretty flexible, so just let us know!

How did I know you would look like you do? That's simple...I have

ESP! Okay, it was just a good guess....

Hope calls you back soon....and do give her a buzz later today

if you still haven't heard. Looking forward to seeing you again soon!

Gwen