365 Days About J: February 2021

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Headed back to Naperville with a whole gang of our friends in honor of Mitch's 21st birthday earlier this week! We started at Quigley's Irish Pub before heading to the Northcott Liquorette where we got an absinthe fountain & a teakettle to share! We didn't end up getting either last time we came with Tommy & Alyssa, so I was really excited to have gotten to try them. I personally loved the teapot! 😋☕️ Later on we headed to the Jackson Ave Pub before ending the night at Peanuts. So many people came out, which Mitch was so grateful for, and we all had such a blast!

Thursday, February 25, 2021

February 25th, 2021

Saline sonogram, need to redraw tsh

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

February 23rd, 2021

😂😂😂

Monday, February 22, 2021

February 22nd, 2021

So this morning I went in for my cycle-specific bloodwork and ultrasound because, huge surprise, I got my period?!

Thankfully they only took one tube of blood this time, which was definitely a relief after the boatload they had me give last time! 🥵💉 The nurse who drew me today was super efficient and quite speedy—she was literally done in like 10 seconds! Afterward they did the cycle-specific ultrasound, which went much quicker than last time as well. The technician was super friendly and she once again informed me (just as the last technician did) that I had a lot of follicles. But, in her words, "a lot of follicles means a lot of eggs, which is good! We just need to get you ovulating again and then you’ll be ready to pump out twins on the first go!"

Right after I left, I got a notification in my Patient Portal that the genetic screening results finally came back, and they’re 100% negative! So there’s no need to test Mike, and no worries about anything when I get pregnant. :)

The nurse called me now a short bit ago to let me know the results already came back on my bloodwork from this AM. (And may I just say again that it blows my mind how quick they are to get back to me! I sincerely appreciate the efficiency and the lack of waiting/wondering.) She told me that everything with my labs was completely normal!

Now all that’s left is the saline sonogram, which I have scheduled on Thursday, and Mike’s labs & semen analysis on Friday. Once those results come back, Dr. Hobieka will set up a time to talk with us to go over everything and establish a plan of attack going forward! I’m so excited to start! 😄

Saturday, February 20, 2021

February 20th, 2021

Rachael, Peter, & Matthew are in town visiting, so we spent the day hanging out and enjoying some playtime with our nephews!

Thursday, February 18, 2021

February 18th, 2021

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

February 16th, 2021

Sunday, February 14, 2021

February 14th, 2021 *

Happy Valentine's Day!! ❤️

Saturday, February 13, 2021

February 13th, 2021

Wednesday, February 10, 2021

February 10th, 2021

So I actually ended up getting the results for some of the blood work back later yesterday evening...but I had a lot going on after work and didn’t have time to type everything up until now. 🙈 The nurse called to let me know that most of the hormone levels had come back, as well as the STD tests. (And the STD tests were totally fine, obviously. 😜)

All of my hormones came back very normal aside from a few levels:

Just as Dr. Martin had noticed, my Prolactin level was high. They mentioned that I will most likely have to get an MRI in the near future so that they know how to treat it. High prolactin levels are typically caused by Hyperprolactinemia—which is a common cause of irregular or missing periods. Hyperprolactinemia is usually caused by hypothyroidism (sound familiar??) or a pituitary tumor. And before any of you freak out about the words “tumor” and “MRI” (like Mike totally did lol), a pituitary tumor—or pituitary adenoma—is noncancerous and does not spread beyond the skull. 85% of pituitary adenomas are not large enough to need to be removed surgically, and can instead either be left alone or treated with medicine. But because I’m trying to have a baby, and it’s likely that the high prolactin levels are messing with my cycles, I do need to treat it so I can make the process go more smoothly! The MRI is needed to check if my levels are high due to an adenoma pushing on the pituitary gland—because whether or not I have one determines which type of medicine they need to give me to treat it.

In addition, my TSH (thyroid hormone) was high. I was pretty surprised at this, because both Dr. Naga and Dr. Martin had reported that my levels were normal after I was put on my new medication. The nurse explained that while my primary doctor definitely would consider that level normal, as far as fertility goes my 3.0 level was still too high for their liking. They prefer any women trying to conceive to instead have between a 1.0 and a 2.5. So, not a big deal! All they are going to do for that is raise my dosage from 0.025mg to 0.050mg—not a huge change and still very low of a dosage. They think that’ll be all that is needed to get the level where they want it!

The last level that was a little low was my Vitamin D. I take Vitamin D pills along with my daily vitamins already, so they just said I should increase the dosage to fix that. Again, nothing major or concerning. (Actually, most of the population right now has lower reported levels of Vitamin D!)

So, based on everything so far, it doesn’t look or sound like I have either PCO or PCOS (as mentioned in yesterday’s post). It seems like I just have Hypothyrodism & Hyperproclactinemia—and possibly PCO-appearing ovaries. And, again, both of the first two can be easily corrected with medication! So all great news so far!! I’m definitely eager to finalize the rest of our testing!

February 10th, 2021

Cheesy smothered mushroom chicken with mashed potatoes & roasted carrots

Tuesday, February 9, 2021

February 9th, 2021

Today I went in to complete some of the tests on our “fertility to-do list”. :)

I had yet to visit the actual office Dr. Hobeika works at (since our first appointment was via Zoom), so I was excited to see what the facility was like. It was so lovely! Everything was so bright and clean and welcoming—especially the staff. I was checked in quickly and then whisked off into the back by the nurses before I had even sat down. I started off with the “random” ultrasound. They do this to basically just check out your uterus and make sure everything checks out, as well as to look and see how many follicles you have and if they look okay.

Since most of my fertility-related posts have tended to contain some subjects that the average person wouldn’t know a ton about, I’m going to go all “health class” on you guys again and explain what follicles are/do. ;) A woman’s follicles are located in both of her ovaries. They secrete hormones each month that influence the stages of your cycle. Follicles undergo changes leading up to ovulation (developing many parts and layers), but most follicles will never actually reach ovulation and instead die off before they get released. At the beginning of your cycle, a few developing follicles (usually ten or below) are considered by your body as candidates for that month’s ovulation. As you get closer to your actual week of ovulation, one follicle will become dominant. When that follicle is ready, it releases the egg it has been developing. Your egg will then travel out of whichever ovary it came from to eventually be fertilized by the sperm and start developing into your baby. And, well, you know most of the rest I’m sure!

But, as you can see, your follicles are very important because they start everything off for you! Without follicles you cannot produce any eggs—and obviously, without eggs you can’t make a baby! While there is no exact “normal” number of follicles for a woman to have, generally most women have a total of 10-30 follicles amongst their two ovaries.

I had a transvaginal ultrasound, for those of you who might be sitting there wondering how they were able to see everything in my uterus through the outside of my belly, haha. The ultrasound technician was super friendly and made the whole process go very easily. At one point she got very quiet and stared intently at the screen for a bit, which made me a bit nervous naturally. Eventually she straightened back up and let me look at the screen, which I thought was super cool to see! It turned out she had been counting all of my follicles, and it had taken so long because I had a ton of them! Much more than “average”; 61 to be exact! She told me that having so many was a great thing, because the number of follicles is something women are born with and can’t be easily fixed. If a hormone is too high or low, you can take some medication to fix it. But if you’re born with only three follicles total…well, the doctor can’t just make you magically grow more! So the fact that I had so many was a blessing, because it meant that I was very fertile and even had higher odds for getting pregnant with multiples!

The only potential downfall to having so many follicles is that sometimes they can compete with one another. Because you have so many follicles preparing to release an egg, but only one of them can become dominant, sometimes none of them end up releasing as a result. Kind of a “too much of a good thing” situation.

The appearance of my ovaries and all the follicles could be an indicator that I have either PCO or PCOS. PCO, or Polycystic Ovaries, can only be diagnosed by getting an ultrasound. Typically, women with PCO have no evident symptoms and would not find out they have it until getting an ultrasound—although some women with it might have irregular periods or mild pelvic pain. The findings of either cysts on your ovaries or the presence of many follicles (like I have) are suggestive of PCO.

PCOS, or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, is a metabolic condition characterized by abnormal hormone levels. It can be similar to PCO as far as symptoms and ovary appearance, but it differs in that you will also have one or two other traits that someone with PCO would not have. The biggest condition most women with PCOS have is a high level of androgens, or male sex hormones. As a result, many women will have excess facial or body hair. Another condition that very often is seen is a resistance to insulin. Due to this, many women with PCOS are overweight—about 75% of all women with PCOS typically have an issue with weight gain.

Based on the fact that I don’t have excess hair or an issue with my weight, it’s more than likely that I don’t have PCOS. However, the only way to be sure is to check hormone levels for either a high level of androgens or some insulin resistance (since it is possible to have that but not have the mentioned symptoms). As for PCO, we also have to check some other hormone levels to confirm if I actually do have PCO—or just “PCO-appearing” ovaries.

Hence why I then had my baseline labs drawn after the ultrasound! These will be the real indicator if I do or don’t have PCO/S, based on what the levels come back as. Another nurse drew the blood for me in a different room. At first she had me seated at the normal blood draw station, but then when she asked me if I ever get faint from giving blood (and I said yes) she moved me to another room with a recliner. I felt really dumb at first—while I always get nervous and nauseous while giving blood, I’ve never actually fainted and I always stop feeling faint within a few minutes after they finish. But once she started taking the blood, I was immediately very glad I was laid back in the comfy chair. She took a ton of blood! Because of all the hormones they needed to check, plus the standard STD tests and the genetic testing they were going to do, they needed to give more blood than one would usually give. I didn’t watch any of it (or I definitely would’ve passed out lol), but she took about six vials! 😰💉 Towards the end, I guess the blood coming out had “slowed down” so she even had to squeeze my arm a little bit to fill the last one. 😵 Once the needle was out of my arm, she gave me a juice box and had me stay reclined for a few minutes to recover. I was so thankful for her efficiency, and all her help to make the process more comfortable.

After that I was all done with my tests for the day! I was very proud of myself for how good I did with the bloodwork, considering how squeamish I usually get and how much blood they ended up taking! Once all these results come back we’ll see if I will be getting my period naturally (doubtful 😅) or if they have to induce one so I can then get my cycle-specific ultrasound and blood work done—to then be followed by the saline sonogram.