I love my doctor

My apologies for all of the technical mumbo jumbo to follow. I just need to write all of this stuff down while it is fresh in my brain.

I went for a consultation with my RE today to talk about our next steps. When I walked in to her office, she said, "I was just telling my colleague how much I love you." She is such a sweet, empathetic little woman. She has been known to give out frequent hugs and the occasional motherly kiss on the cheek. Okay, I don't know if she is this way with all of her patients, but she loves me and my hubby. She reminds me of a petite, white, blonde version of my mother. We'll call her Dr. Mom.

After my last miscarriage, I had a bunch of tests done to determine if there was an immunological factor that caused me to miscarry. 99% of my tests came back within a normal range. The only abnormality is that my CD4 cells (T-cells) were slightly elevated. There is no published research related to elevated T cells and recurrent pregnancy loss. All of the CD4 cell research that she could find was related to hiv and aids. And that research only addresses lower than normal values (not elevated). So all that to say that now I am going to see a RE who specializes in recurring pregnancy loss and the "soft" science of immune system factors. Hopefully, this specialist has information from her years of experience and practice that has yet to be published.

The genetic testing that they did on the tissue from the d&c was somewhat inconclusive.(Basically, they "grow" the tissue in a lab and then test it for genetic abnormalities.) The chromosomal makeup was 46XX. So we had the right number of chromosomes, and it was probably a girl. But there is no way for them to distinguish if my cells were growing or the cells from the embryo were growing. They can only confirm when it is a boy (46XY).

I really appreciate that Dr. Mom knows her limitations. She went over several options with me, reviewed all of my test results, and basically told me that she knows how to get me pregnant, but how to keep me pregnant might be beyond her expertise. And she gave me the name of another doctor at another clinic who has designed an entire program that deals with recurrent pregnancy loss. We talked a bit about the range of emotions related to multiple miscarriages, and she is so in touch with how all this crap breaks you down emotionally. She knows that my heart is still broken. She knows that I will need to be medicated if I have another miscarriage. Some doctors would just forge ahead with another cycle. But she won't until we at least try to understand what is going on with me. Thanks, Dr. Mom.

We also talked about some insurance issues. My insurance company seems to be under the impression that they are not going to pay for my last cycle. I guess they are hoping that if they just reject the charges, that I will just pay the bill. My doc expressed her outrage and encouraged me to file a complaint with the attorney general's office. (I'll save the crapload of insurance issues for another post.) She said that she finds that the fact that the insurance industry is built around trying to not pay claims "vile and offensive." Ha! I love that.

As I was walking out, she said that she can't wait to meet my kids. :)