LisaG
07-03-2005, 10:02 AM
Hi ladies,
After a long haul I am so grateful and thankful to be here :D . Once upon a time I thought pregnancy happened when you decided it was time. Now I know that's not the case for everyone.
A little of my background (I promise to only bore you with this once ;) )
I was diagnosed with large uterine fibroids in May '02 after we had decided to ttc. I decided to take a year to attempt to shrink them via nutrition/bodywork/process work, etc. A year later I met with an oby/gyn, he was concerned about their original size and opted for a pevlic MRI to check on them vs. the ultrasound that was originally used. The fibroids were still large, shockingly large to me when I saw them - although fortunately I was relatively asymptomatic given the size. The MRI also revealed a possible bicornuate uterus. Dr. S also found that my thyroid was 2-3 times the size of normal, and bloodwork showed hashimoto's (thyroid antibodies). A thyroid ultrasound showed I had 3 small nodules that after a biopsy were determined to be benign. Mind you I have always considered myself healthy and never in a million years would've expected to see more docs in a year than I had in my entire life prior to that.
An HSG (dye injected into the uterus via the cervix followed by an xray) was done to show the inner contour of my uterus in an attempt to determine what it really looked like. Some small polyps were seen, along with a uterine cavity shaped like 2 rabbit ears. My uterus was nearly completely divided in 2 (only 8mm of conjoined uterine cavity just above my cervix) and my doc said "I've seen bicornuate uteri, but I've never seen one like this!" Yippee. Several docs and much research later I decided to do surgery to remove the fibroids and correct the uterine defect.
I found a fabulous surgeon via the internet. He was 10 hours away from us, but totally worth it. Surgery occurred 8/03, my recovery went really well. More nutrition, bodywork, etc. to get geared up for ttc. We started ttc 2/04 and were amazed when I got pregnant right away. I was stunned by the miracle. It was unfortunately short lived when I miscarried at 10 weeks the first part of April.
More nutrition/cleanses etc, etc, we started trying again 7/04. I was in the middle of a really stressful business partnership dissolution. I started having thyroid symptoms again inspite of being on synthroid. Took a 3 month break from ttc in December so I could do some intense diet/cleanse stuff, started again in March. I fired my endocrinologist in February and found a great doc 3 1/2 hours away who was willing to put me on different meds (armourthyroid) which I started the first part of March. The new med has been really helpful. My travel/teaching schedule fell smack in the middle of ovulation April and May much to our disappointment. I started acupuncture twice a week in May to support hormone balance. It appears that in June the planets aligned, the timing was right, the gods and goddesses smiled and miracle of miracles here I am :D
I'm continuing with the acupuncture, but she's decreased me to once a week, and if I'm doing well will back me down to every other week. My ob/gyn has put me on non-synthetic progesterone vaginal suppositories nightly for the next 10 weeks. I see my thyroid doc in a week and a half and we'll check my thyroid levels and do any tweaking as necessary. While I know there are no guarantees in pregnancy, I am hopeful and feeling good about the support I have.
In my "regular" life I'm a massage therapist and specialize in craniosacral therapy. I love what I do, and have the pleasure of working with infants, children and adults. A few months ago I took up knitting to support my sanity - I love it :love and look forward to branching out into baby knits.
I look forward to getting know all of you.
Oh, and my due date is beginning of March. Because of my uterine surgery I'm unfortunately not a candidate for homebirth as I had always expected, and unfortunately due to an increased risk of uterine rupture, no doc is willing to permit a trial of labor (in my personal opinion it's due to the current medical malpractice environment rather than real risk - and yes I've clocked many an hour at the local med school library hoping to convince a doc to go for a trial of labor with no luck, and I'm just not willing to go the UC route) so I will be scheduled for a c/s somewhere around 38-39 weeks. I'm hoping to push it as late as possible for lung maturity. My ob/gyn's older and been around awhile so fortunately he's fairly low key about the whole thing.
Alright, I think that's long winded enough for now ;)
After a long haul I am so grateful and thankful to be here :D . Once upon a time I thought pregnancy happened when you decided it was time. Now I know that's not the case for everyone.
A little of my background (I promise to only bore you with this once ;) )
I was diagnosed with large uterine fibroids in May '02 after we had decided to ttc. I decided to take a year to attempt to shrink them via nutrition/bodywork/process work, etc. A year later I met with an oby/gyn, he was concerned about their original size and opted for a pevlic MRI to check on them vs. the ultrasound that was originally used. The fibroids were still large, shockingly large to me when I saw them - although fortunately I was relatively asymptomatic given the size. The MRI also revealed a possible bicornuate uterus. Dr. S also found that my thyroid was 2-3 times the size of normal, and bloodwork showed hashimoto's (thyroid antibodies). A thyroid ultrasound showed I had 3 small nodules that after a biopsy were determined to be benign. Mind you I have always considered myself healthy and never in a million years would've expected to see more docs in a year than I had in my entire life prior to that.
An HSG (dye injected into the uterus via the cervix followed by an xray) was done to show the inner contour of my uterus in an attempt to determine what it really looked like. Some small polyps were seen, along with a uterine cavity shaped like 2 rabbit ears. My uterus was nearly completely divided in 2 (only 8mm of conjoined uterine cavity just above my cervix) and my doc said "I've seen bicornuate uteri, but I've never seen one like this!" Yippee. Several docs and much research later I decided to do surgery to remove the fibroids and correct the uterine defect.
I found a fabulous surgeon via the internet. He was 10 hours away from us, but totally worth it. Surgery occurred 8/03, my recovery went really well. More nutrition, bodywork, etc. to get geared up for ttc. We started ttc 2/04 and were amazed when I got pregnant right away. I was stunned by the miracle. It was unfortunately short lived when I miscarried at 10 weeks the first part of April.
More nutrition/cleanses etc, etc, we started trying again 7/04. I was in the middle of a really stressful business partnership dissolution. I started having thyroid symptoms again inspite of being on synthroid. Took a 3 month break from ttc in December so I could do some intense diet/cleanse stuff, started again in March. I fired my endocrinologist in February and found a great doc 3 1/2 hours away who was willing to put me on different meds (armourthyroid) which I started the first part of March. The new med has been really helpful. My travel/teaching schedule fell smack in the middle of ovulation April and May much to our disappointment. I started acupuncture twice a week in May to support hormone balance. It appears that in June the planets aligned, the timing was right, the gods and goddesses smiled and miracle of miracles here I am :D
I'm continuing with the acupuncture, but she's decreased me to once a week, and if I'm doing well will back me down to every other week. My ob/gyn has put me on non-synthetic progesterone vaginal suppositories nightly for the next 10 weeks. I see my thyroid doc in a week and a half and we'll check my thyroid levels and do any tweaking as necessary. While I know there are no guarantees in pregnancy, I am hopeful and feeling good about the support I have.
In my "regular" life I'm a massage therapist and specialize in craniosacral therapy. I love what I do, and have the pleasure of working with infants, children and adults. A few months ago I took up knitting to support my sanity - I love it :love and look forward to branching out into baby knits.
I look forward to getting know all of you.
Oh, and my due date is beginning of March. Because of my uterine surgery I'm unfortunately not a candidate for homebirth as I had always expected, and unfortunately due to an increased risk of uterine rupture, no doc is willing to permit a trial of labor (in my personal opinion it's due to the current medical malpractice environment rather than real risk - and yes I've clocked many an hour at the local med school library hoping to convince a doc to go for a trial of labor with no luck, and I'm just not willing to go the UC route) so I will be scheduled for a c/s somewhere around 38-39 weeks. I'm hoping to push it as late as possible for lung maturity. My ob/gyn's older and been around awhile so fortunately he's fairly low key about the whole thing.
Alright, I think that's long winded enough for now ;)