04 April 2013

Follow-Up Consultation

Today I had my fist meeting with the doctor since my collection.  I am sad to report that I was charged for this visit.  I feel that this is not ideal and that a single follow-up consultation should be standard with an egg collection procedure.  But, you can't be pleased with everything.  So the new update on costs is:

Previous total cost£6876
Follow-up consultation £120
Total cost to date£6996

But it is what it is.  Either I choose a different clinic, or I accept that this is how it is.  Can't be pleased with everything.  And overall I am really generally pleased.  So I am going to stick with them.

So I saw my doctor today and we discussed how everything went and he did a scan to check on my ovary since I said that I could still feel it and I knew it had not gone back to normal size.  I was of course concerned it was the cyst but I am happy to report that my cyst is still the same size as it was before and has not grown at all.  On the other hand, my ovary is currently about twice it's normal size.  The doctor said this was 'normal' and that it can take up to two period cycles for it to return to normal size.  When stimulated it can be 7 or 8 times normal size.  So my ovary has definitely 'gone down' but it's not all the way down yet.  In keeping with this he suggested I stay away from impact exercise and twisting until I don't feel it anymore.  I'm glad that I wasn't making it up that I still 'felt' the ovary and also glad I was taking it easy and not rushing back to the gym.

We discussed how the retrieval went.  In the end there were 10 follicles and 6 had eggs and all 6 were mature.  They can't tell you anything about the quality of those eggs.  I asked if there was anything I could be doing now to help improve number or quality as there are many things talked about online.  He said the only thing he suggested was that I consider some slow weight loss between now and my next procedure.  That's fair.  But he cautioned me it needs to be slow and steady, not a crash diet as that can negatively impact egg production or quality.  So I need to be a bit more serious about seeing if I can lose 10-15 pounds in the next two months.

He said he felt the protocol was good and he didn't particularly want to change it.  He said that as I only have the one ovary he didn't want to be too aggressive or risky because we want to protect the ovary as well.  That seemed reasonable to me.

He gave me a prescription for my drugs and said they are happy for me to source them elsewhere if I can get them for cheaper, so that was good and I need to follow up with that over the next couple of weeks.  He also said that my retrieval procedure was a bit tricky.  That surprised me. I asked why and he said that my ovary moved around a lot during the retrieval.  Apparently the dermoid cyst can make it wobbly or a bit less stable, or even float inside the gut, so apparently it wasn't exactly straightforward to retrieve my eggs.

So there you have it.  I'll post more about drug pricing as I look into that.  In the meantime I have 2 months to see if I can drop some weight.  That's not going to be easy though if you consider I'm back in the States for 3 weeks in May.  But I'll do the best I can.

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