Back home.

OK - FYI. Chicago is, like, the most beautiful city I've ever seen! Everything is so clean and well-planned. People are so helpful - even the homeless people are nice there! It was like NYC, except in an alternate universe or something. It's an excellent place to visit and we are already planning our next trip back - we truly didn't want to leave. Oh, and p.s. - if you go out for pizza there go HUNGRY. That deep dish stuff is no joke. The waiter says the most he's even seen people eat is 3 slices - that's for the champion eaters! I bagged out after half a slice. That is some serious pizza, people.

But to get to the point. The visit to the Reproductive Immunologist (RI) was fruitful (minus the two hour drive to cover 30 miles into the city to get back to the hotel!).

Of course, test results from the 15 vials of blood they took won't be back for a couple of weeks. Also - I have to get two more drawn for fasting bloodwork in addition to what I had done in Illinois!

But the hi-tech ultrasound they do there in the office yeilded immediate information. They do the regular u/s, but then also add thermal imaging for blood flow. They also do a measurement for sound and we can listen to the blood rushing through the arteries that go to your respective lady parts!

Well, it turns out that the blood flow to my uterus is impaired, and is, in the u/s tech's opinion, the likeliest culprit for our miscarriage in May. My ovaries were, however, were perfect! Very surprising, given my poor response to our IVF attempt. Remember my uncooperative right-sided ovary? Well not only did it look perfect, but I had very recently ovulated on that side!!!!!! (within 24 hours, per the tech's opinion). Now, how is that for a kick in the slats? All those drugs and blood draws and ultrasounds from our IVF and we got zippo from my R ovary. Leave it totally alone and it goes and ovulates! What the hell?

So the RI is waiting to make any final judgements about the course of treatment until all the test results are in, but she seemed to feel fairly strongly that with treatment, we may actually be able to conceive on our own. That's a nice thought, and I will keep it in my pocket. But given our difficulty with fertilization in vitro, we are still planning on using the IVF option - probably with ICSI next time. Plus I'm just tired of the waiting game.

She also recommended very strongly that Chris be re-evaluated by a more qualified urologist - the one we saw before seemed woefully uneducated about IF issues. Since we've been struggling with the male-factor side of things, too, we are taking that advice to heart and will be looking for more help in this area. Every little bit helps.

We have a plan, people! Moving forward!

Thank you to everyone who has been calling, emailing, text messaging, etc., your supportive thoughts/wishes. I really feel the love - it makes such a difference.

So, for now, we wait for test results. We find a new urologist. We are going to see a guy who specializes in treating IF from an infectious disease perspective in NYC in a couple of weeks.

Once all this is in place, then we move forward to do a new IVF. This time - we're getting ALL the bases covered before we make another effort.

Now back to real life. Laundry is waiting and Christopher wants to decorate the house with Halloween decorations. Plus, I guess I should go grocery shopping since we have NO food. Where is that leftover Chicago deep-dish pizza when you finally have your appetite back?

Mmmmm - deep dish pizza!

-kelly