The Eternal Guest Room

A lot of things don’t seem to work out in my favor in this whole mess, but sometimes I get lucky. We already had an appointment scheduled to meet with our doctor today, so we didn’t have to wait any longer to get some answers about the polyp junk. It was nice to sit down with him and have all of our questions answered; last time we were just so unprepared and blindsided that our pre-surgery appointment was a 60-second blur. Part of that was because we just weren’t all that comfortable asking our old doctor questions. New Doctor is so much more approachable and likable. So we asked our questions, and he answered them.

What causes polyps? No one really knows. Why do I keep getting them, even though they’re usually seen in 40-50 year old women? Dunno, but it’s actually fairly common in infertility patients. Why did it come back? No telling.

It’s in the same place as the previous polyp, so basically the old one grew back somehow. It’s not as big as the last one, but it is pretty close to one of my tubes, and therefore could be preventing eggs/sperms/embryos to get to where they need to go. Plus it takes up prime implantation real estate. They’ve also been shown to increase the chance of miscarriage, so you really want to get rid of them.

I need to wait for the hospital scheduler to call me, but it’s very likely that the surgery will be scheduled for February 17. They do all of their surgeries on Thursday afternoons. It’ll be just like last time, except at a different hospital. He told us that this hospital is better – newer, with better equipment, and muffins. I just spent a chunk of time reading our insurance book, and I don’t want to get ahead of myself or jinx myself, but it sounds like the surgery *might* be covered at 100%. Might. Which is a hell of a lot better than the $1700 we spent last time. Again, I might be wrong – really, who can decipher those insurance books?? – but I’m hoping I’m right. I’ve actually gotten pretty good at understanding insurance. Fortunately and unfortunately.

We will have to wait 3 months after surgery to pursue IVF. Not, as they told us last time, to give me time to heal, but because insurance mandates the 3-month waiting period. Even though insurance won’t cover a dime of the actual treatment costs and medications, they will pay for the occasional doctor’s office visit and bloodwork, so that 3 month waiting period is a must. Don’t get me started on insurance and health care.

I’m coping with the new turn of events better than I was yesterday, but still, it totally sucks. Even if we don’t have to pay for the surgery, surgery sucks. Last time I was miserable for days. Surgery itself was terrifying. Recovery was worse than I expected. I was in pain for awhile. It was just not fun. To say that I’m not looking forward to it is a huge understatement.

I’ll have another office hysterscopy to endure at the end of the three months. The doctor said they usually don’t do that, but given my history and concerns he thought it was a good idea. I didn’t say much about it yesterday, but it sucked. It hurt. It felt like it lasted forever, even though it was just a few minutes. My insides were up on a screen, live and on-camera. D looked at the screen, but I kept my eyes closed, trying to pretend I wasn’t there. I couldn’t stand to look – it just looked so gross, and I didn’t want to see it. I thought that my first hysterscopy would be my one and only, but now I know that I will have at least 2 of each kind. Four hysteroscopies total.

This better be worth it.