So our plan of action after our last cycle was to further investigate possible reasons for the failures. So after much research online and advice from some 'real life' friends, we decided to pay for a private hysteroscopy and some other tests.
We didn't tell anyone of our plan apart from my work as I needed two days off but even then I just said I was having a private operation hence the short notice. It was in fact all down to the timing of my period - you need to have the op after your period but before ovulation so that your lining is thin and the surgeon can see the uterus clearly. Hubby had three days off work and my period had finished and so we put the plan into action.
We got up at 2:30am on Thursday 24th May and drove down to Heathrow where we had pre-booked the long-stay carpark. We got a bus straight away to Terminal 5 which was less than 10minutes away. We checked in on the computers around the terminal and waited about 20 minutes for the bag-drop desks to open at 5:00am - we were first in line!
We passed through security with no problems and went to get some breakfast. We had just finished eating and decided to go to the gate when Hubby saw a pilot he knew so we wandered over to him for a chat. We discovered that he was the pilot taking us to Athens and he got us upgraded to business class! We had a great start to our trip and it continued!
Arriving in Athens we collected our luggage and easily found our way to the Metro and into town. Hubby got his map out and managed to direct us to the clinic pretty easily! At the clinic we ended up waiting for quite a while until they apologised and said they were running behind and did we want to go get a coffee and come back in an hour. We decided to go and check-in to our hotel and get changed as it was very hot.
Our hotel and the staff were very nice and they gave us a large room on a floor near the top were the views were amazing. The airconditioning was a Godsend, the buffet breakfast had a great choice, and the roof top bar and pool were a great place to have a drink and relax!
Back at the clinic we didn't wait too long and we met the lady who was to give us fresh hope and positivity! She went through our history and suggested that my periods that were now only two days long and quite light, were not normal and that I could have scar tissue in the uterus. Also the fact that I have raised Natural Killer Cells could indicate an infection in the uterus. She said that the fact that I have been pregnant three time naturally means that the sperm is probably ok but the environment isn't right for the embryos to implant in. We agreed that it was probably best that I had a hysteroscopy and that Hubby had a semen anaylsis and sperm DNA fragmentation test just in case there is an issue with the sperm.
She performed an normal scan on me to just take a look at things and we noted four important things:
My left ovary has a large 'chocolate cyst' (an endometriosis cyst filled with blood) that is impairing the ovary function but I did have two possible follicles already on the left:
My right ovary was perfect and had four follicles all about the same size on it:
This lead her to believe that I still had a chance to conceive naturally if any problems in the uterus could be sorted.
Hubby was shown to the 'play room' so that he could give a sample to be analysed. We later found out the results of this and they were excellent and Hubby was soooooo happy and proud!
The next step was to got to the hospital and get the pre-op tests done ready for tomorrow (by now it was 7pm). Hubby was not allowed to come with me and had to stay in the waiting area. I was shown to a private room and the nurse asked lots of medical questions, got me to give a urine sample and then got the stuff ready to take a blood sample. I nearly fainted at the size of the needle she used and the amount of blood she took. Instead of saying 'sharp scratch' as a warning like here in the UK, she said 'deep breath' and quickly plunged the large needle in! But there was worse to come. Next she wanted to do an ECG and with me lying on the bed she said 'sorry' and proceeded to hoist up my top and bra onto my chest and douse me with water so these sucker pad things would stick to me. She had to do it 4 times because apparently I was not staying still enough and making the monitor jump around.
Hubby and I were back to the hotel and in the roof top restaurant by 9pm ready to eat our first meal since the breakfast on the plane. I had to make sure I'd finished by 10pm ready to fast until after the op the next morning! We had a good talk about everything we had been through during the day and we felt happy with what we were doing and what we had been told.
We didn't tell anyone of our plan apart from my work as I needed two days off but even then I just said I was having a private operation hence the short notice. It was in fact all down to the timing of my period - you need to have the op after your period but before ovulation so that your lining is thin and the surgeon can see the uterus clearly. Hubby had three days off work and my period had finished and so we put the plan into action.
We got up at 2:30am on Thursday 24th May and drove down to Heathrow where we had pre-booked the long-stay carpark. We got a bus straight away to Terminal 5 which was less than 10minutes away. We checked in on the computers around the terminal and waited about 20 minutes for the bag-drop desks to open at 5:00am - we were first in line!
We passed through security with no problems and went to get some breakfast. We had just finished eating and decided to go to the gate when Hubby saw a pilot he knew so we wandered over to him for a chat. We discovered that he was the pilot taking us to Athens and he got us upgraded to business class! We had a great start to our trip and it continued!
Arriving in Athens we collected our luggage and easily found our way to the Metro and into town. Hubby got his map out and managed to direct us to the clinic pretty easily! At the clinic we ended up waiting for quite a while until they apologised and said they were running behind and did we want to go get a coffee and come back in an hour. We decided to go and check-in to our hotel and get changed as it was very hot.
Our hotel and the staff were very nice and they gave us a large room on a floor near the top were the views were amazing. The airconditioning was a Godsend, the buffet breakfast had a great choice, and the roof top bar and pool were a great place to have a drink and relax!
Back at the clinic we didn't wait too long and we met the lady who was to give us fresh hope and positivity! She went through our history and suggested that my periods that were now only two days long and quite light, were not normal and that I could have scar tissue in the uterus. Also the fact that I have raised Natural Killer Cells could indicate an infection in the uterus. She said that the fact that I have been pregnant three time naturally means that the sperm is probably ok but the environment isn't right for the embryos to implant in. We agreed that it was probably best that I had a hysteroscopy and that Hubby had a semen anaylsis and sperm DNA fragmentation test just in case there is an issue with the sperm.
She performed an normal scan on me to just take a look at things and we noted four important things:
On Day 5 my womb lining should not be as thick as it was - 10mm:
There was an area of the uterus showing up as a white, thickened area on the screen which was probably some scar tissue:
My left ovary has a large 'chocolate cyst' (an endometriosis cyst filled with blood) that is impairing the ovary function but I did have two possible follicles already on the left:
My right ovary was perfect and had four follicles all about the same size on it:
This lead her to believe that I still had a chance to conceive naturally if any problems in the uterus could be sorted.
Hubby was shown to the 'play room' so that he could give a sample to be analysed. We later found out the results of this and they were excellent and Hubby was soooooo happy and proud!
The next step was to got to the hospital and get the pre-op tests done ready for tomorrow (by now it was 7pm). Hubby was not allowed to come with me and had to stay in the waiting area. I was shown to a private room and the nurse asked lots of medical questions, got me to give a urine sample and then got the stuff ready to take a blood sample. I nearly fainted at the size of the needle she used and the amount of blood she took. Instead of saying 'sharp scratch' as a warning like here in the UK, she said 'deep breath' and quickly plunged the large needle in! But there was worse to come. Next she wanted to do an ECG and with me lying on the bed she said 'sorry' and proceeded to hoist up my top and bra onto my chest and douse me with water so these sucker pad things would stick to me. She had to do it 4 times because apparently I was not staying still enough and making the monitor jump around.
Hubby and I were back to the hotel and in the roof top restaurant by 9pm ready to eat our first meal since the breakfast on the plane. I had to make sure I'd finished by 10pm ready to fast until after the op the next morning! We had a good talk about everything we had been through during the day and we felt happy with what we were doing and what we had been told.
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