What a Week!

This week was the most obnoxious week on record. I started the week with an inkling that I might have gotten pregnant (let me tell you now, I'm not, so don't get your hopes up). I had all sorts of symptoms...metallic taste in my mouth, nausea, exhaustion, clumsiness, the works. I started using OPKs because I like them better than HPTs. I only had two left of my ancient internet cheapies, so I used those up. Each one looked darker than I would expect for my luteal phase, so I bought some at CVS to keep testing. The CVS brand turned positive. WHAT?? I would've sworn in a court of law that I had ovulated over a week prior, so they had to mean pregnant, right? Wrong. I had no signs of pending ovulation at this point, and all of my HPTs were clearly negative. So I checked my cervix. I know that it's usually high when I'm pregnant, and I also wanted to see if I had any fertile mucous. Instead what I found was a polyp. There was something there that I had never felt before, and I was terrified. So I called the OB/Gyn in the morning (this was yesterday), and she saw me only a few hours later. I know the nurse, who I had spoken with on the phone, thought I was just being a hypochondriac, but I knew what I had felt. And I was right...there was a polyp. The OB asked me if I wanted it removed, and I was like "umm of course..." And now they have to test it to make sure it's nothing weird and "just a polyp". The strange thing is that she found it in a bizarre place. Most polyps originate from the cervical opening, mine was nowhere near the opening... Anyhoo, she also took the full panel of blood tests to help me figure out what on earth was going wrong with my cycle. Here's what they found:

TSH: 1.54 uIU/ml
FSH: 2.5 mIU/ml
LH: 3.3 mIU/ml
Prolactin: 12.2 ng/ml
Progesterone: 12.14 ng/ml
Hemoglobin: 13.2 gm/dl
Hematocrit: 38.8%
hCG: 1.1 mIU/ml

This means, TSH is normal, FSH is normal, LH means I SHOULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN A + ON MY STUPID OPKS!!! Prolactin is normal (yay), progesterone means I ovulated most likely when I thought I did (ahhh so I was right!), hemoglobin & hematocrit are normal, although the hematocrit is juuuust barely on the lower side of normal (which means I'm still not anemic). hCG confirms that I am not pregnant at all...so my OPK REALLY SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSITIVE. I am really furious at CVS at getting my hopes up for no reason and you can be sure I'm sticking to internet cheapies from here on out. I called CVS and they want me to send them the rest of the OPKs for testing, and of course they're going to reimburse me for the purchase. Now everyone just needs to pray that they don't find anything weird from the polyp they removed...

Test Results

So, here we are again. I got another prolactin level and it came back as 2.2 ng/ml, so we can see that the Dostinex is keeping that under control (yay!) and my estradiol level at CD10 was 99 pg/ml (which I was told is normal as well). I had 1 follicle at 13.5mm and my endometrium was 8.5mm (which are both normal--they want to see at least one follicle over 10 mm and the endometrium over 8mm) I am going back for CD 14 testing to see if it's time for my hCG trigger shot so that I can ovulate! I will update when I get the results!

Pregnancy Plan

So, we saw the RE today and here is the plan. First, I have already started taking Dostinex to lower my prolactin level and I will continue on that med until I get pregnant. Second, I'm going to start on 25mg of Clomid next month and they will monitor my endometrium to make sure it is not too thin. I'll also have an HCG shot to force my body to ovulate once my egg(s) and endometrium are ready. If that doesn't work or if it makes my endometrium do bad things, then we'll go for the injectibles and possibly IUI as well. Hopefully I'll be pregnant this cycle and won't have to do Clomid! (Wouldn't that be awesome?!?)

More Bloodwork

I had my repeat prolactin test today and it came back with a level of 28.7 ng/ml, which means that it's still elevated (even though it's less than last time). So, my doctor has put me on Dostinex to get my prolactin level down (which will hopefully help me get pregnant really fast!!) :-) Also, I had an ultrasound which showed a 14mm follicle and a 9.2mm endometrial lining. Those both are normal for CD10!! YAY!

Bloodwork

Here are some more test results!

Today I had my CD3 blood tests and here's what I got:

Estradiol: 36.8 pg/ml (normal = between 25-75 pg/ml)
FSH: 6.08 mIU/ml (normal = 3-20 mIU/ml; best is under 10 mIU/ml)
TSH: 3 uIU/ml (normal = .4-4 uIU/ml)
Prolactin: 43.3 ng/ml (normal = < 24 ng/ml)

So, from here we see that my prolactin level is way out of line! :-) I have to go in for a repeat prolactin test next week to see if this was accurate. It would actually make a lot of sense if it is elevated because I have read that elevated prolactin levels can cause irregular cycles with late ovulation and light/short periods. I have both!! :-) So, I think we have our answer of why my body can't get pregnant--I have too much prolactin! Hopefully my RE will have a solution for us when we see him next week.