Behind Door Number Three

And so the quest for the perfect clinic continues. We had our third opinion consult on Tuesday. It was interesting and informative, I suppose. He was a realistic optimist, I would say. He thought there was some work to be done in the protocol department to improve the outcome. He also said our situations are always the worst cases that walk in the door (severe MFI with old hag in tow). Nice. At least he's honest. So what other bombs could he drop?

1. I have some follicle recruitment issues, similar to the dominance syndrome. A variation of a protocol he's been testing in monkeys looks promising. I'm serious. He "monkeys around".

2. I may be tending toward new PCOS-like symptoms. Ok, this one is new.

3. He's a big believer in TCM, but says cut the herb crap. His jury was still out on DHEA.

4. He says skipping out on the wine is ridiculous. (Ok, he is scoring serious points, but I tell him not to blow sunshine up my skirt.)

5. He says Mr. W definitely needs to get some samples cryo'd soon.

6. From the land of WTF, he says my hormone levels are so normal it's silly that this hasn't worked. But clearly, I am a poor responder. So it may likely be a statistical game of which month or cycle will work this time. Or not. Or it may be more about which month my bank account thinks it will work.

7. And from the holy shit category, he thinks there MAY be a correlation between what has been going on in my GI tract and this IF. And therefore, he would not allow us to do IVF until the remaining results and/or treatment is done for the stomach issues. Oh gawd. More on that in a later post.

8. When I told him we had a consult at another clinic and would make a decision in the next few weeks, he asked who we were considering. I said Top Doc out of state. Coincidentally, he had just referred his niece to her because she lives in that city. He spoke very highly of Top Doc and admitted we had a very difficult decision to make. And so we do.

9. Oh, and according to him, I need to kick my optimism level up a notch.

He did dispel some myths...some reservations I had about going there, which I said a few posts back that I would elaborate on. He confirmed the lab is located on site. (I thought it was elsewhere.) He offered a reasonable explanation for an error that occurred a few years ago. (You never want to see an error, but the media blamed it on the lab. He explained it differently and I felt he was very candid.) However, he did confirm that other clinics in town may also use their lab, but said that physicians were not allowed in the lab.

So we're pretty much back to square one and have actually made a little chart. It's a tough choice and everything is on the line.