The Roto-Rootering of Heidi's Uterus

Today is day two of Heidi's recuperation. It is significantly better than yesterday where it only took the slightest of movement by Heidi to induce vomiting. For those of you who are unawares, let's back up to yesterday.



Yesterday, Heidi had three surgical procedures: a laparoscopy, hysteroscopy and a dye test. She had a fabulous video, that I'm sure she will not let me YouTube, made of her uterus and all of the related reproductive parts. She won't even let me scrapbook the pictures. Party pooper. Anywho, during the procedures, the doctor checked her ovaries, her fallopian tubes, and her uterus (inside and out) for any abnormalities. He went in vaginally, dilating her cervix. He also made an incision in her belly button and below her pelvic area for a laser and camera. He blew up her uterus with a bunch of gas (not the funny, farty kind). He shot dye through her fallopian tubes to make sure there weren't any obstructions. Needless to say, she's more than a little sore today.

The findings were endometriosis, stage 2 (mild disease, superficial and deep endometriosis). It explained Heidi's painful menstrual cycles and potentially could account for some of the issues we've been having with the inseminations. So what is endometriosis? It occurs when tissue like that which lines the uterus (tissue called the endometrium) is found outside the uterus, usually in the abdomen, on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and ligaments that support the uterus. Heidi had two lesions on one ovary, a growth between an ovary and the uterus and a "Murphys Window", or lesions on the back of her uterus. The doctor cauterized all of the lesions during the surgery.

So, what does all of this mean? Well, there's an 85% chance that it will recur so we are going to try another insemination after her next cycle, some time in June. The doctor thinks that this may have created a problem with the success of the inseminations we had done previously so we are hopeful that this will be a turning point in our efforts. He also said the words "penile thrusting". Not really relevant here, but I felt like it was important that I share that phrase with everyone. LOL (For the morbidly curious, the doctor was advising that the location of the endometriosis on Heidi's uterus was placed in such a place that if she were in a heterosexual relationship, sex would be painful due to penile thrusting. LOL Makes me laugh everytime I say it...penile thrusting. Enough. Moving on.

While Heidi's recovery is most definitely unpleasant, she is being prepared for pregnacy. She's been nauseous (key item in early pregnancy!), has all of her reproductive junk moving around (grows and stuff during pregnancy), everything tastes like crapola from the anastesia (no real comparison that I can think of but still merited mentioning), and has sore stomach muscles from the carbon dioxide pumped into her (only when she's preggars, it will be a different kind of gas...). So, yes, the perpetual optimist in me is back. When she gets pregnant next month (throwing that out to the universe super soon), it'll be like she's already been through it. It'll be a cake walk.

So, keeping our fingers crossed that her recovery goes smoothly (so far, no vomiting today...that's progress!). And keeping our fingers crossed that we can do an insemination in June and be pregnant by July. Wouldn't it be am amazing 30th birthday gift for Heidi if we had a baby in April 2012? There's not really much I could buy Heidi at the mall that would beat that. Can I throw "Happy 30th Birthday, Heidi, here's our baby" out to the universe now? Is it too soon?