Post-Op Follow-Up with RE

We had our post-op appointment a week early and a little unexpectedly yesterday. Apparently, if you have a uterine septum removed, your uterus then becomes the proud recipient of a strange triangle shaped balloon filled with blue dye, that is supposed to remain in place for 2 weeks. This balloon is basically a "place holder" while the uterus is healing.

The plastic tubing you see exiting the cervix is stitched by the physician so that the tubing doesn't fall out of your body completely. However, if you are lucky like me, you will somehow manage to bust the stitch in half....thus resulting in this long ass plastic medical cord hanging completely out of your hoo-ha a good 4 inches. Sexy right?

My nurse told me to come in and get it checked out, and I'm SO HAPPY I did. Dr. V said we could go ahead and remove it altogether...that there is no real evidence leaving it in there for the full 2 weeks as opposed to 1 will make a difference. I am healing fast, and I honestly feel like this thing has been causing more bleeding and agitation just by being in there, so I definitely agreed!

I will say, that out of all the procedures I've had done, the removal of that sucker was definitely the most uncomfortable. It lasted for only about 2 seconds tops, but the feeling was quite indescribable. Imagine someone plucking a hard plastic triangle shaped object through a hole that is smaller than a pencil eraser. Do not be fooled by the word "balloon," because it is anything but soft. Ick! Oh well, at least I am a cyborg no more!

We also talked about everything done during surgery.  Here is a basic diagram showing what was done during the laparoscopy...

-Cyst that was all twisted up around left fallopian tube removed
-Scar tissue on left ovary leading to surrounding tissue removed
-Scar tissue on bottom of uterus & crossing bowel removed
-Scar tissue on liver removed
*Uterine septum also removed, but done through the hysteroscopy & not included in this diagram.

That big bulging thing at the top is the uterus. Anywhere you see orange is scar tissue, and anything orange was removed. You can see scar tissue stretching from the lower part of my uterus here. Apparently, some of the scar tissue was also transecting my bowel, which could have caused complete blockage in the future. Glad that's gone!

The white tube on the left is my left fallopian tube. That nasty blue looking thing is a cyst the size of a lima bean. Notice the tissue attaching the cyst to the fallopian tube. Turbie Twist has nothing on this thing! How on earth it got so twisted up I do not know, but it looks like it's got a death grip on my tube...

Same structures, different angle. Is it just me, or does the tube look like it's being strangled? I also find it awfully ironic that this is the side where I had the "suspected ectopic."  While Dr. V says he doesn't think this would necessarily cause an ectopic pregnancy he can't rule it out either. There is no way to tell for 100% certain, but there's a small chance the cyst could have been causing issues with "uptake of the egg" any month I ovulated from the left side.

Hmmmm. Let's think about this; My left ovary is my dominant ovary. Most months (when ovulating naturally or on just pills...ie. Clomid/Femara) I ovulate from the left. I know this from many many months of ultrasound monitoring and also ovulation pain periodically. So, if most months I am ovulating from my left ovary, and there has been a possible issue with uptake and/or passage of the eggs on this side ALL ALONG, could it be more than coincidence we've had so many issues getting pregnant on our own? Well, it's plausible if you ask me. My RE says it's unlikely yet "possible."

Maybe the eggs just weren't getting taken up by the tube like they are supposed to.  I realize in the world of infertility, NOTHING is cut and dry, but dare I say that having this little clue has given me a tiny bit of hope that wasn't there before? It may be false hope, but at least there is nothing strangling my tube anymore. Hallelujah!

BTW...the cyst was biopsied and it was benign. Additionally, Dr. V said if there were any cancer  inside on my lady parts, he would have seen it. So, I also got confirmation that there are no signs of anything like ovarian cancer (a.k.a. the silent killer which stole my mom) brewing anywhere inside of me.

Stringy thing above: I think (?) this is the scar tissue that was attached to my left ovary and stretching across to surrounding tissue.

Slimy gray organ above: Not many people get to see their liver up close and personal, but here it is!  Scar tissue removed.

Lastly, all of that white stuff in the middle is the uterine septum. This is what dipped down into the top of my uterus (birth defect).  I'm guessing it's white because of very little, if any blood flow to this area. I can see why uterine septums can cause miscarriage. If the embryo implants here, it's certainly not optimal. Dr. V said my septum was slightly more pronounced in reality compared to what my HSG's showed. I've heard many people receive the same "It was more than we thought" news once doing the hysteroscopy. Glad the top of my uterus is no longer comprised of tissue with no blood flow! Geesh!

As you can probably gather, we are happy we had the procedures done. It has completely erased doubts we had about polyps or endo existing. We are thankful those things are NOT issues. It also brought other very interesting things to light, which could have been playing a role in our infertility.

And so the recovery continues. No more antibiotics, just estrogen and progesterone to mimic a cycle. We are instructed to wait one additional cycle after this one before proceeding with our final FET. This puts us at late November/early December to begin our FET cycle. In the meantime, I will just do what I always do...take care of my mind, body, and spirit the best way I know how to. The "break" will be nice. I had a few glasses of red wine last night at a wedding rehearsal dinner, and it really never tasted so good! ha!

The icing on the cake yesterday was coming home to a surprise hubby had ordered. How cute is this magnetic chalkboard? It's on the side of our fridge now, so we can write love notes to each other any time we want. I really hit the lottery marrying my hubby. He's been there with me every step of the way. The road to parenthood has tested us in ways we'd never imagined, but in the end, we are stronger because of it. :)