Well, first things: I have to wait till my beta hits 0, which BrooklynGirl mentioned can take a long time. Knowing me, it will. The hardest part about the wait is avoiding folic acid, which promotes cell growth. Not so hard to avoid leafy green vegetables, but we’ve had some good packages of strawberries lately that I couldn’t share and there’s a lot of folic acid in Cheerios and Raisin Bran. I got the bright idea of getting unhealthy food and bought some Froot Loops only to discover that they, too, have 25% of the DV of folic acid. Hmph. I have had a couple of bowls anyway, so if my beta takes its time going down, I have only my lack of self control in the face of a fresh box of the loops to blame.
Dr. Nice did not specifically say that I had tubal damage. What he said is that, even though it was so small, it likely caused a certain amount of damage. He didn’t say major irreversible scarring or anything– you’re right that he has no way of knowing that at this point. He just said that it makes sense to wait an extra month to try again to give my tube a chance to heal.
I started to get a little antsy after reading some pretty yucky stats on the chances of getting pregnant and having a live birth on the Innernets, and so in frustration, I turned to the lovely robinj, whom you may have noticed was the one who got the homework assignment exactly right. Here is what she said, and I hope she isn’t mad I didn’t get her permission before sharing:
I was reading some info (ala Google University) about pregnancy after ectopic and found things like “chances of pregnancy are 60% following an ectopic” and other MEANINGLESS stats like that. I mean, 60% per what? per cycle? per ovulatory cycle on that side? per year? per life time? based on what data? In what age group? Using ART or not? I wouldn’t pay any attention to any of that!!!You are young, you have eggs, you have two tubes, you have a uterus and you know where to get sperm! There is every reason to believe you will be able to have another healthy baby.Anecdotally, everyone I know in real life and cyber life who has had an ectopic and wanted another baby has had one, for what it’s worth.
Is she awesome or what? I just really felt reassured after getting that message. Obviously, I will be high risk going forward, and obviously I will come in for some very early monitoring, including blood work and a 5.5 week ultrasound. (So much for the idea of being a normal pregnant person.) But I’m not going to get all crazy about it– at least not today. I just have to wait and see what happens and keep re-reading Robin’s last sentence as often as necessary.
The one thing I am toying with is, since I ovulated on the left side this time, using ultrasound to try again on a month when I am ovulating on the right side. Dr. Nice said he has done this very infrequently but would be happy to do it for me… though he doesn’t think it’s necessary. At first I thought I wouldn’t bother, but now I think it’s really not that much of a bother– just missing a few hours of work one day. I would only have to do it one month and then, if it was a left rather than right month or if I didn’t get pregnant, I could just assume that it was alternating normally. Of course, this cuts my opportunity to get pregnant (perhaps unnecessarily) in half, but I figure with a few more months between me and the ectopic I would feel safer going back to trying on both sides. Your thoughts?
Everyone I know who has had an ectopic and wanted another baby has had one as well. Totally agree with robinj. As far as your thoughts on moving forward, I think it all makes sense. Here, hoping all good things for you.
Is it true that you always alternate ovulation from side to side? I thought that whichever one had the “best” egg is the one that ovulated and that could alternate or be left for a few cycles and then right, for example. I just did a quick Google search and it supports my thinking, but I’m not sure if I checked the most reputable sites. Just wanted to put it out there though.
Hoping for a quick return to a beta of 0 for you.
For me, I think I’d be afraid the additional info found during that pre-ovulatory ultrasound would do more to stress me out than to help things. I feel like it would be a data point that would not add much, and might just make me freak out (what if I ovulate on the “bad” side twice in a row? Then what?)But that’s me. I worry about worrying about worrying.
But yay, robinj. I do think there is much, much, much reason for optimism here.
I always seem to ovulate left, and only on clomid could I tell that I was ovulating on the right. I agree with the previous commenter on the risk taht you may have to wait quite a while to ovulate on the left. Maybe there is no way to perfectly control this? For teh record, its easy to say that, but I would be contemplating the exact same thing.
Glad to hear the doc isn’t saying that the tubes are irreversibly damaged. And I don’t think that a couple of bowls of fruit loops are going to make a difference, folic acid isn’t the only thing that aids cell division – oxygen is pretty important too, and I’m guessing the docs didn’t tell you to go without that…