Questions To Ask

My appointment to see the high risk doc is tomorrow and I'm feeling good about it. I'm not as nervous as I was last week, but that could still change. I have all night to stew about it. Mr. H was planning on going with me, but he has an interview tomorrow morning (woohoo!) at 9 and my appt. is at 8:15. On my list of things to talk about are:

• Not Ovulating- I'm not sure if I did or not this past month. A friend let me use her fertility monitor and I tested for 20 days straight with no "peak", so I'm not sure if I ovulated or not. I read the instruction manual and it said that either my cycle was too short (yeah right), too long (more than likely) or that I didn't ovulate and that's why there was no peak. We were not going to try this month but I wanted to know what my cycle was doing. If I am not ovulating, then what's next?

• Why do I have an incompetent cervix?- I know that only means that my cervix is weakened and doesn't "perform" correctly, but I want to know what is causing it to act up. I want to be tested for E-Coli, Strep B and Ureaplasma. These are all bacteria that can live in your body without making you sick that can also lead to miscarriage. I want to be tested to see if I am a carrier of any of these yucky things. I got sick in April 2006 right before I got pregnant with Sam and had to be hospitalized for 5 days. It turns out that I had E-Coli. Is that what has caused this?

• Why is my cycle so irregular? Is that going to hinder us in TTC?

• Is my body ready for the stress of carrying another pregnancy? Because I'm ready.

• What can she do to help us maintain the pregnancy? What kind of cerclage does she recommend and when should it be placed- prior to conceiving or at 13 weeks gestation?

• How closely will I be monitored?- Weekly, biweekly? How often would I receive sonograms? In her opinion will I need bed rest? Dr. B (peri) says I don't.

• Are the vitamins I'm taking safe?- Cranberry pills (UTI's), Vitamin B-50 Complex (energy and stress), and Magnesium (relaxant). Should I be taking anything else?

• Do you have the time it takes to provide the proper care for me?- How many patients do you have? How many have IC (incompetent cervix)? How were they treated? Will you be available in an emergency situation? How long does it take to get an appointment with you? Will you deliver our baby?

• Can you give us a live baby?- I think this may be the only one she can't answer.

• Updated: I forgot I also need to ask about collecting and freezing my eggs and Mr. H's sperm and about surrogacy (as a 'no other options' option). Sound like fun, huh?

• Do I need to get a hysterosalpingogram (geez that's a long word) ?- They inject dye into your cervix to check the shape and to see if the fallopian tubes are blocked then do an ultrasound. My old doctor recommended this. Some women have abnormally shaped uterus' thus resulting in pregnancy loss.

Well, what do you think? Am I prepared? Is there anything else I should ask? I have been thinking about this for a long while, but now that the appointment is fast approaching, I want to make sure I have all my bases covered. Wish me luck!

I have to go now, the oven timer just beeped at me and my Cinderella (pumpkin) cake is ready! I'll post the recipe later. It is so good.