Chapter Seven: Fixing a Hole

After two failed IUIs, I didn't know how to proceed. Clearly, something was wrong. My RE suggested that it could be the presence of scar tissue that was left over from my myomectomy. I had remembered that first u/s at the RE consultation appointment and hearing her comment about how my left ovary was stuck to the back of my uterus. While it wasn't likely that this was causing the problem, I didn't want to go through more medicated IUI cycles if there was another roadblock. It just wasn't worth going through the emotionally and physically taxing process of doing more ARTs.

So we decided that I would have a laparoscopy. It would be an outpatient procedure that would only require a few days for recovery. It would be worth it if she could find something that was causing my infertility and fix it.

I had the lap surgery in December of 2006. After the surgery, while I was in recovery, my RE came to talk to me. She told me that she had lased a lot of scar tissue. I didn't quite comprehend exactly how much scar tissue was removed, until I had my post-operative appointment. As she read her surgical notes to me, I was shocked to hear about how messed up my insides were. This was what she found:

1. My left ovary was adhered to the back of my uterus (we knew that already).
2. My right ovary was adhered to the right fallopian tube and to the pelvic sidewall.
3. My uterus was adhered to my intestines.
4. I had mild endometriosis.

Wow. All of these adhesions were a result of the myomectomy I had had a little over 2 years before. So my fibroids, although gone, still were having major after effects. No wonder that, even though my two IUIs appeared to be the solution to my problems, both were a huge failure. My poor little eggs were probably getting all caught up in all that scar tissue and had nowhere to go. But now it all was gone. I was fixed.