2010. The year that I was still partying and enjoying life as I should, and secretly wanting to start a new chapter of my life as a mother. Little do people know that I had that thought since most of my friends were still single and partying every weekend. Having a child and being domesticated were so far away. Yet we started trying.
2011. Annual gyn visit. Told the doc we've been trying (not too seriously) but nothing happens. She said I was still young, just give it some time. So I waited. Still thinking I was still young and had all the time in the world.
2012. Still nothing happens. Kinda took my mind off this topic and just went with the flow. Living live as-is. Content. Also started my current job that travels quite a bit. Pushing Project B down the priority list. Yet never gave up on trying.
2013. Starting to get serious and went to see Chinese Doc. Since a few friends have had their first child and said Chinese meds would help reset the body balance, blah blah, and they all bingo within a few months on Chinese meds. So I did. Spending 1-2 hours at a time with this Chinese Doc that has a long ass wait even you made an appointment in advance. People all told me Chinese meds takes a while for you to see a difference. So I gave this doc 9 months time. Still nothing happened. She's a very patient lady, spent time to talk to you, understand your mental and physical problem and not just to see you for a minute and then sent you home with meds. To her credit, she's a great Chinese Doc. All I had to say was, she wasn't for me. I did my part for going on the what I called The Asian Diet-- no cold food & drinks. Not religiously but cut it down significantly.
2014. Switched to 2 other Chinese Doc. Meanwhile seeing a new Gyn Doc for 2nd opinion. Getting desperate. Taking temperature every morning before I even get out of bed. Stopped drinking cold drinks, no raw and cold food, exercising regularly, cut down alcohol intake, quit smoking. Seeing Chinese doc & Gyn Don religiously. Seemed like I did everything I could.
Thank god for my 3rd and final Chinese Doc, Doctor Angel Ho, she gave the most precious advises. She's helped me mentally and physically and gave me a lot of information about fertility. What to ask the gyn when I visited, when to visit, scientific reports and what they meant, what should I do after a few months. What were follicles numbers and sizes and the standard. All the temperature charts shows normal cycle pattern. Ultrasound was normal, follicles were normal. Went back for ultrasound after a few months with new Chinese Doc and showed an improvement as well. Everything seems to be on track, just don't know why nothing's happening. The new Gyn Doc even gave me 6 months ovulation prescription to boost chances.
Doctor Ho also told me to get in queue for Queen Mary fertility treatment as the wait for private line takes up to a year for first consultation. Doesn't hurt to queue up first and maybe I'd be lucky not to go there before I get my first consultation. Why QM? She said from all her patients, Queen Mary has the higher success rate and they are not commercial and won't tell you to do things that you don't need, just for your money like other private clinics. The public queue's about 3 years wait. If I can afford to pay the private price, I should go for QM private service. Eventually, my mind was set for IVF if nothing happens in between. Didn't bother to get my Fallopian tubes checked to avoid the pain and $, since I'll be going thru IVF if nothing happens anyway.
2014 September. Queen Mary first consultation. After 3-4 years of trying. This appointment seemed like the light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Where I didn't know what's going on, what's wrong with me, and what should I do next? By rules, both of us have to show up for a seminar to understand the procedure, as a team, and have consensus to sign up for the procedure before first consultation with the doctor. We showed up at 2pm. The clinic was empty. Something seemed wrong. about 20 mins later, a crowded of people walked in. The nurse returned to the reception and I found out the seminar has ended! So happened that they changed the time to 1pm and they supposed to have left me a voice message that I never got! I was about to cry knowing that I missed the seminar and therefore cannot proceed to first consultation the same day. The nurse said seminars are all full as well... asked us to wait and will call my name to give me a new date. That was about the worst feeling in the world, that you don't even get a chance to proceed. Minutes later, the nurse managed to squeeze me into another seminar a week later. That few minutes though, it felt much longer than it really was.
2014 October. Queen Mary first consultation round 2. Took another half day off for this. Listened to the seminar and understood what this procedure is about, what are the emotional stresses are ahead of us. Yet, I was so ready for the pain and stress. We said we'd give it a try, success rate's 30%, even if we failed, at least we tried. I chose Professor Ng as my doctor as I heard good things about him. He spotted right away that my Fallopian tube might be blocked, just by ultrasound. This finding was new to me, not spotted by my 2 other gyn docs before. He asked if I want to proceed with IVF right away or unblock the tubes and try for another 6 months naturally. I asked for his advice and he gave us a lecture for about 20 minutes on why naturally conceived babies are better, and that I'm still young (under 35 to him is considered young) and should try to solve the issue and try for another 6 month as over 80% of couple could fall preggo without any issues. It's clear that I should listen to him. Then scheduled a Fallopian tube dye x-ray to confirm, while already scheduled operation in December to unblock the tube(s).
2014 November. Due to my travel schedule, I missed the dye x-ray in October as you could only go on a certain day of your cycle. Stressful but can't help that I had a job to do. So in November I went for the famous dye x-ray. Everyone said it'd hurt like a BIATCH as they inject dye in you for the x-ray, to confirm if the tubes were blocked. I was in operation outfit in a cold operation room. QM's x-ray operation rooms were so advanced, I was more impressed then scared. Okay, I was scared. Many deep breathes and I made it through. Painful but manageable. The doc confirmed that both sides were blocked. No wonder I couldn't fall preggo all these years.
2014 December. Scheduled surgery day to unblock my tubes. Told work that I'd be having a small surgery to remove unwanted stuff in me. Didn't give any specifics as there's always a line in between work and your private plan. Struggles of all working women. What I thought was a small procedure, ended up more serious than I thought. I was given 3 weeks sick leave after the full anesthesia surgery that costed me over $40k. Micro insertions hurt more than I expected during the recovery process. Professor Ng said both tubes were unblocked and reconstructed. However, it might get stuck to itself again. See you in 6 months if nothing happens and good luck!
New hope. New me. Thinking I was then capable of conceiving.
TBC.
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