good news thursday

Tomorrow's Good Friday, which makes today Maundy Thursday, which I will commemorate by sharing good news. Not THE Good News, of the Gospel variety, just...ya know, some regular ol' good news.

Yesterday we had Matt's post-surgical follow up Live Results Reveal (so what if I like to title things in my life with reality TV show-esque titles?) (I hope you all voted for us- (#mattyerikaneedgoodnews), which could otherwise be known as the Fastest RE Appointment in History. According to our parking fee, we were there less than 40 minutes. Three hours of driving for less than 40 minutes of waiting/appointment-ing...crazy. Luckily I had enough time in the waiting room to browse the latest RESOLVE magazine and learn nothing new about endometriosis and infertility (this just in: they both suck!).

So, the Surgery Results.

Ultrasound-wise, the surgery was very successful. Prior to surgery, his 'sperm-production suppression' (or something, I was writing very quickly in a made-up shorthand that now I can't decode) was in the 10-15% range. Now the suppression is less than 1%. So that's great news and means that THAT part of our sperm problems should not longer be a problem. The chances of this reversing (like, going back to the way it was) are something like less than .00001%, so we'll consider this one permanently fixed.

So. Now we've had roughly one 'sperm life cycle' (~3 months) to see results. Some of the results are really good: his total count has more than doubled. The 'active' count, while HUGELY less than the 'total' count, is still three times what it was, so that's encouraging. The morphology improved from 1% to 2% (4% or greater would be considered normal/ideal)...so there's improvement there, but not really enough. The penetration count (what percentage of sperm are actually capable of penetrating an egg) went up quite a bit (from 47% to 66%; over 80% would be considered normal), which is good. And then the most discouraging news: the 'survivability' rate is unchanged and still really, really bad. So that was depressing. Meaning that even though there's a lot MORE sperm now, and some of them (2%) are the right shape, and of THOSE, about 66% are even capable of penetrating an egg...before all of that happens, they have to be able to survive long enough to GET to an egg. And only 10% of ours can ('normal' would be more than 50%). There was no change from pre-surgery to now. So that's a big ol' sad face. Because it doesn't really matter how many sperm you have and how fast they swim and how strong they are...if they die the minute they encounter a 'foreign  atmosphere,' then they're...just...dead. They can't do anything. 

SO. Dr. W said he would expect each subsequent 'sperm life cycle' to have better and better results, so we will go back for more monitoring every other month. In the meantime he put Matt on some prescription meds and supplements that should help speed things up (and hopefully help with the 'survivability'). I think that overall Dr. W was pleased and encouraged, and we were too. It's easy for me to focus on the one or two negative things that DIDN'T make huge leaps and bounds, but I'm trying to think about all the things that DID get so much better. Oh and not focus on the fact that it doesn't matter how great Matt's sperm are if my stupid ovaries and tubes can't get with the program. Grr. As for ART, Dr. W said that IVF is still our best option, especially since some of the DNA issues in the sperm are better now. IUI, he said, would give us worse odds than just timed intercourse due to the fact that the washing process kills all of our low-survivability sperm. No kidding. I remember that during one of our IUIs there were FIVE sperm left in the post-wash count. FIVE. Out of a couple million??! Hahahaha. No wonder our doctors kept recommending we cancel the cycles. Five sperm aren't gonna get anything done (PS if you believe the myth that it 'only takes one,' please do some research kthx? The only time it 'only takes one' is if you're doing IVF with ICSI).

So. Despite the whining tone, we're calling yesterday's appointment Good News. Plus, we followed it up with a trip to the Mall of Georgia and I got an Easter dress and some pink shorts and makeup and a soft pretzel and sushi. Which is clearly good news.

On to Good News #2. Did I ever mention that a few weeks ago our credit card number got used fraudulently? I'm pretty sure I didn't talk about that here, mainly because it wasn't really a big deal. I happened to log on to our CC account one Sunday afternoon and noticed that the day before someone had charged $900 to Delta Airlines on our account. After confirming that Matt wasn't planning any surprise vacations (or planning to escape from me), we called up ol' Chase Freedom and inquired about the offending purchase. And I'm gonna be honest: They were awesome. I was totally freaked out and dreading the call. I mean, we hadn't lost our cards. What if they didn't believe us? What if they made some big complicated deal? What if we had to pay for the bill while they investigated? And none of that happened. They were super cool, asked maybe like three questions, and immediately arranged to close our account and have new cards overnighted to us. It was seriously the most painless customer service experience ever. We were inconvenienced for like 30 seconds, plus the 24 hours it took us to get new cards. 

So yesterday while I'm trying on dresses at Nordstrom Rack (ALL TOO SHORT, what's up with the dresses this season?) Matt gets a call from ol' Chase Freedom (I'm using the technical names here because I think companies deserve credit when credit is due, and I've been nothing but impressed with how Chase handled this situation) and they're like "hey, just following up on that fraud from last month...do you know someone by the name of Casdiobwh Bviwohg?" (not actual name, just random letters I smashed out-- Matt didn't remember the person's name) So Matt says "no" and they're like "okay great, well, that's who stole your CC number and used it. Just wanted to let you know we investigated and will be taking care of everything!" And we're like...sweet, thanks! And that's that. I just wanted to share. Chase totally took care of their customers and made this a painless situation. More companies should be like that. The end.

Well, two pieces of Good News oughta get you through the day. There could be a third piece, if the weather warms up the way it's supposed to, but I suppose that only time will tell. Have a good one!