Clomid notes

This is our second cycle with Clomid. I'm on a low dose: 25mg on CD3-5. It is definitely having an effect. My mucus this cycle was not quite as good as my normal non-Clomid cycles, but it still scored in the normal range. The big effect is on my hormone levels! For the past few cycles before Clomid, these were my P+7 results:

Estradiol 9.1 - 12.7 (normal is >12)
Progesterone 20.6 - 24.2 (normal is >13)

During my first Clomid cycle:

Estradiol 19.2
Progesterone 49.9

Wow. A little Clomid is doing big things. :)

I will admit I sorta thought I was pregnant last cycle. Oh, you post-peak symptoms that mimic early pregnancy symptoms, how you mess with my sanity. ;) I had some brief, localized abdominal pain on and off on P+8 and P+9, which I wondered if it could be implantation cramps. It was similar to Mittelschmerz. I've never had an ovarian cyst but I assumed that pain would have been worse and lasted longer. I was living in my daydream that I could be pregnant, so no one could have convinced me it was a cyst. ;) And I swear my breast tenderness was worse than previous cycles. You know how it is when you've convinced yourself you could be pregnant... Alas, it was not to be.

So while everything is looking good with my hormones, I still have that pesky TEBB. If I'm not pregnant this cycle, Dr. K is recommending 10 days of IV antibiotics (clindamycin). When I first heard this, I pictured myself attached to a pole for a week and a half. The nurse said I'd be attached to a box, not a pole, which sounds like the size of a shoe box but varies by manufacturer. (Anyone had IV antibiotics before?) A home health nurse would come to place the IV and teach me how to change the bag. It's likely that I will need to find a doctor in my state to prescribe this because most of the time they don't accept out-of-state prescriptions. There are a few NaPro medical consultants in my state, so I might have to schedule a visit with one to become an established patient. I'll probably have to call them first to make sure they are willing to prescribe IV antibiotics for TEBB before making the appointment; not all NaPro doctors are necessarily comfortable with this, even though they should be at least familiar with this particular PPVI protocol because it's been in place for a long time. The nurse said they tend to have good success with the IV antibiotic in eliminating TEBB, but I didn't ask her to quantify what "good" meant.

I did ask if it would be an option to take the antibiotic orally instead of via IV. She said too many people get C. diff infections after the oral antibiotic that they don't prescribe it that way. (C. difficile is a really bad infection...)

I asked if DH would be treated also (since an infection can be passed back and forth between spouses); he's been treated with oral antibiotics every time I've been on them. She said for this one they don't treat the husband, probably for practical purposes. They may in the future if their research indicated it, but so far they don't.

What is interesting is that the nurse, who has been at PPVI for almost a decade, said that it's really been in the last year or so that Dr. H and Dr. K have been investigating more closely the link between infection and IF, and they are realizing that they are just hitting the tip of the iceberg, so lots more research has to be done. At least future IFers will be able to benefit from their research. :)