The first Friday in October, JPug and I had our first appointment with Dr. N. It was quite a bit different than our first appointment with Dr. K although it started the same. JPug had to fill out a slew of paperwork (yes, I definitely did a happy dance that I didn’t have to fill out anything).
By the way…how do my dogs have a full electronic medical record at their vet that can be easily transferred from clinic to clinic if we move but JPug and I are constantly re-writing (yes…pen and paper) all of our information from one physician’s office to another…even if it’s within the same medical system?! I digress…but I just had to get that off my chest…back to Dr. N.
We were ushered back into an exam room and waited just a few minutes before a resident, Dr. P came in. We discussed our current process to date and he reviewed the results of JPug’s two analyses. Dr. P would look at the results, ask a question…obviously attempting to determine an underlying cause of the low-count …JPug would provide an answer Dr. P didn’t expect (in a hmmm…this guy seems normal sort of way) and he’d go back to the results again. Dr. P and JPug went back and forth for about 10 minutes until he finally gave up. Well, I guess “gave up” isn’t the correct terminology…maybe medical mystery is more fitting. At some point in the conversation, the term “biopsy” came up which was pretty alarming but Dr. P decided that course of action wasn’t appropriate based on JPug’s additional answers (whoa, big sigh of relief for JPug…no biopsy in that area). Before Dr. P left the room, he completed a quick exam on JPug to ensure everything checked out…and it did.
A few minutes later, Dr. P returned with Dr. N. Dr. N is an interesting sort of guy…middle aged, shape reminds me of Santa, Indian decent with a British accent (whoa, this guy is a melting pot of 1). After a short conversation, Dr. N confirmed what Dr. P eluded to previously…sometimes the cause of infertility is more of a medical mystery than an exact science and we’d likely be moving forward in our conception process through IUI or IVF. He recommended that JPug have a 3rd analysis completed as a sort of a tie-breaker between the first two. The results would give us a clearer path to follow as we continued our journey. Dr. N prescribed a folic acid/B vitamin prescription medical food (Metanex) that’s typically intended to treat patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. No, JPug hasn’t been diagnosed with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (and no, I can’t really tell you what it is) but Dr. N suggested that JPug try the prescription as it may enhance future counts.
Knowing that we would likely be moving toward IUI or IVF, Dr. N used the remainder of our appointment time to discuss the procedures and their associated costs. He was very thorough and approached the topic from an academic perspective. Fortunately, we had researched both topics prior to the appointment and his information confirmed a majority of what we already knew. He also touched on the genetic impacts of JPug’s low count. In about 10% of the male-infertility subset of the population, a low count can be caused by a genetic mutation which is passed from father to son. A female child would not be affected by this mutation but a male child would…100% of the time. Dr. N stressed the importance of having this genetic testing completed before conception so we’re well informed as parents and can inform our offspring when the time is right.
About an hour after it began, the appointment was over. JPug left with his vitamin prescription and an order for a third analysis. The third test has been completed and we’re looking forward to the results.
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