Procedures & Treatment Timeline

Here's a nice bullet-pointed summary of various procedures and whatnot. More detailed narrative can be found on my backstory post, but here's the quick & dirty version:

• July 1997: Ari and I start dating in high school. We're 15. We break up 2 years later.
• Sep. 2000: Ari and I start freshmen year of college. We get back together.
• Nov. 2000: Left ovary removed for torsioned cyst. Ouch!
• Dec. 2000: Dx'd with hypothyroidism. Go on thyroid hormone replacement meds.
• Aug. 2004: We graduate college and move below the Mason-Dixon line. I work full time, Ari goes to grad school.
• Apr. 2006: We get engaged.
• Mar. 2007: Ari lands a job in New England. We schedule to move the weekend of my 25th birthday in May.
• May - Nov. 2007: Period suddenly stops, despite being on birth control for 7 years. My PCP thinks it's "stress" from the move and prescribes birth control with higher dose of estrogen. Period comes back the next month. This should have been my warning sign.
• Jan. 2008: Married! Oh happy day. Honeymoon in Disney World & a short Disney cruise.
• Sep. 2008: Hospitalized for "the incident." We thought it was a stroke; unofficially, my docs say it was a migraine. Officially, they called it "dizziness."
• Nov. 2008: Pregnancy "scare" when I forget to get my birth control refilled. Took Plan B just to be safe. Oh how wrong we were.
• Dec. 2008: Ordered off birth control for migraine/stroke contraindication. Begin practicing Fertility Awareness Method & using backup methods. Last period was on Christmas Eve.
• Jan. 2009: The Paper Anniversary. Trip to California- amazing. No period yet. Chalk it up to traveling stress.
• Mar. 2009: Still no sign of period. PCP again thinks it's "stress" and b/c I have "residual estrogen stored in my abundance of fat cells." Told me to drop weight and it would come back. She's a real pleasant bitch like that. Go see another doc (RE/OBGYN) in my practice for a second opinion who orders a full RE workup. The bombshell: Premature Ovarian Failure at age 26. Estrogen is low at 20, progesterone is low at 0.14 and FSH way high 57- all classic indicators of POF. TSH is normal at 1.88.
• Apr. 2009: Karyotype negative for Fragile X (thank God). Anti-thyroid antibodies out of control at over 1000. My body is practically eating my thyroid.
• May 2009: Happy 27th Birthday to me. TSH = 0.06. Dx with Hashimoto's. Lowered Levoxyl to 75mcg. Told donor egg/adoption are only options, but we can try 6 months of birth control as anecdotal "experiment" to stim my ovary.
• Jun. 2009: Ultrasound reveals uterus and remaining ovary look normal and healthy. Should have no problems physically carring a pregnancy. Score!
• Jul. 2009: Ari has semen analysis performed. Results are low end of normal, particularly motility- but they're normal. My TSH is through the roof (5.69) so Levoxyl upped to 88mcg. Waiting 6-8 weeks to recheck levels, then figuring out what to do next.
• Aug. 2009: TSH has crept down substantially (2.93). Holding pattern on dosage. Do that 6-8 week waiting game and then b/w to see how it's progressed.
• Sept. 2009: TSH has shot back up to 4.7. (Hashi's is fun like that.) Dosage upped to 100mcg. Retest in 6 weeks.
• Oct. 2009: 2 absolutely incredible weeks in Japan.
• Nov. 2009: The yo-yo continues: TSH is down to 2.74. We're skipping the next dose up and heading straight for 125mcg. You know the drill by now: wait 6 weeks, test, review.
• Dec. 2009: TSH down drastically to 0.024. Switched to Synthroid, upped to 137mcg. Doc wants me back in a month. Also testing my cholesterol, anti-thyroid antibodies, folic acid, vitamin D, and a host of other things. I panic at the major dosage increase, and insist on staying at 125mcg.
• Jan. 2010: My dosage gamble pays off: TSH is now at 1.05, and from a thyroid perspective, I feel great. Weirdly feel like my period is about to come back- lots of PMS symptoms, and a ton of pain around my right ovary. All smoke, no fire, aka, no period. Doc orders an u/s and of course, more b/w. My estradiol is a pinch elevated, but not statistically significant.
• Feb. 2010: First u/s reveals... a tiny follie! No egg visible. Bloodwork: nothing special. Second u/s 10 days later reveals... that same follie, an incredibly thin lining and what appears to be the remnants of a random benign cyst.
• Mar. 2010: Time to start HRT, which, ironically enough, is the birth control pill. Yet, it will do nothing to prevent birth; in fact, if I wanted, I could possibly use it to jumpstart my reproductive system again. Chances are anecdotal, at best, but it's still a shot. Start taking generic birth control pills. Mood swings and sore boobs abound.
• Jun. 2010: Thyroid levels are normal for the first time in a year (TSH = 1.0). Birth control pill as HRT is working fine. Feeling the best I have in years, despite a newly diagnosed arthritis issue in my back.