Monday, Jan. 04, 2010 3:59 p.m.

google will make me a doctor yet!

oh my gosh, I could so be a doctor.

This entry is very TMI and full of medical jargon. If you're not interested in learning about the random workings of my body and don't want to read this entry, I totally understand. :)

I was just reading a message board (of a group of women who started trying to conceive around the same time; haha, yes, everyone in the group is now pregnant other than me :) ) and one girl was just diagnosed with gestational diabetes. So me, being the super informed person I am, decided to google ways to prevent gestational diabetes in case, you know, I ever get pregnant.

One site suggested that people might even want to get a glucose test done before trying, and this reminded me of a blood test I did 3 years ago. I dug out the results and sure enough, a glucose test. Normal. Then I noticed triglycerides and platelets were at the higher end of normal, so I searched them. A high platelet count can cause blood clots. I've always thought my little panicky-attack things felt a little blood clot-ish, which is why I self-diagnosed myself and started taking baby aspirin every morning with my prenatal.

With my pile of medical records was a CD of images from when I had my hysterosalpingogram (HSG) test. At the time, I only had a Mac and couldn't view the images, but I now have a PC and decided to view them. I won't go into detail about what an HSG is or does, but basically, dye is in me and there is an x-ray done. For those of you lucky enough never to have to need one of these, well, you're lucky. It's weird. Anyways, so the lady I may be doing this next split egg donation/IVF with asked if I've been tested for fibroids or polyps. Hmm, I thought, I wonder if I can tell from my HSG images...so I googled that too.

I analyzed my images and the images found on a trustworthy medical site. I think I'm good. No fibroids or polyps, in case anyone was interested. :)

Now this is just what I've learned today. I've learned plently more. I know all about medical coding now too, and how to find diagnosis codes and CPT codes. I can tell you both of them for my hysterosalpingogram: 74740/58340 and 628.2. Cool, huh?

I know all about FSH and LH and estradiol and what they should be on what day of your monthly cycle. Both natural cycles and those being stimulated by fertility meds. I know when they are too high, or how many follicles you might be developing based on them, or how many eggs you might expect at retrieval. I know what FSH/LH ratio is an indicator for PCOS. I know that a string-of-pearls look to an antral follicle scan is also an indicator. I know what an antral follicle is, and what they look like.

I know all the parameters of a semen analysis are and why many think that a slightly higher Ph may increase the chances of concieving a boy. I know that there are two ways to measure morphology and that concentration doesn't mean as much as total motile.

I actually know quite a bit about pregnancy too. I know what the beta numbers (from blood pregnancy tests) mean, how high they should be, how quickly they should double, what is considered a viable pregnancy, and what is the lowest level different brands of pregnancy tests pick up. I also know that you can use an opk (ovulation predictor kit) as a pregnancy test substitute if you like.

Pretty much, I know a lot. But I don't know what to do with all this knowledge, so please, if anyone has a random question, ask. I'd like to feel that all of this is going to some use... :)

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