When the Doctor Said "Oops!"

(And the award for the most overdue blog post ever goes to... this one!  

Sorry for the very long delay.  Be sure to read Part One and Part Two.)

We had been trying to conceive a child for over a year, including six months on fertility drugs.  The week after Thanksgiving 2011, I returned to the fertility clinic for a final appointment to close the case. Josh and I were two weeks away from moving to NYC, where we would immediately begin the process to become foster parents.

I don't remember everything about that trip to the doctor's office, but I do remember one conversation vividly.  The doctor came into the exam room and quickly began reviewing my chart: this is the last visit; you're moving to NYC next month; just finished 6 months on Clomid.  He flipped through the last six months of notes: all test results have been normal; you have a few other health conditions for which you are taking medications; "Have any of the medications changed since your first visit here?"  

"No."

Doc: "Hmm.  What's Voltaren?"

"It's an anti-inflammatory drug I take for arthritis." (**See note at the end.)

Doc: "Is it an NSAID (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug)?"

"I don't know."

Doc: "Well, NSAID's can prevent pregnancy.... But I'm sure we checked on all that the first time you were here..... I'm going to go double check if Voltaren is an NSAID, just to be sure.  You go to the lab for blood work.  I'll meet you there."

The lab work confirmed that I was (still) not pregnant.  A few minutes later the doctor appeared, head hung and shoulders slumped.  "Traci, I'm really very sorry.  We messed up.  Voltaren is an NSAID, and is most likely the reason you're not pregnant.  We should have caught that, and so should your rheumatologist, OBGYN, primary care doctor, and pharmacist.  We all messed up.

"You essentially get a reset button on Clomid, since the last six months you took Clomid you were also taking Voltaren.  Stop taking Voltaren immediately.  I'm writing you a prescription for another month of Clomid, but I suspect you probably don't even need it."

I remember driving home completely dumbfounded.  I vacillated from angry at the oversight to grateful for the answer... Grateful for renewed hope in the possibility of conceiving to angry that my "plan" of moving forward with foster care was getting hijacked.

Josh was home when I got there, and I unloaded all the information, along with all my emotions about it.  He was rock steady.  "This is great news, Traci.  Be grateful for the answers we have, and trust God's sovereignty over the mistakes of others." 

I stopped taking Voltaren that day.  Two weeks later I was pregnant.

Also of note: The arthritis for which I was taking Voltaren went into remission while I was pregnant (which is pretty common of autoimmune diseases.)  And it has stayed in remission for the last 10.5 months since I gave birth (which is not so common).  Amazingly, my other prominent autoimmune disorder (dysautonomia) also went into remission during pregnancy and has yet to return!

**Note regarding arthritis:  In June of 2010, my toes suddenly swelled to an incredibly painful size.  A podiatrist diagnosed it as "sausage toes" (I kid you not.) and gave me a steroid injection.  A few weeks later my fingers also began to swell.  I remembered reading somewhere about Psoriatic Arthritis, an autoimmune disorder which causes joints to swell, especially in the hands and feet.  The topic of the article caught my attention because of its relationship to the skin affliction Psoriasis, which I had experienced a very mild case of since Jr. High.  

I began seeing a rheumatologist.  We tried multiple drugs over the course of a year, without much relief.  Most nights I was awakened from my sleep with painful throbbing in my fingers.  Walking in the mornings could be excruciating, so much so that I asked the rheumatologist for a handicapped parking tag.  Some days I couldn't grasp a pen or pencil to write a note.  Other days the first few steps I took out of bed each morning caused me to yelp in pain.  And other glorious days I experienced no swelling or pain at all.  Voltaren was the only drug that eventually gave me moderate relief.