Day 9 IVF

They measured 8 follicles at my ultrasound today, 5 on my right, 3 on my left. They were between 12-15mm. They said they would probably see me in two days, so Monday, which means no retrieval on Tuesday. I got a call from my nurse, my estradiol was 1024 this morning. Nice jump I thought! They are dropping my follistim dose to 100. This has me slightly concerned since my follicles were only 11-13mm two days ago, they haven't grown that much, and now they're dropping my dose.

I have a dilemna. I'm not sure if I ever posted my worst Mommy moment on here, so here it is. At the beginning of the school year, our church had a "Blessing of the Backpacks." I was definitely taking Jack, but they never made mention of bringing your backpack, so I wasn't sure if it was like a metaphorical thing where they were going to just do a generalized blessing of the school year and the students or what. I should have brought his backpack, but I didn't. I thought about putting it in the car "just in case" but I didn't. So they called all the kids up to the altar with their backpacks. Jack ran up there just as happy as can be until he realized all the other kids had their big kid backpacks, except him. He looked at us in the pew to ask where his was. I felt like the biggest loser ever when he dropped his head and started to cry up there. I still get tears in my eyes thinking about how disappointed he was.

So the dilemna comes in here. Tuesday would have been a great day for ER. If I go in Monday and they say take your trigger shot tonight, ER will be 36 hours after that shot-Wednesday. Wednesday is Parent Day at school. We will both be required to be at the ER. I talked to the nurse today when she called and asked what time the clinic starts their ER's. She said 9am. This MAY just work out for us. Parent's Day starts with chapel at 8:45, and then you go to your child's classroom with them until 10am at which point they have refreshments for the parents in the fellowship hall. We could book out of there at 10am if there was any way we could be one of the last ones getting their ER that day, say 11am?!?!?!

I'm really stressed out over this. These are two very important things. There is NO WAY I want to let our son down again and have him be the only kid at Parent's Day without a parent there. We could not take him to school that day, but he is still going to know it's going on because they've been talking it up to the kids, making invitations for the parents, etc. Then if I take him out of school I have to figure out where he's going to go that day because he can't go with us. I obviously can't miss my ER. So much for my acupuncture helping with my anxiety and stress right now. It's through the roof until I know what's going on Monday and will have the info I need to be able to make some decisions.

Please pray that our follicles grow, but just enough that perhaps my ER will be Thursday instead so that we can participate in our son's day at school. Please pray that if ER is on Wednesday that they can schedule us for later in the day so that we can avoid having to make a decision that may really upset our son. Please pray for some sense of peace for me during this next 48 hours of waiting.

Estrogen Update Day 8 IVF

My estrogen was a whopping 668. That's right, I'm being sarcastic. No idea what is making this slow down, but they're increasing my follistim to 150 tonight and I have an ultrasound and bloodwork tomorrow. This is the opposite problem I had when we did our first IVf cycle. The first one they eventually stopped my follistim before retrieval because they couldn't control me and I was overstimming. I'm happy for the balance of my levels not being off the chart, AND a good number of follicles.

I've been getting acupuncture for the last couple of weeks, weekly on Fridays, and I have to say that my anxiety has been better and I'm not feeling too bloated. I've been crocheting sock monkey hats and perfecting that before I start working on my crocheted owl hats, and that has also been helpful in relaxing me.

Otherwise, there hasn't been too much going on. My next appointment is tomorrow, and they tend to call later on the weekends, so I'll update sometime tomorrow evening.

Special Package!!!

I got this by UPS today!



I was supposed to start the lupron injections this morning, but nothing you can do when the package arrives at 3:15pm. I took my first lupron injection at 3:30, and I will work it back by an hour everyday until I'm taking it around 8am.

I have an ultrasound scheduled with bloodwork next Friday morning, 2/4/11. At that point we'll hopefully be ready to start stims. This however, will mean that one day, the day I start stims, will require me to take 3 shots, yes 3!!! Geez. Oh well right? After that first day, I think lupron stops the next day and then I'm just on the two shots a day.

There are a few new drugs in my cycle this time. First is menopur, it has LH and FSH instead of just the FSH that follistim has (I am still taking follistim this cycle, however this combo scares me, see below). So this will mean I am on two stim drugs. The thing that freaks me out about that is that when we did IVF #1, I was overstimming. I had mild OHSS, and my E2 was very high. They threatened to cancel my cycle after retrieval (because pregnancy can make OHSS worse). Luckily they didn't, and I did fine, however, OHSS is not something I really want to mess around with. The severe cases the patient is in congestive heart failure essentially and is hospitalized. This is NOT my idea of fun. So I am a little hesitant to take this drug.

Estrace is also new for me. This is a form of supplemental estrogen which has been shown to improve pregnancy rates. The other drug that is new for me is the Endometrin which is what I will be taking instead of progesterone in oil (PIO). The PIO was an IM injection that Archie had to give me nightly after our transfer, and because we got pregnant on our first cycle, we continued this through the 12 week mark to support the pregnancy. The Endometrin is a vaginal suppository. Yuck. And from what I hear, it's all good while you're lying down (which my nurse says isn't even necessary, however, I want as much of the progesterone from it as possible if I plan to get pregnant right?), however, when you stand up and it has melted, it's supposedly very messy. And I have to take it 3 times a day instead of once a day. Great. To be honest, I'm not sure this Endometrin and I will get along. If I hate it, I do have the option to go back to the shot form of progesterone. That too has it's drawbacks (hello, it is a shot!), but at least it is once a day and not 3 times a day and so messy!

For some reason, this time I don't have a prescription for Medrol or baby aspirin. The medrol was something I to take/taking the last two cycles because we were doing assisted hatching and it helps decrease the inflammatory response possible between me and my little embryos. The baby aspirin decreases coagulation factors in the bloodstream that can be increased due to the really high levels of estrogen (thanks to the stim drugs like follistim and menopur), thus increasing bloodflow to the tissue. I have a call into my nurse to ask if this is due to a change in protocol with the switch to the new fertility clinic, or if this was overlooked, or if it is something that perhaps they will write for later in the cycle. My Type-A self feels the need to have this info, although to be honest, it may just not be as important as they used to think it was. Who knows?

Otherwise, there isn't much news on my end. I hate to be boring and not post much, but really, once I start stims I'll be boring YOU with posts about every other day (minimum) to update on my ultrasounds and bloodwork, so enjoy not reading my rambling while you can!!!