I've Fallen Off of the Decaf Wagon

Okay - so it's still only a couple of ounces of caffeine per day - but this waking up at 5:30am to get to monitoring in time to be first, to be home in time for Smudge's Dad to go to work and not be late, is getting EARLIER and EARLIER every day. Enter the weekend, where they tell everyone to be there at 7am, as opposed to just between 7-9am. So, today it was doubly important to get there first, since their satellite offices are closed on the weekends and everyone goes to the main office for weekend monitoring. It was PACKED this morning. 

I was still first.

One thing was noticable this morning. With the exception of the same nice lab tech that did the bloodwork (an older woman named Janet), I do NOT like the weekend staff. There was a nurse that I have never met before and one of Dr. Z's new colleagues since Dr. B left, Dr. O.  The best thing about Dr. Z's office is the warm fuzzies. Fran hugs me before she leaves my room. Dr. Z either hugs me or holds my hand. Dr. O was all business, all the time. I guess some people need that. But i don't know. To me, if you're going to be putting cameras in places, we could at least be friendly about it. 

Anyway - Today is stims day 9 and day 2 of ganirelix.  Dr. O measured my lining at 9mm, still trilaminar. Fran measured it at 10mm yesterday. I know it's subjective, so I'm not worried about it. If Fran measured it at point A and got 10mm, Dr O could measure it at point B and get something different. As long as my E2 keeps going up, that's all I care about.  Plus, i'm still drinking the pomegranate juice, and we know how that helps thicken things. 

My right ovary is a MACHINE. Are you ready? Here we go: 14mm, 11.2mm, 13.1mm, 7.6mm, 13.5mm, 6.7mm, 11.4mm, 10.2mm, 9.3mm, 12.9mm. She only measured 4 on the left, where Fran and Dr Z have both been measuring 5. So she either missed one, or just didn't measure the little one, but the ones she measured look great: 14.7mm, 12.8mm, 14.7mm and the last one was either 11 or 13mm (i don't remember).  At this point, I'm looking at anything 13ish or higher as a potential mature egg, which still puts us at 7-8 for retrieval. I think they'll try to retrieve out of follicles even a little smaller, but if I have 7-8 mature eggs, i'll be happy. That gives us good odds, in my head, anyway.

And the news gets even better. Since it's a weekend and they want to leave as early as possible, Nurse Jennifer just called with my E2.

Drumroll please......

723!!!!!!!!!

This cycle is starting to really pick up. With 13 large follicles in my Smudge cycle on the same stims day, my E2 was 899. My estrogen per follicle is DEFINITELY higher this cycle and that can only mean good things about the maturation of the eggs. There are only 7-8 that we're counting this time. 


No med changes and I go back in the morning. May the force be with me.

The March of the Penguins

The socks were out in force this morning, and Nurse Fran has stopped laughing at me and is now laughing with me.

Yesterday, my list of measurable follicles was pretty short... today, she needed TWO screens to list them all!

page 1...

Page 2!!

Without further ado, and because I know you're all dying to know:

My lining looks great. 10mm and trilaminar. Thank you pomegranate juice.

And the important stuff... what we're all here for:

5 measurable follicles on the left: 9.2mm, 6.8mm, 12.7mm, 13.3mm, 12.3mm

10 (um, yes, I said TEN) measurable follicles on the right: 8.9mm, 7.1mm, 10mm, 8.7mm, 13mm, 8.6mm, 9mm, 15mm, 14.3mm, 12.8mm

Now, anything under 10, they're really not looking at. But there are a few REALLY good looking follicles there: 3 on the left and 4, MAYBE 5 on the right. But it looks like 7 is going to be my magic number this retrieval. Seven was the number with IVF #1, and we all know how that turned out. But this time seven is going to be lucky. Things are trucking right along, and I'm not worried. 

Right?

Because of the follicles 14mm and over, I started a new medication this morning called Ganirelix. This injectible is going to prevent the follicles from releasing the eggs too soon, and will allow some of the others to catch up. It's the med that keeps on giving. When it goes in, you're lulled into this false sense of, "hey, this one isn't so bad". Then about 5-10 minutes later, holy mother of goats, does that sucker sting. The Ganirelix comes in a pre-filled syringe, so you don't have to draw it up or anything, you just stick and shoot. Yeah, whatever. That needle is dull as a spork. So, smart cookie that I am, i empty it into a new syringe and stick a sharp needle on the end. 

Good thing too... I already look like this:

The IF landscape

Anyway - just sitting now, and waiting to hear what my estrogen is. From here on it, I'll be going to be monitored with vagcam and bloodwork every day until trigger. Fran will call me every afternoon to tell me my estrogen and if I need to adjust any doses. 

I'll leave you with this today... the reason why we're doing this. Because she deserves to have a sibling.

I'll update later.

I can't believe I'm writing this: Monitoring #3.1

When we started talking about this cycle, it was last year and June seemed so far away. How is it possible that it's June 1st and yesterday I spent the morning at my first cattle call monitoring appointment? They make it as glamorous as it sounds. Lining up, at the buttcrack of dawn, first come first served for blood draws and vagcams. Either this is the smallest group i've ever cycled with, or I'm not going to have to fight for the #1 spot this time. Either way, I was first, which is how I like it, because i'm back on the road and on my way home by 7:30am.

The news yesterday was fine. If I didn't hear from them, my hormone levels were where they want them, and I'm still to start meds today. My ultrasound still showed 11 antral follicles with a homogenous lining at 8mm. The only concern was that I still hadn't gotten my post BCP period, but that concern is no longer.

... and away we go.

Which means tonight is the night. Stims start in T-34 minutes. And I'm having a full blown panic attack trying to figure out how i'm going to do this for the next 10 days. Last time it wasn't this hard. I had to give myself a few shots at 7pm. No problem. If I was at work, i just arranged for one or two people that could give me the Menopur. You see, I can give myself the Gonal no problem. Quick. 1-2-3, right in the thigh. The menopur burns like hell and   there's no way I can give it to myself in the thigh. It's a full mL and it just hurts too damn bad. So, we always did those in the backs of my arms. But I can't reach the back of my arm by myself, so I need help with that one.  I work until 6pm this weekend, but I should be home by 7pm, so Chris can still do those. Tuesday is the problem. I have acupuncture at 6:15pm. She's booked and can't reschedule me. So, I asked the obvious question. As a favor to me, is there any way she could give me the shot.

Nope.

Great. 

I have no idea how we're going to do Tuesday. But for now I'm going to focus on tonight. In 31 minutes I'm going to start this crazy all over again. I'm scared, excited, nervous, insecure, overwhelmed... Yep. Still infertile and all of the feelings that go along with it.

.... and away we go.....

UPDATE: my acu texted me back again. She says she reread my text and feels terrible that she misunderstood me. She'll absolutely give me my menopur on tuesday night. Phew.