ICLW week

Happy ICLW week.  Thanks you first time readers and thank you guys that have been following my blog since the start.  Also, thank you Still Hoping from Hope Delayed and Lady Bug from My Journey to Conception for the blogging award!! You have caught me in the middle of the two week wait of my first and, god willing, only IVF cycle.  For those that haven't heard my whole story, me and my husband have been TTC since the day we got married about a year and half ago.  We were a little concerned when it didn't happen those first few months, but attributed it to the birth control pills I had been taking since I was a teen to control an unusually painful period.  When we got a BFP just after new years in 2011, it was the most exciting thing, what we weren't prepared for was an early miscarriage a few days later.  We kept trying the natural way after that with the occasional foray into over the counter fertility drugs, lotions and potions and nothing worked until we came back from a lovely vacation in the Caribbean in which we went to a special church that has been reported to be a fertility mecca.   After our return home and another positive pregnancy test, we thought we were on our way, but alas that too was short lived.  Finally we got referred to an RE from a regular ob/gyn, who really thought we were getting all freaked out for no reason by the way.  We had 2 failed Clomid cylces, got some cysts, and finally decided to go big or go home.  We are praying to get awesome news on Wednesday when I have my beta test, but have 6 embies in the freezer if things don't go so well.

The big day has finally arrived!

I went in this morning for my transfer which was scheduled for 10:30.  Its really really exciting but at the same time its a bit stressful because what if it doesn't work?  It's really hard for me to get excited.  Even as the procedure was happening and my mom was getting excited I was laying on the exam table saying, "Don't get too excited, this might not work."  I like to be logical and not get my hopes up to high but then again I mean it is kind of exciting.  It was all very interesting.  You have to go in with a full bladder, which is the worst part!  That's all I could focus on before, during and after.  So anyways, they bring me in to the same room that I was in for my egg retrieval so it automatically made me nervous but my mom got to come it so that was nice.  My husband was at work today.  Then the doctor asked me if I wanted one or two eggs transferred and of course I wanted two!  My doctors office was cool, there is a TV on the ceiling so that while I'm laying on the exam table, I can watch everything on the screen up there.  So they got my lady bits all prepped and ready, and stretched with the damn speculum, which I hate with a fiery passion, and I never want to get a pap smear ever again because I might get post traumatic stress disorder, and then I got to see my two little embryos in their petri dish on the TV screen because they were in the next room with the embryologist.  Then I got to watch the whole process of him taking the embryos and putting them in the catheter, and then Dr Scott walked into the room and it was time to put them into me!  Then he put them in and it was pretty much over, but I could see them on the ultrasound and I got to go home with two ultrasound pictures of my little eggs.  And 2 really big pictures of the embryos.  

We came home today and my bedrest started, it sounds fun, but its kind of like when someone tells you you cant do something you want to do it all the more.  I've never wanted so badly to walk around my kitchen or the the other rooms in my house, but for now I have to enjoy the view from my couch.  Later on, my husband got home from work and along with my mom, and my mom and father in law, we had a egg transfer party and everyone ate dinner with me on the couch!  There are so many things to pray for this week.  My blood pregnancy test is next Wednsday the 30th.  I don't even want to think about it right now.  I am so nervous and I need to relax.  I'm glad my mom is here helping and taking care of things while I can't.  She is being a huge help.  Thats all for now, I'll let you guys know the hopefully good news when I hear it...

Day 3 update

So I was scheduled to come in this morning at 8:45 for my transfer, but I got a call from the coordinator just as I was walking out the door.  She said they are pushing it back until Monday for a 5 day transfer, which is good because they're still growing.  Hopefully, I feel better then, because I'm still really gassy and the GasX isn't working.  So thats what were praying for today.

Fertilization Report

I just got off the phone with my ivf coordinator with a report on how my little eggies are doing.  During my retrieval yesterday, we pulled out 19 eggs and I was just told the 16 of them fertilized very nicely!  As of right now, obviously they are still growing, my tentative transfer is Saturday morning but if they are still growing at that point we will do a 5 day transfer, but as of right now they are scheduling a 3 day transfer.  I took some GasX, which coupled with the percoset is making me feel a lot better, and I finally went to the bathroom, which the coordinator was very happy to hear.  If I keep up my salty food and Gatorade diet, it looks like I'm in the clear from OHSS.  We are still praying that all goes well and hopefully my transfer will be on Saturday.  I'll post another update when I get one, probably tomorrow from the coordinator.  We are so excited right now!

Retrieval day...

My retrieval was this morning at 7:15 and all went well.  They got 19 eggs!  Before I went in my doctor sat down to talk to me about my estrogen levels which are apparently quite high. I don't have the exact number, but they were 4000 before the trigger shot.  That's why they only wanted me to take half of the trigger shot.  So basically we have a couple option and this is all pending how the next 2 or so days go.
If all goes well in the next couple days and my estrogen levels go down, we transfer 2 embryos as planned.  If my estrogen only goes down a little we will only transfer 1 embryo because if I get pregnant the levels will go back up.  If they are still too high we freeze all of them, wait till my levels drop, then do a frozen transfer.  He is concerned about ovarian hyper stimulation syndrome, so the next couple days are going to be a big battle between me and Gatorade.  Doctors orders are to eat very salty foods and drink 120-150 ounces of liquid a day, mostly Gatorade, fruit juice and vegetable juice because they are the most healthy and full of electrolytes .  I feel its the hardest thing drinking all this liquid because I'm so bloated from drinking so much but then I have to remember to eat and all the stuff that I eat has to be salty.  But my husband/nurse thinks I'm doing well.  I'm assuming they will be doing more blood work in the next few days, but I haven't heard anything about that yet.  I'll probably hear something more about that when they call with the fertilization numbers.

I was wrong about thinking I wouldn't need the Percocet.  From what our research online has told us, everyone feels different after the retrieval.  Some hurt alot, some don't hurt at all.  Me, I was hurting alot and the percocets have helped tremendously.  My husband has done a great job taking care of me.   Oh, and my first Progesterone shot is tonight.  I will be doing it at 10.  I'm definitely not looking forward to that since the doctor straight up told me it will not be pleasant, but its only for 2 weeks so I'll just have to man up and take it.  Overall it hasn't been that bad, we are just going to have to muscle through it for the next few days, that's all.  So for now, our prayers tonight and tomorrow are for my estrogen levels.  Hopefully they go down.

Really really almost there!!!

Good appointment at the doctors office this morning. Dr. B was all smiles during my ultrasound and I was quite happy as well. Yesterday I had one mature follicle and this morning, I think most of them were mature. In the end the follicle count comes out to be about 21 or so with my biggest measuring 24!!, but not all of them will contain eggs. Still, that's a pretty darn good number. My uterine lining number was 12 tri... whatever that means.. still good though. By the end of the ultrasound we got the news we've been waiting weeks to hear, I'm finally ready!! My HCG shot is to be done sometime tonight. They will call me sometime this afternoon to give me the rest of the information but tonight is the big night for the butt shot! The nurse came in and drew a happy face on my butt to show my husband where to give me the shot. Nothing surprises me anymore after going through this process. After tonight, I get a whole day of being shot free!! And the Wednesday morning is the big day for the retrieval. Super excited, but still praying AND really starting to look funny when I walk. My ovaries are ginormous, and they hurt and I'm still waddling all around the house, my husband thinks it's hilarious and has started waddling everywhere now too. It's a pretty funny sight. Also, I've moved from Robitussin to Sudafed so I feel SOOO much better and not so sick anymore. Looking forward to getting this shot over and done with!!! Yikes. Talk to you all soon.

Almost there

I'm sick. Like really sick.  The doctor gave a list of medicines that are ok to ingest at this point and I'm currently sucking down some Robitussin.  I'm also covered in a dog pile on the couch.  Literally under a pile of dogs.  My boston terrier and my english mastiff are both keeping me company.  

On to my visit this morning.  The embryologist, Dr. Scott, was also the phlembotomist this morning and had a real hard time drawing my blood.  He ended up having to use a pediatric needle.  Then it was time for the ultrasound with the other doctor.  He counted 22 follicles today, less than yesterday, but he said he wasn't counting the smaller ones.  Most of them were around 15-17, but one was 22.  He said that one was mature already and he wants me to come in one more time tomorrow and then he's most likely going to have me trigger shortly after.  He also said my lining was an 11, which I think is pretty good.   I'm waddling now and finally feel the bloating I was worried about not feeling yesterday.  

So it seems like we are reaching the halfway point in this cycle and we are still praying that everything keeps going as well as it is now.

So close, yet so far

Today marks day 9 of my stims.  I was at the doctors this morning for yet another round of blood work and ultrasound.  They found 28 follicles which sounds great, but really not all of them will mature and not all of them will contain eggs, but still 28 is a pretty good number.  The biggest one was 17 the smallest was 10, whatever than means.. I've given up trying to decode the doctor talk.  I'm also starting to get frustrated because it feels like we are so close yet so far away from my retrieval.  The first time we spoke with the doctor he said it would be the 14th or 15th, which is Monday or Tuesday, then this past Tuesday he said it would be either Tuesday or Wednesday and this morning he said it would be either Wednesday or Thursday.  I guess this is because he said they are growing very slowly.  He also asks me every time I go in if I'm bloated and crampy and basically asks how I'm feeling.  Well, I'm not bloated, and I'm not all that crampy and I was so worried this morning because maybe that meant that something was wrong. He said it was just fine.  I really hate this, I can't figure out what I'm supposed to be feeling.  At the moment all I feel is fat, so I guess I do feel kinda bloated.  

If my retrieval is Thursday, then my transfer will be between Monday or Wednesday, and if that's the case then I'll be on bed rest on Thanksgiving. YAY!!  Its a good thing everyone is coming to my house so they can all cook for me!  Also,  my wonderful husband took this whole week off thinking my retrieval would be around Monday or Tuesday so he could be here for the retrieval and bed rest, but now it looks like everything is happening a couple days later so after speaking with my mom this morning, it looks like she'll be packing up her suitcase and coming somewhere between Sunday and Tuesday and staying until Thanksgiving.  Lucky her!  

So I guess I have to be patient.  I have officially been on hormones so long that I've gone from like semi-bitchy some of the time to full out mega-bitch all the time.  And what is sad is that I know this and can't do anything about it.  Thank you, hormones!  Here's to praying we hear something good tomorrow morning.  I feel like I'm in the dark about this whole thing even though I'm really not.  Like I'm just kind of sitting around waiting and its taking forever.  Well that is all for today, talk to you all soon.  :)

Halfway through stims!

Today marks day 5 of my stimulation meds.  This morning I went to the RE for another early early early appointment for blood work and an ultrasound.  These are always nerve-racking appointments because you don't know if one thing is going to go wrong to stop the whole process.  You never know what they'll find on the ultrasound and obviously my ultrasounds in the past have generally sucked.  First of all, I got there at 7 am and a couple was in the waiting room with their one year old toddler.  Look, I get that there are millions of people in the world with babies, but on the first piece of paperwork from this fertility center, I think literally in the first paragraph it specifically says NOT to bring your babies.  I couldn't get out of the office fast enough this morning.  I don't need to be reminded of my infertility any more than I already am by going to an freaking infertility clinic.
Now that I got that off my chest, we can get back to my appointment.  I had another ultrasound to check my progress and everything looked great.  7 follicles on the left side and 8 on the right, all at a good size.  The doctor said at this point they should be small and they were.  Then I had my blood work and I had to wait all day for the invitro coordinator to call me with my results because it doesn't matter how many follicles you have, the blood test tells you if they are healthy or not.  The results were perfect, they checked my progesterone and estrogen levels and they told me if the number was too low, like 60, then they would increase my shots and if they were too high, like 300, then they would have to decrease my shots.  I got 180.  perfect score.  So that's good news because nothing changes and my shots don't increase, Thank God.  My next appointment is Thursday morning for another round of blood work and ultrasound check like today.  They also gave me a prescription for percocet for after the retrieval.  I didn't think the retrieval was going to be that painful, but percocets are pretty strong pain killers, so I guess we'll see.  I doubt that I'll need them though.
In the mean time we are still praying...

3rd day of stims.

I had my doctors appointment on Friday morning for a blood test and an ultrasound to make sure we were on track to start the stimulation medication.  As usual, I was worried about the results of the ultrasound, but as luck would have it everything was quiet on the uterine front.  So I went home all excited and ready to begin the fun process of waking up my ovaries.  They put my on 1 vial of Menupur and 150 shot of Follistim, divided 75 morning and 75 night, but the first night I had to take the full 150 to kick off the shot show!  They reduced the Lupron to 10 iu's from 20 every morning.

The Follistim is really easy to take because its basically preloaded in a pen.  All you have to do is dial it up and shoot. Just needs a needle tip change prior.  The Menupor on the other hand is a bit harder.  You have to take the correct amount of saline solution and inject into the vial of powder, roll the vial around to mix the solution, pull it back into the syringe, then change the needle tip to a smaller needle all before injecting.  This is my 9 o' clock routine.

After adding these 2 new medications to the daily routine, I have learned just exactly how spoiled I was with my Lupron shots.  The only unpleasantness is the initial pinch and then basically I don't feel anything while its being injected.  These new shots are a whole nother story.  The Follistim doesn't hurt while its being injected, but after its in there it hurts my belly for a few minutes.  The Menopur, I guess because its a mixture of chemicals, hurts kinda bad going in (stings a little), but once its in its fine.  The Menopur is the one that I really don't look forward too.  Definitely my least favorite. According to my husband, it also makes me extra specially moody and bitchy.  I've also had this crazy headache for like 2 weeks now.

On a more positive note, I'm starting to get excited about this whole process.  You'd think that the last thing I'd be is excited after adding all these shots, but my retrieval is a little over a week away so I have that to look forward to and my husband has that entire week off to spend with me so I also have that to look forward to.  I don't know if getting excited is the right thing to do because I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but I also know that if I go into this with a bad attitude, or I'm too stressed out, or I think to negatively that those could affect my chances of getting pregnant and every little bit of hope counts in a positive way.

For now we are still praying.