It's Almost Time

Well, it's almost time.

Had my stim day 13 appointment yesterday.  Here's where I was yesterday:
  Lining: 10 mm
  Right ovary:  16.5, 15.5, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10
  Left ovary: 21, 18, 15.5, 14, 13, 13, 11

It seems like my lining has shrunk, but the nurse is not concerned.  Sometimes it's a matter of angle.  Also, it looks like one of my eggs have shrunk, but again, it could be sometimes the measurements aren't 100% accurate.  The nurse couldn't tell me for sure if I would trigger last night or today.  It would all depend on my blood work and Dr. Hopeful.  I was hoping it would last night since I didn't want to have to order more Meno.pur.

Well the nurse called me back in the afternoon, and I was to trigger last night.  So last night I had my HCG shot at 8:30.  Babe did an awesome job with that and it didn't hurt one bit.

I am now scheduled for my egg retrieval at 8:30 am tomorrow (Friday) morning.  We have to be at the clinic at 7:30.  It looks like Dr. Hopeful will be the one performing my egg retrieval.

Please pray that the procedure goes well, and that the they will retrieve a good number of mature eggs.  Also, pray that they may be able to access the right ovary.

Well I also had my job interview yesterday.  I think it went fairly well.  I was pretty nervous in the beginning, and may have rambled on for a bit.  But they only spent the 1st half hour asking me questions.  And the other half, it was my turn to ask them questions.  It ended up more like a Q&A session.  All in all, I think the interview went well.  I thought it was going to be 2 interviews, but this is the only one.  They are still interviewing more candidates next week,  so I will find out in a couple of what their decision is.  Of course I hope they offer me a job, but I'm just glad that it's over.  Now I can just focus on the rest of the IVF cycle.

So tomorrow morning it is!  Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow.

Oh My Bloatness!

Remember when I said I felt "full" last night?  Well I'm actually really bloated.

Didn't really think that I that bloated, was since I have been feeling pretty good this cycle.  Until I pulled out my suit last night.  I wanted to make sure that my pant suit still fit me.  The last time I wore the pants, which was not that long ago, it fit fine, in fact it was a little loose.  Last night, I could barely button them!  I'm not getting another suit so I just hope that I don't pass out in those pants!

At today's stim day 12 appointment:
  Lining: 12 mm
  Right ovary: 15.5, 15.5, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10 mm
  Left ovary: 18, 16, 14.5, 14, 14, 11 mm

I'm getting really close.  I will have my HCG (trigger) shot either tonight or tomorrow night.  I'm hoping it's tomorrow.  I want to give the 14's a chance to catch up.  The clinic likes follicles to be at least 15 mm before doing the HCG shot.

Unless the blood work comes back with anything different, I am to continue my current meds of 150IU Meno.pur, 300IU Follis.tim and Ganirelix, and go back for another ultrasound tomorrow morning.  I will most probably have my HCG shot tomorrow and egg retrieval on Friday.

If not, they will call me this afternoon, and let me know if I need to have my HCG shot tonight, and then egg retrieval would be on Thursday.

It's all going to work out, timing wise.  Though tomorrow will be a bit tricky - 8:45 am appointment at the clinic, and 10 am job interview.  It will be close!

I'm off to prep for my job interview.  Wish me luck!

Getting Some Action

I'm finally getting some action..... in the ovaries.

Today's appointment went well.  My lining today is 9 mm, which is great.  I need a minimum of 7 mm to sustain pregnancy.

So far, 9 follicles have responded to the meds.  They are now measurable, meaning they are 10mm or larger.
    Right ovary: 13, 12, 12,12, 11 & 10
    Left ovary:  10, 10 & 10
Looks like rightie is winning this race.

I am to continue my same dosage of meds: 5 units of Lupron and 2 vials of Meno.pur in the mornings, and 300IUs of Follis.tim in the evenings.  I am hoping that more follicles will grow within the next couple of days.

I go back on Sunday for another ultrasound and bloodwork. Because the clinic has very limited hours on weekends, the only time I am able to get in is 7 am in the morning.  7 am!!

Of course, we must not forget that this Sunday is the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, which means we spring forward one hour.  So, technically it would be a *6 am appointment.  Meaning I have to leave the house by 5:30 am!

Yikes!!  I am already so not a morning person, and having to be at a *6 am appointment really sucks!

I only have 3 cartridges of 300IUs of Follis.tim left, enough to last me through tonight, Saturday and Sunday nights.  Depending on how my appointment goes on Sunday, I may or may not need another 300IUs of Follis.tim for Monday.  Because the mail order pharmacy my insurance approves of is only open Monday through Friday, I would need to order more meds today, to get it in time for Saturday or Monday.  My nurse today advised me to refill my Follis.tim today.

While driving home, I thought why would I want to refill and pay for meds that I may or may not need for Monday?  At shots injection class, we were told that each Follis.tim cartridge comes with an overfill of 75IUs.  I have 3 cartridges of leftovers right now, and 3 more unused ones.  That means I would have enough for 300IUs from the overfills if I need it on Monday.  I wouldn't need my refill then.  I called the nurse and left a message, and she called me back later this afternoon.

She agreed that it would make sense to use up all overfill first.  I thought that we could withdraw all the overfills into one cartridge so we would only need to do one shot using the pen.  However, she was concerned about air getting into the cartridge and then the dosage might be off.  So she suggested using the the overfill first before using a new cartridge, meaning I would need to do 2 shots, one from the old cartridge with the overfill, and the second from a new cartridge, still amounting to a total of 300IUs.  I would need to do this 2 or 3 nights.

Two shots to save $100 in co-pay in meds I may or may not need?  I'm all for it.

We should know by Sunday the status of my follies.  If all goes well and I am ready, I may be triggering on Sunday night and egg retrieval would be on Tuesday!!

Again, we'll have to see how Sunday goes.  Will keep you updated.

Grow follies, grow!

Estimated IVF Timeline and the OPK Guessing Game

I managed to talk a nurse from Dr. Hopeful's clinic today.  If AF is on schedule (which is doubtful based on the last couple of months), she should be here January 31st or February 1st.  I would start birth control pills starting on day 2 or 3 of my next cycle, followed by shots for 2 to 3 weeks.

Currently, my Egg Retrieval is estimated to be sometime the week of March 15th.  Embryo Transfer will be 5 days later.  I am scheduled for a Saline Infused Sonogram and trial transfer on Feb 9th, and our nurses consultation will be Feb 16th.  Finally, things are starting to fall into place and I have a plan!  I'm such a planner.  I've already updated our calendars in our home office and on my Palm.  I've also started an "IVF Log".  It's just something that I am using to keep track of dates of visits, conversations with nurses, notes, future appointments, next steps, etc.  Help keep me organized and something to refer to when I need to remember what was said and done, by who, and when.  It can be overwhelming.

On another note, tonight I peed on a OPK, being that it is CD12 and this will be my absolute last chance of having a baby the normal way!

What the heck!  There was no line at all!  At least last night there was a faint line.  So I fished out yesterday's stick from the trash can to make sure I am not losing my mind.

Here's a picture of the two sticks.  The top is from yesterday, it has a very faint line but it was darker last night (you are supposed to read it 3 minutes after you pee on it).  The bottom one is from tonight and it has no line at all.  Why is that?  I'm only on CD12 so I don't think I ovulated yet.  The same thing happened to me a couple of cycles ago too.  I thought it was because I bought the cheaper generic Targ.et brand.  This month I used the good stuff, Clearb.lue.  I wonder if drinking a lot of water might affect it.  I did pee on the OPK after I got back from working out at a Zumb.a class the the Y.  So maybe drinking too much water can dilute your urine and no line appears?

I guess I will just have to pee on an OPK again tomorrow and see if the line magically appears again.