Delayed.....?

Today has not turned out the way I had hoped at all.  This whole cycle has been going so well, until now.

At the ultrasound appointment this morning, I was waiting to see what my lining was.  I was expecting to hear a 10, or something in the double digits.  Instead, all I heard was a 6.3.  So after the ultrasound was done, I asked the nurse what the lining was at and she said 6.3mm.  Uh oh.... that didn't sound good.  I asked what was she expecting.  She said she didn't know the appointment is for (the order is just for an ultrasound and blood draw for estradiol) and I told her I was scheduled for a frozen embryo transfer this weekend. She said every clinic is different but at this local clinic they wanted to see a 7 or higher.  My first thought was oh no, I'm in trouble.  I then had my blood drawn and left the clinic.  The entire time, I thought this is not looking good.

I emailed Katie, the nurse at NEDC asking her if my 6.3mm lining was bad news.  She said the meds could be adjusted and our transfer may be delayed a day or two, but probably not cancelled.  We would have to wait for the faxed  ultrasound and the estradiol numbers from the blood work.  She would call this afternoon with instructions.

At 3:30 pm, Katie called and said that she had not received anything from my clinic here yet.  I needed to call the clinic to make sure they fax the lab results over.  Thank God I had emailed her about my lining.  She said instead of waiting,  I needed to take 1/4 tablet of Estrace vaginally tonight and tomorrow night to help build up the lining.  I didn't even know that you could take Estrace tablet vaginally!  She would call me with more instructions tomorrow once she heard from the clinic here.

So I called the local clinic asking them to re-fax my results to NEDC.  I got a call later from the clinic that they did already fax my results over earlier but it had come back with an error.  All faxes to other clinics worked fine.  They tried faxing multiple times and they were still not able to get through NEDC.  And they weren't able to reach NEDC since they were already closed (Knoxville is an hour ahead of us).  The local clinic will try again tomorrow.

So now I have to wait.  I am in limbo because I do not know if our transfer will still be on Sunday.  If it is delayed, I don't know if it will it be for one or two days.  Or if I would need another appointment at the local clinic to check my lining and estradiol numbers again.

If our transfer is delayed one day, we will not have to change our travel plans.  We booked everything so we could stay and extra day just in case our transfer is delayed.  If we are delayed 2 days, then we will have to change our travel plans.  That means we would have to cough up an extra $200 per person just to change our flights.  And that is assuming we can get flights for the same price.  Also not sure if we will be able to find hotel rooms or car rental for new dates, and if that would cost us even more.  I hate that it has to be about more money.

Sigh.....  Looking at the big picture, I should be grateful.  It is just delayed, not cancelled.  Plus, it is just money (though a lot of it).

In the end, it is the unknown that is driving me crazy.  I just want to know what's going on.  I need to plan, make sure everything is taken care of.  And I guess I am disappointed that this hurdle has come up.  That I may not be able to meet the other NEDC embryo adoption mamas this weekend.

On the other hand, I can postpone starting my progesterone in oil shots just a little bit longer.

Please pray that my estradiol numbers come back good, that I can keep my Sunday transfer date.  And if I can't then pray that it will be delayed by one day, not two.

I'll keep you updated when I find out more about my next steps.

Donor Order Switch & Calendars

Yesterday, we finally made the decision to switch the order of our donor families.  If you remember, I had posted in the past how our first option, Family A is more like us physically and Family B, we seemed to have more in common and have more of a connection.  You can read more about our donor families here and here.

After discussing this with Babe, Debbie our counselor, and a few other people, we made the decision to switch the order.  I emailed Angie the coordinator at NEDC and she confirmed our changed, marked that in our medical records and informed the embryologist of this.

If you are keeping track, going forward we will refer to the donor families as this:

         First Family: Formerly known as Family B

         Second Family: Formerly known as Family A

So, going into our transfer on 9/22, we will thaw and transfer embryos from First Family first.  That means we will start off with the 3 blastocysts from First Family.  If only one or zero blasts survive the thaw, then blastocysts from Second Family (of which we have 5) will be thawed and transferred.  We will mostly likely transfer 2 embryos, but up to 3 if the quality of the third one is not great.

It's good to finally make the decision to switch.  Deep down I've wanted to switch the order for a while.  Now we pray that this works!

Things are going to start picking up medication wise.  I will start adding Es.trace twice a day next week, and then progesterone in oil (PIO) shots starts a few days before the transfer.  To keep all these in order, I created a calendar on Microsoft Word with all the medications, shots and appointments so they are all visible and easier to keep track of.  Also, I added them to my calendar on my iPhone, with reminders so I don't forget (I already forgot to take Lup.ron once, and took it 2 hours later than usual).

Below are a couple of screen shots of both.  They are kinda small and may be hard to see the details, but you get the idea.

FET Calendar created on Microsoft Word

Shots, meds and apointments with reminders on my iCal
(this only shows FET related items)

How do/did you keep track of your meds?