Trigger Time!

Update from today's appointment:
     Lining: 15 mm
     Left ovary: 16, 15.5, 15, 15, 13, 13, 13, 11, 11, 10
     Right Ovary: 19.5, 19, 18, 17.5, 15.5, 15.5, 14.5, 14, 14

Today, I noticed that my lining seemed to have shrunk 1 mm so I checked with the nurse. She is not concerned because it is only a 1 mm difference.  To tell the truth, I think these measurements are not always consistent because I get a different ultrasound tech every time anyways.  So far I've only had the same tech once.  So the numbers for the follicles may not be exact in comparison from day to day either.  I'm not going to get too hung up on the numbers.  At this point, it looks like I have 10 mature follicles (15 mm or larger).

Anyway, the point is I'm READY!  The nurse called this afternoon to confirm.

I'm triggering tonight!!

My Babe will be giving me my HCG shot tonight at 7:30 p.m.  After this, I'm done with all my shots.  Yippee!!

I get a break tomorrow.  Then I check in at the clinic at 6:30 a.m on Friday, and my retrieval is set for 7:30 am.  Dr. Hopeful (my regular RE) will not be there to do the retrieval, but one of her partners, Dr. M will be doing it.

Before  leaving the clinic this morning, I had the nurse draw circle on my left butt cheek with a black sharpie pen for where my Babe should be sticking the needle.  So now, I'm walking around with a black circle on my butt under my jeans.  He's got a target to shoot for, or shoot in tonight.

Also, Nan had commented on yesterday's post about assisted hatching.  I checked with the nurse today, and it sounds like they will be doing assisted hatching for me.  If you are 35 or older (I'm 36), it is standard procedure at the clinic to perform assisted hatching.  So thanks Nan, for suggesting this.

I'll update later about how the trigger shot goes tonight.  Wish me luck!

Oh by the way, Happy St. Patty's Day!

Not Tonight

Here's the report from today's appointment, which is also Day 12 of stims.
     Lining: 16 mm ~ Whoa... it grew 4 mms overnight!
     Right ovary: 15.5, 14.5, 14.5, 14, 13, 13, 12, 12, 10
     Left ovary: 18.5, 17.5, 17, 17, 16, 14, 14, 14, 13, 10, 10
     Total: 20

As of this morning, I have 6 mature follicles and 7 that are really close.  Looks like leftie has really caught up and is leading in this race!  When I left the clinic this morning, they wouldn't even give me any instructions on what to expect, except to wait for the phone call this afternoon.

I just got the phone call.  No trigger tonight.  I am to take only 1 vial of Meno.pur this afternoon (which I just did), and then 200 IUs of Follis.tim again tonight.  Then only the 5 units of Lu.pron in the morning.  I will wait for more instructions at the appointment tomorrow morning.

More waiting.  I'm actually quite OK with waiting, I am not that anxious to trigger.  I'm more than happy to wait another day if that helps me get more mature follicles.  I just hope that taking my Meno.pur today at 3 pm instead of 9 am is not too late.

Please follicles, please grow!

Looking at my IVF calendar, as of tomorrow, I would have been at the RE's clinic 7 out of the last 10 days for ultrasound and blood work appointments.  I hope tomorrow will be my last trip before my retrieval.

And The Drama Continues

First of all, I need to apologize for an error in yesterday's posting about my follicle measurements.  I found out today that once a follicle grows to 15 mm or larger, they take two dimensional measurements and then average it out.  The larger numbers I posted yesterday, I only listed the larger of the two numbers.

For example, my 17 mm follicle was actually 17x6, and therefore should have been 11.5.  My 16 mm follicle was actually 16x11, so that should have measured 13.5.

So...... the numbers I posted yesterday were way further ahead than in reality.  I found that out today when I noticed that my numbers seem to have shrunk and checked with the nurse.  I've corrected my numbers in the post.

My sincere apologies!

OK, on to today's appointment.
     Lining: 12 mm - really good
     Right ovary: 15, 15, 15, 14.5, 13, 13, 12, 11
     Left ovary: 15.5, 14, 13, 12, 12, 12, 12, 11, 10, 10, 10 (plus 5 small)

I have a total of 19 follicles now, compared to 14 yesterday.  They just keep coming!  I'm really happy with how things are progressing.  The left ovary is really catching up with, 4 more since yesterday.

The nurse mentioned that follicles that are 15 mm or larger at trigger time would produce mature eggs at retrieval time.  They want to let the follicles that are close to 15 a chance to catch up, which sounds like a really great idea to me.  I'm hoping that I will have lots of mature eggs and hope that as many as possible will fertilize and make it to the blastocyst stage so that we can freeze some.  I didn't have any to freeze last time.

I go back tomorrow morning for another ultrasound and blood work.  I was supposed to continue with the same dosage of meds as yesterday, but the nurse called today and told me to reduce my Follis.tim to 200IUs instead of 225, and to hold of on the Meno.pur shot in the morning until after the appointment tomorrow.  I'm to continue my Lu.pron shot at 5 units.  I'm "really close", those were the nurse's words.

I actually have another appointment scheduled already for Wednesday, but that is just so I have first choice of appointment time.  I'm hoping that I won't need it.  It's easier to cancel an appointment than to schedule it last minute.  The last few days, everything has been up in the air.  First I thought I'd trigger Sunday, then I thought today.  Now, MAYBE tomorrow?  I'm hoping they will tell me I am ready to trigger tomorrow, but who knows. I'll let you know what I find out tomorrow.

On another note, I'm still feeling bloated and uncomfortable.  It is possible to get any more bloated?  I'm tired of feeling like this.   I hope I can trigger soon!

On the bright side, I have b00bs!!  I can tell by how my bras fit.  When it comes to bras, I am in between sizes.  The ones that usually fit well are now a little too snug.  The ones that are usually too big, well they've filled in quite nicely now.  Even my Babe has noticed.  For someone with a small chest, this is one side effect I don't mind.  Neither does my Babe.

Change of Plans, x2

Well today was an interesting day.   It was a treat because my Babe agreed to drag himself out of bed to go to my 7 am appointment with me this morning.  It was a dark and quiet drive at 6:30 am on Sunday morning, not many people were on the roads.

At the appointment, we found we made some progress.
     Lining: 11 mm, which is great.
     Right ovary: 17 11.5 (17x11), 16 13.5 (16x11), 14, 13, 12, 12 & 11 (plus 5 small ones)
     Left ovary: 13, 12, 12, 12, 11, 11 & 10 (plus 10 to 15 less than 8 mm)

I have a total of 14 follicles in the race now, compared to 9 on Friday.  Yippee!!

I thought we would have made a bit more progress on the size of the follicles, but I'm happy that we have 4 more follicles that have caught up.  I try to remember what someone once said that we don't want the follicles to grow too fast; slower growing follicles make better quality eggs.  Not sure if it's true, but it's comforting to hear.

Change of plans.  No trigger shot today.  Boo!

I am supposed to came back in on Tuesday for another ultrasound and blood work.  I was told to stay on the same regiment: 5 units of Lu.pron and 2 vials of Meno.pur in the mornings, and then 300IUs of Follis.tim in the evenings until Tuesday's appointment.

Also found out that I could continue to do my shots at the same time, even with daylight savings.  For a while, I thought I'd need to move the shots back an hour to make sure it was within the 12 hour window, but the nurse said it didn't make that much of a difference.  A different gal, drew my blood today, and found out that "Helga's" real name is actually Ea.  Interesting name.  I will continue to address her as Helga in this blog though.

After the appointment, my Babe and I stopped in at Mickey D's for breakfast, which is something we NEVER do.  Went home, did my morning shots, then off to church we went.  After church, both Babe and I crashed and took a long nap.  It was nice, because we woke up to a beautiful day, with warm temps around 57 degrees and sunshine.

I found out later this afternoon that a nurse had called and left a message.  It seems that my estrogen level had shot up to 1,275.  Not sure what that means exactly, but they want to monitor me more closely.  So, another change of plans.

I am to reduce my dosage of Follis.tim to 225 instead of 300IUs tonight.  Same dosage of Lu.pron and Meno.pur in the morning.  Then I am supposed to call first thing tomorrow (Monday) morning to schedule an appointment for the same morning.  They want to see where I am at that time.

*Sigh*  More changes.  Not sure if they will tell me to trigger tomorrow night, or if I would need to go back on Tuesday.  I'm not going to speculate, I guess I will just wait and see.

Bloating remains pretty much the same.  No changes from yesterday.

Hang around to see how all this plays out.

BLOATED!

One word.............

BLOATED!!

I am feeling bloated and uncomfortable.  I'm sure it will just get worse.  I keep thinking is this what it's going to be like if when I'm pregnant?  Not that I'm complaining, as I'll cherish every pregnancy symptom if when it happens.

I'm praying that my existing 9 follicles continue to grow nicely, and more follicles have grown into measurable size.  We'll find out more at tomorrow's appointmen if I'll trigger tomorrow or Monday.  (Not so) Bright and early at 7 am (technically 6 am if not considering the Daylight Savings change in time).

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!

Lazy Follies

I had my date with Mr. Wandy (ultrasound) and Helga (blood work) today, day 6 of stims.

My lining was 5mm, which is good.  However, my follies are lazy.  I have 10 small follicles on each ovary. 10 small.  Small.  I would have thought by now my follicles would have been at a measurable size, especially since we double the dosage of Meno.pur.  Dang lazy follies!

I suppose the one good thing is I now have 10 follicles on each ovary instead of 8 since March 2nd.  So I grew 4 more follies in 8 days.  Yay!!  Grow follies, grow!

I will continue my regimen of 5 units of Lu.pron and 2 vials of Meno.pur in the morning, and 300IUs of Follis.tim in the evening until my next appointment on Friday.  They will decide if anymore adjustments will be needed then.

I asked Nurse Amy when she thinks my egg retrieval will be.  Most people have the HCG (trigger) shots after 9 to 12 days of stims.  At the rate of how my follicles are growing, the nurse estimates that I would need 12 days of stims.  HCG shot is 36 hours before retrieval, so I am estimating that my ER would possibly be March 18th.  We'll see.

Helga drew my blood again today.  I'm starting to think that she is the only one that will be doing all my blood draws.  Not so excited about that.  I decided to switch and have my blood drawn from my right arm instead today.  My left arm was still sore and bruised from the last couple of visits.

As soon as I told Helga I wanted my to use my right arm this time, I started to panic!  It just occurred to me that I have never used my right arm for blood draws before this, ever!  I have always been so proud of left arm as I have never had any problems with it.  I noticed that my right arm does not have a nice visible vein that pops out a little, like my left arm does.  Suddenly horror stories of people being poked multiple times in the veins unsuccessfully came to mind!  Images of black and blue arms flashed by!

Argh!!.... what was I thinking?  Of course I was too embarrassed to switch arms by then.  Fortunately, Helga had no problem with my right arm.  I noticed that it hurt more after though, since I use my right arm more.

After the appointment, I called the pharmacy to refill my Meno.pur, plus I filled the rest of my prescription needed for the rest of the cycle:  Tetracy.cline, Va.lium, Endome.trin and Vi.velle.  Total cost: $296.95.  Again, thank you insurance company!

A side note: I have been experiencing headaches in the afternoons for the last couple of days.  I think it's the double dosage of Meno.pur.

I'm praying that my follies will behave and keep growing.

Come on..... Grow follies, grow!!