Embryo update day 3

No update yesterday, my dr got called out of the office on an emergency and didn’t get a chance to call. Of course I may have freaked out a bit, but here’s today’s update. Of the 16 that fertilized. 1 they did later, 13 of them divided and are now classified as grade 1. Our clinic grades them 1 to 4. 1 is the highest, so we are pretty happy with that result. Now we wait until the next call to see how many of them continue growing.

Also today is my first day being out of the house minus going to a Resturant for supper. Wish me luck, because I still just want to sleep all the time. Hopefully I survive 🙂

Embryo update day 1

This will be short, because I am tired and a bit busy. Trying to get back to normal.

Out of the 26 eggs, 15 have been fertilized successfully. 5/6 were to small or didn’t make it. The 5 that are remaining they are waiting to see how they are doing if they will fertilize or not. All in all I think this is a pretty good percentage, now we hope they grow well over the next few days to make it to freeze.

I will update tomorrow after the next call.

Retrieval Day

Well today was the day, the day our eggs become part of the world. We woke up early and let our little Sandy out. Then loaded up the truck, with sick bags, peanuts and Gatorade and took off for the hour and a half trip to Madison. I was a bit ill last night and was worried about it changing the plans for today. Thankfully it didn’t. We got checked in, and I got taken back to my recovery room.

The nurse, couldn’t get over how strong and cute we were together. So I ended up tearing up, I had never been sedated before so I think part was nerves. The hormones probably didn’t help either. She attached an iv, with saline and I sat there with that for awhile and waited for my turn. Finally after what seemed like ages the nurses came back. It was probably only 10 minutes, I read hdtv magazine while I waited. They took me back to the OR, where the finished prepping me and they had the anti nausea, pain and sleeping medicines. I don’t remember much after my nurse said she would be sitting there staring at me the whole time and I laughed. (They told me later that I said the View was awful for making fun of nurses and it was a hot topic.) While being under, which made my day. 🙂

During this time Jim was doing his bit and then got set up in scrubs to come sit with me. I was out for about a half hour. He said I woke up once before actually remembering he just gave me a kiss and I was back out. Then I woke up for real. The nurse said we got 26 eggs, some of the follicles had 2! I had never heard of that before. But they were thrilled, and after recovering for an hour. Vital checks every fifteen minutes they sent me home. Warning me of ohss and that I might be nauseous.

Considering how sick I felt last night and this morning I figured I would be sick. But instead I was starving. I ate a ton of peanuts and had some Gatorade until I convinced Jim I was well enough for biscuits and gravy. We stopped at a little café we found and I ate a ton. Then we headed home, where I proceeded to nap for two hours. I am feeling another nap after supper. Tomorrow we get the update on how many eggs were mature and made it through fertilization so I am anxiously awaiting the call!

Thanks for reading and all the well wishes!

Final countdown

We had our last regular ultrasound today. Blood test first of course, of course my one arm still twitches from yesterday. Then the follicle measurement.

Left is 19 18 17 16 15 15 14 13 12

Right is 24 19 17 17 11

So about 10-12 of them are the right size for retrieval I am hoping the little 11 and 12 catch up, but they might not.

On the way home we got my progesterone and estrogen results. Progesterone is 3.82 and estrogen is 1708, which means my body is trying to ovulate on its own. Not the best scenario but the eggs are mostly ready. Tonight at 1030 I take my trigger shot, (ovidrel) and then Thursday morning at 845 am its retrieval time. My first time ever under anesthesia, I am getting a bit nervous about that part.  But I had my last gonal f last night and last cetrotide this morning. I add in some medicines tonight and after retrieval to lower chance of infection.

My doctor warned me to take it easy tomorrow because I will be uncomfortable. So I am planning on plenty of rest, going out for lunch and hanging out with the pup. I actually haven’t felt to bad through out the process. Just a little tired and the skin of a teenager have been the worst side effects. After standing for 6 hours yesterday my sides hurt, but it will be worth it.

Yet another trip to Madison

We had another appointment today. It went well for the most part. The nurse who hates my vein rolled one and hit a nerve. Seeing my arm spaz out was interesting and hurt a bit. Then the other nurse finished, thank goodness. Then we got to see how our eggs were doing and the results are.

Left side 18 17 17 16 16 14 13 12 11 10

Right side 23, 20 18 15 12 11

We found out on the way home we are set for a freeze all for sure. My progesterone level was at 2.7, over the 2 limit. My estrogen was at 1748.

We got a surprise on the way home our appointment we thought was going to be on Wednesday was moved to tomorrow. So our retrieval will probably be Thursday! Getting nervous and excited, but that’s all for now I have been tired all week (and its only Monday) .

Going to the clinic round 3!

Today we had another appointment at the clinic. My blood draw was first and it was the best one so far, no bleeding or big bruises after. Then was the ultrasound we are looking at 15 eggs still. On the right we 3 that measure 12mm, then 3 or 4 that are under 10. The left side is a bit more exciting at 4 at 11mm then 5 to 7 that are under 10. The doctor seems happy with the results, and said my lining looks good. Since I am under the threshold for overstimulation but still responding well. Tonight I up my gonal f dosage to 450.

My blood tests came in at estrogen 694 and progesterone .62 🙂 Even though I still will probably freeze this is a good sign. Tomorrow I add in Cetrotide, which stops my body from ovulating early. This shot will be in the morning everyday until I trigger. We have to mix this one ourselves so that could get interesting, but we are slowly getting closer to retrieval. Which still looks like next week Wednesday through Friday!  Our next visit is Monday morning at 830.

Another day, another doctor appointment

Today was a busy day, got up early for our second trip to Madison. After using meds for three days, I still feel good. Which was a bit of a shock, on Femara I had so many headaches and was fatigued. But not so far with gonal f. Our appointment was pretty standard, is it sad when meetings with the infertility doctor become normal? Oh well I guess that is digressing again.

We drove up this morning in the pouring rain and I got out of the car then got soaked. I got checked in, checking in is easy the receptionist knows us pretty well by now. First comes the blood test, after seeing my lovely bruises from Saturday the regular nurse didn’t want to do it so the nurse practitioner did it. It went fine, then we went in for the ultrasound. On the right side we have about four follicles growing and on the left around 11 she can see, giving us about 15 total. So that’s good, if the sides were even and if we had over 20 at this point overstimulation would become more worrisome. We gave the clinic a brief overview of the lost meds, then we then started back home. Upon checking the portal my doctor raised my dosage to 375 for the next two days. Our next appointment is Thursday at 830 am, where we learn about our next drug that will be entering our protocol Cetrotide (the ovulation stopper).

Here we go!!

Today we started our ivf journey! We were planning on starting next week but things change. So this morning we woke up early and started toward Madison. We met with our doctor and had our first ultrasound. She did and ultrasound for eggs, checked my estrogen level and we had our mock transfer. On our ultrasound she found 8-11 measurable eggs which is good she said, no cysts and the mock transfer went well too.

The blood tests for me are always an adventure. I grew up with this massive fear of needles, kind of funny I just poked myself with a needle. But I will talk about that later. The nurse rolled my vein in my right arm, so my doctor ended up doing it herself. Which went better but I still bruised like crazy and had a reaction to the bandaid which is always cute.

My estrogen level I found out on our way home was 58.5, and she listed our amount of gonal f to do, 300. So tonight after work we did it. Okay I did it but Jim helped, he double checked the amount to inject and kept me calm. All in all the lead up and the pinching of the skin to put the shot in was worse then the injection but its done for now. I hope the next few days go as easy as tonight. Our next appointment is Tuesday at 845 am CT. There we will have another ultrasound and blood test.

Thanks for reading, we appreciate the support!

Up, down and up again

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Yesterday I took the leap into the next round of our journey. I ordered my medications, for next day overnight delivery. I got to work super early and called into the pharmacy right after they opened. After twenty minutes and informing them they had my address wrong we had them shipped. I was so nervous my hands were shaking when I placed the call.

Since they were shipped for overnight by fedex they came in today. But it was a bit of a roller coaster, I got up this morning to see that the box had left scenic somerset New Jersey and was in Iowa. Yay so close, I watched the package steadily move closer. Then suddenly my phone dinged. Missed pick up from fedex it said, but I had been home all day. Turns out the wrong address was still on the slip, thankfully no one was there at the wrong house. Because if they were opened or not refridgerated it’s a big mess.

I called the pharmacy a bit panicked. Okay I was freaking out a lot. They then played phone tag with the FedEx company to see if he would be back in the area. After about two hours of pacing, calling and about to break something. A FedEx employee called he (the awesome delivery man) could meet me at my favorite bar on his way by but wouldn’t be back in my town. The bar is three minutes from my house. So after this all started at 230, I finally got my meds a little after 5. I was so grateful for him letting us meet him there. I now find it humorous that I picked up my stuff at the bar and a great story to tell 🙂 there is a lot there gonal f, cetrotide, ovidrel, doxycycl, cabergoline, diazepam and estradiol. So it will get fun here soon. And I will probably become a bit crazy. But I am so excited for the next step in our journey. 

This crazy ride

The past few days have been a whirl wind. On a sad note I lost my aunt last night, this got me thinking about all the amazing people our babies will miss out on because we couldn’t get pregnant. Because for some reason that is where I always go. Even though they will never meet them, I can not wait to teach our babies about them. To tell them I love them everyday! My late grandfather was an amazing man who taught me Sundays are for family, whether or not you go to church. Spend time together then, eat lunch as a family. Anything else can wait until tomorrow. My aunt makes me think that life is what you make it. Drive a fast car because you want too, eat that ice cream and ride that horse. Don’t let the naysayers get you down.

Between that crazy time my clinic and pharmacy were playing phone tag with me, but I think we have it all figured out. I planned my time off for a week during mid September and we are starting around the 5th. Any visitors during this time would be greatly appreciated. I promise to keep my hormones in check or try to anyway. I order my meds next weekend already.

Until next time!

Katrina