Other than the ship
ment of drugs, not much else is new in our infertility journey. We will be headed to Naples, FL for some much needed sun and relaxation right before we start the cycle. We get back 2/26 and I start lupron on 2/27. Fun!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The Drugs Have Arrived!!
Well, they actually arrived last Wednesday, but I thought I would share a photo of them. The meds are all in the back with the corresponding needles in front of them. I've set them all up in our guest bathroom in the order in which they will be used. I like being able to see what is there and what is ahead. What we are willing to put ourselves through for the hope of creating a life!
Other than the ship
ment of drugs, not much else is new in our infertility journey. We will be headed to Naples, FL for some much needed sun and relaxation right before we start the cycle. We get back 2/26 and I start lupron on 2/27. Fun!
Other than the ship
ment of drugs, not much else is new in our infertility journey. We will be headed to Naples, FL for some much needed sun and relaxation right before we start the cycle. We get back 2/26 and I start lupron on 2/27. Fun!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Program Start Appointment
We had our program start appointment on Monday. They did a saline sono to make sure I didn’t have polyps or fibroids (I was all clear) and then they did the trial transfer. Everything went well, except I had the recommended 48 ounces of water and on ultrasound it didn’t look like I had had anything. I ended up drinking 96 ounces of water in an hour. I felt a little sick from that! I was trembling because I was cold and I was dizzy. I think with the actual embryo transfer I will drink warm water to keep a steady body temperature. We also had our injection teaching, where they taught both Mark and I how to do our injections. The injections I'll be doing are virtually the same as the ones I did over the summer for our injectible IUI's. The ones Mark will be doing are in my behind...I hope he's good at it!
The only bad part of the day was when we met with the scheduler. She had our dates all set for a tentative retrieval of 4/9!!!!! I was not happy! I asked why they had put me on the pill so early. We are trying to conceive and we would have had another month to try naturally or via an IUI, but they put me on the pill! She said it was so that I would be ready when they wanted to start! I was more than frustrated! I told her that I would have gone with our other clinic if I had known it was going to take so long to get in. She went and talked to the doctor and came back with a new retrieval of 3/19. It’s still about three weeks later than we anticipated, but much better. I start lupron (the drug that suppresses the ovaries that is started while still on the birth control pill) on 2/27. I have a baseline ultrasound on 3/6 to make sure my ovaries are quiet and my endometrial lining looks good. If all is a go, I start the stimulation drugs bravelle and menopur on 3/8. I'll be on 75 units of both of those drugs, which is a very minimal dosage. They are hoping my eggs will be nice and ripe for a trigger shot on 3/17 and retrieval on 3/19. Then we would transfer the fertilized embryos back into my uterus either 3/21 or 3/23, depending on how they look. I'm hoping for a day 5 transfer on 3/23. That means we had so many embryos that were growing so well that they could let them grow a little longer to determine the best ones to transfer back to my uterus.
I’m excited to get started, but I can’t help being nervous. I’m nervous because this is our ‘last shot’. I know there is a very high probability that we will be one of the 80% for whom it works, but I’m just not ready to accept it if it doesn’t. They say it generally takes about a year to get through the entire shared risk program if you don’t achieve pregnancy, so I guess I have awhile to get used to it if it comes to that.
The doctor is really optimistic because of my age. His only concern is that I will over stimulate because of my prior reaction to stimulation drugs. He is starting me out VERY slowly and he’s going to monitor me closely. The only reason I’m nervous is because with PCOS you sometimes have poor egg quality. I’m just hoping they get fewer eggs of great quality. Ah!!!! I’m just ready to get going! My meds are being delivered today. I’m going to use our second upstairs bathroom as my lab! I just want to lay everything out and make sure it is all there!
As always, keep us in your prayers!
The only bad part of the day was when we met with the scheduler. She had our dates all set for a tentative retrieval of 4/9!!!!! I was not happy! I asked why they had put me on the pill so early. We are trying to conceive and we would have had another month to try naturally or via an IUI, but they put me on the pill! She said it was so that I would be ready when they wanted to start! I was more than frustrated! I told her that I would have gone with our other clinic if I had known it was going to take so long to get in. She went and talked to the doctor and came back with a new retrieval of 3/19. It’s still about three weeks later than we anticipated, but much better. I start lupron (the drug that suppresses the ovaries that is started while still on the birth control pill) on 2/27. I have a baseline ultrasound on 3/6 to make sure my ovaries are quiet and my endometrial lining looks good. If all is a go, I start the stimulation drugs bravelle and menopur on 3/8. I'll be on 75 units of both of those drugs, which is a very minimal dosage. They are hoping my eggs will be nice and ripe for a trigger shot on 3/17 and retrieval on 3/19. Then we would transfer the fertilized embryos back into my uterus either 3/21 or 3/23, depending on how they look. I'm hoping for a day 5 transfer on 3/23. That means we had so many embryos that were growing so well that they could let them grow a little longer to determine the best ones to transfer back to my uterus.
I’m excited to get started, but I can’t help being nervous. I’m nervous because this is our ‘last shot’. I know there is a very high probability that we will be one of the 80% for whom it works, but I’m just not ready to accept it if it doesn’t. They say it generally takes about a year to get through the entire shared risk program if you don’t achieve pregnancy, so I guess I have awhile to get used to it if it comes to that.
The doctor is really optimistic because of my age. His only concern is that I will over stimulate because of my prior reaction to stimulation drugs. He is starting me out VERY slowly and he’s going to monitor me closely. The only reason I’m nervous is because with PCOS you sometimes have poor egg quality. I’m just hoping they get fewer eggs of great quality. Ah!!!! I’m just ready to get going! My meds are being delivered today. I’m going to use our second upstairs bathroom as my lab! I just want to lay everything out and make sure it is all there!
As always, keep us in your prayers!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Day 3 Labs
I got the results for my day 3 labs. They were great! One more thing to check off on the list on our way to IVF! They showed that my ovarian reserve was great (meaning I won't go through menopause for a long time and I have a great reserve of eggs). My LH and Estradiol were also great meaning that I should react well to stimulation! These results aren't a huge surprise...but I'll celebrate this little victory anyway!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Playing By The Rules...And Moving On!!
Well, on my way to my IVF consultation with my new doctor yesterday...I got my monthly friend. So, our 'miracle' natural cycle baby didn't happen, but my body is playing by the rules. I had a perfectly positive OPK test on CD18 and got my period on CD33. That is fantastic for my bod!
In better news...we have it the road running with the IVF process:
1/14/08 CD1 - met with new RE to discuss IVF plan. He is going to keep me on low doses of stimulation drugs to prevent me from overstimulating and hopefully get a few great eggs instead of tons of lower quality eggs.
1/16/08 CD3 - I will go in for a new blood work panel to make sure my bloodwork still looks good. It should be showing that I am completely normal and regulated now (I was almost completely normal last time, but it should be even better now that I'm on metformin for PCOS)...let's keep our fingers crossed!
1/16/08 CD3 - start the pill in preparation for IVF. The pill allows the doctors to determine the timing of IVF, but also 'quiets' the ovaries to make sure they are clear for the start of the cycle. I'm officially in CD limbo at this point.
1/29/08 - Mark has a repeat semen analysis done along with repeat bloodwork to make sure he is good to go. We will also take a psychological test and meet with a psychologist...let's hope we pass! :)
2/4/08 - We pay the clinic THE BIG BUCKS. We have to pay the full amount up front. We meet with the business office at our clinic to pay and sign a bunch of consent forms. Then they do a sonohysterogram (to check for polyps and fibroids in my uterus) and a trial transfer (to see which catheter they will need to use to transfer the embryos to my uterus). After all that, we will take a class in injections for both Mark and I to learn when, what and how to do the multiple injections that are involved in IVF.
After all the testing, we will then have a date for when we will start stimulation drugs and tentative dates for egg retrieval (getting the eggs from my ovaries) and egg transfer (transferring the embryos back to my uterus). I expect we will start stims in mid February and have the retrieval and transfer in late February or early March!!
In better news...we have it the road running with the IVF process:
1/14/08 CD1 - met with new RE to discuss IVF plan. He is going to keep me on low doses of stimulation drugs to prevent me from overstimulating and hopefully get a few great eggs instead of tons of lower quality eggs.
1/16/08 CD3 - I will go in for a new blood work panel to make sure my bloodwork still looks good. It should be showing that I am completely normal and regulated now (I was almost completely normal last time, but it should be even better now that I'm on metformin for PCOS)...let's keep our fingers crossed!
1/16/08 CD3 - start the pill in preparation for IVF. The pill allows the doctors to determine the timing of IVF, but also 'quiets' the ovaries to make sure they are clear for the start of the cycle. I'm officially in CD limbo at this point.
1/29/08 - Mark has a repeat semen analysis done along with repeat bloodwork to make sure he is good to go. We will also take a psychological test and meet with a psychologist...let's hope we pass! :)
2/4/08 - We pay the clinic THE BIG BUCKS. We have to pay the full amount up front. We meet with the business office at our clinic to pay and sign a bunch of consent forms. Then they do a sonohysterogram (to check for polyps and fibroids in my uterus) and a trial transfer (to see which catheter they will need to use to transfer the embryos to my uterus). After all that, we will take a class in injections for both Mark and I to learn when, what and how to do the multiple injections that are involved in IVF.
After all the testing, we will then have a date for when we will start stimulation drugs and tentative dates for egg retrieval (getting the eggs from my ovaries) and egg transfer (transferring the embryos back to my uterus). I expect we will start stims in mid February and have the retrieval and transfer in late February or early March!!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Update
Well, I'm on CD22 of a natural cycle. Nothing much to report on that end...but we have come to a decision. We are going to go forward with IVF!! We had a consultation with our doctor. He said that with what we know, I should be able to get pregnant with IUI's. What we don't know might be hurting us.
There is always the possibility that Mark's little guys can't penetrate an egg or that my outer egg is too hard to be penetrated...or both. The only way to find out is to do IVF. We are sick of this journey. We want 2008 to be the year we figure it out. If we can't get there through IVF, we will consider adoption.
We will be doing a program where you get three fresh tries (where they stimulate my ovaries and harvest my eggs) and multiple frozen egg transfers (where they take the left over embryos from a fresh cycle, thaw them and implant them in my uterus). After all the frozen eggs are gone and if we don't get pregnant from fresh cycles or frozen egg transfers, we get a majority of our money back. It's a huge monetary investment, but continually doing IUI's is as well. We just want to be parents! I wish this was all easier for us, but at least we've decided on the next step. With IVF, each cycle has about a 50% chance of working (versus a 20% chance with IUI's). Over the whole program, we have about an 80% chance of conception. I'm excited to get started!!
There is always the possibility that Mark's little guys can't penetrate an egg or that my outer egg is too hard to be penetrated...or both. The only way to find out is to do IVF. We are sick of this journey. We want 2008 to be the year we figure it out. If we can't get there through IVF, we will consider adoption.
We will be doing a program where you get three fresh tries (where they stimulate my ovaries and harvest my eggs) and multiple frozen egg transfers (where they take the left over embryos from a fresh cycle, thaw them and implant them in my uterus). After all the frozen eggs are gone and if we don't get pregnant from fresh cycles or frozen egg transfers, we get a majority of our money back. It's a huge monetary investment, but continually doing IUI's is as well. We just want to be parents! I wish this was all easier for us, but at least we've decided on the next step. With IVF, each cycle has about a 50% chance of working (versus a 20% chance with IUI's). Over the whole program, we have about an 80% chance of conception. I'm excited to get started!!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Same Story, Different Month
Yep, it was negative. We are trying au naturale after I get my period because we are heading to Mexico tomorrow morning. Our RE has us moving to injectible medications with an IUI the cycle after that. We are seriously exploring IVF (invitro fertilization) too. I'm sad.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Things of Four
Ok, for those of you who just come here for my infertility updates I apologize. I've been tagged by a fellow IF (infertility) blogger...so I feel I must cooperate!
Four Jobs I've Had
- Grease monkey at Zooper Food at the Como Zoo (I only lasted a couple of weeks...but I think it counts)
- Ticket girl for the Minnesota State Fair
- International Accountant...yeah, sounds way cooler than it was...hence where I am now!
- Realtor...and loving it!
Four Movies I've Watched More Than Once
- This is tough because I HATE watching movies twice...Grease (I loved it as a kid)
- Finding Nemo
- Part of Shrek 2
-Ok, that's about it.
Four Places I've Vacationed
- Mexico (favorite...love it!)
- Europe
- Costa Rica
- Florida (gotta love Mom & Dad's condo!)
Four of My Favorite Foods
- Anything Tex Mex
- Pizza
- French Fries
- Steak
Four Places I'd Rather Be
- Mexico (soon, very soon)
- Florida (see you in March)
- A maternity ward giving birth to our child (sorry, had to be said)
- Australia (only because I've never been and anyone that has, has loved it!)
Four Hobbies I Engage in Regularly
- Working out
- Travel
- Drinking wine (does that count?)
- Reading the Resolve.org infertility bulletin boards (I'm quite the addict)
I would tag four other people, but I don't know that many 'bloggers'.
Four Jobs I've Had
- Grease monkey at Zooper Food at the Como Zoo (I only lasted a couple of weeks...but I think it counts)
- Ticket girl for the Minnesota State Fair
- International Accountant...yeah, sounds way cooler than it was...hence where I am now!
- Realtor...and loving it!
Four Movies I've Watched More Than Once
- This is tough because I HATE watching movies twice...Grease (I loved it as a kid)
- Finding Nemo
- Part of Shrek 2
-Ok, that's about it.
Four Places I've Vacationed
- Mexico (favorite...love it!)
- Europe
- Costa Rica
- Florida (gotta love Mom & Dad's condo!)
Four of My Favorite Foods
- Anything Tex Mex
- Pizza
- French Fries
- Steak
Four Places I'd Rather Be
- Mexico (soon, very soon)
- Florida (see you in March)
- A maternity ward giving birth to our child (sorry, had to be said)
- Australia (only because I've never been and anyone that has, has loved it!)
Four Hobbies I Engage in Regularly
- Working out
- Travel
- Drinking wine (does that count?)
- Reading the Resolve.org infertility bulletin boards (I'm quite the addict)
I would tag four other people, but I don't know that many 'bloggers'.
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