Trigger

I'm officially done with the stims as of last night. I took my morning shot of Ganerelix and will take the trigger sometime tonight. I'm still waiting to hear from the nurses for the exact moment.

My scan today gave some interesting new numbers. I really don't even know what to think of it, so I'm not thinking much at all. Ha ha

Righty: 21.5, and 13.5
Lefty: 28.5, 27, 17.5, 12.5, and 11. So we have two newcommers aboard?! I had a different nurse do the scan and she was much more thorough than the first few. She spent at least 3 or 4 minutes looking around and trying to get really good images.

I've jumped considerably in size, about 5mm in one day...that seems awfully fast to me, hopefully it doesn't hurt anything. I'm just hoping for something to work out on Saturday.

I go back in tomorrow for blood work only, so I'm pretty much in the dark until ER. I'll keep you posted. Thanks for all your words of encouragement, it really helps.

Day 8

Today has been a ride.

I went to my latest checkup and things haven't progressed as I would have liked. I might be back to only three follicles to work with now.

The problem is, my lead follicles are getting too large and aren't giving the little one's time to catch up. I have some hard numbers to share with you guys today.

Righty has one follicle at 16mm and a pathetic little 11mm
Lefty has a 23mm, 22.5mm and a sad little 12mm

I saw a partner of NY RE and he broke it down for me. He confirmed that they would do the egg retrieval on Saturday. I didn't ask for my E2, I was a little freaked out after I heard the numbers and forgot.

The craziness came this afternoon. A nurse called to tell me to take the HCG trigger shot tonight! That would put egg retrieval on Friday. Ummm...okay, but M isn't going to be here yet. I was in a near panic when she told me all of this! I explained the situation to her, 'cause clearly she and the partner didn't know any of this.

She said she'd speak to the same RE who made the decision and call me back. Five minutes later she called and said it would be fine to push ER until Saturday. Of course that made me and M verrrry nervous. Obviously if the best outcome is to do the ER on Friday, then M would need to get up here asap.

Fortunately M decided to speak to our RE directly and get his take on the situation. NY RE said that after reviewing the information, he preferred a Saturday ER anyway. We are now breathing a bit easier, but I'm still a little nervous about the large follicles. I'm scared the big one's will be too big and the small, too small leaving me with just one! Oh well.

I'm still disapointed in our situation, but we won't know anything really for a few days. I'm trying to just relax and stay positive.

Day 7 of Stims

Not much to report. I'm starting to get sore, it hurts to stand up and sit down, but it's not a big deal. I'm also starting to puff up a bit in the middle. I'm trying to eat well, lots of fruits, veggies, eggs, meat, salmon and water. I'm hoping the protein will give me healthy eggs!

I'm feeling a little more hopeful that this isn't an entire waste of time. I've googled many positive outcomes with just a few follicles, so it's not over yet.

Just because, I'm going to post some pics of my drugs :) I actually have two because I ordered my meds in two batches. I didn't want to be stuck holding thousands of dollars of pharmaceuticals if I was canceled. I'm so optomistic. Ha ha. My second (and final?) batch arrived this morning. I might have to order just a few more things if my retrieval is on Sunday, but I'm waiting until then.

Feast your eyes on the drugs...









I kinda wish I could have had them all together for dramatic effect. Oh well.

I'll update after tomorrows appointment.

Day 6 of Stims

I just had my second sono and blood work. I'm happy to report that I've improved, if only slightly. I now have a grand total of four follicles over 10mm with another small one lagging behind.

So lefty is putting out three and righty has one plus another under 10mm. I spoke with NY RE and he was encouraging, but somewhat neutral on the situation. Obviously less than five follicles isn't stellar, but he said it could be worse. I could be older with less than five follicles. Sadly he didn't use his crystal ball to read my future.

He said my E2 numbers are nice and high, which could be good or bad. It could mean that my first three (and now fourth) follicles are growing like crazy and the others are lagging or it could mean that more follicles will soon appear. I'm hoping for more -I'm greedy like that :)

I haven't asked for specific numbers at this point and they haven't offered them. The clinic is efficient, but they don't hand hold. They don't even write down appointment times or dosage instructions for you unless you request it.

I think it might be better not to know the details, less to obsess about. I do know that my original three follicles were greater than 10mm (I think around 14mm)on Saturday and no other follicles were seen, but the tech wasn't trying too hard to look for smaller antral follicles. She spent all of 60 seconds looking around.

NY RE has put my retrieval date at either Saturday or Sunday. M is going to fly up this Friday. Yay.

Now for the annoying news.

The topic of Fragile X Syndrome was brought up...a little late in the game I might add. My mother entered menopause early, while in her late 30's and NY RE said that is an indicator for Fragile X. He is having me tested, but it almost doesn't matter now. We're on the path we're on. We won't find out the results for another 10 days.

By that time, I could potentially already have put back an embryo or two. I almost don't know what the point of testing is now, but I haven't done much research on the matter. I only know that it affects girls reproductive lifespan and it can cause mental retardation in boys. We don't have a history of mental retardation(that I'm aware of)in our family, so I'm hoping this isn't something to worry about.

Nice of him to bring this up now, huh?

Thanks for all of your encouragement, I really appreciate it!!!

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Small Update: Menopur has been increased to three vials a night. Hmmmmm...

Now I'm Out of Order

Ahhhh, this isn't going well...again.

I just had my first scan since starting the stims, and it's not good. Only 3 follicles are making their presence known. I was hoping for at least 5. I have one on my right and two on my left.

I'm to start taking Ganirelix in the mornings and keep up my 450 Follistim and 2 vials of Menopur. I go back in two days for another scan. I'm hoping to speak to NY RE and get his take on the situation Monday.

It goes without saying that I'm very disapointed, I'm torn between writing off this IVF (and all hopes of getting pregnant with my own eggs) and maintaining hope. I guess there's still some sort of chance that things could work out. M is working with the glass half full theory, I'm trying to join him. :)

Later, I'm off to spend my gorgeous Saturday in Central Park with friends.

Out of Order

I mean the posts, not my body -hopefully. LOL



That's a picture from lunch on Saturday, I had my final drink before IVF, a pomegranate margarita. M and I had a wonderful day in NYC, the weather was warm, and we took it easy -Drs. orders! We had lunch at a mexican restaurant in SOHO and strolled around for a while taking in the sites. If I had to live in NYC, I would definately want to live in SOHO (and so would everyone else! LOL)





My old college roomate met us for dinner and then introduced us to Pinkberrys, an outstandingly delicious frozen yogurt. I can't wait to go back and get more, I think I'm addicted! I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to go back to FL and can't get any.

Let the Games Begin!

I saw the RE on Monday for my post-op and got a thumbs up.

Today I had bloodwork and ultrasound. The nurse gave me instructions to take 450 Follistim and 2 vials of Menopur nightly until Saturday. Now that's a serious starting dose!

Hopefully I will be responding well when they check me out this weekend. :) Think good thoughts for me, this is where things have gone south in the past, so I'm nervous.

Hurdle One Down

So far so good. I had my Hystereoscopy this morning, and it was pleasantly uneventful.

I picked up M from Laguardia last night, it was so nice to see him again. We're going to try to enjoy the day tomorrow in the city, it's supposed to be warm!!!

Anyway, back to the Hystereoscopy...they did a wonderful job with my anesthesia, I had no issues when I woke up, I was alert and nausea free. I'm also in very little discomfort, most of my periods are wayyyy more painful than this. I haven't needed to take anything for it. :)

The really stupid thing is, I can't remember when NY RE told me to cease the BCP's. We discussed it the other day at the pre-op appointment and he went back and forth. Now I can't remember what was decided! Doh. I left a message this afternoon, but I probably won't get a call back until tomorrow. I will probably take it tonight just to be safe, but I think I'm supposed to stop. At the worst, I will be off by a day.

I go in on Monday for my post-op appointment and to get the green light for the really fun stuff. I'm nervous about giving myself injections, M has always been kind enough to do the dirty work, I just had to turn my head and exhale slowly. My college roomate has volunteered, so hopefully she can be my back up if I chicken out. I'm hoping I can put the big girl panties on though.

I'll update y'all soon!

Tea Party in New York

I finally got around to setting up my laptop, thank goodness for wireless modems!

So guess what I did last night?! I jumped on the subway and headed down to City Hall in Manhattan. I participated in my first political protest/rally! It was pretty cool, I'd guess anywhere from 5,000-10,000 people showed up for the Tax Day Tea Party. It was a very friendly crowd, but they were fired up about the state of our political affairs!

I stayed for about two hours, but the cold got to me and I left around 9:30, it took me forever to get back because the sidewalks were so blocked off, I had to walk around a few city blocks just to get back to the subway.

I really hope this grassroots movement makes it somewhere, I don't want my future (?) children to owe for what our politicians are doing now!

Visiting the Cold

Hey Peeps,

Sorry for the lapse in blogging, but it's hard to blog and drive at the same time. I successfully navigated the first portion of my trip, the 15 hour drive to my parents house in MD, arriving late Saturday evening.

I had a wonderful Easter Sunday with my family (hope you did too!) with one minor exception. Yep you guessed it, my much younger cousin is pregnant. To make it worse (at least for me), she got married on my wedding anniversary last May and is pregnant already, as in less than a year later, and she's only 23 or something, so I thought I had time...Ha. I got up and left the table when the discussion turned to the sex of her baby, just too depressing (again, for me).

Okay, so other than that, Easter was nice, lots of good food, an Easter egg hunt, desserts. Roxy the crazy dog is having a good time with everyone and will hopefully be okay with staying here for a few weeks.

Tomorrow I'm going to drive the final portion of the trip, 5 hours to NY! Yayy, I'm kinda excited to go and even more excited to get this over with. I know it's not cool, but I don't have a lot of hope for IVF-2 to work out. I'm hopeful that it will, but not really expecting it to, you know what I mean? I don't know what my odds are, but I'm guessing they're not in my favor.

For any readers living in the South, it's freaking cold up here! I can't believe the temperature is still in the 50's or lower. I hope NY warms up, I don't want to spend the whole visit shivering.

Sorry for the disjointed post, I'm also sorry my commenting is few and far between, hopefully when I get settled in I'll have my laptop up and running. For now I'm blog reading from my Iphone. :)

Finished For Now!

OMG, that was grueling. I knew it was going to be challenging, but the combination of two long days of testing and the stress of time limits was more than I expected. I was physically and mentally exhausted, even yesterday. I really felt the need to cry with relief afterwards, but I managed to hold it together. I'm such a wimp! LOL

The first multiple choice test went fairly well. The second, um, maybe not so well. I didn't study contracts as much as I should've. I was surprised at how the test questions were chosen, I expected a lot more material to be covered, instead, the scope was fairly limited, making it likely that I didn't do well. I studied everything, but nothing too in depth.

The next day was intense, 7 hours of testing. I feel like I may have done well, at least I really hope so, 'cause I don't want to do that again!

I was really stressing about getting the floor plan laid out properly (which I didn't completely do) but I finished everything with just seconds to spare! I know of a few mistakes that I made, it's just a matter of how many points are deducted for them, plus how many I'm unaware of.

I do feel that I did well on the elevation and section portion of the practicum -for anyone who knows about architectural drawings. I'm still wondering if I used the right type of lighting fixtures in my lighting plan...incandescent recessed vs. fluorescent recessed. Stupid, I know. I keep going over everything.

I probably won't know my results until July, they say it takes 14 weeks. Isn't that insane?!

Hopefully I'll be distracted with other great goings on in my life. :)

I'm going to NY in a week!