IVF Day 8

Today's ultrasound showed good progress:

Right Ovary: 16, 15, 15, 14, 14, 13, 11, 11, 11, 10, 10

Left Ovary: 13, 13, 13, 12, 9

Lining:  7.6, trilaminar

Dr. D said I responded very well over the weekend! My follicles grew quicker than he expected (but not too fast). So I have to go back tomorrow for another ultrasound. Normally the follicle checks are first thing in the morning but apparently a lot of women in the clinic are close to triggering. They had already added on 7 patient tomorrow, so my appointment isn't till the afternoon. The plan is to possibly trigger tomorrow or Tuesday, which would make retrieval Wednesday or Thursday and transfer Monday or Tuesday (if we make it to 5 day). Right after my ultrasound Dr. D came quickly in the room and said sort of nervously, "you responded quicker than I expected so you are going to need to go home right away and take your Antagon." Luckily, I had it in the car since K and I went to our hometown for Friday/Saturday and I brought it with just in case, so K ran out and grabbed it and I gave it to myself in the clinic.

I was happy Dr. D was there. I asked him about culturing 14 embryos and how this was different than the original paperwork I had. He said the clinic had just changed their recommendation based on their newest research and statistics. In fact, they had just printed the new paperwork Thursday night, so I was one of the first to get the new recommendation.

Obviously, I am responding well to my low dose of meds and the number of embryos they want to culture is based on their new research so all of my worrying Friday was unnecessary. I am feeling hopeful and excited.

The circle + bloom meditations are going well. The only problem is that they get me so relaxed I sometimes find myself nodding off while listening to them. Especially when I listen to them right before bed. However, this is a good sign because normally I have a really hard time falling asleep. I lay in bed and my mind runs a mile a minute with worries.

IVF Day 6

I had my test at 9 am this morning so I went to the clinic to get my ultrasound at 7:30 so I would have time to make it to my test. I didn't know what we were expecting to see after 5 days of stims. The US showed 6 follicles in the 8-10 mm range on the right and 3 in the 8-10 mm range on the left. There were 11 smaller than 8 mm on the right and 5 smaller on the left that weren't measured. We went to wait in the consult room (yes, K came with me!) but then the nurse came in and said the Dr. wanted me to get blood drawn. At our original consultation Dr. D had said that my protocol would have no blood draws (they didn't need to measure estradiol), so I immediately became concerned that something must be wrong if he now wanted blood (I even had the thought that they were going to cancel my cycle and got very upset). However, by the time I got the blood drawn it was 8:35 so I had to leave and go to my test. I think my test went well, but I won't know my score for awhile. I then returned to the clinic. I met with Dr. D, who told me my E2 was 131 (which seems low to me compared to some other numbers I've seen) but that he was happy with that level and the US results. He said in someone my age it is a balance between overstimming and understimming.

Dr. D wants to keep my doses the same and have another ultrasound and blood draw on Sunday morning. I am a little concerned that my dosages are so low, but I am trying to trust in my Doctors and their knowledge. I don't know of any other women who have undergone IVF at 24 with a high antral follicle count to compare my dosing to (Or even if I should be comparing my dosage, because it will just cause me to stress more). I know the goal of IVF is to get me 1 healthy baby, but I have this additional hope that it will also give me siblings for my 1 healthy baby. I know I should be focusing on getting my first baby before I think about the siblings, and I would go through IVF more than once if I needed to to get siblings, but I have always wanted a big family - like 5 children big :) IVF is expensive and emotional so I want to get as many babies out of this cycle as I can.

Another thing that threw me off is we discussed how many embryos they will culture. The paperwork we signed today says they want to culture all of them if there are 14 or less or culture 10 and freeze the rest at the pronuclear stage if there are 15 or more. In our original discussion they have used 8 as the cut off. I don't know why it has increased. I wonder if it increased based off of their reccommendations for getting us the healthiest blastocyst or because we agreed to the warantee? I signed the paperwork but I am sort of wondering if I should ask about the number we will culture at our next appointment. But then again I am trying to trust my doctors and worry less. I know I don't know much about IVF, especially compared to my Doctors, but it is hard not to second guess them and worry when I have so much riding on this one cycle.

IVF Day 5

I can't believe I have made it to day 5 already. Time has really been flying! I got off of work at noon today to study, so I went and got a massage. Yes, i know, a massage does not equal studying, but it was so so much better than studying :) Now I have to spend the rest of the night studying... boo!

My stomach is a bit sore when I injected the menopur. It feels bruised, but it doesn't look bruised. I think it might just be that when I pinched together my skin for the injection I squeezed a bit too hard, but then again it could be from the medicine itself. I guess I will find out tomorrow when I see if my next menopur injection site is sore or not.

I will share my ultrasound update as soon as I can tomorrow!

IVF Day 4

Thank you everyone for your comments and support. It means a lot to know you are reading my blog and cheering me on. Only a few people know that I am in the process of IVF, so it means a lot to see words of encouragement.

Things are going really well so far. I am still really excited - I am having trouble studying for my test in fact, because I am so excited I just want to read blogs and search things on google. However, I have a test right after my follicle check appointment on Friday so I really need to get studying!

I got to add the Menopur to my regimine tonight and decrease my Follistim dose. The shots went well except at one point K came over and was watching me inject myself, which made me nervous, and I started to stick myself, then panicked and pulled it back out, before thrusting it in again. So I stuck myself three times tonight :)

IVF Day 3

My second injection went quite a bit better than my first. It didn't seem to hurt as much as the first and I was more comfortable injecting myself. I am actually excited each day to give myself my shot because I know it is bringing me one step closer to my dream of having children. I am feeling very positive and hopeful right now, as I think I should, because it just might help me get pregnant. I just hope the menopur and antagon shots are similar.

Yesterday's headache resolved 2 hours after 2 tylenols, dr pepper, and dark chocolate :) I woke up today without a headache - yay! But I am starting to feel a little one developing. Maybe I should attempt to stop it in its tracks with more chocolate? lol. In other news, I am feels some twinges and fullness in my lower abdomen, which I am guessing is either because 1) I am hyper-aware of my lower abdomen and am probably just noticing normal intestinal movement or 2) I am bloated, possibly from my medications.

Tomorrow I start double injections and only 3 days until my follicle check! I have been visualizing growing a good number of high quality eggs. I hope that there are a lot developing, but mostly that is because I hope we get enough embryos that we can freeze some to create siblings for our baby later.

IVF Day 2

I woke up with a headache :( Is it a side effect from the Follistim? And unfortunately I don't own tylenol. I've been an ibuprofen girl my whole life - I just love it so much! But, my Doctor said I can't take any ibuprofen during IVF, only tylenol. So I had to run to the store on my way to work and get some tylenol. After taking it (and a Diet Dr. Pepper) my headache is mostly better from a 5/10 to a 2/10.

The injection last night went pretty well. I was inspired by Emily and have declared that my husband shall seranade me with "shots shots shots shots shots..." each evening. Last night he seemed a little tentative, but I hope his enthusuasim will improve. The actual shot went pretty well. The needle didn't hurt, but the medicine stung a bit going in and for maybe 20 minutes afterward. I am using the follistim pen. Once I pushed the needle in to my pinched stomach I injected the medicine at a moderate pace and then left the needle in for about 10 seconds before taking it out. When I pulled the needle out one clear drop came out of the injection site, is that normal? Should I inject the medicine slower/quicker or leave the needle in longer? I realize it might not be that much medicine, but since it costs so much I was to get every last drops worth :)

I have enjoyed the circle + bloom meditations that I have listened to so far... other than at one point when I was deep in meditation, my husband came and stood with his face 2 inches away from mine for a minute and i didn't respond so he poked me, which brought me out of my peaceful state to see his face right infront of me and I hadn't realized he was there because I was so relaxed... I think I might have screamed lol.

I found myself in surgery today with a room of pregnant ladies... I'm taking it as a positive sign.

CD 1 and Treatment Day 1

My type A personality is very pleased that CD1 is also treatment day 1, but presumably that happens for most people doing IVF (at least on my protocol) since they had me stop birth control 3 days before starting injections. I told my husband that if we are lucky this will be my last period of 2013 :) Wouldn't that be nice?

In about 1.5 hours I will give myself my first Follistim injection! I am really excited and feel like this cycle is going to go by really quickly. I downloaded circle and bloom's ivf meditations to my ipod and plan on listening to it everyday. There were 3 to listen to before starting injections that I didn't know about so I need to listen to those really quickly before 7:30 pm.

Making My Return!

I’m sorry I haven’t posted in so long! I’ve been on my surgery rotation for the last 5 weeks and it almost completely took over my life. I was getting up at 4 am and not getting home till 7 pm most days.  My life consisted of: work, eat dinner K made me, sleep, repeat. Luckily, I only have 1 week left.  

On the plus side, surgery did a good job of keeping me busy while I waited for the time to pass till IVF starts. I took my last birth control pill on Thursday 3/21 and will start my injections tomorrow. I have a nice progression of shots planned: 1 for a few days, then 2 for a few days, then 3 for a few days. My first US appointment to check how things are developing is on Friday 3/29.

At our baseline US last week my lining was 3.9mm and we had 26 antral follicles – 11 on the left and 15 on the right.