Monitoring Day

I had another monitoring appointment yesterday and the ultrasound showed Right - 19,18,13, 13, 11, 10 and Left - 20, 19, 17.5, 17.5, 17, 16, 14, 12, with estrodial at 1279 (so slow rising....hmmmm). My retrieval is set for Thursday at 11:30am so hopefully some of those smaller follicles catch up by then. The two ovidrels I took yesterday should give them a boost. I'm happy to get these little eggs out of me because wearing pants right now is a struggle! I'm also a ball of emotions.when I was at my blood draw appointment because the phleb was just so nice! She told me it took her 4 years of try and treatments before having her first son and now he's off to college in the Fall 😭 Hopefully that will be me in 18 years!

These ovaries, man

Stims Day 10

Today will be day 10 of stims and things are looking good. My estrogen is 954; progesterone is .9; lining is 11mm.

On my right (my slacker side) I have a 14, 12, 11, 2 <10, 3<8 and on the left 17,15, 15, 14, 14, 14, 12, 12. RE reduced my Gonal F to 150 from 225, low dose HCG is still 20 units, and still same dose of cetrotide. It looks like retrieval on Thursday may be the thing. I go back tomorrow morning so we'll see!!

I have discomfort walking, standing, sitting, driving. Basically always. So I can't wait to get these guys out!

For my husband's sake I hope this round works out or else I'm coming home with a cat.

Stims Day 7

Today is day 7 of stims, and my second update ultrasound for ivf Round 2. My estrogen is 362, over double what it was on day 7 last round which is great. I have 1 11mm follicle, 2 10s, a few that are almost 10s, and a few more that are smaller than that (I didn't have a pen or paper when the nurse called so I'm just winging it right now). RE is upping my low dose HCG from 10 to 20 units and I start cetrotide tonight to prevent ovulation. I go back in Monday morning for my next check.

Side Effects: Bloated, crampy, headaches.

Stims Day 5 Update

Happy Thanksgiving Infertility World!

When you don't know if the bloat is from too much food or fertility meds

I had an ultrasound and blood work on Wednesday (Stims Day 5) and things look ok. I had 10 follies less than 8mm on each side (up from 17 AFC on Saturday) and my estrogen was 118. During my first cycle at this same point in time I had 17 total, down from a AFC of 27 and my estrogen was 64. I'm definitely feeling bloated and crampy/twinges in my lady bits, and have been for a few days. Last cycle it wasn't until day 7 that I was like oh I think this may be working. So with my Google University medical degree my professional opinion is that things are looking a bit better this cycle. Tomorrow morning is another scan and blood work. I'm hoping for good news :)

Transfering 1 or 2

I keep thinking about the transfer for this cycle, whether we will transfer one or two embryos. With our first cycle my husband wanted to do two but we ended up only transferred one because I was so adamant about a singleton. The thought of having two babies at once was terrifying to me! I see how tired my friends are with one and think how can people raise two at once!?!?

As we get further and further into this process though twins doesn't seem so bad anymore. We've had a hard time getting pregnant with just one baby and I'm only 28, started this process at 26. If my egg quality isn't good at 28 why would it be any better at 30, 31, 32, whenever we try for a second (if this cycle even works out)? Having twins now would maybe make up for the fact I may not be able to get pregnant later in life. And that last thought, not having more kids, makes me more scared and sad than the extra weight and stretch marks, the potential health complications for me and babies, and the even less sleep I'd be getting, and the bigger disruption to life in general. So two embryos it is for IVF Round 2. If we even have that many normal embryos left after PGS.

Round 2: Start of Stims!

I had blood work and ultrasound on Saturday and was given the go ahead to start stims! For my AFC I have 10 on the left and 7 on the right, but some may have been blocked by my bladder (I didn't think I had to pee but the tech said OH WOW when she saw my bladder. oops.).

I'm on an antagonist cycle this time as opposed to long lupron: 225 iu Gonal F, 10 units low dose HCG, and a baby asprin for now (along with my array of supplements). I stopped BCP on Thursday and started bleeding on Sunday and had some cramps. I still have some cramping today and have no clue of it's the meds kicking super fast this time or just regular period cramps (I'm hoping it's the meds!!).

Our original plan for this cycle was to do a fresh transfer if possible while doing PGS on the rest of our embryos, but the more I think about it the more I'm thinking it will be better to just test all and do a frozen transfer. We'll have to discuss with the doc when we go in for retrieval.

In GOOD news, Thanksgiving is just a few days away!!!!!!! I'm trying to stick to a healthy, low carb diet as my RE recommended but not on Thursday!!!!

IVF Round 2: PGS Testing

Countdown: 9 more birth control pills. Stims in 11 days.

I just submitted our paperwork for PGS testing: Preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) for aneuploidy is a powerful genetic test that may be performed on embryos during IVF treatment to screen for numerical chromosomal abnormalities. PGS is performed on a small embryo biopsy prior to transfer and identifies which embryos are chromosomally normal. (Thanks random website)
Because our first cycle ended in a chemical pregnancy and our other 7 embryos didn't make it to freeze our RE has suggested PGS testing, which we are going to move forward with. Typically embryos are biopsied, frozen, and then a frozen embryo transfer (FET) is scheduled for after the testing is complete. 

In our case it would be two cycles after the retrieval, so retrieval in December, transfer in February. Our RE did give us the option of also doing a fresh transfer IF we have a good number of embryos. While the logical side of me know the benefits of PGS and doing an FET, my heart wants a fresh transfer so bad. I hate all the waiting and waiting and waiting and feeling like everyone else in the world is miles ahead of us and we're left behind in the dust. My hope is that we get a good number of embryos, can do a fresh transfer, send the rest for testing and freezing, get pregnant from the fresh transfer, and can then use the little frozen embryos a few years down the line for a second pregnancy. But I'm afraid of getting my hopes up! Of being crushed if we don't have many embryos and send them all for testing. Of being crushed if a fresh transfer ends in no pregnancy or chemical pregnancy.

 

Waiting some more

Good news: Because we had a failed cycle my RE gave us a discount on our next cycle. Total, we're saving about $2500 between RE discounts and the price different medications. Woohoo!!!!!

Annnnd now we keep on waiting. Last BCP in 12 days and stims start in 14.