Second Follie check

After a long night at work and a morning meeting that got out early, I called the RE office and managed to get in earlier than my scheduled appointment. I warned them if I had to wait until my scheduled time, I would likely be snoring and drooling in the waiting room. Funny how a time slot seemed to open right up!

I got my blood drawn and then headed into the u/s room. Luckily I didn't have to wait long as even that table might have been just the spot for a quick nap. My scan was much better this morning--she measured 11 follies on the right ovary, and 5 on the left. It looks like the increase in meds worked!

The only problem was that the increased menopur dose meant that I didn't have enough at home to finish the cycle. In fact, I only had one vial left after my injection this morning. Of course, I didn't figure this out until I did my shot on Saturday, which was too late to get any meds delivered before tomorrow morning's dose. I explained all this to the nurse and she said she would call in the order right away so that it gets delivered tomorrow. She gave me 3 vials to use for the morning dose since FedEx won't be here before 7am. When I get my shipment tomorrow, I will just return 3 of the vials to the office to replace what I "borrowed". I'm so relieved that the office was able to help with what could have been a pretty bad situation.

My E2 level was 450 today. I'm not sure how that compares to my first IVF cycle because I refuse to pull out my records to check. I remember things like follie counts, but not sizes or lab levels. I have tried really hard to fight my control freak/OCD tendencies this cycle and just go with the flow. I really obsessed over every number last time and it added so much to my stress level. Heck, last time I even stressed about doing the C + B meditations right! (yes, I did end up giving up on them when they were adding to my stress and not relieving it)

Next follie check is Wednesday morning. At this point, they are guessing that I will trigger on Wednesday night for a retrieval on Friday morning. While it's not the St. Patrick's Day retrieval I was hoping for, a Friday retrieval means that I can still work next weekend and not jeopardize my work contract. So, maybe it's good luck after all!

Progress check #2

First of all, I wanted to send some love to Michelle. She just had her IVF cycle cancelled for a lack of response and she is doing her best to cope. My heart just breaks for her, so head on over and give her some support as she tries to figure out where to go from here.

After a nice slow night at work, it was time to head into the RE office for progress check #2. I got to my usual office a little early and was greeted by the friendly staff and taken almost immediately to get my blood drawn. I had to wait just a couple minutes for the u/s tech to be ready for me. She found 14 follicles again, and then did some measurements of my uterine blood flow. She said they are seeing a big correlation between uterine artery blood flow and the ability to get pregnant and carry to term. She said both arteries showed good flow, so I was happy to hear that. She offered to have me meet with the office nurse or just head home and they would call me later. I opted for leaving and heading home to my bed as I was getting pretty tired.

I came home and napped for a few hours and then had my acupuncture appointment this afternoon. As I pulled into the parking space, the IVF nurse called with my results. My E2 was 529, up from 212 on Saturday. They measured 14 follies, finding 4 that were 14-17mm and 10 smaller ones. So, I'm to keep my Menopur and Gonal-F doses the same for tonight and tomorrow, plus add the Ganirelix to prevent premature ovulation and hopefully allow the small follies to catch up. She is thinking that we will likely trigger Wednesday or Thursday for ER on Friday or Saturday morning. She thinks we should be able to get at least 5 of the smaller follies matured by then, aiming for 9 or 10 at ER.

I let DH know that he might be cutting this week's trip short to be home for Friday morning's ER. He has been wonderful and has said he will come home whenever I need him to. He also bought me a "pre-bedrest" present over the weekend. He bought a bigger TV for the living room, allowing him to move the smaller one into the bedroom for when I'm stuck in bed post-transfer. I'm pretty sure it was just an excuse to buy a new bigger TV, but I love him for getting it all done so that I can be comfortable when I'm stuck in bed. Aren't I a lucky girl?

Stims Day 2

I had my hubby help with my Menopur shot this morning. He has offered to help me when he's home which I think is very sweet. But I mean, I'm a nurse, I should be able to do this for myself, right? It would have been a little bit of a challenge to do the shot left-handed (hey, I'm not a contortionist who can reach my left butt cheek accurately with my right hand) so I let him do it. It was his first one and I think he did great. The needle didn't hurt at all--just the sting from the meds.

I called the IVF nurse line today because it seems as though AF has arrived. I kind of suspected she would since I started spotting Monday (last BCP on 9/17) but I was worried that I was starting full flow after starting stims. She said not to worry about it and it will probably be short since my lining was nice and thin at my suppression check Tuesday. She also gave me the results of my blood tests from last week's physical. My blood sugar was a little high, but they never told me to fast so I had breakfast on the way down to the office. My vitamin D level was quite low, though, so they are calling in a prescription for a once-weekly mega-dose vitamin D pill. I guess my calcium + D supplement wasn't enough! I probably I need to get outside more, too.

Tonight I will have to do my first in-a-public-place injection. We are meeting one of DH's co-workers and his family for dinner. I have my little packet made with everything I need to do the shot. I've also planned my outfit so that I can quickly get to my upper arm in the bathroom of the restaurant. I'm not too worried, but it will be a bit awkward to have to get up from the table saying, "excuse me, but I have to go shoot up some hormones now." I know DH has told him about our IF but I don't know how much they know in terms of details. Wish me luck!

First day of stims

Well, I survived getting up early to give myself my first injection of this cycle. I didn't even go back to bed right after the shot, either. It means I didn't do my meditation this morning, but I'm thinking that I might be better off doing it before bed anyway. It might help me relax and sleep better too.

I must say that I had to psych myself up a bit for the IM injection in a way I never had to with the SQ shots. It's such a tiny needle (and such a big target!) that I hardly felt it at all, but it was disconcerting nonetheless. I remembered that the Menopur did sting a bit the last time I used it, so I wasn't sure what to expect with doing it IM. It really wasn't bad at all--in fact I think the stinging was less than what I remember from doing them in my belly last time. I'm just hopeful that the protocol change to doing everything IM will pay off!

I had to do my first semi-public injection tonight, too. I say semi-public because I was teaching a class for other ER nurses on our new computer upgrade. It just so happened that the three nurses in my class are all familiar with stims--1 did an egg donation when she was younger, another is in the midst of an egg donation cycle, and the other has done IVF (though nobody else at work knows about that). I had one of my co-workers give me the Gonal-F shot tonight in my right arm, a place that will be a bit tougher to do by myself. I'm trying to rotate which sites I use so any one particular site doesn't get overused and sore.

So far, I haven't had any side effects from the stims. I think the dexamethasone was interfering with my sleep since I had been taking it at night. I was having trouble sleeping and was having hot flashes during the night. Both of these are common side effects of steroids, so I changed today to taking it after lunch. Hopefully that (and the meditation) will help with the sleep issue.