EGG RETRIEVAL

So sitting getting ready to take an oxycodone. I don't remember hurting as much with my others but it could be that they got 21 EGGS from me!!!!!! Usually they tell me how many were mature after I wake up but did not do that this this time and of course that makes worry, (don't like changes I guess). But generally besides the pain I am in good spirits, I figure there has got to be at least, (and I hope more) one good mature egg in there. Tomorrow I will get the call from the embryologist to let me know how many mature ones there were and how many fertilized. Crossing fingers and saying lots of prayers, this is completely out of my hands and I have learn to come to accept that.

Well I am going to take my loopy drugs now, sleep sounds wonderful right now!

Changes

Sorry I haven't been around, been so busy and last night when I went t sit down and type our Internet service was down :(

Here is my 11 and 12 days of stims

Day 11

E2 - 1995
R. Ovary 6 follicles measuring: 13, 14.4 14.5, 15, 16.4, 18.4
L. Ovary 8 follicles measuring: 11, 12, 13, 13, 14.6, 16, 17, 18.5

Because I now had follicles that were over 16 I finally got to graduated to daily pokes and prods. No change in meds.

Day 12

E2 - 2,806
R. Ovary 6 follicles measuring: 13, 14, 15.6, 16, 17, 21
L. Ovary 8 follicles measuring: 11.4, 11.5, 13.5, 17.4, 18, 18, 18, 20

They also told me my progesterone (something they never had before) 2.50. She said that was good they like to see anything under 3. To me of course I am thinking that is awfully close to 3. I also had two follicles that were measured smaller. Now as I have said before I believe it can be human error , (they were not that much smaller) but I did find out that follicles can in fact shrink due to not being stimulated enough (another follicle is eating more basically) and they can shrink and eventually get reabsorb.  Great another thing for me to worry about!!!! Got to have something I guess.

Well I got the call (not to trigger) but to change my meds. Wow I was beginning to think I was the only one who never changed. I didn't have to take my follistim last night and I took my regular menopur last night. This morning though I took the same follistim but upped my menopur to 2 cc's. that is two vials of powder to one solution. Can I just say OUCH!!!! I definitely burned a lot more.

Well I will update later on today's results. Fingers crossed that my follies are still growing!! Might trigger tonight or tomorrow!!


UPDATE:
IT'S TRIGGER TIME
Got the call a little while ago, that I am in fact triggering tonight at 6:00 PM!!! I go in on Friday October 28, for a 6:00 AM retrieval. 

Forgot to ask what my E2 level was (too excited).
R. Ovary 7 follicles measuring: 6, 12, 15.5, 17, 17, 19, 24
L. Ovary 10 follicles measuring: 9, 11.5, 13, 17,  17, 18, 20, 20, 21

Couple of extra ones in there I am sure the 6 and 9 won't be any good but hopefully I got some good sized in there that will have some good quality eggs in them!!
 So right now watching the clock like a hawk, even though I have my alarm set and ready!! Luckily my trigger shot is subcutaneous (basically small needle just under the skin) as opposed to intramuscular (long needle into the muscle). Before I do that I have to do 300 IU of follistim.  As always it is out of my hands and if one or more of these eggs are meant to fertilize and be my future baby/ies then it will happen.

Follicle Confusion

So on day 9 of stims I went in for my blood work and ultrasounds and the nurse was having trouble finding my vein. She said that she would get someone else to draw me if she couldn't find it because she didn't feel comfortable, she kept poking (with her finger) and finally said I think I found it, my reply was that you better do more than think. She said were going to go for it and I closed my eyes and grimaced but fortunately I didn't feel a thing and she got it. She better count herself lucky though because I am not in the best of moods. On Friday I drove to the other side of town for my old high school's homecoming game and to see my dear sweet daughter, Whitney in the hospital. She still is in a lot of pain when the morphine wears off and is very flushed in the face when I bent down to give her a hug and kiss I could feel the heat radiating off her whole body. I was very alarmed and when the nurse came in to give her the pain meds I asked. I think she said it had been a couple of hours since they had given her Tylenol for her last fever and she said that it had not yet kicked, (Never heard of Tylenol taking that long), she than gave some BS story about how the heat is just on the outside and is not her core temperature and how you can not tell someone has fever from touching them because our body temperature is lower. I do realize that if your hands are really cold you are not going to get a good reading but when the heat is coming from their whole body and they are not covered up with blankets they have a temperature. I personally think that the shift was changing and crappy nurse did not want to be bothered. So in fact my daughter did have a high temperature again when the new nurse came in to check it, (AAAAHHHH). Anyways today she just got released. Today she is finally be released, (YEAH) and we just found out that she had e coli which was causing her kidneys to be impacted. I am so glad she went in when she did because that is something you just don't want to mess with.My asthma starting acting up on my way home from the homecoming game and I forgot my inhaler so I stopped off at my mom's to borrow hers. I kept hearing a noise from my car sounded like a hissing noise. But my tires looked find still had a great tread. I left my mom's with my two younger kids to drive the 45 minutes home. Probably about 10 minutes after I left my mom's I heard a THUMP THUMP THUMP noise and knew I had blown my tire. It was completely shredded. I had to wait for AAA to get there change the tire out on my beast of a car with a donut tire. By the time I got into bed it was 1:45 AM!!!! BLAH I am getting to old to be up this late. I had to get up for my 8:30 AM appointment with my clinic!!

So here are the results for day 9 of stims:

E2 1,260
R. Ovary 6 follicles measuring: 9.51, 9.83, 10.23, 11.72, 11.96, 14.96
L. Ovary 9 follicles measuring: 7.06, 7.65, 9.44, 9.97, 10.9, 11.39, 12.56, 13.03, 14.17

So some people might be alarmed or confused since my right ovary shows one less. Did I have a vanishing follicle? Where did it go? The thing is there can be some discrepancies when measuring follicles especially when done by a different person. It is doubtful that one has vanished but possible scenarios include that the previous tech could have accidentally counted it twice, or the new tech could have missed it. Either one of these is possible follicles can be clustered together some hidden behind others where it makes counting them difficult. I am not too worried about I know I have right in that general area. I was a little concern that they may not have grown enough. With my other two cycles I was already at daily blood draws and ultrasounds because I had at least one follicle at or above 16 mm. When the nurse called me back to tell that I am still to stay on the same protocol, I voiced my concern. She said that things seem nicely for me and that more importantly my follicles are close in size right and that it seems that each visit I have acquired new ones. So I am putting all negative thoughts away because it really is out of my hands. I go back in tomorrow and we will see how those follies are doing. Come on FOLLIES GROW!!!!!

Well I am going to bed now, haven't had much sleep in the past two days with everything that happened on Friday and then last night I went to my 20 year reunion!!!! AM I really that old?!?!?!?! It was a blast but my body and mind are just exhausted I need to get some sleep!

Day 7 of Stims

Today is day 7 of Stims and how am I feeling; moody, crampy, & fatigued. My stomach is not too badly bruised but you can play connect the dot with all the needle pokes. So I went in two days ago for my blood work and ultrasound. Now I do not have that days E2 level but I do have my baseline and 3 days of stim level

Baseline: 44.4
Day 3: 102

I was told that the numbers going up was a good sign. As far as follicles well as you know I have been on a more aggressive protocol to hopefully produce more eggs. This is what they found for day 5:

R. Ovary 4 follicles measuring: 4, 6, 6.5, 7
L. Ovary 4 follicles measuring: 6, 6.5, 7, 8

Alright so not to say I am not happy that I have some follicles in there but this is my lowest count to start and smallest follicles to start as compared to my previous cycles. I know I know I really should take my own advice and not compare but it is so hard. Also later on I called my IVF coordinator to find out if my meds would be changing at all because if not I was going to order some more. She said I am staying on the same meds but now instead of wanting to see me on Friday they want to see me Thursday which is today. I can't help but be worried that there is something amiss but I guess today will tell. Praying that my E2 levels are still going up and that my follies are getting nice and plump with maybe a few more follies that have come to join the party. I will update later today.


UPDATE:

Alright so I know this sounds weird and all but I had been nervous because I haven't had any cervical mucus otherwise known as egg white cervical mucus (EWCM). Most women worry when they have this during the stimming process of IVF, worrying that they are ovulating and that their cycle will be a bust. However, from my past experiences with this I now know it is something to expect. Was also told that it happens with the rising estrogen in the body. But I have been dry as old chewed up bone, which of course got be thinking that maybe my estrogen was not rising. Anyways when I go to the clinic they have you empty your bladder and low and behold when I wiped there it was. I did my little happy dance in the bathroom because it made me feel that this cycle is going at least in the right direction. I asked the nurse after my blood was drawn what my E2 level was on Tues (day 5 of stims) 247 so Yeah it is going up!!!

My E2 level for today is 694

My follicles:
R. Ovary 7 follicles measuring: 7, 7, 9, 9.5, 11.5, 12, 12
L. Ovary 7 follicles measuring: 5, 9, 9, 10, 11, 11, 14


I am to stay on the same protocol (oh Yeah) until Sat when I go in for another stab and poke. I am starting to feel better about this cycle. But of course with all the hormones I am on my mood can change instantly.
On another subject my oldest baby (Whitney) is in the hospital. She woke up with severe pain. They though it was a appendicitis but she has a severe bladder infection that has now gone to her kidneys as well as possibly having kidney stones. It is so hard when your kids are sick no matter how old they are. They told her the infection was so bad that if she had left it too much longer it could have killed her. Those words are parent never wants to hear. She is doing better now got her doped up on morphine and running antibiotics through her system.

The Lupron Blues

Today is day 6 of taking Lupron and I am just feeling cruddy. It is hard to explain sometimes how I feel but all I know is that I am Feeling not like me. The headaches (knocking on wood) have let up but have now been replaced with total unrelenting fatigue. Multiple naps have become a daily ritual and I still have to go to bed early. It gets so bad that I can barely keep my eyes open. In fact I am laying on the bed in my hotel room in Vegas after waking from one of my naps while Kev is playing Craps down in the casino (hope he is not losing too much money). Tomorrow I get to reduce my lupron from 10 iu to 5 and I start on follistim. Woo Hoo!!! Now I am usually more vigilant with my IVF calendar but Kev notice something that I missed. On the calendar it says that I am to take 200 iu of follistim which at first I was a little confused because last time I talked to my RE he had said that he apologizes to my ovaries now but he wanted to be more aggressive and try to get more eggs. However two iu was less than what I took last time but my dear darling husband noticed that this time around I am taking it twice a day for a total of 400 ius and the same thing when I start the menopur on Sunday (75 iu twice daily) for a total of 150 ius!!!!  Wholy Moley!!!!  Let's hope they get some good eggies out of there!!!!!

And It Begins

I know technically I have been on the pill and gearing up for this cycle for a couple of weeks now but yesterday I started Lupron, (the injection that basically puts me in temporary menopause) and I never quite feel like I have started until I start poking myself with needles. Not to be bragging or anything but I am starting to feel like a pro with these needles. This is coming from a girl who had a deep phobia of needles and would actually have panic attacks when blood was drawn. I feel I can practically do these in my sleep now. I have come a long way baby!!!!So now I am on day 2 of lupron and already experiencing some of the side effects. Hot hot hot and no I am not talking about my rocking body which by the way I have dropped 20 pounds (can I hear a Woot Woot) Hot flashes are not as much fun. Last night Kev was so cold he had me put two blankets which he even put his head under and there I was wearing as little as possible practically dying because I was so hot. I even tried to turn the fan on but Kev (who conveniently can not remember saying this) chattered, "Cccaaannn yyyooouuu pppllleeeaaassseee tttuuurrrnnn ooofff ttthhheee fffaaannn??? Like my chattering teeth effect but seriously that is how it was and it was not like I had the AC turned down it was about 83 in the house. This actually pissed me off which I am sure was more because of the lupron because everything that you can think of will push my buttons. Oh well such as life and hopefully it will be worth it. Today I also went to a baby shower of my friend's. Although it is hard seeing all the cute things I am very happy for her and know that she understand what I am going through. (Her RE knocked her up too) Today we also had a craft day at my church which was a lot of fun. My mom drove down from the other side of town and spent the day with me. We made some cute things for the holidays and other things. We also had a service project where we made boxes for an organization down here called Lanee's Legacy. These boxes are delivered to hospitals all around Arizona for Mom's and Dad's who have an angle baby. These boxes are cutely decorated and contain items such as a disposable camera a place to put their baby's lock of hair a necklace for the mom to where and where other items of the baby can be placed. It was really touching one of my friends who lost her baby last year got up and spoke about how special this box was and she could open and look at the items inside. It was very touching and brought tears to my eyes. I am actually thinking about joining the organization so I can be a part of helping mom's dad's that are faced with the death of their baby.

Well that it is all for now, I will keep you updated as to how I am doing and responding to the meds. Next week I go in for my baseline Ultrasound and Blood Work. Oh Yeah!!!