Maybe my first sign

This may turn out to be nothing, but yesterday and today I have felt extreme bitchiness at various points during the day. A sure fire sign of PMS, but maybe its to early for that.

Also, in a PIO rage last night (these shots are really killing me - I never had to take them before) I made my DH stick himself with an empty needle to be able to commiserate with me and understand the pain I'm in. He thought it wasn't that bad - I wanted to slap him. Bitchiness? YES!

Does anyone know if you can do serious damage with these shots? Friday nights shot was done by DH (who I thought did it to hard) and I spent the rest of the weekend in pain on that side. I did my own shot Saturday night and it didn't hurt so much. Maybe he hit a nerve or something? I worry that we're doing these in the wrong location.

Bummer - no frosties

Morning -

Well I had hoped that some of my leftover embies would survive to be frozen, but alas it was not meant to be. This is par for the course as now all three of my cycles have only produced 2 embies good enough for transfer.

I'm bummed out, but hoping that the two transferred this time will take. Only time will tell - I get my results next Tuesday (3/2).

Muffins on Transfer Day

I had my ET yesterday (Friday) and all went really well. My RE implanted two really nice 8-cell embies (grade 4)! The other 5 embies aren't faring so well, but we'll wait to hear if any can be frozen. Fingers crossed some will pull through!

So far, every part of this cycle has gone better than expected. I can't say enough of my RE (Dr. Akas Jain) and the nurses at my clinic. My RE is a young guy and I feel like he really "gets it". After transfer yesterday he sat with my husband and I in recovery for 45 minutes just chatting. I don't think I've ever spent so much time with a Dr in my life!

Differences between this transfer and prior transfers were:

The procedure room was very warm - 85 degrees
No getting up to pee afterwards - they used a catheter (what relief!!)
I laid down for an hour after transfer before I was discharged

I mention muffins because I brought the nurses some apple cinnamon Fiber One muffins (delish!).

I'm taking it easy for the rest of the weekend. Hopefully these two embies are in the process of snuggling on down.

(My DH has already nicknamed the embies "Walker" and "Texas Ranger" after Talledega Nights)

Fertilization Report

Another update - out of the 9, we had 7 fertilize. This is great news!

Now I wait until Friday to find out about the quality and if I need a day 3 or 5 transfer. Since Friday would be my day 3, they'll call me before 9AM with the results.

So far, I've had really great results as compared to previous attempts. Maybe this is a good sign!

Post ER Update

Morning -

I was offline yesterday and had no interest in getting near a computer on my day off! The good news is that ER went well, and they retrieved 9 eggs! This was totally amazing only because we were only expecting 4 to maybe 7 tops. The staff at my place was great and I've already decided to make some blueberry muffins for when I go in for ET.

Now I'm just waiting for the fert report. Fingers crossed we have at least 1 fertilized!

Tomorrow is it

So ER is scheduled for tomorrow morning. I'm praying that my follies are fantastic this time and will all contain eggs and will all fertilize. (Wishful thinking).

I took my trigger at about 10PM last night and will have my procedure done around 8AM tomorrow. As of yesterday my biggest follie was just about 24mm and drops to around 11mm to the 7th smallest one. The nurses guess I'll have anywhere from 4-7 to work with - let's pray for closer to 7!

That's all from here - I'm waiting for the anesthesiologist to call today and I'm ready and raring to go.

Almost There!

I have to take meds again tonight, but I have a feeling tomorrow will be it. Still averaging about 12 follies on my left side, but only about 6-7 are real contenders.

The top two are both 15mm, there are two 14's and then they go down to about 10 once you get to the sixth or seventh largest.

I'm thinking Monday will be my ER. Let's pray these are some serious quality follies who want to mate up with some spermy-sperm!

Check-up No 2

Morning -

Things are going well with me - it's day 6 of stims and the U/S machine see's 12 follies growing in my left ovary. Still nothing happening on the right side. So weird...

Out of those 12, there are 6 possible contenders for retrieval. The largest one measures about 15 mm and the 6th measures around 7 mm. I'm hoping they reduce my meds and let the smaller ones catch up with the big one. As you know, not all of my follies will have eggo's and not everyone of those will successfully fertilize. Looks like I'll be lucky to eek out 2 or 3 again. I'm trying not to be too down on my luck, since all you need is 1 that works!!

Things are still crazy at work and I'm trying to remain stress-free. (Hard to do). Ok - gotta run!

Checkup No. 1

Morning -

Fresh from the RE's office, I'm feeling positive about things. I don't have any BW results yet (will get this afternoon along w/instructions for tonight) but my ultrasound looked good, well kind of...

My left ovary is overflowing with beautiful follies - 9 total. My right ovary has nothing going on at all. I want to say something similar to this happened before, but I can't remember which ovary wasn't working.

Let's hope that things pick up on the right side and I can eek out a few contenders.

Monday Monday

Work for me lately is becoming crazier by the minute. Everyone seems to be in a bad mood and it's the busiest time of year here. On top of it all, I have a pregnant boss who is just plain nuts to begin with, and now the pregnancy has added another whole new layer of crazy. Everything she wants me to do has to be done now, now, now. It feels like I've been at a sprinting pace for weeks. Important to note that the crazy boss only works 3 days a week, and then only partial days - also her dad owns the company. Read what you will into this...

Luckily by next week (ER week) things should be quiet since one major event will be finished and I can focus on me. Also a good thing that I've picked up a few more accupuncture appointments to keep me calm. I really hope they are helping me.

The Big Plan

So finally yesterday my RE called with the plan for the first few days of stims. So far I've been on 10iu's of Lupron since Jan 22nd.

Starting this Saturday I'll:

Take 150 Menopur/450 Follastim in the AM
Take 5 Lupron/Baby Aspirin in the PM

On Sunday I'll switch it up to take the same as above, but only in the PM. Monday is the same.

I asked why for that 1 day I'll take meds in the morning and the nurse said it was to jumpstart my ovaries. I also asked about my high as a kite left ovary. She said that it could become a problem down the road at ER if it stays there, but with all the follies building, it should be weighed down.

So I'll have my next check up on Tuesday AM. Let's hope for good things!

When You Least Expect It

Ah, so typical...

I had just called my RE's yesterday to report that AF was missing, and an hour later it magically appears!

So I went in this morning for my B/W & US (and shell out the remaining $9,100 that I owe) and they tell me since I'm doing a Luteal Phase cycle I won't be starting stims tonight - I'll be starting this Saturday unless the RE thinks otherwise.

Guess they like to bunch people together and have them start all at the same time. So now I'm looking at ER sometime around the 16th.

One note of concern was the little Russian sonographer, who when doing my US remarked how way high up my left ovary is. I asked - "is that bad?" and she didn't really respond. I do think I heard her say to the other nurse that my antral count was the same as last time - 14.

That's all for now - just waiting for RE to call back either today or tomorrow with instructions for starting meds.

TTFN!

Where O Where Has AF Gone?

I think my body, knowing that everyone is waiting for AF to arrive, has decided to not cooperate this month. It's pretty frustrating since if it doesn't come by tomorrow, they'll push back my stims and ER by a week. I keep thinking its coming and nothing happens. Oh - I'm 99.9% sure I'm not preggo.