Follie Check: Over-acheiver!

Here is the email I got from the clinic after my follicle check today...

Dear Megan Dittemore:

I have received your recent test results. They are as follows:

Your hormone levels are as follows: Estradiol: 714 on 12/30/2010 Normal: 0-100 pg/mL.
This level is high for this time in your cycle.

Your ultrasound result is as follows:
Your follicles on the right ovary are 13,13,12,11,11,10,10 mm.
Your follicles on the left ovary are 13,12,12,11,11,10 mm.
Your lining is 6 mm.

You should continue the medication follistim. But you do need to drop your dose now. Take 50 units follistim tonight.

Your next appointment is scheduled for 12-31-10 FRIDAY at 8:15 am for an ultrasound and labwork. We want to keep a closer eye on you! 

We were shooting for more follicles this month, but I think 13 is a little much!  

Hopefully tomorrow a few will have decided to drop off.  My ovaries must take after me, little over-achievers... 

Cycle 10: Please let this be the one

CD 4 today.  Really anxious and excited about this cycle.  The Dr wants us to get 4-7 follicles this month to give the little swimmers a few more targets.  I did my baseline on Xmas eve and everything looked good!  Here we go again!

Also, we were so blessed this month to receive a shipment of meds from another wonderful and generous person on thebump.com.  She sent us enough meds for at least 3 cycles I hope!  Amazing!!!!!!

So, hopefully this is it.  We have our first follicle check on Thursday Dec 30th.

IF: F-You

Well, this cycle is over.  I starting spotting today.  Merry Xmas to us.

I can't say that I didn't see it coming.  We felt like this cycle was over before it even started with the count being so low and then me getting sick.

I am so fortunate to have good friends and family to support us through this rough times.  One friend said that our patience is really being testing.  I couldn't agree more. 

I wonder if it ever will work...  Suprisingly I am not as upset as I thought I would be.  I am just tired of it all.  So that is why I say F*@K You Infertility.

2WW: Volume 1, Issue 2

A pity party:

I hate progesterone for making me have pregnancy symptoms without the pregnancy.  I hate that every month I think this crap will work and it doesnt.  I have been POAS and nothing.  11 DPO and I know it is still early but I can't help thinking this cycle was over before it even started with a post-wash count of 1 million.

Ugh.  And the cherry on top will be getting my period xmas morning.  Merry f-ing Christmas IF.  Thanks for the awesome gift.

The 2WW: Volume 1, Issue 1

2 days into the 2 week wait and I have a bladder and kidney infection. Lovely.

We have a lot to overcome this month, so hopefully we will beat the odds! 

I started my progesterone suppositories last night so bring on the pregnancy symptoms!  They will mess with my mind for the next 2 weeks....

Its going to be a long 2 weeks.

IUI: We are inseminated

IUI #3 is complete.  We are a little disappointed, the post wash count was only 1.2 million (less then last time).  But, it only takes 1.  We also got the IVF talk today.  I was hoping they wouldn't give up on us already...

I don't have much else to say.  Just trying to stay positive, but it is hard with such a low count.

Follie Check take 2: It may be go time!

Another date with the dildo cam and things were looking good in the ute today!  My lining was nice and plump (needs to be around 8mm at least, and it was!).  I have 2 beautiful mature follicles on my Right Ovary.  There were still a couple other follies in the running that they measured, but I didn't get sizes, so my guess is they won't catch up (which is good news).

So, as long as my E2 comes back at 300 or higher we will be triggering tonight!  Eekkkkkkk.

I will probably do another post today once I get my email from the clinic with my blood results and more specific follicle info.

Til' then!!!!!!!

Stims and Side Effects: Heat Wave

Last time we used injections, I never had any issues.  This month is another story.  I have been having hot flashes and headaches like no other.  I have the heat set at 65 and am freezing Kev out I think.  And I have been CRABBY.  Hopefully only a few more days of this and it will start to get better.

Also, I started the Lovenox (blood thinner) again this morning as today is CD10.  It would be one thing if it just hurt when you stuck and injected, but the Lovenox hurts for at least 10 minutes after too.  Ugh.  And to think I have to be on this for the entire pregnancy if we ever get there.

Anyway, another follie check tomorrow so we will see what is going on in there.  Fingers crossed for 2 nice sized follicles so we can stop stimming and get this show on the road...

E2: got the levels

I just got the email from the clinic.
My E2 (estradiol) was 105, so they are decreasing my Follistim to 100 units (from 125) and I go back on Thursday for another check.

Hopefully I have just a couple good follies then!

Also, I got more detailed info on my follies in the email:
Left had 9 follies under 9mm
Right had a 10mm and 9 under 9mm

Last cycle we only ended up with 1 follicle.  I hope that at least 2 decide to hang around this time (but definitely not 19!).

First Follie Check: So many follicles so little time

First of all, thank you to Cara for the post title (this was her response when I called and told her about my appt this morning)!

CD 8:
Just got back from my first monitoring appt to see what is going on in there...  Well, a lot is going on!

Apparently I am an overachiever (not necessarily a good thing).  I have 1-2 dominant follicles that are around 10 mm.  I also have 20 (yes 20) that are around and under 8 mm.

For IUI (inter-unterine insemination) they like to see 1-3 good follicles.  Once said follicles reach anywhere from 18-22 mm you would do a trigger shot and go in for the insemination 36 hours later.  Follicles grow around 2 mm a day on average.

If you have too many follicles they will cancel your cycle.  Right now I am in the danger zone.  They are waiting for my E2 level to come back and then they will email me instructions on what does of meds to continue at.  I will go back on either Wednesday or Thursday to check on my many follicles and hopefully the dominate ones will be bigger and the others will not have grown.

The nice thing about injectables is they can "starve" off the smaller follicles by lowering the dose, so we aren't over yet, just need to wait and see (aka the story of our lives :)).

So, until then!

Stimming: Days 2-5 (CD 3-7)

I hate the days between starting stims and your first follicle check.  Makes me so anxious.  I go in tomorrow morning for another date with the dildo cam.  Hopefully we have 2 good looking follies and a nice E2 level.  Depending on where things are at size-wise and what my E2 is they will either continue my dose at 125 units or increase/decrease it.  They check the E2 level because it correlates with maturity/egg quality (between 200-600 per mature follicle).  So, to make a long story short, based on the size of follies on the Ultrasound and the E2 level they will be able to figure out where my follicles are at and what to do with me!

A side note about E2 and me.  The higher your estrogen levels go, the more chance you have to have a blood clot.  Since I have had a clot in the past, my hematologist worries about this.  Therefore I get to shoot myself up with more then just stims.  I also start Lovenox (blood thinner) on day 10 through AF or Pregnancy (fingers crossed!).  This shot really sucks.  It hurts. It leaves ugly bruises. It makes me crabby.  I hate doing it.

Wish me luck tomorrow morning.  I am praying for 2 follies around 12 mms (that means only a few more days of stims and hopefully an IUI Friday or Sat)....

I will post another update tomorrow on what I find out!

Baseline: December 2010

December 1st.  Sounds like a good day to start a new cycle! 

I had my lovely baseline appt today.  A date with the dildo cam and a needle in the arm.  Doesn't get much better the that at 7:40 am!

Good news is that my ute and ovaries look ready to go!  They are looking for a thinned out lining and no ovarian cysts to start out the cycle.

Dr. wants to up our meds this month to see if I can have a better response (in October we had one follicle).  The concern is I had a lot of smaller follicles fighting for a chance at growing, so we will be monitored very closely this month.  Ideally we would have 2 nice looking follicles when we trigger.  I think we would even go ahead if there were 3.  But we will cross that bridge when we get there...

After they get my lab values, they will decide my dose and sent me an email.

We go back on Monday to see how the little follies are doing.

Here we go again!