Shooting up

Here's a chic giving herself a Follistim injection using a Follistim pen. This is the drug I used in both IUI & IVF. I never could hold the pen the way she is (which is how they taught us to). Just seemed too much like a jabbing motion, I hold the pen closer to the needle. I love how excited she is at the end that she did it. Superquick.



Ok so I really want to show two videos today. But this lady in the second one has a pretty foul mouth on her so I'm only going to link to it, instead of embeding, and it's up to you if you want to watch it or not. The reason I like it though is because she gets herself all 'siked out'. I've done this so many times! Over the last year I've taken dozens of these little shots, but every now & then you freak yourself out. Karla shoots up!

4 Follies

My RE said I was close to ready. He found four follicles that were almost the right size. My right ovary had a 15mm & 13mm, the left had two 10s. So, he's upped my follistim to 75IUs (from 50) and added a shot of antagon (ganirelix acetate) tonight & tomorrow night. Then return on Friday for another scan with expectation that IUI will be Sunday. Of course he did say I'm at risk for multiples due to the number of follicles. But I'm not too concerned about that right now, since my body has not been in a hurry for just a single.

Here we go again... (aka IUI #5)

Yep it's already time for another go. Thats one thing with infertility, you barely get time to let the last negative test (hpt or beta) sink in before it's time to move on (unless it's IVF, they make you wait after that).

This morning, after my scan, Dr Meyer suggested we change my protocol for this cycle. So, no more Femara. Instead, I'll start the Follistim earlier (day 3 instead of 7) and up the dose. Taking 75IUs tonight and then 50 until I go back next Wed (15th). I had been taking only 37.5IUs. This is a more agreesive schedule, but not too much. After 2 previous cycles with the same doses, he didn't think it made any sense to try another without making changes. He said I could try another if I wanted to, but I'm in agreement we shouldn't keep trying the exact same thing over & over.

IUI will be Thursday

Yep, my IUI has been scheduled for Thursday. (Well technically I've got to call back tomorrow to actually schedule the time, but it's planned for Thursday).

My scan this morning looked good with a few follicles that were almost the right size. RE did want me back for another scan tomorrow to check on those follicles but before the day was out that plan changed. You really have to learn to be flexible when it comes to fertility treatment. Apparently after getting my e2 result (260) the doc didn't need to see me back. They made me laugh though, they said I could still come in for a scan if I wanted to. Hmm.. come in and pay 25% of roughly $200-300 when doc doesn't think its necessary. Nah, I don't think so.

So now the plan is to take another dose of FSH tonight, then take hCG shot tomorrow night. Then IUI on Thursday.

IUI progressing nicely

I'm on day 10 of my cycle today (IUI try #3) and had an US & e2. The US looked good, I had a couple of 12-13mm follicles and the others were smaller. RE is trying to get just one or two to develop ahead of the others (this would limit my chances of high order multiples. With IUI, we don't want to see as many follicles as we did in IVF). The nurse just called me back with the e2 results. My estradiol was 55.9 which shocked me. In IVF, my level was never anywhere near that low, but that is a good thing! So they want me to continue on the low dose of follistim (37.5) through Sunday night. My next appt is Monday morning.

IUI #3 finally getting started

Once I returned from Minnesota, I started taking prometrium to force a cycle to start. Today is day 3 and I had a baseline US (doc said everything looked good). So tonight I start the IUI meds. Plan is to take Femara (letrozole) on CD 3, 5, 6 & 7. Then I'll take 37.5 IUs of Follistim (same drug from my IVF cycle) on CD 7, 8 & 9. Then back next Fri for another US.

IVF consult

DH & I showed up at the dr for our 4PM appt. 45 mins later we finally got to see the RE. Then he rushed me with all my questions. He kept checking his cell phone & once said 'you about done with all those questions?'. UGH... what a jerk. We were only in there maybe 10-15 minutes tops.

Most of my questions were shrugged off, indicating that there is nothing we could have done different & there are no other tests we should do to look for any other problems. Just try again. He said that I stimulated like their 21-yr old egg donors (I guess that was supposed to make me feel better?). Of course stimming that way did us no good since my levels went too high (as you know already if you've been following along on this blog). The only explanation he would give as to the failure of this cycle was the possibility that 'coasting' (no ovulation induction meds) for so long prior to retrieval and/or that I had not been taking my full dose of glucophage could have reduced the quality of the eggs. I have several issues with this statement. First, we had no idea until today that there had been anything wrong with the eggs. All he could tell us was that we had 'slow embryonic development' (though even that confuses me since 2 got to blastocyst stage on day 5 which is typical.. did they start slow & then catch up?). Second & third, I had informed the nurses of my difficulty in taking the glucophage as it made me sick & he never tested me for insulin resistance (not all PCOS patients are insulin resistant & only need glucophage if insulin resistant).

For the next try, he had only a few changes to make. Take birth control longer (20-25 days instead of the 15 or so I did last time). He is also going to start me off with FSH of 100 (started at 150 last time) and Lupron of 5 (10 b4) and just try again. He also said to make sure to take the full dose, at least during the stim phase if I can't manage it the rest of the time. (Glucophage gives me GI issues at full dose, or even at smaller doses sometimes).

So, just try again. Now that he's seen how my body reacts, he says he knows what doses to use next time. What if these doses are not enough? Plus, the problem with that mentality is that we only have one more try that our insurance will cover. And we don't have $10-15k to pay for another try ourselves. So I'm very interested in doing all we can to increase our chance of success at this try. I'm not in a hurry to do it right away.. if time is what we need to be better prepared then fine by us.

overkill

I've gotten in this habit lately of sleeping pretty late on Saturday mornings. I know when this infertility trip is over, I'll have a lovely baby waking me up early and that's ok. But a Saturday morning trip to the doctor is NOT a good reason to be awake.

So today my estradiol level continued to climb (that's with no additional FSH or Ovidrel last night) up to 5204. Today the clinic admitted that's not great as they prescribed a new medicine called Ganirelix Acetate. This one is to 'help the estradiol levels come down' in the words of the nurse. Ok, so they pumped me full of all these drugs & they overdid it? Lovely. So I get to take another one to combat that. I actually laughed out loud when I read on the packaging that this drug is an 'antagonist'.

So anyway, back to the doctor bright & early on Sunday morning for more bloodwork & another ultrasound. Hopefully this time we'll hit the mark (I don't even know where the mark is).

getting close!

my estrogen level is 3661 today. and i only have to take ONE shot tonight instead of 3 :) so i'm only taking 5 lupron tonight, no ovidrel or follistim. but i do have to go back to the clinic tomorrow (yes on saturday), so thats a bummer

tuesday bw/us

Yesterday the RN msg said to reduce my FSH to 125, keep Lupron at 5 & Microdose Ovidrel at 10. It also said my 'levels were 643'. I had no idea what that means so between diggin on the internet & asking the RN today, I found that they are measuring my 'estradiol' or estrogen levels. Being that it was 'day 3', they said those levels should have been around 200 so mine was slightly high. That is why they had cut down my dose last night. They also had me come back in today for more bw/us. The US showed that I had a lot of follicles already & she said that's why my levels were so high. We'll know later this afternoon what the levels were today & what my doses will be for tonight. Hopefully I won't have to go back for bw every day!

I hate Cary

Cary is a nightmare ... of course the clinic is in Cary so I got stuck in traffic this morning trying to get to my US. I don't care if it is one of the top 5 places to live in 2006, driving there sucks.

Anyway, I did finally get there & the US went fine. BW came back fine too. So as scheduled, RE wants me to reduce my Lupron to 5units from 10. Start 10units microdose ovidrel and 150 IUs on my Follistim pen. Plus, start my estring and keep up with the prenatal & BA.

I go back on Monday for more BW & then they might change my dosages. At this point we're only about 2wks away from transfer. Not too shabby!