Huge Beta

I called the clinic as soon as they opened this morning and was able to get an appt before 10AM thankfully. I was dying to find out what my beta levels were and get our pregnancy confirmed by the doc! I showed up early but thankfully they never make me wait, even if I'm early. They called me right back and took my blood. She said since this was the first test, they would do both hcg (what I keep referring to as the beta) and progesterone. Progesterone is a necessary hormone during pregnancy, esp in the early stages to maintain the pregnancy (thus why I was prescribed prog. suppositories as part of fertility treatment).

So finally Dr Meyer called me back and confirmed that I am indeed pregnant. Yay!! He said my beta was 1100 (my reaction was 'woah, really?!'). That's a pretty high number which I knew from my internet obsessions. Here's a beta chart that you can look at to get a general idea (look at day 16, today is 16 days past ovulation for me). Notice there are two charts, one shows values for single pregnancies (one baby) and the other is for multiple pregnancies (twins or more). As you will see from the chart, 1100 is high even on the multiples chart.

Dr Meyer said that beta is high enough that it may be TWINS!! (as I was just alluding to) but that it's too early to tell. I don't even have to go back for a second beta as expected since it was so high. He said my progesterone looked good (I didn't ask the exact number). So I'll finish up the progesterone I have (just a few more days) but then do not need to refill it. He also confirmed my expectation that I no longer need Avandia or Glucophage (for my PCOS) while pregnant. So other than prenatal vitamins, I am going to be drug-free for the first time in two years! I setup an appt for two weeks from now (9/18) for our first ultrasound where we'll hopefully learn more.

Now off to tell our families...

HPT negative

What a week... it's been one thing after another! My hard drive at work crashed while I was supposed to be doing my job plus being a backup for someone else, had tons of family events all week including a graduation to attend and another negative home preg. test. Yesterday was 14 days after IUI so I had taken a test first thing in the morning. RN said to stop taking the progesterone and that would allow me to start a cycle.

Before the day was out, I started another cycle. Unfortunately, when I got to the doctor today, he found a few large cysts. They are nothing to worry about, just remnants from the IUI cycle. Actually, with PCOS, I have cysts all the time, but these were particularly large (he measured them .. but I wasn't paying attention to what size they were). The problem is that with these large cysts, he would be unable to monitor me through another cycle as there would be no way to tell if I was developing mature follicles or still just had the cysts.

So we have to take a month off again. You'd think I'd be happy for a break.. with all we've been doing, it doesn't seem like we've had many breaks. But in the last 6 months, we've only had the two cycles of medicine, one IVF and one IUI. So I really am not thrilled with yet another delay. But, it is what it is. Of course, just like my previous two doctors, he said that it's still possible to get pregnant while off the medicine. But, it is not very likely. So, again this blog will be quiet for a few weeks.

IUI today

I was surprised that the nurse did my IUI this morning. My other clinic did not do that. But it seemed to go well. She said everything looked good and then gave me a progesterone suppository Rx to start this weekend (always fun). So now we start the two week wait.

more medicines

Today I had more bw done & found my progesterone level is 33. I'm guessing that's not where they wanted it b/c they added Prometrium (another form of progesterone, though this one is not in a shot) to my already confusing medicine schedule. This one they've got me using 3x/day. Though at least I'm not wasting any of my money, I had been wondering when that big bottle of Prometrium would be used or if I should not have gotten it. (The way the IVF meds work, you have all of the meds delivered at the beginning of the cycle. So you open this giant box full of medicines, applicators, syringes, needles and then you wonder what the heck you got yourself into!)

They want me back for bw next Sat 3/3. This is the one we've been working towards. They are going to check my progesterone level again, but more importantly they are going to do my first beta! They'll do three betas and that'll let us know if we are pregnant!

Clomid #4

AF showed again on 2/10. So back to the doc. U/S still looked good, so stickin to the same schedule. CD 21 test progesterone level & call with period. boring...

Clomid #3

Somehow I made it through the holidays. It's hard keeping this whole thing quiet since I like to talk. But I know that it's for the best. Well.. I have of course told my friends, just we're not ready to tell family yet. Just too much pressure.

Anyway, today was another daty with the lovely OB. CD2 so I had to have an ultrasound. The good news is that AF came on her own this time & I don't have to take anymore progesterone. Apparently that plus my increased CD21 progesterone levels tells us this dosage works. So that's a good thing. The level went from 0.9 up to 25.4. For me that's a big jump. So we try again with cycle #3.

This Clomid is getting the better of me though. I already had a bit of a temper, but now.. man I flip out pretty good. Not just at little things but I really go nuts, yelling & screaming. Woa.. plus I'm hot all the time. Why do they call it hot 'flashes'? I'm just always hot. I know January in NC is not exactly frigid, but it's still odd for me to be this hot in January. I even crack the windows in my car sometimes!

Clomid #2

My test was negative.. so not preggo this time. I had really hoped we'd have good news to surprise everyone at Christmas. On to try #2...

Last try was at 50mg daily for days 3-7 which is apparenlty the lowest dosage. So he bumped me up to 100 mg this time. AF didn't show on her own though, so I'm stuck waiting another two weeks for my progesterone to kick in.

From China to the UK & back

So my DM got married in Scoltand & IBM wanted me in China around the same time. This meant I flew around the world (literally all the way around the world, no backtracking) in two weeks. It was a crazy trip but I had fun! But, this blog is about fertility.. the only reason I bring up this trip is that I had to postpone taking my new meds because of this trip.

I needed to take my progesterone to start off a cycle before I could take the Clomid. But, I also couldn't be on Clomid and away from home. So to be sure I didn't have timing issues, I held off til I got home before taking any of it.

hysterosalpingography

So I had my HSG test a few days ago.. I'd been a bit worried about it based off the testimony of the only other victim I'd known who'd been through this. Then another girl had hers the day before me, thankfully she called to let me know it was not that bad. And she was right.. it's not comfortable by any means, but geez if we can't get through something this easy, we're not meant to have kids :)

They said to take some aspirin or something beforehand, but I didn't bother. We went in a big room with a doc & nurse who were really nice. They prepped me & inserted the catheter up into the cervix (that stings) and then filled me up with dye (ok technically it's 'contrast' but looked like ink on the screen to me). The neat part was that I was able to watch too.. it looked like an xray but it was moving instead of still. I was able to see the dye as it spilled out of my tubes (a good thing, means no blockage). All in all, they didn't find any problems here.

Turns out that my progesterone levels (the blood test back at the OB) were REALLY low. Like post-menopausal low. Apparently this is an indication that I'm not ovulating on my own. So with all the results, doc says lets try Clomid. So now we are into fertility treatments...