Egg Retrieval & Funny Story!

So today went well. We left around 7:45 this morning and headed to Syracuse. Got there just in time and then shortly after, they took us back. It was uncomfortable sitting in the car straight up and down the last couple of days (gotta love giant ovaries!) so I had to recline, but other than that, not too bad. Just achy ovaries - they even hurt a bit with each step - fun, fun! I find myself hold my hands over them - quite the picture, I have to imagine!

We both got changed into our beautiful outfits and then they hooked me up to all my IV's, etc... And this time they hooked the IV up to my arm where they normally draw blood, not my hand - the hands hurts!

And before I know it, I'm awake and they had retrieved 9 eggs. Last time they told me when I'd be put out, but not this time I guess! lol

I don't even remember the doctor coming in! DH took lots of pictures - might post them later after I get them off the camera. He also said that they got 9 eggs and there's a chance that 6 of them are mature. I sure hope so - that's better than I was expecting!

We stopped at a Thai place for lunch and then drove the 2 hours home. I'm a little tired, and the ovaries are achy, but nothing I can't deal with. So now we wait for tomorrow morning's fert report - hoping it's a good number!

And now, here's the funny story:

So on the way to the Retrieval this morning, my husband drove. Fast. And before he could slow down, a State Trooper pulled out, put on his lights, and pulled us over. Oops!

Expecting him to come to the driver's side, I hear a knocking on my passenger window and all of a sudden, there he was. And here's the conversation:

Mr. Policeman: License and Registration please
Mr. Marcy: hands info to me to hand to cop
Mr. Policeman: Do you know why I pulled you over?
Mr. Marcy: yes - I was going over the spead limit - well over 80
Marcy: thinking to herself - don't say WELL OVER, just stick to - "yes, I was speeding"
Mr. Policeman: yes, I clocked you going 82. Where are you coming from.
Mr. Marcy: Albany
Mr. Policeman: And where are you headed?
Mr. Marcy: We're headed to Syracuse to the Fertility Clinic

And now, get this part:

Mr. Policeman: Oh, my wife and I have fertility issues. I understand. Go ahead, just slow down.
Mr. and Mrs. Marcy: - thank you Officer, thank you!

Can you believe it? That was it. Without another word he handed us back the license and registration and we pulled away (going speed limit for the rest of the way!).

How lucky are we and how cool of that cop?! Such a small world...

Follie Check #3 - Trigger tomorrow, Weekend Plans

Six. That's it. That's all the measurable eggs that I have. WTF? Leftie is doing ok and has grown them well, but righty has basically done nothing. Still. Here are my numbers from today's u/s:

Leftie:
20.7
18.9
18.5
18.5
17.8

Rightie:
12.2

Pretty pathetic, eh? This is even worse than last time in a way - fewer measurable eggs. But, at least it looks like there will be at least 5 good mature (hopefully!) eggs come Monday at the retrieval (only had 4 mature last time). And you know what's funny? It's the sad little Rightie that I feel the most - go figure. I will cross my fingers that the one on Rightie catches up, but I seriously doubt it. So it's looking like we'll end up with just a few embies again this time and none for freeze.

So let's hope this one works!

OK, here's my protocol for the next few days:

Tonight: no change - 150 iu Follistim, 5 iu Lupron
Tomorrow: Trigger (Ovidrel) at 10:30 pm, no Follistim or Lupron
Sunday: no injections! No baby aspirin. No food/beverage after midnight
Monday: ER at 10:00 am
Thursday: potential ET

It's actually pretty good that I won't be doing stims tomorrow night because I am going to an Upstate NY Nestie get-together and I don't want to worry about making it back into town in time or having to lug them around with me all day in a cooler! lol

I'm actually looking forward to the GTG - I've been chatting with these girls from all over the state for a while now and we finally get to meet! I've gone to some local Nestie GTG's and a few of us are carpooling over together, but meeting some of the others from Upstate NY should be fun. We are going to the Finger Lakes area - having lunch and then going on a boat cruise. Ooh, gotta remember my camera!

I'm also officially on vacation until September 2nd - yay for me! We were planning on going north to the Adirondacks to my parents' house and then to hop over and see my sister/nephew, but now that we have to go to Syracuse on Monday and Thursday, it wouldn't make any sense to to go - too much driving in very opposite directions lol Oh well - so is the way with all of our vaca plans this year, but baby comes first!

Hope you all of you are doing well - have any plans for the weekend?

Feeling Much Better

So I freaked out a little yesterday. But I just had such a hard time believing that there were only four mature eggs - I still do. If this round doesn't work, there will be a lot of questions asked at the WTF appointment. DH and I both discussed that if, for some reason, this round doesn't work, we'll definitely try a second round.

In all honesty, this really hasn't been as tough as I thought. Sure, it's kind of uncomfortable when I'm "full" of eggs, and sometimes I feel like I could just cry/scream, but really, it's all been pretty manageable. I could definitely do it again. It would be a whole lot easier if my insurance covered it all instead of paying out-of-pocket, but we'd definitely do it again.

But for now, I'm not thinking about next cycle. I'm thinking about this one. That we're still in the game. I called the RE's office this morning and the answering service had someone called me back. We discussed my concerns about only having two and that they might die between yesterday and Monday. And that we have to drive two hours just to get there. That if there was any way to find out how they're doing or to call us before we leave to save the drive if, in case, none of our little embies were still living.

She assured me (sort of!) that they should still be ok for Monday and to still come out. They don't check them again until about 8:00 Monday morning. She said that they gave us an early appointment for that reason and said that there was one girl who had an 11:15 appointment that is also driving and they told her to call first because hers didn't look that good. They didn't tell us that, so to just come on out.

I'm not sure how much I believe that if they were good yesterday, they'll still be good by Monday, but I guess I just have to put my faith in the RE's hands. And if we end up making a two hour trip for no reason, then we'll just have to deal with that when the time comes.

So, like I said, I'm trying to be positive right now. It's a lot easier than yesterday after hearing the news. That was NOT a good time. But, DH and I talked about it, we spent the afternoon out on the boat and went to see some 4th of July fireworks last night in a town where he used to live. And yup, I know it's a week early - they always do them early since we live in the capital of NYS and they always have a huge display on 4th, so they do it early so as to not compete. So much easier to go see these - not nearly as many people!

Although - there were definitely some characters there last night. I think I have seen my share of mullets, liquor/NASCAR/Harley t-shirts, women without bras that should NOT be without a bra, and feathered/hairsprayed hair to last me the rest of the year. It definitely made for some good people watching before the fireworks started! That, and I got my fried dough - yum!

Today we have some errands to do - I've finally updated my ER entry (below), I have to get new tires on my car, clean the house, make some bread, make some cookies, and pack for tomorrow.

I also made a vet appointment for Riley for tomorrow after we get back since he is STILL vomiting and has now scratched himself raw above his scapula. We were going to leave for Rochester right after the RE appointment since it's only 1-1.5 hours further, but we couldn't bring the cat with us and leave him in the car. And we wanted to get him into the vet once again. So we'll probably head out Tuesday morning to Rochester instead.

I hope whomever is reading this has a great day - and thanks for reading!

Fert Report

Fuuuuuuck. Of the 10 eggs they got yesterday, they only injected sperm into 4 - so apparently out of all 10 of those eggs, only 4 were mature? Why the hell didn't they stim me longer? FFS! And of those 4, only 2 fertilized. 1 might catch up, but right now, 2. And based on the quality of DH's sperm, I don't have high hopes for those 2 lasting until Monday morning.

I know, I shouldn't be so pessimistic. "It only takes one." "There have been some girls who only had one and it worked." I know all of this, but right now I just want to bitch, scream, cry, everything. It's like we went through all of this and spent all this money for nothing. (Yes, yes, I know it's still early and they could last).

Almost makes me wonder if they didn't stim me longer because they didn't want to have to do it on a weekend. I know, that's probably not it, but blaming it on them is making me feel just the tiniest bit better right now. So now we hope and pray that those 2 (.5?) don't crap out and last until Monday morning where we have to drive 2.5 hours to put them back. I guess that resolves the issue of how many we put back, eh?

OK, thanks for listening to my vent. Sorry about that so early in the morning. I have the draft of my ER written, just haven't finalized/posted it yet. Will get to that sometime today. I hope you all have a great day!

Egg Retrieval

Well - today was a day full of nervousness, excitement, waiting, and laughs.

It takes about two hours to get to Syracuse (since we're on grant, have to go to the "Mother" office rather than our local office which is only 10 minutes away) so we got up around 7:15 and left around 8:40 for our 11:15 appointment. I'd rather be early than late! Ride was pretty uneventful although it sucked seeing Tom eat when I couldn't - I was starving!

We get there around 10:40, go in, fill out paperwork and wait. And wait some more. And wait some more. Apparently they had a lot of IVF's that morning so we didn't get to go in until 12:20 - yikes!

While we were waiting, Tom goes out to grab an another apple to eat and he notices we have a flat tired. Oops! That sucks. So the whole time we're waiting I have to try and get his mind off wanting to go and get it fixed, because who knows when they'll call us in! Knowing our luck, they would have called us while he was gone - that wouldn't have been cool!

They call our name and take us back. They take Tom to the room for him to get dressed in his nice little outfit and me to the bathroom to change into mine. Very cute, if I have to say so myself! haha

They get me all hooked up and started giving us the low down of what pills they're giving me for after and what's going to happen to the procedure. Thanks to the girls on the nest (especially Shawna!) not much of it was a surprise. The doctor comes in, introduces himself and then heads out to go get ready. Anesthesiologist then comes in and starts explaining what he'll be doing.

I ask one of the nurses to take a picture, and they were all for it, thankfully - love it! They even start joking about all the fun pictures they can take while I'm under lol

Anesthesiologist administers his magic potion, I can start to feel it, and not too long later I'm out - such a nice little nap! DH takes quite a few pictures while I'm under - they said they had never had anyone take pictures before and they were loving it - suggesting pictures he could take, even getting him to take a picture of the ultrasound screen.

When I woke up, I guess I just started asking lots of questions - and apparently repeatedly since I wasn't quite awake enough and didn't remember what I asked - whoops! But they were good, though, and answered all of my questions - every time. Overall, I guess the whole procedure took 5 minutes and I was out another 5 before I woke up. It's such a fast process.

Once we were done, they had me get dressed while DH went out to call AAA for the flat tire. And while we were waiting for them to show up, the nurses were so awesome. They know I hadn't eating since the night before and here it was almost 2:00 - so they took us both into their kitchen and fed us. How awesome is that! They had sandwiches, wraps, salad, brownies, etc... We ended up having a chicken salad wrap, soda, and a brownie (or maybe it was a couple brownies - they were goooood!). Gotta love drug reps for bringing the free food. But even more for the nursing staff to be so incredibly nice and letting us join them for lunch!

AAA finally arrived and couldn't fix the tire, but did put on the spare and directed us to a tire place to see if they could do anything, or get a new one. DH comes in to get me and we set off for the tire place. And here is where DH turned into a typical male - the directions the AAA guy gave us were wrong - and instead of stopping by and asking one of the many auto-type places to ask for directions, he just keeps driving. And driving. So what could have been 10-15 mins had he been willing to stop and ask for directions took over 45 minutes. So frustrating! But, in the end, we found it, they miraculously patched the tire, and we were on our way home - yay!

As far as the recovery goes, I wasn't honestly in a lot of pain. I was a bit drowsy and had some period-like cramps and could take Tylenol if I wanted (nothing else, though - I guess the others thin out your lining?), but they honestly weren't bad enough to take anything.

Got home, we ate dinner, went for ice cream (yum!) and just hung out for the rest of the night. I ended up passing out on the bed without realizing it, but did wake up in the middle of the night to take my billion pills and a picture of my very bloated belly.

Before:

After (so bloated!)

Now let's just hope this bloated belly sticks around and becomes a pregnant belly, right? Can't wait for the fertilization report - hopefully it's good!

I Can't Button My Pants!

Yikes! I always knew bloat came with the territory for trigger/ER/ET, but I guess I just never let it sink it that it would happen this early. So I'm sitting here at work with my pants unbutton, sore boobs, tired, and patiently counting the hours until I can leave! I have tomorrow and all of next week off, so I can't wait to just not have to be at work, let alone the anticipation of the ER and ET!

And oh yeah - I can definitely still feel those ovaries in there - keep on chugging!

Stim Ck #3 - It's a go!

The ER is a go for Friday! At 11:15 am to be precise. They re-measured today and everything looks awesome. And I knew going into this that were were some positive growth in there - it is even more uncomfortable now - I can feel them all the time - and standing up/walking can be downright painful! haha

But, here are the updated measurements:

Left Ovary:
22.0
20.6
20.0
17.4
15.3
12.4

Right Ovary:
20.6
18.7
17.3
16.3
15.6
12.0
11.8

So not too many in the 18-22 range yet, but hopefully a few more will sneak in that range by Friday when they take them all out. So here's my protocol for the next few days:

Tonight: no stims, no Lupron, no aspirin (which I've been taking to thin blood to prevent clotting, etc...). Trigger the follicle release with Ovidrel injection at 11:45 pm. They retrieve the eggs 36 horus after the trigger, so that's why so late at night. Just hope I can stay up that late - I've been pretty tired lately.

Tomorrow: shot free day! Just no food/liquids after midnight

Friday: drive to Syracuse for the ER. Still no food. Also, no jewelry, watches, nail polish, contacts, anything that smells, wear comfy clothes

• DH gives his fresh sample and they inject into the good eggs. Speaking of which, I'm happy I confirmed with them today that his frozen samples would be sent to Syracuse. They hadn't yet! So they will be personally driven to Syracuse with the doctor today. Phew!

Saturday: they call with the fertilization report

Sunday - Wednesday: sometime in here, assuming we still having living embro's, they will transfer some back in!

OMG I am so frickin' excited. Nervous and excited. I am excited to get this show on the road and to get me pregnant (hopefully!). But I'm also nervous something may go wrong. That None of the eggs will be good. That in all of the samples that DH has given (Friday's fresh or past frozen) that none of the sperm acan be used. That none of them fertilize. That none of them make it to transfer. Or that if they do, none stick or I miscarry.

Ugh. I just need to keep being positive. I know I have to keep some of the reality thoughts in there that something may go wrong so it's not a huge crash if it does, but for my own sanity right now, I need to keep thinking positive thoughts, so wish us luck! POSITIVE THOUGHTS!

And if they don't, in the amazing words of my husband last night when we were talking about this: If this cycle, or none of our future cycles work, we will always have each other. And that's something I will always cherish.

I love my husband so much!

Ovaries - I have them!

Yikes - let's just say I can DEFINITELY tell I have ovaries right now and they are very, very full of the lovely follies I'm growing! It used to be that I could sort of feel them when I walked or stood up. Now, I can feel them just sitting here, when I stand up it's actually kind of painful and definitely uncomfortable. And with every step, it's like someone's hitting me in each ovary- left, right, left.... So I think I am definitely on track for Friday! lol

Stim Check #1!

So I had my first stim check this morning and it went awesomely! Is that a word? Eh - I'm going with it ;-)

I don't have any exact numbers yet, but the uterus lining looks good and it looked like I had about 14-16 follicles growing in there! Now I just hope they keep growing and we get some good mature ones out of that bunch! We didn't measure them today, but will next week. We're hoping for 18-22 mm and then we'll trigger. Based on what we saw today, it's looking like my egg retrieval (ER) will be a week from today. NEXT FRIDAY! Can you believe it!

They took more bloodwork this time, so I'm curious what my P2/P4 levels will come out to be. Based on the bloodwork from last time, my hypothroidism is getting better! My numbers aren't perfect, by my TSH went down from a 6.7 back on 5/13 (I think?) to about a 3.something this time. Typically you want it around the 1-2.5 range if I remember correctly, so I'm getting there. Not perfect, but my thyroid is at least functioning at a higher level now which is good. Need the levels in the right place to support a pregnancy and for brain development.

While I was there I made another appointment for DH to deposit another sample to freeze. Now that I'm growing all these eggs, we need to make sure he's got enough sperm! Based on his low count (morph and motility don't really matter with IVF) he's been giving them a sample every few days to freeze as backups in case his day-of sample doesn't have enough. It wouldn't be good to have lots of mature eggs to fertilize, but no sperm to inject! He's been a real trooper about it, too. (I don't think I've ever used that word, but it seems to fit! haha). His first SA he was really nervous to give, but now he's definitely gotten used to it. Just goes in, does his business, drops it off, and out the door he goes!

I go back in on Monday and Wednesday again for more checks. Based on those, they'll have a better idea of how things are progressing and when the ER and ET (embryo transfer) will be. We want them to grow, but not too fast - we want them to be good quality, not necessarily just good quantity! So, here's to hoping for good progress over the weekend!

I shot myself!

Today is Lupron day #7. DH is out of town this weekend for a friend's wedding and I'm here with kitty. He usually does my injections, but since he's out of town, it was all me. And I have to say, it was no problem at all - I did a good job! lol

I started spotting today, so that generally means I should be getting my period tomorrow, making tomorrow Cycle Day 1. So that means on Cycle Day 3 I need to go into the RE's office for an ultrasound to see if I am sufficiently suppressed - well, if my ovaries are anyway! ;-) And if they are, then I get to start Bravelle which will stimulate my ovaries to (hopefully!) produce lots and lots of eggs/follicles. While I'm Bravelle, I'll stay on Lupron to make sure my ovaries stay sufficiently suppressed so they don't ovulate on my own and we lose all the eggs I'll produce. I'll be monitored every 1-2 days to make sure they're growing ok and nothing is going wrong. And then once they're the right size (18mm+) they'll remove the eggs, fertilize them with DH's sperm through Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) - meaning they'll inject a single sperm directly into an egg to increase the odds of fertilization. Then, 3-5 days later, they'll put a couple fertilized embryos back in!

For a quick kitty update. As of yesterday and today, kitty can't keep anything down, so I called the vet and they made an appt. for tomorrow. Hopefully everything will be ok!