Sweet!

Got the mail last night and there was an envelope from my RE. I wasn't expecting anything good - maybe that we owed them money or something. Especially since we just paid them for another year of DH's sperm storage. But nope - and boy was I wrong.

It was a CHECK! Holy crap. A refund of over $500. Yay!

That is so going into the savings account right now. Not a bad way to end the week!

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!

Softball League

Oh, I forgot to mention. I went to my old softball team's game last night and they won - yay! We have a league on the plant where I work and I've played for the last 6-7 years. I was the senior member on the team, but I decided not to play softball this year for a few reasons. The biggest being that after the ER/ET my RE mentioned I couldn't do anything too physical and to not lift anything over 10 lbs. I am assuming swinging a bat and hitting a ball would equate to more than that. Plus, I am hoping to be pregnant and would be just too tired to play! lol

It was great to go and watch them play. I missed not being able to play, but it was fun to be there and hang out with everyone. Guess there's always next year, righ?!

Stim Days 3-4

Nothing too special to report. Still not really feeling any side effects. I once again have a headache and am exhausted. But I still can't be sure if it's from one of the drugs. I always have a headache and I didn't sleep much last night. So who knows. And I also felt pretty emotional today, but that could be due to either the meds or due to the stress I have at work and with Riley who still isn't 100% yet - still not eating well and vomiting (although not that much).

My sister and her fiance were supposed to be coming down to visit this weekend, but due to the gas prices, they've changed their mind :-( I was really looking forward to their visit, but I totally understand. They have to drive from VT to PA in a couple weeks so it made sense to save gas/money and not come down. Oh well... I did just see them this past weekend! And, now I guess we don't have to worry about hiding our meds in the fridge where they can't find them and hide doing the shots - it's quite a small house to hide that kind of thing! haha

Had an odd experience tonight with the stim shot. Nothing actually injected! haha Not sure what we did wrong, but it was really easy for DH to push in so that made us curious. And when I went to take the "empty" cartridge out (remember, it still has a little leftover in it), it's still about half full. Oops! So we just did it again and it worked. So bizzarre!

I go in for my first stim check tomorrow. I really hope there are some follies growing in there and they look good. Please, please, please!

Nothing.

Nope - still no period. Nothing since the once time spotting I had on Friday. Zilch. I can't start the next phase of IVF until I get my period. I know Lupron kind of delays things in that arena, but I was supposed to get it on Saturday - so start already! I called my RE to cancel the appointment I had for today and they said that if I still don't get it by Friday to call and I'll have an appointment on Monday regardless. So here's to hoping it shows on it's own and earlier.

The next phase in this whole process is where I start taking Bravelle with my Lupron. The Bravelle is injected to stimulate my ovaries to produce lots and lots of eggs. And I keep taking the Lupron so suppress any natural ovulation by my body until the eggs/follicles are big enough to be triggered to ovulate. And then once I do the trigger, they'll go in, retrieve all of the eggs, fertilize them with ICSI and then a few days later transfer a few fertilized ones back in.

So say it with me everyone - come on period - show your face! ;-)

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!

Injections Class!

I went in to my RE's office (Reproductive Endocrynologist) and had my injections training class. The drugs I have to take for the IVF procedure are all administred via inection. The nurse (who was pregnant!) taught me how to set everything up, fill it up, etc... Didn't actually do an injection, but I feel pretty confident on how to do it and I'll show my husband how to do it when it comes time on Saturday. He really wants to be involved, so this is a good opportunity for him!

I am definitely looking forward to getting everything started on Saturday. I have the Lupron, the needles, and associated paraphernalia all ready to go, so now Saturday just needs to get here!