Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Day 5 of stims
Hey guys, sorry I haven't posted as much as I would like to....life and IVF are keeping me extra busy lately, lol. Anyway, I went in for my day 5 appointment today and the tech said my uterine lining is an 8.3, which is great for day 5. She said that my right ovary had 9 follicles and that my left ovary has about 2 that were the same size as the ones on my right ovary. So I have about 11 follicles that are all in the same size range. She didn't tell me what those sizes were but said they were good for day 5. I will be asking what the sizes were today and what they are on Friday when we go back in for another ultrasound and blood work. She did say that there are a few smaller follies on my left ovary that could very likely catch up....hoping and praying that they do! I got my afternoon call that my E2(estrogen level) is 467, which she said is great for day 5. They are having me continue my meds at the same dose until I go back in on Friday for my next appt. I am really hoping to have my ER(egg retrieval) on the 1st of Nov, but who knows I may have it a day before or after that....we'll see. We will probably find that out on Friday. Hopefully. :) As for side effects of all these crazy hormones, I am having headaches, hot flashes, lots of tiredness, and I am definitely more irritable than normal(thankfully, I am pretty good at recognizing it, so for the most part I am catching myself before I snap at someone, for the most part....lol) and I am crying, basically at the drop of a hat, or maybe some more insurance commercials. :p I can't wait to be back to my old self but, at the cost of being pregnant, will most certainly wait 9 months. :D
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Lupron side effects
Alright, so this Lupron is generating some more side effects today. I had a few more hot flashes, but the worst side effect yet(I think) is anxiety. It's not really bad, but I feel anxious and almost short of breath. And I'm also feeling extra forgetful....like my brain is working it's way through jello....the anxiety and foggy brain started this afternoon. I am on day 3 of the Lupron and have approximately 18 more days of it. So I'm praying that the side effects taper off! I did give myself the shot this morning! Proud of myself. :) It hurt worse than when Jase did it tho. I think b/c I was shaking, lol.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Sick as a dog
Well, I have been MIA for the last few days. We went to my parents house for the weekend and I got a sinus infection that is clinging to me for dear life. I can't seem to shake it yet, but am hoping the antibiotics will help with that soon.
I have 4 days left of BCP's and did my second shot of Lupron today. I say that I did it, Jason did it for me. :) He's such a sweetheart! He brought me home flowers last night after he got off of work. Beautiful red roses and white lilies. I love him. :*)
The Lupron shots don't hurt much at all, but after two days of them I am starting to get headaches and a couple of hot flashes. Can't wait to start my stim meds!!! 10 days left!
I have 4 days left of BCP's and did my second shot of Lupron today. I say that I did it, Jason did it for me. :) He's such a sweetheart! He brought me home flowers last night after he got off of work. Beautiful red roses and white lilies. I love him. :*)
The Lupron shots don't hurt much at all, but after two days of them I am starting to get headaches and a couple of hot flashes. Can't wait to start my stim meds!!! 10 days left!
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Day 2 of BCP's
Yesterday I started my birth control pills. I was sure that I wouldn't have side effects for a few days and hoped I didn't have any. lol Boy was I wrong. First I had some hot flashes. Thankfully I haven't had any of those today. Then I realized at 9pm that I hadn't eaten dinner. I think the BCP is causing me to not be hungry right after I take it b/c I noticed I wasn't hungry again tonight at dinner time. After I ate last night I felt really nauseous and had indigestion for the rest of the evening. I took some nausea and indigestion medicine before bed and slept well. But I did have a lot of crazy dreams.
Today the side effects aren't as bad. I feel a lil nausea but I had some ginger tea which helped, and I think I'll be taking some Vitamin B-6 tonight(that's supposed to help). I'm hoping that will help. I feel the indigestion coming on but I think I'll be doing something about that sooner rather than later tonight.
2 days down, 12 days to go on the BCP's.
Today the side effects aren't as bad. I feel a lil nausea but I had some ginger tea which helped, and I think I'll be taking some Vitamin B-6 tonight(that's supposed to help). I'm hoping that will help. I feel the indigestion coming on but I think I'll be doing something about that sooner rather than later tonight.
2 days down, 12 days to go on the BCP's.
The Protocol
My protocol consists of 2 weeks of BCP's (birth control pills) before we start our actual IVF (in vitro fertilization) cycle.
On 11Oct I start one Lupron shot every morning. Lupron is for supressing the ovaries- keeping me from ovulating and hopefully keeping me from making any cysts.
On 21Oct I will cut my Lupron dose in half and continue that shot every morning until I have my ER(egg retrieval).
21Oct is also the day I have my Baseline ultrasound and blood work, to make sure everything looks good, and that I don't have any cysts producing hormones. We will also look at the lining of my uterus to make sure it is good and thin.
As long as everything looks good at my appointment, the next day, 22Oct will be my day 1 to start my stimulation meds.
On day 1 of stims I will be on a half dose shot of Lupron in the am, and a shot of Gonal-F(a stimulating hormone) in the am and pm. That equals 3 shots a day. I will also be taking a pill everyday that I am on stims to help optimize the environment for my ovaries to be stimulated.
I will go in for an ultrasound and blood work on day 5 of my stims to check progress. And then either every day or every other day (depending on what they find each time) I will go in for an ultrasound and blood work until my follicles(eggs) have grown to 18-20mm. According to what they find at the appointments, they will increase or decrease my doses of shots. They may also add one more shot if necessary.
Once they determine that my follies are mature enough, they will call and tell me to take my "trigger shot" which is a shot of hcg (causes my eggs to finish maturing quickly). They will give me a very specific time for my trigger shot, between 11pm-3am, because it will have to be exactly a certain amount of hours before my scheduled appt for my ER(egg retrieval). If we somehow mess that up, I could ovulate before the procedure and we'd lose our chance of getting the eggs.
Once I take the trigger shot, I stop all the other meds. On the day of ER I start taking Progesterone In Oil (PIO) shots. Basically, when your body ovulates naturally, the shell that the egg comes out of turns into the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum is what produces the progesterone which (if you have an egg and sperm fertilize) helps the pregnancy to be sustained. When you do an IVF cycle, they basically suck the follicle (containing the egg) and all the fluid out, leaving nothing behind to produce progesterone. So, I get to have progesterone shots in the butt, with a 3 inch needle (and yes, it goes all the way in....ouch) until 10 weeks gestation, assuming I get pregnant (which we are, of course :) ).
On the day before ER (egg retrieval), I will start a strong antibiotic (which generally makes you pretty sick to your stomach) to make sure we don't get an infection when they go into my "lady fun parts" with a gigantic needle to get all my follies/eggies out. I will take that antibiotic for 2x a day for 5 days.
ER is pretty much a mini surgery. No food, drinks, etc. the night before ER. Morning of ER they will take me in, I'll talk with the doc for a few minutes before they give me an iv, and put me to sleep. The procedure takes approx. 30 minutes. They will go in with a needle/aspirator and suck out all the follicles that are on my ovaries. We will already know how many follicles I have (from the many ultrasounds) but some of the follicles may not have an egg in them. Once I am out of surgery, I will recover for 30 min-1 hr. And then go home and relax the rest of the day. They will tell us before we leave, how many eggs were retrieved.
While I am in my ER, Jason will be giving his own donation "spermies-hehe".
Once they retrieve my eggs and Jason gives his sperm, they will wash them and look at them to find the best ones. Sometimes you can have over mature or damaged eggs. Then, they will take an egg and a bunch of sperm (or take an egg and insert 1 sperm into the middle of the egg-if they are concerned that they may not fertilize on their own) and place them in a petri dish(with other liquid that simulates the fluids in my tubes I think) and allow them to fertilize.
The next day is day 1 of growth. They will call us by 10am to let us know how many eggs fertilized into embryos. They will watch them very closely and let us know on day 2 how many we still have and how well they are growing/what grade each of them are. If we have a bunch that look really good, they will let them continue to grow until day 5 (when they reach the blastocyst stage-which is when they would normally implant if it was naturally done). If we don't have that many good embryos or they have other concerns, we will do a day 3 transfer. Day 5 transfers are sometimes considered more likely to work(b/c if they have made it to day 5 outside of my uterus, they are more likely viable) so they will only put 2 embryos in. If we do a day 3 transfer they may put 3 embryos in.
If we do not receive a call on day 2 for a day 3 transfer, then we will be doing a day 5 transfer.
On the day of ET (embryo transfer), we come in and they give me a valium (which I'll definitely be taking, lol). Then they stick a long tube like thing and ultrasound wand up my "lady fun parts" and deposit my little embies right where they want them to be. After that, I lay with my feet up for 30 min-1 hr and then we are free to go home. For the next few days I will be doing a lot of resting and relaxing.
Along with my PIO shots, I will be on an anti-inflammatory medication called Medrol. This supposedly helps improve implantation rates.
Then........we wait. My blood pregnancy test won't be for 2 weeks. I'm hoping if I get an early positive they'll let me come in earlier. We'll see.
I will be doing pregnancy tests from the day I give myself the "trigger shot" until I get a real positive. The trigger shot can cause a positive pregnancy test b/c of the injection. So I may start out with posititves before I even have the ET (embryo transfer) done. Once the "trigger shot" is out of my system, it will stop showing up positive. That way, if I get a real positive, I will know it is exactly that....REAL! :)
If you made it through all of that, I am proud of you. You should have seen Jason's expression when we left our patient education class, lol. Poor thing. Almost everything above came from memory. I did have to look at my chart a couple times. :)
So that is it. For the most part. And off we go.......
On 11Oct I start one Lupron shot every morning. Lupron is for supressing the ovaries- keeping me from ovulating and hopefully keeping me from making any cysts.
On 21Oct I will cut my Lupron dose in half and continue that shot every morning until I have my ER(egg retrieval).
21Oct is also the day I have my Baseline ultrasound and blood work, to make sure everything looks good, and that I don't have any cysts producing hormones. We will also look at the lining of my uterus to make sure it is good and thin.
As long as everything looks good at my appointment, the next day, 22Oct will be my day 1 to start my stimulation meds.
On day 1 of stims I will be on a half dose shot of Lupron in the am, and a shot of Gonal-F(a stimulating hormone) in the am and pm. That equals 3 shots a day. I will also be taking a pill everyday that I am on stims to help optimize the environment for my ovaries to be stimulated.
I will go in for an ultrasound and blood work on day 5 of my stims to check progress. And then either every day or every other day (depending on what they find each time) I will go in for an ultrasound and blood work until my follicles(eggs) have grown to 18-20mm. According to what they find at the appointments, they will increase or decrease my doses of shots. They may also add one more shot if necessary.
Once they determine that my follies are mature enough, they will call and tell me to take my "trigger shot" which is a shot of hcg (causes my eggs to finish maturing quickly). They will give me a very specific time for my trigger shot, between 11pm-3am, because it will have to be exactly a certain amount of hours before my scheduled appt for my ER(egg retrieval). If we somehow mess that up, I could ovulate before the procedure and we'd lose our chance of getting the eggs.
Once I take the trigger shot, I stop all the other meds. On the day of ER I start taking Progesterone In Oil (PIO) shots. Basically, when your body ovulates naturally, the shell that the egg comes out of turns into the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum is what produces the progesterone which (if you have an egg and sperm fertilize) helps the pregnancy to be sustained. When you do an IVF cycle, they basically suck the follicle (containing the egg) and all the fluid out, leaving nothing behind to produce progesterone. So, I get to have progesterone shots in the butt, with a 3 inch needle (and yes, it goes all the way in....ouch) until 10 weeks gestation, assuming I get pregnant (which we are, of course :) ).
On the day before ER (egg retrieval), I will start a strong antibiotic (which generally makes you pretty sick to your stomach) to make sure we don't get an infection when they go into my "lady fun parts" with a gigantic needle to get all my follies/eggies out. I will take that antibiotic for 2x a day for 5 days.
ER is pretty much a mini surgery. No food, drinks, etc. the night before ER. Morning of ER they will take me in, I'll talk with the doc for a few minutes before they give me an iv, and put me to sleep. The procedure takes approx. 30 minutes. They will go in with a needle/aspirator and suck out all the follicles that are on my ovaries. We will already know how many follicles I have (from the many ultrasounds) but some of the follicles may not have an egg in them. Once I am out of surgery, I will recover for 30 min-1 hr. And then go home and relax the rest of the day. They will tell us before we leave, how many eggs were retrieved.
While I am in my ER, Jason will be giving his own donation "spermies-hehe".
Once they retrieve my eggs and Jason gives his sperm, they will wash them and look at them to find the best ones. Sometimes you can have over mature or damaged eggs. Then, they will take an egg and a bunch of sperm (or take an egg and insert 1 sperm into the middle of the egg-if they are concerned that they may not fertilize on their own) and place them in a petri dish(with other liquid that simulates the fluids in my tubes I think) and allow them to fertilize.
The next day is day 1 of growth. They will call us by 10am to let us know how many eggs fertilized into embryos. They will watch them very closely and let us know on day 2 how many we still have and how well they are growing/what grade each of them are. If we have a bunch that look really good, they will let them continue to grow until day 5 (when they reach the blastocyst stage-which is when they would normally implant if it was naturally done). If we don't have that many good embryos or they have other concerns, we will do a day 3 transfer. Day 5 transfers are sometimes considered more likely to work(b/c if they have made it to day 5 outside of my uterus, they are more likely viable) so they will only put 2 embryos in. If we do a day 3 transfer they may put 3 embryos in.
If we do not receive a call on day 2 for a day 3 transfer, then we will be doing a day 5 transfer.
On the day of ET (embryo transfer), we come in and they give me a valium (which I'll definitely be taking, lol). Then they stick a long tube like thing and ultrasound wand up my "lady fun parts" and deposit my little embies right where they want them to be. After that, I lay with my feet up for 30 min-1 hr and then we are free to go home. For the next few days I will be doing a lot of resting and relaxing.
Along with my PIO shots, I will be on an anti-inflammatory medication called Medrol. This supposedly helps improve implantation rates.
Then........we wait. My blood pregnancy test won't be for 2 weeks. I'm hoping if I get an early positive they'll let me come in earlier. We'll see.
I will be doing pregnancy tests from the day I give myself the "trigger shot" until I get a real positive. The trigger shot can cause a positive pregnancy test b/c of the injection. So I may start out with posititves before I even have the ET (embryo transfer) done. Once the "trigger shot" is out of my system, it will stop showing up positive. That way, if I get a real positive, I will know it is exactly that....REAL! :)
If you made it through all of that, I am proud of you. You should have seen Jason's expression when we left our patient education class, lol. Poor thing. Almost everything above came from memory. I did have to look at my chart a couple times. :)
So that is it. For the most part. And off we go.......
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