Another quickie

Yesterday's test revealed a good number of follicles on both sides (more on the left than right, but the right side ones are a bit more substantial). Estrogen is up to 391. The puzzling thing for me is the LH number (luteinizing hormone?). Mine started at 1.33 but is dipping WAY below 1 these day. I read somewhere that there's supposed to be a surge at some point, but mine just keeps going down. I don't know what that means, but I plan to consult "our bible" later today (a textbook on reproduction that was loaned to us from a friend of Paul's--it's full of lots of information, most of which I can't seem to wrap my French-riddled brain around, but a few sections of which surprisingly have a lot of clarity to my French-riddled brain!).

The doctor lowered my Gonal from 600 to 75, is keeping the Cetrocide, and has added the new low-dose hCG (40 units--thankfully, another sub-Q shot!). The last few shoot-ups, I've had some pain and bleeding, which is no fun. These usually just result in bruising after a day or so, so I'm officially looking (and FEELING!) like a pin cushion.

It's looking like we'll definitely go to retrieval this time around!! That should be within the next week and at the same time, they'll mix Paul's swimmers (which, by the way, have improved in morphology since he's been adding this icky shit called Proxeed to his morning glass of water) and my eggs. We'll hope for good mixes and lots of embryos, then five days later, we'll have a transfer (they'll transfer 3). We should know by Christmas if I'm pregnant and, since I have ZERO ability to keep my mouth shut, everyone else will know shortly thereafter.

Keep your fingers crossed!!

Quick update

I had a blood test and ultrasound this morning, and while my follicles are still a wee smaller than they'd like to see (not surprising as my little buggers are normally late bloomers), everything else is looking good. My baseline estrogen is 55, and today it registered at 234 (this is good!). When things were cancelled in April, my estrogen was only at 231 (but, if you've heard me tell the story, my blood work from that day showed that it more than doubled, however we'd already been cancelled). Estrogen is released by the follicles as they're maturing and it's not something that can be controlled, unlike everything else.

The doctor is keeping me on the full amount of Gonal for the next 2 days, and adding in Cetrocide. I forget what this does exactly (keeps the eggs from popping out?) but it's another sub-Q shot (the good kind that go under the skin, not in the muscle). I have another test scheduled Friday morning so I should know more that day! The chances of a retrieval next week are looking better and better!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is around the corner. We were supposed to host it this year in our new house. Since we don't have the house, the holiday reverted back to the care of my brother and his family (who had hoped to give it up this year in exchange for Christmas...now they get both holidays). With any luck, we'll be settled nicely into our new home next year and we'll have a gaggle of people at the house! We plan to have both sides of the family, plus a few extras I imagine. GREAT excuse to have a pool table in the house. I remember going to my Aunt Betty and Uncle Eddie's for Thanksgiving as a kid. They had a pool table (or was it ping pong?) that they covered with plywood and a special tablecloth. It worked perfectly!

I started the shots Saturday night, then had my second last night. Today, I feel slightly uncomfortable in the area of my ovaries, but I've also had some back pain the last few days, so my discomfort could be more back pain-related. Whatever the case, there's a lot going on down in the nether-regions and none of it is all that welcome. I'll have a shot tonight and one more tomorrow night, then testing done on Wednesday.

We had one house showing on Saturday, another one yesterday, and our third in about an hour from now. I still have to go around and pick up the house, raise the blinds, and turn on lights, but the advantage of having them so close together is that the house does manage to stay quite clean in between. I'm not expecting much from these, but it's nice that something is happening. We'll have lunch with our realtor today to talk about what to do this winter, since it will likely be sloooowwwwwwww. We're going to keep the house on the market--apparently, pulling it off the market will be of little benefit to us, so it may as well sit on there looking pretty.

I have given myself one week to get the online class done!! Frankly, I don't think I'll have it completely finished by next Monday, but I've given myself a grace period of 4 days after that (until Dec 5). I want it DONE by my birthday. No big plans for the big day, except whatever develops with the IVF (retrieval? transfer?).

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Whore Moans

Exciting news from Iaco-ville! We have TWO showings this weekend! Well, one tomorrow (Sat) and the other on Monday. This is the most we've had since July. We're smart enough not to expect much from them, but wouldn't it be a merry Christmas if we were in a new home? Wishful thinking...

The hormones arrived on Wednesday, so the shots start tomorrow. I'll have Gonal straight-up for the first 4 nights, then a cooter cam test on Wednesday to see if the big G has done any good. If so, on to the 3 shot routine for a while. Or 2 shots and a gel in the va-jay-jay. I forget which. Thanksgiving should be TONS of fun. ☺

Tomorrow is Paul's birthday. He'll be a whopping 43, which means it's the last one I can make fun of him for being in his 40's. I still have 2 weeks of mockery which I plan to use to the fullest extent. We're going to the Northwestern/Univ of IL football game tomorrow. He's talked for 4 years about taking me to an NU game but hasn't, so when it came to getting him a present, I took the bull by the horns and bought tickets. He wasn't as happy as I thought he would be, for some reason. We'll still have fun, regardless.

That's about it. Still TOO much work to do on the online course--I had some publisher-related material added to it and as a result, I get to retype EVERYTHING I put in before. Oh joy. Sadly, tonight was spent cleaning the house, so nothing online got done (except for this and some unnecessary Facebook time).

STAY WARM! You know I'll be dressed in many layers tomorrow!

Jinxed

Just when I thought I could get away with it, my sore throat started last night. Had the gall to keep me up half the night, too. DAMN.

Stay away from me today...

Drugs

One of my pet peeves is when someone tells me they're sick or feeling bad (physically), yet they do nothing about it. If you tell me you have a pounding headache but have no intention of taking something for it, don't come crying to me. Seriously...someone out there created Tylenol for a reason. If you choose not to "pollute" your body with some good drugs to cure what ails you, please don't expect sympathy from me.

My cold is definitely on the mend (likely thanks to some of the nice drugs I've had the past few days). I don't know if it was the Zicam, Airborne, or Nyquil that did it, but hoochie mama, if I was bound to be infected with a nasty cold, this was the way to do it. Unfortunately, my neck went out Sunday and has yet to return (the Darvocet and Tramadol aren't working as well as I'd hoped/expected).

The next round of drugs start this weekend. Those would be of the IVF variety. We had a talk with a nurse today (had to go in to sign consents, learn how to give shots, etc.). Our past IVF cycles have taken roughly 6 weeks from start to finish (start being the first drugs to finish being the last HCG shot). This time: 3 weeks. I like that!

I've been on the pill since last Friday. The last one I take will be tomorrow night. Saturday, we start the Gonal-F. That's the drug that stimulates the eggs. Now, in the past, we've started Gonal after a week or two of Lupron, and in conjunction with Menopur, both of which help supress the ovaries from taking a ride on the wild side (at least I think that's what they both do). It was a VERY controlled process between supressing things yet getting them to rock and roll.

This time: we're headed for that wild ride. No supressing drugs (yet). We'll have 5 days of sheer, unadulterated egg-stimulating freedom. There will be NOTHING holding them back. The hope is that they'll go a bit nuts at first, exploding within their natural little habitat.

After 5 days, we'll reign them in a bit and start on a slight-supression drug (one that keeps them from popping too soon), but staying with the same amount of Gonal. After a few days, we cut back on the Gonal as needed (depending on how fast and furious these suckers grow) until it's time to let it all hang out (the final HCG shot, taken exactly 36 hours before retrieval).

If all goes well, retrieval should be sometime during the week of December 1-5. If that goes well, transfer will be 5 days later. They will be transferring 3 embryos (provided we have that many). We've given consent to freeze any after that if there are 2 or more. If it's just one, we've decided to let it go. Not much can really be done with just one.

One thing we found to be interesting: this doctor does a process called ICSI. I can't remember what it stands for exactly, but basically it means they take the sperm and inject it directly into the egg. I don't think we'd had this done before--I believe they just put it all in a dish and let nature take its course. However, we'll have some help this time around. That might improve our numbers a bit.

My next bloodwork/cooter cam appointment is next Wed (the 26th) to see how things are progressing. More when I know it!

When things don't go as planned...

So...just as I get all my ducks in a row, things get all messed up.

My body decides to attack. First, I woke up this morning not feeling right. I went to work but knew that something was up. Thankfully, I stopped at Walgreens on the way and picked up a 3 pack of Airborne (GREAT stuff...little fizzies that go in a drink and don't taste horrid). Sure enough, after an hour or two, a cold developed and worstened throughout the day. By the time I left, I was sneezing constantly, stuffy, and sounding like Barry White.

Then, after spending the morning feeling suspiciously crampy, the afternoon brought confirmation: the relatives have arrived. Three days early. In a normal world, that might not matter too much (except that I was at work, unprepared, and the women with whom I work were also ill-prepared for such happenings). I dug something out of the crevises of my car that did the trick for the few hours I had to survive until coming home.

A quick call to Dr. Morris's office resulted in an appointment tomorrow morning--testing blood and shooting up the cooter cam. Yippee. We still have our appointment on Monday as well (to sign consents and learn how to do injections...you know, because we've never done those before).

I guess the biggest plus to this is that I'll avoid the birthday crunches--the shots will start in the middle of next week, making retrieval sometime before my birthday, however embryo transfer could still impede any birthday plans that might come up (none have so far and likely won't--I went back and forth with ideas on what I'd like to do, but I fear my back-and-forthness will get the best of me and we'll end up having dinner at a small place in town where we don't need reservations, making it really no different than any other day).

I'm off to find good drugs. More when I know what's going on.

IVF news

Well, we've gotten the ball rolling for attempt #3 (or 2, if you're only counting egg retrievals, and that would only be people who work for BCBS). My period is due on Sunday (TMI??). If all goes as planned, I'll call that day to let the doctor know, then he'll start me on a short course of birth control drugs. I'll start the shots on the 22nd (happy birthday Paul!), then be ready for retrieval somewhere around my birthday (happy birthday me!).

The doctor we're seeing does not use 2 of the drugs we've used in the past: Lupron or Menopur. He uses a drug called Cetrocide instead. This is to prevent me from ovulating too early. Googling the name of the drug brings up a lot of message boards with info on the same kind of protocol I'll be doing (or similar ones anyway). Some women say it's successful, some say not so much. Some say it's a better protocol for slow responders.

That would be me.

I still have drugs from the last 2 times around and some of them can be used this time, but most will go to waste. It's a shame, too. Unfortunately, none of them could be used during the downtimes (between IVF trials) to help get pregnant.

In other news, we're having another realtor open house today. I'm not particularly happy with our realtor giving me one day's notice for these, but we managed to get the house in presentable shape. I asked her about having an open house on a weekend, and she said they're not always successful in the fall/winter time but it's possible if it's worked around the Bears games and blah blah blah. I guess we'll just wait until after Feb. We're considering taking the house off the market before the holidays, and putting it back on after the Super Bowl. Either that or we'll offer money back for the closing. SUCKS, but we're desperate. We've been back on the market for about a month now and we've had ONE lousy stinkin' showing.

My online class is SLOWWWWWWWLLLLLYYYYYYYYYY coming along. I hope to get a good push done this weekend--we don't have much planned and I should have a good amount of time to sit and work. I work so well under pressure (like at the last minute), but I'm not yet feeling that pressure. I probably should be, but that won't really happen until around Thanksgiving weekend, right before my deadline. I reeeeeeally don't want to wait until then to get this done. It doesn't help that so far, no one is registered for the class (registrations only been open a week and goes until the end of January, when classes start, so there's plenty of time).

That's the news from here. STAY WARM! Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE cold weather? Not sure if anyone knows this about me or not....

Could you just...?

This was, BY FAR, the best 99¢ I have EVER spent...

The big push

The next few Saturdays are about to be spent entirely in front of the computer, working on the online class. It's all I think about these days--how to format everything, what to include, which activities to assign, etc. My thoughts are consumed with this class and I can't WAIT for it to be finished!!! I still have a long way to go, but it isn't unrealistic to think I'll be done by my Dec 1st deadline.

Yesterday, I made the grave mistake of going to World Market. Anyone who knows me knows that I adore ANYTHING with an Eiffel Tower on it, or French written on it. It's for this reason I should never go into this store. There's so much French/France-related stuff there!! I ended up with 3 ET ornaments (or hornaments, as Robert used to call them). It could have been a whole lot worse. When Kumiko was here for our wedding, I took her to this store and she LOVED it. The girl is a shopper and that place definitely piqued her interest! She bought us our wedding gift there--an Eiffel Tower wine rack. Unfortunately, it's been in storage, but once we move, that baby will be the focal point of some room! I need to stay away from there....far, far away.

No news on the IVF front. Nothing will start happening until my period starts, which should be in another 8 days or so. I'm going to call the doctor this coming week to get an idea of which protocol we'll be doing. I think we have to order the drugs as well. I'm not sure what we'll be doing, but I want to be totally prepared for what comes next. If things go as I imagine, I'll be ready for egg retrieval somewhere around my birthday. Oh, yippee.

Enjoy the weekend! We have Maddie's birthday party tomorrow morning, so be sure to look for photos in the evening! (we'll be stopping to see Busia on our way back, so I won't get to the pictures until we get back from that)

The Audacity of HOPE

Well, well, well. Look what we have here: our first African-American president. This is HUGE. So much in our country will change (for the better, in my opinion). Wow. I fell asleep on the couch early last night and woke up around 10 to hear McCain giving his concession speech. I was floored. When Obama came out to speak in Grant Park, the (happy!!) tears flowed. I witnessed, and was a part of, history in the making. Pretty damn cool.

I'm going to go pick up my scooter this morning (I'll leave my car in their parking lot for a few hours). Today is the last day to ride--starting tomorrow, the rain and cold weather settle in for a long, LONG winter. I'm so, so sad, but at least I have today to ride.

Enjoy the warmer weather today! It's all downhill from here...

Ouch

Did anyone in the Chicago area notice how mild the weather is today? This would be perfect scooter-riding weather, however mine is still in the shop. Apparently, there have been no back Vespa tires in the entire freaking country. I'm not kidding. I'm of the belief that if you run a Vespa dealership, it would behoove you to stock a few tires in case someone might need one. Nope--I have to wait until Tuesday. The beautiful 70+ degree weather we'll have tomorrow will be wasted in my gas-guzzling monster blue car. But I'll get it back just in time for the rain and cold weather to set in. Bastards.

First, I'll mention that our showing on Thursday was a bust. They thought the place was too small. Yeah, haven't heard that one before.

This weekend was filled with activity! We decided to go straighten out the storage unit on Saturday. We really went there in search of some software that Paul had packed away. We started around 4pm...and finished at 8:30pm. Four and a flippin' half hours and no software. I swear I looked at or in 95% of the boxes in there, but came up with no software. I did, however, manage to dig out my beloved hot glue gun (and the Ziplock of glue sticks). That pretty much made my night. We found a few other goodies and managed to fill up the car with stuff. Sadly, there are a couple boxes that got big-time squished and now rattle with china pieces. We haven't had the heart to open them yet. By the time we finished in there, I was left with a HUGE splinter in an awkward place on the bottom of my foot (I'm still not convinced I got it all out), bruises all over my hands, arms, and legs, and very very very sore muscles. But I have my hot glue gun!!!

Today, I managed to eek out a test for class tomorrow--I actually had 2 students come by the house today to take it (they have legitimate conflicts tomorrow night). This is nice because I won't be rushing tomorrow to get the test done in time for class. I can relax a bit (or work on the still-unfinished-but-at-least-started online class).

I'll be voting in my first presidential election on Tuesday. WOO HOO! GO VOTE!!!