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!

The results are in

I went to Dr. Morris's office this morning for a baseline ultrasound and bloodwork (I'm on day 2 or 3 of my cycle, not sure which but it started Sunday). The nurse who did the ultrasound was so nice! She said that everything looked good. I had about 5 follicles on the right side and 3-4 or so on the left (it took her a while to find the left ovary). This doesn't mean a whole lot now, but with a few good drugs, these suckers will hopefully grow up to be productive members of IVF society.

This afternoon, I got a call (and message) about the blood test. The nurse said everything looked great! She actually used the word "phenominal" to describe the results. Indeed they were: my FSH (a hormone that tells whether or not I have follicles and if they're likely to do something--the lower the better) was 4.12, down from 6.1 a year ago. They say anything under 10 is optimal. This is REALLY cool since I know some women who find themselves in the 40's or higher and can't move out of them. There are ways to help improve this number if it's too high. They include major diet and lifestyle changes. Since my numbers are so good, I'll stick to my diet of pizza and junk food (sooo glad to know I don't have to give up my candy too soon!).

Of course, these great results raise the all-important question that Kate posed earlier: WHY THE F&%* AM I NOT PREGNANT??! It's a mystery to me. That's the most frustrating part of this.

Next week, I have a hysterosalpingogram (Wed), then I imagine we'll start the drugs in the next 3-4 weeks. I'm not sure how this protocol works exactly (schedule-wise).

Just informing the masses. Enjoy your week!

p.s. I found out tonight that my Wii fitness age is a whopping 65. Makes turning 40 seem almost tolerable. *ACK*

Slight change of plans

You know, one can never have enough stress in one's life. This could be why I've gone and started the next IVF round. Well, sort of. I called Dr. Morris's office just to ask what would need to be done in order for us to start #3. I have a series of tests to go through in the next week to 10 days. Tomorrow morning, bloodwork and ultrasound (ooooh, been a while since the cootie cam been down there!). Next week Wednesday, hysterosalpingogram. Say that 10 times fast.

To refresh everyone's memory, Dr. Morris is the 3rd doctor we saw (I think it was in August). We decided to go with his protocol--low-dose HCG.

Here's a basic explanation of a typical IVF protocol. This is VERY basic and general.

• Period arrives...day 3-4 (?), start birth control pill (to prevent ovulation...gotta save the eggs for later!)...period will stop
• After 2 wks of pill, stop and start Lupron (suppresses egg production)...period will start again after 4-5 days (?)
• On day 2 of period, start FSH (Gonal, or similar) and Menopur....continue Lupron, Gonal, and Menopur for about 9-12 days. During this time, lots of monitoring with bloodtests and ultrasounds.
• On or around day 12 (latest), stop all drugs and do HCG shot--this releases the eggs that have built up
• 36 hours later, egg retrieval. 3-5 days after that, embryo implantation.

For Dr. Morris's protocol, we'd be taking out the Lupron and Menopur, and taking a low dose of the HCG drug. In our 2nd IVF gig, we continued our drugs after being cancelled. The HCG shot I took was 10,000 (not sure of what...). We'd be taking only 25 for the next round, so it's significantly lower.

I don't know if this will work. It's different than what the other doctors had suggested, but we thought it might be worth a shot (so to speak). If this doesn't work, we'll go to our last resort--Dr. Miller. But I'm leery of him now since he's changed his practice and is now working closely with Dr. Rinehart (the 2nd IVF doc who cancelled our cycle).

So there you have it. I'll keep this updated with numbers as we get them, but real drugs won't start until next month (I think...).

Latest

We had our 4th doctor appt today (another new guy...4th since July). He started by asking us if we'd heard of egg donation, or if anyone had suggested it.



Um, yeah.



So he continued by asking us a bunch of general questions. He never really got around to what he might do, except to say he might do the flare protocol (which was basically what we had done the 2nd time, and we all know how well that worked). He did make a comment that it was possible that the result could end the same way as the try with Rinehart (the 2nd guy...cancellation...).



Without hesitation, I wrote a big fat NO in my notebook.



He then (oddly) mentioned that he'd been to some infertility conference in China, where they discussed a "new" protocol for poor responders. He got our attention--Paul leaned back in his chair and asked him to explain. The doc said that it hasn't been discussed yet, but it's a Chinese method. And that's all he said about it.



I'm not totally convinced...



So that was basically it. The only part of it that was worth anything was the end, where he wrote a "prescription" for some blood tests that I need to have done.

Time out: I forgot to mention that yesterday, I went to my PCP for a general exam (I've always gone to a general doc for the gyne stuff). I took along a couple of the sheets I'd gotten from a couple IVF docs that explain the tests I should have done before we start. My PCP came into the room, after having seen the papers, and proceeded to YELL AT ME about the required tests, saying she didn't know what half of them were and how was she supposed to order them and enter them into the computer if she didn't know what they were and blahblahblahblahblahblahblah.... She did the pap smear and one of the other tests for an STD (standard for IVF). She then YELLED AT ME again to reiterate her point about not being able to do the tests. Mind you, I've tried calling a gynecologist about where to go to have these tests done, and no one could tell me (granted, the girl I spoke to at the office was likely no more than 14 years old). It's been frustrating trying to get these done, moreso because we haven't chosen a doctor to go back to to ask about them.

SO...going back to today's doctor, as worthless as he and his ideas were, I did get the testing info I needed, so I can get those done. One of the tests, AMH, will give us an idea (not definitive) about my ovarian reserve, or how many little suckers are in there that might be worthwhile. It's not one to live by, mind you, but it's the closest they can get to getting an idea about this sort of thing, which normally is damn impossible to test.

I'm wondering now if knowing the results of that might halt this whole IVF process in its tracks. So do I really want to know?

Yup. I do.

The other good thing about today is that I rode my scooter from St. Charles to Downers Grove, from DG to Oak Brook, from OB to Bartlett, from Bartlett to Geneva, and from Geneva to home. It was an AWESOMLY AMAZING scooter day!!

Enjoy the weekend!!