Day 8

Yaaaaaaaaaay! Today's check was fab! I haven't received my E2 results yet but had some big fatty follies growing! Two are a nice 19mm, two are at 17mm, one is at 15mm and two at 13mm. Today before leaving the office we got our instructions for trigger and retrieval. The practitioner said it looks promising for trigger tonite or tomorrow! We will know this afternoon after Dr K makes the decision and when nurse Katie calls. This would put retrieval at either Sunday or Monday. Yikes!


This part of the process is why we pay the $big bucks$.  To be successful it is imperative they follow a strict timeline.  If the follicles aren't big enough or mature enough and are aspirated early, they might not contain mature eggs and/or the eggs won't fertilize properly.  If they wait too long, I will ovulate all these eggs on my own and we lose the chance to retrieve them.  I've had heard they want follicles between 16-20mm for the best chance to find nice, juicy ripe eggs.  The other balancing act is the HCG trigger shot (aka "money shot").  The HCG acts as the LH surge in a natural cycle and puts the follicles through their final maturation process.  Without HCG (or LH) the follicles and eggs they contain are useless and won't fertilize.  The trigger MUST be given precisely 36 hours before retrieval.

Why do I say yikes! when I refer to retrieval?  It is a complicated and delicate process.  First, it involves me undergoing anesthesia.  Though I could administer it to myself thanks to my CNOR certification, it scares me to be the receiver and not the giver.  Second, I will be up in stirrups with coot for all to see.  Third, in order to get those lovely eggs, via ultrasound guidance they stick a giant needle through the vaginal wall to aspirate the follicles.  This might also involve pushing/pulling my already bloated tummy or a hole through the uterus if they can't get them via vag.  Oh by the way, please don't put a hole in my ureters or bowel, thanks!  Finally, I work in the operating room, I KNOW what goes on....  Sometimes it's fun.  Most times it's good, but when it's bad, it's b.a.d.  The reassuring angle is I know what to expect and really, this is a fairly minor (though nerve-wracking) procedure.  I also plan on wearing my own cute scrub hat instead of the ugly, itchy blue bouffant most patients are subjected to.   After retrieval, I'm hopped up on propofol (the Michael Jackson drug) and Vicodin and the rest of the work is up to the embryologist and his gang of pros.  They do some fancy work that involves isolation, incubation, and fertilization.  Most times they just mix up sperm and eggs in a dish and they fertilize.  Because of J's lazy ass sperms we will be doing ICSI or intracytoplasmic sperm injection.  After he gives it up in a cup, they'll pick out the bestest looking ones "going for gold" and inject one single sperm into each egg via a seriously tiny needle.  Like microscopic.  The next day we find out how many actually fertilized-  usually 80% do.  This is where they turn from eggs to embryos.  Then, we wait!  After fertilization, they start to divide.  Some will arrest after fertilization due to chromosome issues and whatnot.  The transfer (when embryo goes from petri dish to warm, comfy ut) takes places either 3 or 5 days after retrieval.  5 days is preferred as this is the point when the embryos have reached blastocyst stage.  A 3 day transfer is still o.k. And sometimes is done if waiting until day 5 has no advantage; say if you only had 1 or 2 embryos to transfer anyhow.  If more embryos than what we will transfer are still viable and growing at day 6, they can be cryopreserved or made into embie-cubes!  Even if we have eggs that fertilize and embryos that make it to blastocyst stage, our chances of making it to implantation and a screaming kid 36 weeks later are 65%.  In the IVF world, this is actually pretty darn good.
So, as you can see we have only managed to jump one of several hurdles.  I've made it past what i think is our biggest one, egg growing!  As J said, you can't make it past the other hurdles until you make it over the first one.  Man, he's awfully philosophical at 9am.  We are hoping and praying and crossing all possible appendages that retrieval, fertilization, blastocyst, and implantation will leave us with the biggest, fattest, BFP there ever was!!!




UPDATE: Retrieval will be Sunday at 0830!  E2 was 2603 today.  Wowza!  Once again J rocked out the money shot.  We ended up triggering with 10,000 units which means it'll take me ~10 days to flush it out of my system... Delays my POAS accuracy a lil more but i'm prepared.  I believe I have 10 pregnancy tests along with like 12 strips to pee on.  I'm going to be a POAS freak!  


Since trigger is done, NO MORE NEEDLES!!  Hallelujah!  

IVF #2, Day 7

Hit up the doc again this morning, only this time the fam waited at Target instead of the REs waiting room. I would have loved to see the reactions of everyone seeing a 69yr old couple at a fertility clinic!  While I haven't gotten my E2 (blood estrogen) results yet, I am absolutely ecstatic about my follie count and size today! I should have my E2 this afternoon.  I had a few follies under 10mm that weren't measured, but also had two 16mm, three 15mm, and two 13mm.  A total of seven nice ones. SEVEN!  I just about cried right there on the table, feet in stirrups with my coot hanging out. I had to calm J down a lil bit and remind him we still have to make it through retrieval, have follies fertilize and then implant which means a long road to go but it's looking good. The nurse practitioner doing my ultrasound said she's not sure what I did the past two days but to keep doing it cuz its working! That means plenty of ice cream and couch time. :)  I had a headache all Tuesday night and yesterday and so spent the day yesterday at home by myself chillin while the fam visited Seattle for the day. A day to grow some eggies was apparently what the doctor ordered. Getting dressed this morning I came across my starfish necklace (the one I wore at our wedding) and figured I'd start wearing it. Momma said to "wish upon a starfish" so that I am!

I am so relieved! We will be going back tomorrow at 0800 for another ultrasound. What a great frkn day!

UPDATE: Nurse Katie called, estrogen is at 1723 today. Holy cow! She was really happy with my ultrasound and said how great it is that I'm responding so well this time. There is a good possibility I may be ready for the HCG trigger shot tomorrow night which would make retrieval Sunday morning. Yikes. I will be really glad to be done with all these injections but am scared for the anesthesia part of retrieval. 2 needles a day for 10 days followed by 5 needles a day for 7 days has done a number on my belly! Though I don't have near the size of bruises as last cycle, there are a number of bright purple and green areas. It's real cute. Tomorrow is a big day, wish us luck!

IVF #2, Day 5 so far so good!

I had my Day 5 blood and ultrasound check yesterday. At this point last cycle when I was cancelled, my estrogen was barely over 50 and though I had 6 follies, they were too small to measure (<5mm). Yesterday, I had only 4 follies, but one was already 10mm! My ut lining was 7mm and my estrogen was a whopping 1100. Wowie!! I was supposed to go back Friday but they want to see me tomorrow for another blood draw and ultrasound. I was a little worried cuz my estrogen was so high but Nurse Katie reassured me it's fine. I probably have more follicles hiding than they can see. Retrieval is 50% chance for Tuesday but could be any day between Sunday and Thursday. We will hear more tomorrow. Of course nothing is guaranteed at this point, but I'm super stoked that I'm responding to stims this time! YAY!!

I am The Luckiest

Today marks a very special day, our 4 year anniversary! I never thought it possible to love, laugh, enjoy, and have so much damn fun with one person. I definitely consider myself the luckiest to have such a great man to call my partner :).

Quick IVF update, my suppression check went fab! No cysts, ut lining looking good, yay yay yay! I started microdose Lupron injections (10u units) Wednesday and take that twice a day. Tomorrow I'll keep doing Lupron and add 450 units Follistim and 75 units menopur which comes out to 4 injections a day. Yikes. I'm going to be a big, fat, purple pincushion! I'll have my first blood draw and ultrasound Tuesday (Day 5) to check progress. Game time is here, and I'm getting very nervous!