All in all, once the actual ER got started it wasn't bad. But waiting in the pre-op room for the dr to be ready and the anethesiologist to get me pumped with drugs was soooo stressful. I'm not a patient person by nature and the longer it took the more I started freaking out. Luckily my husband was with me so he was trying to keep me calm, but he was nervous about it too! So they finally come in and have me use the bathroom one last time and take me to the operating room. I say operating room but it's not like a "real" hospital operating room, its much smaller with less equipment.
Next thing I know, I'm waking up and asking how many eggs they got. Which was 16! I was so excited they were able to get so many from me. I laid there for a little while longer then I was on my way! At this point I was starving since I hadn't eaten since dinner the night before the ER. Torture for an eater like me :) We stopped at Panera (I stayed in the car) and got something to munch on for the drive home. I rested the rest of that day then I felt fine enough to go to work the next day. I had almost no residual pain.
Over the next couple of days I not so patiently waited for the fert reports, luckily they called before 11 each morning which is what I was expecting. Out of 16 retrieved, 12 were likely mature. They did ICSI on half and regular fertilization on half. Out of the ICSI'd eggs 5 of 6 fertilized (the immature eggs were in this half). The regular ones 5 of 8 fertilized for a total of 10 little embabies!
Next stop the dreaded 2ww!! Luckily, if you can say luckily with IVF, the transfer is either 3 or 5 days after the ER which really does break up the 2ww and makes it slightly more bearable.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
The Real Deal Holyfield
Sorry for the long silence, as a tax accountant I probably should have picked AFTER tax season to start blogging. LOL Oh well, I like blogging so I hope to make more time for it.
So after the endless weeks (more like 10 days but felt like 30) of Lupron I was sooo ready to get to the meds! The real meds that would make my ovaries do something! I'll spare you the boring nitty gritty plus I didn't write them all down, but after 10 days of stimming on 150iu Follistim and 75iu Menopur I was *finally* ready to trigger for the retrieval!
Up to this point I was super nervous about what my ovaries would actually produce because they had done soo poorly with just the Follistim the prior cycles. But Menopur was supposed to be my golden drug. The one that would help the follies that were started, instead of just starting a ton then not developing them.
The last u/s before retrieval (ER) I had 12 decently sized follies, which I was thrilled with. My personal goal was to have 10 so yay me! We had to go to the main office which is over an hour away and we had to bring "the goods" "the sample" with us. I think more often than not husbands do their thing at the office but my husband thought he could provide a better sample being more relaxed at home, so I asked and they said ok. So we wake up, I can't eat (which makes me cranky!) we collect our sperms and hit the car.
Try traveling over an hour with sperm in your waistband and traffic. OMG worst drive ever. I was so paranoid they were all going to die. We pull up and I jump out of the car, forgetting to shut my door in my hurry to get to the doctors! I run in annnnnd no one is at the desk. Whaaaat?! I have SPERM people! I need to drop it off! A minute later she walks up and I practically yell in her face "I have the sample with me!" She says, "Ok sign in and take a seat" Omg, I'm freaking out. Another minute goes by and finally a nurse comes out and brings me back to get her the sample. Phewww. Now I can relax and focus on the retrieval.
Riiiight. So easy to relax about getting knocked out to get a needle put through your vaginal walls.
So after the endless weeks (more like 10 days but felt like 30) of Lupron I was sooo ready to get to the meds! The real meds that would make my ovaries do something! I'll spare you the boring nitty gritty plus I didn't write them all down, but after 10 days of stimming on 150iu Follistim and 75iu Menopur I was *finally* ready to trigger for the retrieval!
Up to this point I was super nervous about what my ovaries would actually produce because they had done soo poorly with just the Follistim the prior cycles. But Menopur was supposed to be my golden drug. The one that would help the follies that were started, instead of just starting a ton then not developing them.
The last u/s before retrieval (ER) I had 12 decently sized follies, which I was thrilled with. My personal goal was to have 10 so yay me! We had to go to the main office which is over an hour away and we had to bring "the goods" "the sample" with us. I think more often than not husbands do their thing at the office but my husband thought he could provide a better sample being more relaxed at home, so I asked and they said ok. So we wake up, I can't eat (which makes me cranky!) we collect our sperms and hit the car.
Try traveling over an hour with sperm in your waistband and traffic. OMG worst drive ever. I was so paranoid they were all going to die. We pull up and I jump out of the car, forgetting to shut my door in my hurry to get to the doctors! I run in annnnnd no one is at the desk. Whaaaat?! I have SPERM people! I need to drop it off! A minute later she walks up and I practically yell in her face "I have the sample with me!" She says, "Ok sign in and take a seat" Omg, I'm freaking out. Another minute goes by and finally a nurse comes out and brings me back to get her the sample. Phewww. Now I can relax and focus on the retrieval.
Riiiight. So easy to relax about getting knocked out to get a needle put through your vaginal walls.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The Long Story part 2
So we find out our next step is most likely IVF, so we set up the consult. For us, one major concern was timing. Both of the procedures AND the due date. My husband owns a seasonal business so he works 9am-2am 6 days a week, all summer long. I had images of going into labor by myself and he doesn't answer! Because he's not awesome about answering the phone at work! Although sometimes I do call for no reason...and its when he's super busy...and his employee just went on a break... What can I say, I have a knack! lol
So we met with the dr who made us feel super comfortable about the whole IVF process. I knew the basics but he filled in the details. So now the ball was in my (or my body's) court. Since I have PCOS I knew I wouldn't have a cute 30 day cycle and I would have to wait until 35 days to get provera, then 10-15 days for my period to come, putting me at a 50 day cycle.
Orginally, we were planning on taking 2 break cycles so I would have an Oct due date (hopefully). Well after that first 50 day cycle I said forget it, I'm ready and luckily my husband was happy to go along with my decision. So after my Provera induced period started I called and got my birth control Rx! (Cue me happily screaming that it was starting!) And that was it. I was somehow expecting mountains to move, the clouds to part and the baby to drop from the sky. Not so much. It was "Take this for 3 weeks, we'll order your meds and call you back." Okey doke. Waiting I am used to.
So we met with the dr who made us feel super comfortable about the whole IVF process. I knew the basics but he filled in the details. So now the ball was in my (or my body's) court. Since I have PCOS I knew I wouldn't have a cute 30 day cycle and I would have to wait until 35 days to get provera, then 10-15 days for my period to come, putting me at a 50 day cycle.
Orginally, we were planning on taking 2 break cycles so I would have an Oct due date (hopefully). Well after that first 50 day cycle I said forget it, I'm ready and luckily my husband was happy to go along with my decision. So after my Provera induced period started I called and got my birth control Rx! (Cue me happily screaming that it was starting!) And that was it. I was somehow expecting mountains to move, the clouds to part and the baby to drop from the sky. Not so much. It was "Take this for 3 weeks, we'll order your meds and call you back." Okey doke. Waiting I am used to.
Friday, January 7, 2011
The Long Story
I'll try not to make it too long though! In April 2009 I "pulled the goalie" and stopped birth control. Being the control freak/pefectionist that I am I also started temping to make sure that I was ovulating. Thanks to lurking around TTC message boards I was armed with all the knowledge I thought I needed to get pregnant. I gave myself a cushion to adjust to being off birth control and figured I'd be pregnant by December/January. Ha! Well I ended up pregnant in December but 2010!
The first cycle was normalish, a little long at 45 days but showed I ovulated. Yay me. Then evidently all hell broke loose in my body. I didn't have a normal cycle again. I ended up taking Provera two times to induce a period and was referred to a specialist (RE) in December 2009. Our appointment was the day before my husband's 30th birthday and even though he never said anything, I know thats not quite how he expected his bday weekend to go.
So they took some bloodwork and we sat down to talk to the doctor. He was very nice and went through the testing we needed to have done, the first steps to take and then said ok let's do an ultrasound. A whaaat now??? I was not prepared for the vag cam that day! I got over it and right away he says "Ok, see these black spots?" "Yes" "Looks like polycystic ovary syndrome and over here you have a cyst that we have to watch."
Commence freakout.
I stayed pretty calm in the office but as soon as we got to the car, I poured over the pamphlets he gave us and freaked out, basically. My husband was much calmer and said well now we know and we can do something about it. Which was true but didn't help!
So fast forward to Feb 2010, had laproscopic surgery to remove the cyst. Then started clomid April 2010. Clomid again May and June. All 3 cycles I ovulated (yay) and did IUI but no baby (boo). Then we switched to injectable meds plus IUI. I didn't respond well to the injectables and ended up on progesterone suppositories since my 7dpo progesterone levels were soooo low. Like wouldn't think I ovulated except for the fact that I used an hcg trigger low. Tried that 2 cycles.
Went to try for the third and final cycle before IVF and I had a huge cyst leftover from the prior cycle so they told me to wait a cycle. Commence freakout again.
The first cycle was normalish, a little long at 45 days but showed I ovulated. Yay me. Then evidently all hell broke loose in my body. I didn't have a normal cycle again. I ended up taking Provera two times to induce a period and was referred to a specialist (RE) in December 2009. Our appointment was the day before my husband's 30th birthday and even though he never said anything, I know thats not quite how he expected his bday weekend to go.
So they took some bloodwork and we sat down to talk to the doctor. He was very nice and went through the testing we needed to have done, the first steps to take and then said ok let's do an ultrasound. A whaaat now??? I was not prepared for the vag cam that day! I got over it and right away he says "Ok, see these black spots?" "Yes" "Looks like polycystic ovary syndrome and over here you have a cyst that we have to watch."
Commence freakout.
I stayed pretty calm in the office but as soon as we got to the car, I poured over the pamphlets he gave us and freaked out, basically. My husband was much calmer and said well now we know and we can do something about it. Which was true but didn't help!
So fast forward to Feb 2010, had laproscopic surgery to remove the cyst. Then started clomid April 2010. Clomid again May and June. All 3 cycles I ovulated (yay) and did IUI but no baby (boo). Then we switched to injectable meds plus IUI. I didn't respond well to the injectables and ended up on progesterone suppositories since my 7dpo progesterone levels were soooo low. Like wouldn't think I ovulated except for the fact that I used an hcg trigger low. Tried that 2 cycles.
Went to try for the third and final cycle before IVF and I had a huge cyst leftover from the prior cycle so they told me to wait a cycle. Commence freakout again.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Taking the dive
As an avid blog reader I've seen how cathartic it can be to send your thoughts into the interwebz. Just like the diary you used to keep in grade school. Except instead of drawing heart's around a boy's name and writing how much you just wanted him to like you! now we're writing about life, family, money and everything in between.
I probably should have started blogging when I started the whole infertilily process but I'm inherently lazy and not that great of a writer so I've procrastinated. Now that I've reached the mecca of infertilily - pregnancy - I decided I really did need to record all the little moments that I would otherwise forget!
I'll post the full story soon, but short story is this: after multiple IUIs, a laproscopy, lots of meds and money my first IVF worked and I'm due August 24, 2011!
I'll post the full story soon, but short story is this: after multiple IUIs, a laproscopy, lots of meds and money my first IVF worked and I'm due August 24, 2011!
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