Welp, I wanted a new drug. Tomorrow I get three of them! Which means today's appointment went well :) My lining is thickening up nicely (10) and my hormone levels are good (E - 852, P - 0.251). Today will be my last day on Lupron (yay!) and then tomorrow I start up Crinone, Doxycycline and Medrol. I am SO excited to get some progesterone back in my system. I haven't had any since June! And perhaps the Doxycycline will have the added benefit of getting rid of this cold I've picked up :\
My next appointment is Tuesday and, unless something goes wrong, the embryo transfer will be on Thursday :) It feels like time is speeding up lately...and a hint of excitement is creeping in. Even my nurse was excited today! Sure, I still feel like crap, but I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Let's hope it turns out to be a green light and not a red one!
Friday, September 30, 2011
Friday, September 23, 2011
I Want a New Drug
So much for estrogen being the answer to all my problems. Don't get me wrong, it has helped. The night sweats aren't as severe, I'm sleeping through the night and the headaches are mostly gone. My temperatures have even restabilized. But I'm far from back to normal. My energy and mood still suck. And the gloomy weather has been matching my countenance. Sigh.
I don't know why these medications seem to affect me so much worse than other infertile women. But it must be true. If everyone felt this bad on them, there'd be no one going through treatment after treatment after treatment. They'd all give up after one or two...as I'm so tempted to do :( It must have something to do with my thyroid disease or fragile adrenals...as evidenced by my low and [up until this week] unstable daily average temperatures. I just hope this isn't a preview of what pregnancy is going to do to me :\
Monday, September 19, 2011
Finally! I Can Get My Fix!
Yesterday began the new cycle (finally THE cycle is here!), and so today warranted a check up appointment. My hormone levels are good (Estradiol - 21.3, Progesterone - <0.2), my ovaries have returned to normal size and so all systems are go! I'll decrease my Lupron dose and start up the Estrogen patches tonight. FINALLY!!! I feel like a drug addict in estrogen withdrawal. I need my fix!!
I actually felt SO bad on the birth control this past month that we'd been considering giving up if this first FET doesn't work. I just can't take feeling like a depressed shell of myself for months and months of my life. So at today's appointment I asked the good doctor if I could do an FET in the future WITHOUT birth control pills and he said yes!!! I would still have to take the Lupron, but as far as I can tell, that hasn't been a huge deal. WOOHOO!! I mean, who knows...if this FET ends badly, we may give up anyway. I honestly don't know how I'll feel. But at least the idea of going through this again isn't so horribly daunting anymore.
My next check up isn't until next Friday (9/30), so I've got a couple more weeks of sitting around twiddling my thumbs before anything exciting happens. You'd think I'd be used to all the waiting by now...hah!
I actually felt SO bad on the birth control this past month that we'd been considering giving up if this first FET doesn't work. I just can't take feeling like a depressed shell of myself for months and months of my life. So at today's appointment I asked the good doctor if I could do an FET in the future WITHOUT birth control pills and he said yes!!! I would still have to take the Lupron, but as far as I can tell, that hasn't been a huge deal. WOOHOO!! I mean, who knows...if this FET ends badly, we may give up anyway. I honestly don't know how I'll feel. But at least the idea of going through this again isn't so horribly daunting anymore.
My next check up isn't until next Friday (9/30), so I've got a couple more weeks of sitting around twiddling my thumbs before anything exciting happens. You'd think I'd be used to all the waiting by now...hah!
Friday, September 9, 2011
Moaning Infertile Myrtle
Well thankfully the insomnia was just a one-off. I've been sleeping pretty well since then. But the side effects of the birth control have not gone unnoticed. My mood in the beginning was horrible. I was sad/angry/irritable and didn't want to interact with anyone. Some of that passed within the first week, but it hasn't all subsided. I notice myself getting weepy more easily...my joviality has disappeared...I've had bouts of depression...and I feel like this FET is doomed to failure before it's even begun. Not a fun place to be.
I did talk to the nurse about the possibility of transferring two embryos, but she talked me out of it. First of all, it only increases our odds of success by 5%. Woopdeedoo. Secondly, it increases our chances of multiples from <5% to 50-60%. UGH! AND then she had to go and tell me that she just went to a funeral for twins. Thanks. Really needed to hear that right now *eye roll*
And so I'm still in the waiting game. I started the second medication (Lupron) two days ago and so far haven't felt any different on it...whew. But don't feel any better either...sigh. Perhaps after the new cycle begins and I get some estrogen into my system I'll perk back up...and stop eating everything in sight.
My adrenals have been wonky ever since this cycle began. The small dose of hydrocortisone I was trying (5-10mg), that had helped in the previous cycle, was no longer doing the trick. So at first I increased it to 20mg, thinking I probably needed at least that much...but it proved to be too much, so now I'm trying 15mg. I haven't quite hit the sweet spot yet, but I'm working on it. I tried to get my old doctor's help with this, but he wanted to mess with my thyroid medication AGAIN...so I said screw it. I did it on my own before and I can do it on my own again. I've got enough medication side effects to deal with right now without completely changing my thyroid medication too!
I finished reading a book today called "Silent Sorority." It's about one woman's journey through infertility, which did not conclude with a happy ending (as most infertility books do). It was refreshing to hear from someone who ended up involuntarily childless, but survived. It gives me hope that even if our dreams don't come true, I will still have an existence worth cherishing. It certainly won't be easy living outside the status quo, but hey...I feel like I've been outside of that my entire life. Why should my adulthood be any different? :\
I did talk to the nurse about the possibility of transferring two embryos, but she talked me out of it. First of all, it only increases our odds of success by 5%. Woopdeedoo. Secondly, it increases our chances of multiples from <5% to 50-60%. UGH! AND then she had to go and tell me that she just went to a funeral for twins. Thanks. Really needed to hear that right now *eye roll*
And so I'm still in the waiting game. I started the second medication (Lupron) two days ago and so far haven't felt any different on it...whew. But don't feel any better either...sigh. Perhaps after the new cycle begins and I get some estrogen into my system I'll perk back up...and stop eating everything in sight.
My adrenals have been wonky ever since this cycle began. The small dose of hydrocortisone I was trying (5-10mg), that had helped in the previous cycle, was no longer doing the trick. So at first I increased it to 20mg, thinking I probably needed at least that much...but it proved to be too much, so now I'm trying 15mg. I haven't quite hit the sweet spot yet, but I'm working on it. I tried to get my old doctor's help with this, but he wanted to mess with my thyroid medication AGAIN...so I said screw it. I did it on my own before and I can do it on my own again. I've got enough medication side effects to deal with right now without completely changing my thyroid medication too!
I finished reading a book today called "Silent Sorority." It's about one woman's journey through infertility, which did not conclude with a happy ending (as most infertility books do). It was refreshing to hear from someone who ended up involuntarily childless, but survived. It gives me hope that even if our dreams don't come true, I will still have an existence worth cherishing. It certainly won't be easy living outside the status quo, but hey...I feel like I've been outside of that my entire life. Why should my adulthood be any different? :\
Thursday, August 25, 2011
That was fast!
Not only did my next cycle start earlier than I was expecting, but I also got the go-ahead to begin the 6-week FET process!!! YAY! :D This means I'll be back on birth control for 3 weeks (UGH), and will start two other meds in due course. The actual embryo transfer will most likely happen around the first week in October and we should find out the results a couple of weeks after that. Just in time for hubby's birthday!
I'm finding myself really scared of the medication side effects this time around. I had a two day taste of what "normal" feels like, and I miss it already :( Hopefully it's just an anomaly, but here I am 2 days into taking birth control and I'm already experiencing insomnia *sigh* Hubby and I even had a discussion tonight about the possibility of transferring two embryos, to raise our odds of success. Up until now we've always said we'd just use one, but I'm not sure I can put myself through this hormonal upheaval again. It may be worth the possibility of having twins just to move past this shit. We'll see when we get there.
Here's hoping I can find some distractions to make these 6 weeks go by faster!
I'm finding myself really scared of the medication side effects this time around. I had a two day taste of what "normal" feels like, and I miss it already :( Hopefully it's just an anomaly, but here I am 2 days into taking birth control and I'm already experiencing insomnia *sigh* Hubby and I even had a discussion tonight about the possibility of transferring two embryos, to raise our odds of success. Up until now we've always said we'd just use one, but I'm not sure I can put myself through this hormonal upheaval again. It may be worth the possibility of having twins just to move past this shit. We'll see when we get there.
Here's hoping I can find some distractions to make these 6 weeks go by faster!
Friday, August 19, 2011
Let it Snow!
It's official! We have snowbabies in the freezer!! And remember how we were hoping for more than 8? We got ELEVEN!!! I can still scarcely believe it! :D Hubby was hoping for 12...I figured I'd be a little more realistic and hope for 10...and we got smack dab in the middle :) How perfect is that?
Each embryo made it to the blastocyst stage and was graded before freezing. I don't fully understand the scale they use, but I know they're judging two separate aspects of the embryo and the grades range from A (best) to C (worst). Five of our embies were graded AB and six of them were graded BB - which is quite good from what I've ascertained :) The nurse said that AA ratings are rare and that our embryos looked "beautiful." :D
So now all we can do is wait. Once my next cycle begins, we'll see how my system is doing and have a talk with the doctor about what comes next (and when). Thankfully, at the moment anyway, I'm not feeling too impatient about it. I'm more impatient about feeling back to normal :) But it's slowly coming. I'm sure I'll feel fine again soon. And in the meantime, I'll be thinking about those eleven little snowbabies, hoping that one of them will come home with us soon :)
Each embryo made it to the blastocyst stage and was graded before freezing. I don't fully understand the scale they use, but I know they're judging two separate aspects of the embryo and the grades range from A (best) to C (worst). Five of our embies were graded AB and six of them were graded BB - which is quite good from what I've ascertained :) The nurse said that AA ratings are rare and that our embryos looked "beautiful." :D
So now all we can do is wait. Once my next cycle begins, we'll see how my system is doing and have a talk with the doctor about what comes next (and when). Thankfully, at the moment anyway, I'm not feeling too impatient about it. I'm more impatient about feeling back to normal :) But it's slowly coming. I'm sure I'll feel fine again soon. And in the meantime, I'll be thinking about those eleven little snowbabies, hoping that one of them will come home with us soon :)
Monday, August 15, 2011
Into the Woods
I had a feeling that with estrogen levels over 8000, it was only a matter of time before I'd succumb to OHSS. And I was right. Saturday evening I began vomiting. By Sunday morning the vomiting had not subsided and I felt like death. I couldn't even walk without hubby's help :( Thankfully my clinic asked us to come in and gave me a saline IV. I was given 2 liters of fluids, plus anti-nausea and pain meds. I still felt really bad all day and had horrible abdominal pain that night. But since waking up this morning I feel much better.
Today's ultrasound did show some free fluid in my abdomen, but not enough to warrant draining, more IV's or hospitalization. My electrolytes aren't too crazy either. WHEW! It seems my case of OHSS is a moderate one and as long as I keep up with my fluid intake, I should be ok...eventually. It can take up to 3 weeks for it to completely resolve :\
The good news is that the embryos are doing well! 19 of them split and are in the 7-9 cell range as of today :) Yay!! I'm so proud of our little sea monkeys! My doctor thinks that 8 of them will probably make it to freeze, but that's still a great number to work with :) I'm going to keep hoping that we get even more than that.
Today's ultrasound did show some free fluid in my abdomen, but not enough to warrant draining, more IV's or hospitalization. My electrolytes aren't too crazy either. WHEW! It seems my case of OHSS is a moderate one and as long as I keep up with my fluid intake, I should be ok...eventually. It can take up to 3 weeks for it to completely resolve :\
The good news is that the embryos are doing well! 19 of them split and are in the 7-9 cell range as of today :) Yay!! I'm so proud of our little sea monkeys! My doctor thinks that 8 of them will probably make it to freeze, but that's still a great number to work with :) I'm going to keep hoping that we get even more than that.
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