Author: mez311

Success

Today was the big day…Retrieval! My final egg numbers on 4/19 were a total of 14 ranging from 22mm to 8mm. Well, my doctor took all 14. I’ll find out tomorrow how many are mature and are fertilized. I’m praying we still have double digits tomorrow.

Going into this morning I was just as nervous as the first time. I was very uncomfortable, emotional and tired. It didn’t help that my husband couldn’t say anything right and we got into a stupid minor fight on the way there. But being as emotionally stressed as I was, it got me really upset.

I was the only retrieval for the morning so it was nice to have all of the attention. We had the presidential suite of rooms. I was also really happy that my doctor, Dr Greene, that I had been meeting with since August was doing the procedure and not another doctor in the practice.  This made me even more positive about the outcome.  But regardless, once I entered the procedure room I got really nervous.

The anesthesiologist got everything ready and I like that he puts an essential oil of your choosing under your nose so you smell that while you’re under and when you wake up. The last thing I remember is him telling me goodnight and I could smell and taste a weird chemical/plastic taste.

I woke up to Dr Greene telling me I was a rockstar and he got 14 eggs! I was overjoyed! They brought me into my recovery room where my husband was waiting. I got into bed with a heating pad and got a bag of IV. After that I began to feel the pain. It was a lot worse than the first time. The anesthesiologist was awesome and gave me a dose of dilaudin (a really good narcotic). This helped immediately and I was in no pain! About an hour later I was in the car on the way home but completely out of it.

My comfort food after any procedure is mac and cheese and froyo. Well froyo is my  go to treat that needs no reason or excuse. So I was looking forward to these treats once I had an appetite. I took a Tylenol Codeine as soon as I got home and was still feeling good from the dilaudin. I was so out of it and tired, but I couldn’t sleep. I watched a whole season of Girls and still couldn’t fall asleep. I couldn’t keep my eyes open and was “dreaming” but not completely asleep, it’s really frustrating. Once the dilaudin wore off, I was feeling it the Tylenol Codeine takes a little of the pain away, but not much.

So I’ve laid in bed all day drinking Pedialyte and water and catching up my DVR trash TV. I made it out of bed to eat dinner and walk a bit but it doesn’t take much to exhaust me.  Well, it is supposed to be almost 80 so I’m going to try to sit outside and read if I can make it out there.

I’ll be saying my prayers that we have 10-14 eggs fertilized tomorrow. Going to bed with positive spirits! 🙏🙏

2 days left!

At my appointment yesterday, Sunday 4/17 I found out that a few of my eggs had grown 3mm overnight!! This is pretty incredible growth. Usually they hope for 1mm a day. So they told me I could have my retrieval a day early, on Wednesday.

Because of the outcome I had last retrieval (9 eggs retrieved, 8 fertilized, 5 made it to blastocyst, biopsy, and frozen, then only 1 was a normal, healthy embryo) I was hoping for high numbers this time. As of today, 4/18, I have 14 eggs, 6 are mature currently, and 4 could potentially be mature by Thursday. I really want double digits this time to help increase the chances of a higher amount of healthy embryos. So I was a little disappointed my eggs wouldn’t have another day of growth to potentially get more.

Well today, I spoke to my nurse and she was able to convince my doctor to wait until Thursday in the hopes the smaller eggs would grow to over 16mm by Thursday. So here’s to hoping and growing eggs!

Again, I’m still not as uncomfortable as I was the first go around. I’m just having a lot more headaches and stomach problems. Everything from diarrhea to indigestion and nausea. Today I don’t have an appetite. I ate a turkey sandwich at lunch and have felt nauseous since. These are all completely new reactions as I had none of this the first stimulation. HGH is new this stim so maybe those side effects are contributed to this? Although all of the meds have some of the side effects so my body could just be responding differently.  Whatever the case, I don’t like it, but it could always be worse, right?

Day 8

Today is day 8 of my IVF cycle and day 7 of injections. My protocol has stayed the same of:

AM

  • 1 vial of Menopur
  • 0.7 ml of Omnitrope (Human Growth Hormone)

PM

  • 300 ml of Gonal-f

Today I had to add Ganirelix to my protocol. This does the opposite of Menopur and Gonal-f and prevents ovulation. Garnirelix has to be taken before 6:30am, so this sucks to have to start this on a Saturday morning!

Thurday, 4/14 started blood draw and Ultrasound every morning. So far my eggs are growing as they should be (1mm or more a day) and I have more eggs this time around (11 eggs over 8mm).

Living in Colorado always makes for an interesting spring. This week it was beautiful in the 60 & 70s and then we got a blizzard today. There’s at least a foot so far and it’s still coming down. This does not make it fun to have to go out in the snow on a Saturday and Sunday morning to get blood taken and a long wand up your wooha, not to mention being uncomfortable, bloated and moody!

This time around I’ve had more headaches and stomach issues. This may be tmi, but I wanted to be honest in my process -) Thursday night I had bad diarrhea and Friday started indigestion and terrible gas and bloating. I still don’t feel right but hopefully it all get better soon.

Other than that, I’m getting progressively more uncomfortable but I just keep telling myself that’s a good thing. I want my eggs to keep getting bigger and just hope that they’re healthy! My retrieval is still set for Thursday, 4/21/16 and I’m hoping for double digit eggs this time!

Better than yesterday

Today I felt better. I think yesterday was all just cramps and bloating from my period, not the shots. The only change was a headache for half the day that was awful. I’ve been drinking a ton of water, which is recommended during Stimulation. But peeing at work every 30 minutes isn’t fun.

Oh, did I mention I got a new position within my company. Yeah, perfect timing right?! I couldn’t pass it up, but taking on a new role isn’t exactly the stress-free environment you’re supposed to create for yourself during IVF. Not to mention having to tell my new boss on day 1 that I will be going through stimulation my 3rd week into the new position and will need time off for the retrieval. It was a comfortable conversation, but my new boss is awesome and handled it perfectly.

So while professionally I may be under the most stress I’ve experienced in a while, I’m trying to stay positive and relax when I can. Just wish it was more often!

It’s the Final Countdown!

It’s the Final Countdown!

I start my IVF cycle on April 11, 2016. Well this is when the injections start, so that’s  what counts to me. But I started taking birth control pills on March 26th. Just by taking BC for 12 days it suppressed me from ovulating and then within 3 days of stopping I got my period which starts my IVF cycle. It’s crazy what that little pill can do to your body in such a short time!

So in preparation for the new round there’s so much to get in order, especially financially. I will say this is the absolute worst part! If money is not at your disposal and a HUGE component of your choice to do IVF, then I can empathesize!

Thank God my husband’s insurance is great and covers $10k in Fertility costs, but this is a lifetime max. With IVF, you know how quickly money is spent so we had to track everything that was billed to insurance the first round to see what we had left for the second round. Good thing is that the meds were not billed under fertility, so that helped.

My husband and I had a deal, I go through the physical and emotional strain of injections, retrieval, and transfer (not to say my husband didn’t emotionally as well, but you know what I mean) and he deals with the financial part. Like how much do we have left for a 2nd try? How much do we need? What is the medication out of pocket cost? And all of the other financial stresses that come with IVF. But even with this deal in place, it is nearly impossible for him to handle all of the financials. The most stressful part is that as the patient, all the calls go to you, not your husband or partner. So the Financial office is calling you, the pharmacy is calling to go over your meds and cost with you, your nurse is calling you with your IVF protocol, you need to schedule your appointments, go in for daily bloodwork and ultrasounds, etc… etc…It is so stressful and all on you!

I was at the breaking point with trying to manage it all and finally had my husband call the pharmacy and financial office and have all calls directed to him instead of me. I had my focus and he had his. I would highly recommend this to everyone. You can’t handle it all on your own.

So now that the finances are handled and  birth control has taken control of my cycle, I’m ready to go…

You would think with this bring my second go around I wouldn’t be nervous, but I so am! I know what to expect as far as the injections (no big deal), steadily increasing my level of discomfort and growing eggs, and then retrieval but I’m just so nervous of the outcome. Knowing the disappointment we went through the first time, I just don’t ever want to experience that again. But I’m trying to think only positive thoughts, so healthy eggs and healthy fertilized embryos is all that I try to let myself think about. I try.

Shot Day!

Shot Day!

If only shot day implied the kind you drink instead of the kind that hurt!

Today was the beginning of my second IVF round. I’ve been anticipating this day for weeks. It’s almost like I can’t wait for it to get here so I can feel like I’m actually doing something. So let’s get this show started! I feel good and positive!

My dosage stated with 1 vial of Menopur in the morning along with 0.7 ml of HGH (Human Growth Hormone). This is said to help with egg quality, which was a problem in our first round attempt. So we paid the $900 it cost for HGH since it was not covered by insurance because we would stop at nothing to help my egg quality and having more healthy embryos.

So the shots went well, but I’m feeling bloated and crampy from starting my period yesterday. It’s just such a pain in the ass to have to start shots when you’re already feeling at your worst. So this cramping and bloating will only get worse….yay. As the day went on, I felt more bloated and had to undo my belt buckle notch by notch until I just took it off. Leggings it is tomorrow!

My nightly shot was 300 IUs of Gonal-f. I like that this shot is already in a ready to inject “pen” and requires no mixing or measuring, just turn the dial to 300 and inject. If only every med was this easy!

So now I’m laying on the couch with a heating pad on my lower half. Already dreading tomorrow and the feeling of my ovaries growing by the minute. But I’m also excited to be doing something and looking forward to next Thursday, retrieval day.