Wednesday, November 19, 2008

New Tortures...

...Because the old tortures just weren't good enough. Yesterday, I was in the shower getting cleaned up for the IUI, when the doctor's office calls to ask me if I can come in for the IUI 15 minutes early. Now anybody who knows me understands that for me to get anywhere even *on time* takes an act of God. But I say OK, and make it there 15 minutes ahead of schedule, as requested. I walk in, sign in, use the restroom, and then sit down in the waiting room... for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes of waiting, my phone rings, and it is my nurse calling to ask if I am coming in for my IUI. I explain to her that I have been sitting in the waiting room for half an hour, and yes, I do still want an IUI. Apparently, the front desk girl forgot to let anybody know that I was there. Ughh!

So then I go back, and she does an ultrasound first, and says that it looks like I probably ovulated 3-5 eggs. All the while she is very sweet to me, probably because of the fact that the waiting room incident pissed me off so bad that I looked like I was going to eat her for lunch. Then she does the IUI, and explains about the newest form of torture they have devised for me. I thought that the next two weeks I would get off scot-free. I was actually looking forward to the 2ww. But no, it can't be that easy. Since I started my period early last cycle, starting on Friday I get to do progesterone suppositories every night when I go to bed. Yuck. That grosses me out worse than the Follistim shots every day. But I really didn't wan't to do the progesterone-in-oil shots either, so I didn't argue. But it won't keep me from whining about the ickyness of vaginal suppositories, either. Blech! I go for a pregnancy test on December 2. Maybe we'll get lucky this time. But hopefully not too lucky. One or two would really make me happy. But I will take what I can get, and go from there.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Cycle Update

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Things have been kind of hectic, what with doctors visits every three days. So here is the condensed version of the latest visits. On Monday, 11/10, I went back for another follicle check, and I was still showing 18 follicles: Right - 12,10,8,7,7,7,6,6,5,5,5mm Left - 9,9,8,7,6,5,5mm Endo - 12.6. When the E2 came back from the lab however, it had fallen from 68 to 48, so she raised my Follistim dosage for the next three days up to 150, 100, 100 units.

When I went back on Thursday, 11/13, she just measured the three largest follicles on each side. It kind of pissed me off, because she rushed in and out like she had somewhere else to be, and I didn't get to ask the questions that I had. So the measurements for that day: R - 14,10,7mm L - 13,9,9mm Endo 11.1. My Estradiol had risen to 262, so that was good, and my dosage for the next three days was 150,150,150.

Today, I went back for another check. On the right ovary she measured follicles at 21,14,14,10,9mm. On the left, she measured follicles at 18.5,14,11,10,10,9mm. Endo was at 11.6. Not sure about E2. They'll probably call with that tomorrow. She had me trigger with ovidrel at 5:30 this evening. The IUI will be on Tuesday morning. She said that anything at or over 14mm can release a mature egg, so we're probably looking at 4-5 eggs released... hopefully. Yet again, when I tried to ask questions, she was a little snippy with me, and acted like I was an idiot for questioning her. Sorry, but IMO, anybody who *doesn't* ask questions of their doctor is an idiot. Next time, if she's short with me, we'll have a come-to-Jesus-meeting and I'll let her know exactly what I think. Maybe she just has PMS. She hasn't been like this before this week, but if it continues, I *will* come unglued on her. Oh well. I guess I will wait and see.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Let's Party Anyway

On Friday 11/7, I got up at the butt crack of dawn and drove to Austin for bloodwork and an ultrasound. I had the labs drawn at about 7:00am and the ultrasound at about 7:45. It was CD7. My endometrium was at 11.0. My left ovary had 6 follicles that measured 8,7,7,6,5,5mm. And it was the underperformer. My right ovary was being the overachiever again, and had 12 follicles that measured 7,7,7,6,6,6,6,6,6,5,5,5mm. That's a total of 18 follicles that she measured! And I think there may have been a few hiding, as well. And this was with me on a very low dosage of follistim (75, 75, & 50 for the first three days). Can you imagine if she had put me on a standard dosage? Later on, they called with the lab results, and said that my E2 was at 68. I don't know if that is high or low or what, but I am going to verify that number when I talk to them again. I was in a class full of yelling kids when they called, so I could have heard wrong. The dosages they gave me for Fri - Sun were 75,75,50 again. I go in again tomorrow morning for more labs and an ultrasound. I wonder what things will look like then. I have gotten pretty good at this whole injecting myself thing. I did it in the truck in the parking lot of the Golden Wok restaurant last night right before dinner. Easy as pie.

Yesterday Brad and I went to a wedding for a mutual friend of ours. We had a lot of friends there, and it was nice getting to visit with them all. And Brad looks really sexy when he's all dressed up. So I had an ulterior motive for wanting to go. But it was nice. Then we went to JC Penneys and returned most of the clothes I had bought the other day. I have decided that I will stay at my job with the school for the time being. Mostly because the insurance is paying for more than I thought it would, and the leave policy is more generous than most places offer. The pay still sucks, and I am still miserable, but I will put up with it for now. If I stick with it, I will have the summer off, and if I get pregnant this cycle, the baby(ies) would be due in August sometime. That would give me the last couple months of a pregnancy off, which would be really nice, especially if there are any complications. But, usually, planning just screws shit up, so I'd better just stop now while I'm ahead. So that's all for now. I will update more tomorrow after I the doctor's appt and lab work. Now I'm off to eat left-over dim sum. Yum.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Go Wild and Have a Party

Today I went to the doctor for a baseline ultrasound and an injection lesson. For the ultrasound, they had one of the junior doctors do it, with the guidance of my regular doctor. Her technique was kind of weird, and so it was hard to see what was going on. My regular doctor is very predictable, and does it the same every time, so it's always easy to tell what you're looking at. My left ovary had a bunch of antral follicles, but because of the jumbo one on my right last time, there wasn't much going on on the right side this time. The right ovary really looked more like a gray pile of mush to me. So the left will likely be the star performer this time, but who knows, since I haven't started stims yet. I start stims tonight. I'll be using the Follistim Pen. I will do 75IU for two days, then 50IU for one day, then on Friday I will go in for E2 levels, and another ultrasound so they can tell what dosage to give me for Friday and the weekend. I knew that because of the PCOS, the doctor would want to be careful on the dosing, but this morning the exact words that came out of her mouth were, "We're going to take this slow, and go with a low dosage, because you're 25, and your ovaries are scary. We don't want them to go wild and have a party." She has often remarked that I have enough antral follicles to supply the entire office.

After the ultrasound I got an injection lesson, where I practiced injecting a lump of fat-like material. It was easy, but pretty gross. On the first try, I forgot to quit pinching the "fat" before I pulled the needle out, and the fake meds squirted out of the "fat" all the way across the room, out the door, and across the hall. The nurse and I laughed until we cried. It was so hilarious. The Follistim Pen seems fairly easy to use. I don't forsee any problems. The pharmacy that the meds came from was the Apothecary Shop in Phoenix, AZ. The meds were packaged well, and arrived exactly when they said they would, and there was no charge for the overnight shipping, sharps container, or alcohol pads. The only charges were my insurance copays for the actual drugs. They were fast and friendly when I talked to them on the phone, and I would highly recommend them to anyone else.

Well, I'm off to watch election coverage. I voted last week, and I am anxious for all of this election crap to be done with. If you haven't voted, do so. There's still a little time, depending on your location.

Monday, November 3, 2008

Or Just False Hope

So later on Saturday afternoon, I realized that the possible progress was really just false hope. After the initial bit of spotting, I started my period Saturday evening, a full 5-7 days early. Blech. How's that for ruining my weekend? So much for that cycle. Today is CD3. Tomorrow I go in for an ultrasound and an injection lesson. This round, we are moving on to the big guns, since I found out insurance will cover the injectables. The RE's office got the prior authorization from the insurance, faxed the order to the pharmacy, and the drugs should be on my doorstep tomorrow, to the tune of $115 for the cycle. Not too bad, considering it's only $65 more than last month. Hopefully I can get knocked up this time, but not wind up with a litter. And hopefully, I don't wind up with so many follicles that they cancel the cycle. We'll see

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Possible Progress

Since there was some ambiguity as to whether the black hole on my right ovary was actually a follicle or a cyst, my RE wanted me to go in for bloodwork 7DPO to check my progesterone levels, to confirm that I did truly ovulate. That way I would know whether I had thrown away $400 on an IUI the week before. So on Thursday, 10/30/08, I had the labs drawn. They didn't call with the results until the next day, which really pissed me off. But I got the results, and they said I did ovulate last week. So that was good. Now, for TMI. Yesterday evening, when I went to the restroom, I noticed just a little bit of red spotting. Late last night, it was just a very little brown, old blood. This morning, nothing. At 8DPO, that could be implantation, right? A little spotting at the right time is the furthest we've ever gotten. It could be possible progress. I know I'm just getting my hopes up, but it's really hard not to, when so far to date, we've got nothing. It just makes the waiting harder.

Here's a pretty picture of an Austin sunrise- I'll admit, I stole it, but here's the link to the owner's flickr page. I couldn't resist.

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