Pregnant until proven otherwise...

Our transfer was this morning. We transferred two "beautiful" blasts. I didn't sleep well last night, so I've been napping on and off since we got home.

Please say a prayer for us that these embies are "the ones" and we can put this nightmare behind us, once and for all.

And then there were seven....

We are down to seven embies, but they all seem to be pretty strong. We go in Thursday for our five-day transfer of two embies. Not much else to report.

I'll update after our transfer.

Sweet Sixteen!

I got the call from the embryologist this morning that 16 fertilized normally! He'll call me again tomorrow with another update and will hopefully tell me if we are having a 3 day or a 5 day transfer! (fingers crossed we make it to a 5 day as that gives you a better chance of success)

And now that I'm feel less sleepy, here's a recap of yesterday!

We arrived at RGI at 8:00 and were taken back to a pre op room. I changed into my gown and the anesthesiologist came in and chatted with us. RGI is different than ORM in that they knock you out for egg retrievals (THANK GOD!). So we hung out for a few with the anesthesiologist and then I was taken to the procedure room and Chris hung out in the waiting room.

The procedure room was pretty overwhelming with all the equipment and such but they started an IV and within a few seconds I was feeling great! Oh and Andrea- one of the IVF nurses at RGI knows you.... I didnt catch her name but she grew up off of Leatherstocking.... I'll try and find out the next time I see her.

Anyway, I don't remember anything except when I woke up I asked "do you need me to put my feet in the sturups?" and the anesthesiolgist said "No honey, we're all done." They took me back to the pre-op room and at that point I was wide awake. They brought Chris back, I changed and then we sat and chatted until the embryologist came in and gave us the good news: 22 eggies!!

Because of my previous history, Dr. J and Rex (the embryologist) decided to ICSI half of the eggs. The idea was just to try something new this time around to see if it gives us the outcome we're looking for.

I was allowed to leave pretty much instantly and went home, had a yummy Tim Horton's breakfast, popped a couple vicodin, and hung out on the couch for the rest of the day.

Today I'm actually feeling fine. No real pain or anything. I will probably take one more vicodin and relax most of the day.

Now back to the fert report....

So 22 eggs retrieved, 11 ICSI'd:
8 out of the 11 ICSI'd fertilized normally and...
8 out of the 11 not-ICSI'd also fertilzed normally giving us our Sweet Sixteen!

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers and support! We love you all!

Wakey, wakey, EGGS and bakey!

I'm pretty exhausted so this will be short and sweet (I'll add more later), but the ER went PERFECTLY! They retrieved 22 eggs! I can't believe it! We'll find out how many were mature and fertilized tomorrow morning.

I'm on vicodin for the pain and am feel pretty graugy, but otherwise feel good. I'm off to take a nap. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!

And.... we are go for launch!

I had my final follie check this morning. Dr. J is expecting to retrieve 20 eggs (the most we've ever expected). Now, I'm not sure how many of those will be mature and viable, but it looks like they'll have a lot to choose from. She's concerned about my estrogen level and is putting me at higher risk for OHSS. I basically need to weigh and measure myself everyday to make sure I'm not having any extreme weight gains (ie. gaining 2 lbs a day).

I will trigger tonight and will go in on Saturday for the actual egg retrieval. Luckily I'll be sedated this round (thank god!).

That's really about all. Hopefully I'll have a lot to talk about Saturday afternoon!

How I'm feeling:
I still have a constant dull headache
I'm still getting night sweats
My ovaries feel even larger
I am very bloated
I counted 6 bruises on my belly this morning
The prednisone is causing insomnia

Follie check # 3,254,987,298

Today's follie check went well. I'll know my E2 later today. I am down to 75 of Menopur in the AM and 75 of Follistim in the PM. I will either keep at the same dose of Foll. or will "coast" for a day, meaning no Foll at all. I'll find this out later.

I have about 8 follies measuring btwn 15-16 mm (I have other follies too, but they weren't as large) and my lining is good at 11mm. The ER will still likely be on Saturday, but there's a chance it will be pushed back to Sunday. Either way, I'm greatful for the long weekend to rest and recover!

How I'm feeling:

• I have a constant dull headache from the Lupron
• I get night sweats every night in my sleep also from the Lupron
• My ovaries feel huge
• I am starting to get very bloated to the point where only a couple pairs of pants are comfortable
• My belly literally looks like a pin cushion- but surprisingly the shots don't hurt a bit

Follie checks check-in

I went in for another follie check on Friday. Everything still looks good. My E2 had climbed to 271 from 90 on Weds, so Dr. J backed my Follistim down to 150 (they like your E2 to double every two days, so clearly, I was a little ahead of that).

I went back in today for another check and everything looks good. I have about 8 measurable follies on each ovary measuring about 10-12mm. I rec'd a voicemail from Dr. J telling me to reduce my Follistim to 75 starting tonight but she didn't leave my E2.... judging by how much she's reduced me, I'm guessing it's pretty high. I go back in on Tuesday morning for another glace. If I had to guess, I'd say I'll go in one final time on Thursday and trigger that night for a ER on Saturday...

I would be thrilled if this is how the scheduled panned out as that will give me three days (included MLK day when my office is closed) to recover from the ER.

So, it's pretty routine at this point. Meds in the morning, visit Dr. J every other day, meds in the evening, then do it all over again.

A Quickie... (pun intended)

My first follie check was on Wednesday. I had a "bunch" of follies starting and my E2 (estrogen level) was up from 16 at baseline to 90. I go back in tomorrow for another check and will probably go back on Sunday as well.

When Dr. J came into the exam room, she smiled and asked "how are the meds going now?" I profusely apologized for calling her twice on Sunday. She laughed and said it's fine. I asked if I'd screwed anything up and she said "Amie, you're fine. If I was worried, I would have waited another day and made you start everything on Monday. But I didn't. You didn't screw anything up, really." Me: "Yeah, but I don't want to look back on this cycle and say 'what if'" Dr. J: "I won't be looking back and saying that, so neither should you."

I love her!

You say goodbye, and I say hello....

I can't believe it's 2011. Wow. 2010 was, how shall I put it..... shittastic. 2 IVFs, 1 FET, 1 IUI. All BFNs. I'll leave it at that.

I'm feeling like 2011, may be our year.... or at least I was until I screwed up my medicine....twice yesterday!

Yesterday was the start of my stims. It was also the day where I was supposed to decrease my Lupron from 10 units every morning to 5. So the alarm goes off at 7:15 yesterday, Chris gets up, grabs the Lupron from the fridge comes upstairs, fills the vial, I alcohol swab my stomach, he injects the medicine, pulls the needle out and a lightbulb goes off "We were supposed to decrease to 5 units this morning!!!!!!" Oh SHIT! So I call the on-call number and the lovely Dr. J is on call. I tell her what I've done and she says "It should be okay. You may respond a little slower to start because you may be a little oversuppressed, but it should be okay." Fine, I really do think it will be okay, but I'm pissed at myself for making such a stupid careless mistake.

Cut to around 4:00 yesterday. I start to wonder if they want me to take my stims at a particular time of the day, so I pull out my nifty instruction sheet and see that Follistim (stim#1) is to be taken between 6:00-8:00 PM and Menopur (stim#2) is supposed to be taken WITH MY LUPRON, IN THE MORNING!!!! FUCK!!!!

So, I immediately call Lindsey and ask to be shot in the head, Lindsey laughs and says, call Dr. J again..... (I think Dr. J hates me).

I call Dr. J again.... for the second time.... on her Sunday afternoon. She answers as nice as she did the first time and I tell her about my second mishap of the day. Seriously, you'd think I've never done an IVF before. For God's sake, get your shit together, Amie! I asked Dr. J if I should just wait until today to start everything (reduce Lupron, start Menopur in the am, etc.). She looked at the calendar and decided that I may be too oversuppressed if I wait to start stims another day and to just take the Menopur ASAP and then do the Follistim as scheduled at 7:00 PM. She told me to go ahead and get on the correct schedule this morning. (and we did)

I am beyond pissed at myself. It's so stupid. Now, if this cycle fails, I will forever blame myself for screwing up my medicines. It's ridiculous. I'm trying to cling to the fact that it's super early and if I'm going to screw up, now's the time to do it. I'm also holding onto the fact that I was on Lupron for 17 days pre-stims with my past two IVFs instead of just 10 days, and perhaps that has something to do with the failures? Chris doesn't think that's the case, but I need something to cling to!

So now I'm up to three shots a day and 12 pills a day and will go in on Wednesday to see how things are cooking...

AM: Lupron (5 units)
Menopur (75)

PM: Follistim (225)
Prednisone
Prenatals
Folic acid
Baby aspirin
Pentasa (for Crohn's)