Ultrasound and Bloodwork x2

So this morning we had our second u/s and b/w since starting stims last Friday.  So it was after 6 days of stims, since tonight will be our 7th day.  It went better than anticipated.  My estrogen levels were just under 900, which is AMAZING for me.  One follicle (follie) was at about 16, and then 8 more on the right and 6 more on the left that they feel will be mature when we retrieve.  Saturday is our next appt, possible retrieval Monday.

I.  Am.  So.  Excited!!!!!  (now if I can just get rid of this cold.  Yep, you heard me right.  Now I have a cold too.  Can't catch a break)

3 shots in

and boy do I feel like I've been hit by a truck.  It doesn't help that not only am I feeling the side effects of the Lupron and Follistim (weepiness, headache, exhaustion) but I apparently came down with the Flu on Friday night/Saturday morning.  I mean, hardcore fever and serious body aches, on top of the headache that I already had.  Stuffiness and sore throat decided to throw themselves into the mix, I mean why not?  With so many other issues they wanted to join the party.

By Saturday night I was running over 104 degree fever and K though he'd have to take me to the ER.  I took a nice cool bath and it brought it down a couple of degrees.  I talked to the RE about it, they were not worried.

The follistim hasn't been too bad.  Although yesterday really brought on the weepiness full force.  I mean seriously, we're watching the news tonight and the story was about a woman who was pretending to be a Vet working at an animal hospital to pay for her drug problem.  She was caught, and as they are going over the story, I'm crying.  K looked at me like I was insane.

Um, yeah.  I love me some good reasons to cry.  Crazy fake addict vet ladies top that list man, doesn't everyone cry at stories like that?

This morning I had my u/s and b/w.  All looked good, although I don't know what my estrogen level was - I felt too crappy when they called me.  Either way, I am to remain on 5 units of Lupron and 125 units of Follistim.  Next u/s and b/w is on Thursday.  Keeping my fingers crossed that I feel better tomorrow, and that the next appointment goes well!!

What's next?

Well, AF was supposed to show sometime mid week and she didn't.  I started spotting, but that was it.  So I called the RE's office and we had to reschedule my baseline for Tuesday.  It really works out OK, because they don't have the results of my cystic fibrosis test back yet, and won't until Monday.  They want to have that back before we move forward.

So I did finally start in the wee hours of the morning Saturday morning.  So, I'm ready.  I'm ready to get this show on the road!!  The nurse said she's going to try to convince the RE to let me start the Follistim the night of the ultrasound instead of waiting until Friday.  I hope she can.

So Tuesday.  Have my meet and greet with the wand, hopefully start stims, and make a nice big payment of $9,800.  Yep.  Sounds like Fun.

On another note, K and I got away for the weekend.  Nana watched bug and we headed to Indianapolis.  It was a really nice getaway and we got our taxes done.  Friday night we went out and had a real nice dinner at a habichi grill, then grabbed a beer within walking distance of our hotel.  We've been doing the Lupron shot at 9:00, so we were sitting outside with our beers and I gave myself the shot, just sitting at our table.  No one seemed to notice!  It was an awesome weekend.  I couldn't have asked for a better time.  It was refreshing to say the least, although I didn't get the good sleep I was hoping for.  Both K and I are sick and coughing like mad men.  So my first few hours of sleep each night was in the crappy lazy boy so that I could be partially sitting up.  Fun times.

So, the Lupron has not been enjoyable.  I've now got the Lupron headaches, which suck.  My past experiences tell me that they will go away once we start the stims, so hopefully in the next few days!

Here goes nothing!

I know I've been a bit of a slacker... it's been hard to blog because I used to do it at work (I know, bad Emms).  But they locked down our filters tighter and I can no longer post from work.  So I have to try to squeeze it in between when Bug goes to bed and when we do, but of course there's other things to be done during that time.

It's been a month since we weaned.  We are doing good, and this week bug slept through the night. Every. Single. Night.  I'm amazed, speechless, and for the first time since early in pregnancy, somewhat well rested!

Last week I had my HSG.  All was clear and beautiful.  Wasn't too painful at all.

This Tuesday K and I had our first counseling appointment.  We agreed to do it while going through fertility treatments, and I'm glad.  It went well, and I think it will help keep the lines of communication open during this trying time.

Today I had my yearly with a new ob/gyn since moving.  I liked her, although not quite as much as the one that took care of me while pregnant.  I think it's for that reason- she cared for me during pregnancy, which was such an extra special time!

Then I came home to receive the shipment of our meds.  Lupron, Follistim, Estrogen patches, doxycycline, Medrol, Novaril, tylenol with Codeine and masses of syringes.  It's real now.  Monday morning at 7:00am I go in for blood work to verify that I ovulated.  I'm POSITIVE that I did.  I don't normally feel ovulation, but after dealing with primary infertility, I know the signs.  I have heard that after an HSG a woman is very fertile, and I see why.  This month my signs were multiplied (egg white CM en masse) and I actually felt myself ovulating.

So, when Monday's bloodwork shows that I ovulated, they will call me.  I will then begin the injections.  Lupron starts Monday and will be it until I get my next AF, which should be at the end of the month.  Then a baseline ultrasound to make sure that all looks good in there.

I'm excited to get this show on the road.  I look forward to trying to make another baby, one with K's features as well as my own.

I'm nervous.  It's a lot of emotions and finances in this.

I'm scared to death.  What if it doesn't work?  We've failed before.  We've agreed one try at IVF, what if we don't get any totsicles and the one try fails?  I want this so bad I can taste it.  But I'm breathing deep and trying to stay grounded.  I will do my best to take any blows that come our way in stride, to not let my jacked up hormonal emotions go off the deep end.

I will remain positive.

This will work.

And it begins....

So we met with RE#4 on Thursday.  SO much better than Dr Duh.  We'll call him, well, Dr McFunny.  He had a great sense of humor (towards the end of our conversation K was just straightforward and asked him 'this isn't your first rodeo, right? and Dr McFunny looked at him all innocently and said 'yep, it is.  I think I'm doing a good job so far, don't you?  ha ha ha).  The sense of humor I think helped win K over as that is the kind of person he is.  By the end of our 50 mins or so with him, K and I agreed that he was our guy.  So that day, we got an ultrasound just to see how everything looked, a mock transfer to make sure that the cath still went in smooth, blood work for both K and I, urinalysis for both K and I, and an SA for K.  The meds were ordered either Friday or will be on Monday.  They sent us home with the 'pen' that we'll use for part of the injections.

We're really doing this. HSG.  Then it's just a matter of finishing weaning Bug.  K and I agreed to come up with a plan this weekend to do so.  As long as we do, then on day 21 they'll check my progesterone, and as long as I ovulated I'll start the Lupron that night.

For those of you followers that are not IF, Lupron is the suppression part of IVF.  It basically puts my body into pre-menopause.  It keeps me from ovulating.  Then once I have a period I'll have a baseline ultrasound, and we'll get started with the stims (that feed the eggs).

We are both excited and nervous all in the same.  We talked last night and still agree just one go round of IVF, and then FET with any frozen embryo's that we may have.  We agreed to consider one round to include retrieval and transfer, so cancelled cycles don't count.

The meds protocol is different than what I've done in the past, so I'm curious about that.  Lupron is the same (hated it, I can tell how much fun I'll have with menopause), but the food is different.  Sounds way better.  But last time I did progesterone suppositories during the TWW (two week wait between transfer and beta, or blood test).  This time I'll do PIO, which is progesterone in oil, and I've heard it sucks.

Here goes nothing.  It's in God's hands, and Dr McFunny's hands on if we get pregnant with a baby that is biologically K's.  The stress level is different as we haven't been 'trying' even though we haven't been preventing.  It's not our first rodeo, so we knew going into it what we needed to do, and that saved us time, stress, and money.

Now, to stress about cleaning out savings while K still doesn't have a job.  But now is the time to do it.  We can be broke for the next few years if it means giving Bug a sibling, at least giving it a try.