Friday, July 25, 2014

Hanging on... Injections take 2 and an IUI?





 After a failed attempt with injections, we are now upping our aggressiveness with injections, trigger shots and an IUI!

Day 3: BW/US- Uterine lining good and lots of tiny follicles, Okay to start injections at 50iu for 6 nights before bw/us monitoring. Asked Doc to up the dosage of injections but because I have so many follicles, he said he didn't feel comfortable doing that.

Injections: Not so bad the beginning of this round. Very little symptoms so far, except for the bloating.

Day 9: BW/US largest follicles 10.4 and 10.1 on left side and in the 9s on the right, continue with injections at 50iu. Estrogen at 63. Will a little click and stick to the trick?

Day 12: BW/US, lining thickening, no follicle growth, estrogen at 75 need to cancel iui because there won't be enough time before I leave for the wedding... bloated and heartbroken. Is there any way to describe how difficult this journey is??


CD 14: BW/US, lining still thickening, no real follicle growth (right ovary- 11.1 10.4 10.3 etc, left ovary- 10.9 10.8 etc) and estrogen level dropped to 40.3. Whoa! Huge, unexplained drop. I know that your estrogen levels are an indicator that the growth of the follicles is going well and can indicate how many follicles are maturing. This level is so, so low especially for this point in the cycle. We went out for pancakes to cheer ourselves up a bit and later that afternoon got a call telling us to up the meds to 75 iu from 50 iu which made us happier to know that we could amp up the aggressiveness a bit more to give this another shot... (literally and figuratively!)

CD 15: This ramp up in follistim is wearing me out. Feel lethargic, nauseous and so, so bloated. I feel like I just ate a huge thanksgiving meal and am constantly waiting to digest it! Yuck! Please let this be worth it.

CD 16: BW/US, lining is now at a good thickness, I have about 47 follicles with the largest at 12.3,  10.7, and  9.3 (so other follies may be backing off) and my estrogen jumped to 99.4. So glad they bumped me to 75 ius! While still not where I need or expected to be, this may be a glimmer of hope that we might not have to cancel the whole cycle after all (but IUI is still out of the question at this point because of the wedding I'm going to this weekend). Feeling insanely bloated. I wish I could push my stomach out of my belly button. Ugh! Going back for monitoring again tomorrow.Wishing and hoping for good news and a big jump!


CD 17: BW/US After one more shot of 75 iu of follistim... Estrogen 96.5, largest follicles measured at 13.2, 9.8. Met with the doctor today and he is trying to figure out a solution to my travels while he still strongly cautioned me that we may have to cancel this cycle. When I asked him about the drop in my estrogen before, he said this can happen as some follicles back off when one or two are taking the lead but that estrogen levels in the 40s or 90s are very low.

He upped my follistim to 112iu tonight with my last chance monitoring tomorrow morning before my flight out. I'm supposing this must have to do with the fact that my estrogen level is not climbing but is down a bit from yesterday... so stressful... I'm going to go do some gardening and then get my hair cut tonight to get my mind off of this...



Monday, July 21, 2014

Two Week Wait and Beyond


Don't Count the Days, Make the Days Count Inspirational Quote Art Photo Print, home decor, decoration, wall art 

I  was incredibly busy during the two week wait which was a great way to get my mind off of everything. Had a lot of fun, did a lot of work and was super productive. Twice each day, though, I had the constant reminder that I'm still fighting for a chance at a little gift- morning and evening prometrium progesterone suppositories. Ugh!

The progesterone suppositories can give you all of the symptoms of pregnancy.  For me, I felt the bloating, extreme hunger, and painful, enlarged breasts the most. Psychologically, it sucks because you can't read into it too much because they could either be due to the drugs or to a pregnancy. What's the point of taking them? To support your uterine lining to help prevent a miscarriage and prevent your period from coming.

So, I took them and at the end of two weeks on a Friday, I went to the doctor again for bloodwork only. After waiting a few hours, I called my nurse at lunch to get my results and next steps because I was leaving town for a bridal shower and didn't want to go into the weekend without a plan. I knew that I wasn't pregnant already because I had taken a urine test, but still the blood confirmation stung when she apologized for the negative news. "I'm so sorry, but you are not pregnant."

All these weeks of hoping and waiting and trying and hoping...



Got on my flight that night and went back home to put on a positive face and take my mind off of the disappointment.

Moving on to the next cycle:
 Because of our planned vacation to Colombia, we had to take a break between cycles. :( My doctor stopped my progesterone suppositories the day we confirmed I wasn't pregnant (so happy to be off those!) and I got my period a few days later. Then, on day 3, I started birth control until coming back from my trip to start injections all over again. (Was supposed to come off b.c. while still on my trip so that I would start right away but then I got very sick in Colombia so I had to wait even longer until I finished my antibiotics.. oye, never ending...)