Happy New Year!

Sorry for the lack of updates! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

I've been busy with getting school wrapped up, family in town for the holidays, and finding a job. Not to mention all the back and forth to the clinic (2 hour drive 1 way!) for this IVF cycle.

News:

1.) I GRADUATED NURSING SCHOOL!! It's still hard to believe that I'm not going back in the spring for another semester. I'm just waiting for my graduate nurse permit and authorization to test to come in the mail so I register for the NCLEX.

2.) I GOT A JOB!! I interviewed with a local hospital the day following my pinning ceremony and was offered a position as a graduate nurse. I am so excited to start working as a nurse! I go in tomorrow to get all my new hire paperwork signed and it's looking like my start date will be Jan. 13. Next week I am attending a Hurst review which will help me be better prepared for the NCLEX.

IVF stuff:

My last update was when I was on day 7 of stims. My last monitoring appointment was on Dec.16 and based on the results of that ultrasound they expected to be able to retrieve 8-10 eggs. I had a few follicles that were around 11 or 12 mm but those weren't expected to be mature by the time retrieval came around. I did my normal stim dose that evening and a smaller one the following morning and trigger with Novarel that evening.

I had my egg retrieval on Dec. 19 and they got 9 eggs and 8 of those were mature. They performed ICSI on those 8 and 6 of them fertilized. When we got to the day of transfer we had 3 blastocysts (2 5AA and 1 5AB) and 1 morula. We decided to transfer just 1 embryo and freeze the other 2 blastocysts. There were a couple of reasons for us deciding to do a single embryo transfer:

1.) We already have proven fertility (this is a comment the doctor said when we told him we only wanted to transfer 1)
2.) Transferring more embryos doesn't increase the odds of pregnancy by much but it does increase the odds of multiples by a lot
3.) We weren't comfortable with the added risks a multiple pregnancy poses at this time

After the transfer we had to stay the night near the clinic (still not sure why this was a requirement) and went home the following morning. On Sunday I had to drive back up to get my progesterone level checked and it came back low at 8.2 ng/ml. I had to increase my Crinone to 2x a day and take the mini dose of Novarel that evening and again in 4 days. The mini dose is supposed to support implantation by stimulating the corpus luteum to continue to secrete progesterone - at least that's what the nurse told me and based on my knowledge of the reproductive system it makes sense. What this also means is that I can't test at home since any positive I get on a test will be a result of the Novarel in my system. So I'm going beta or bust whether I wanted to or not.

If this embryo doesn't stick we will transfer both of our frozen blasts next time and hope for the best. We can't afford to do another fresh IVF for some time so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this works.

7 Days of Stims

And I have 7 follicles on each ovary growing so 14 total! Only one so far is above 10 mm but from what I can gather I'm responding just fine to the meds. They want a slow growth and for all the follicles to grow at the same rate and that is exactly what is happening right now. I go back in on Sunday morning to have another monitoring ultrasound to check their size again and to draw more labs. So far my estrogen levels have been rising as they expected: Monday it was 53.2, Wednesday it was 233, and today it's 645. Hopefully I don't end up with OHSS but based on my internet research as long as it stays below 3000 I should be okay.

My current dose schedule is:

375IU Gonal-F
10 units Micro-Ovidrel
0.25mg Cetrotide

They added the Cetrotide back in yesterday to prevent premature ovulation which is good but that means I'm stabbing myself 3 times a day :/  At least these ones are all subcutaneous injections and those are easy enough to do myself - it's just a quick pinch as the needle goes in and that's all. The one I am dreading is the Novarel trigger shot because that one is an IM injection with a 22 gauge needle.

I stole this picture from the internet to show the size of the needle I will have to use. I may end up having my husband do this one because I just don't think I can do it. Oh well - I guess I'll deal with that one when the time comes.

Lets Do This!

I am a terrible blogger but in my defense it's been an incredibly busy semester. All that stands between me and being a graduate nurse is a group project and a final. I can't believe I'm almost there and I am so ready to finish and get a job. It's been a lot of hard work and there have been some big struggles throughout but the end is in sight now.

But that's not what this post is about.

Today I start stims for our IVF cycle! I was on birth control pills for 4 weeks and did 3 days of cetrotide once I finished. Today is CD1 so I start tonight with 300 IU of Gonal-F and go in for blood work on Monday morning.

Obligatory Med Shot

Next week I'll go in for monitoring and have an expected retrieval date of 12/17 and transfer on 12/22 - could be a little sooner or later than that depending on how I respond to the meds but it's getting close! If this works it will be a happy ending to a pretty difficult year for us so keep your fingers crossed!

Well, That Escalated Quickly

Yesterday I had an appointment with the RE to have a test transfer, sonohysterogram, and sign the consents for IVF. We plan to move forward with that in December when I actually have the time to make the 2 hour drive to the office for monitoring and don't have to worry about if the timing will work out with classes. Everything went well with that and he didn't see any problems in my uterus but he did find a cyst on my left ovary that he said looks like a follicle that didn't ovulate but he's not worried about it. He'll check it out again before we start a cycle for IVF to make sure it won't cause a problem.

As a preventive measure my RE prescribes an antibiotic to prevent an infection after the procedure so I picked that up from the pharmacy and took the loading dose last night around 8:30 pm. I hadn't been feeling that great yesterday so after I took it I went to lay down for the night. Unfortunately about an hour later I woke up because I was itching like CRAZY everywhere. I have never itched so bad in my life so I was immediately concerned. I went to find M because he was still up and he told me my eyes were puffy and my whole face was red so he got me 2 Benadryl and we put some cortisone cream on to hopefully help the itching. It didn't help and then I started having a hard time getting a good breath. Up until that point I wasn't planning to go to the ER and was just going to tough it out until the Benadryl had a chance to work but I wasn't about to mess around with my airway closing up so off I went. When I got there and checked in they took my vitals which were fine but my O2 saturation was at 92% so they gave me some oxygen to help bring it back up. I had intended to get a picture of my cherry red legs but then the nurse got an IV started and gave me Solu-Medrol and Benadryl IV so I decided to lay down and try to get some rest while the medicine went to work. I also got a liter of fluid before I could be released to go home. Once the hives were resolved and I was at an acceptable level of red they let me go home and I was able to finally get some sleep. Needless to say I'll never take that medicine again.

I am so glad that we have a good ER here and I was able to get in quick. I was pretty scared but the nurses there helped me get calmed down and took good care of me. My plan for today is to just be around the house and finish up some paperwork for class that is due tomorrow. I am all for a nice relaxing day because I have been running 100 miles a minute lately trying to stay on top of everything and I need a day just for me. It's going to be a good day I think.

It's Friday!!

Woo! And I am so ready for it! These last couple of weeks of school have kept me busy and I haven't had a chance to get back here for an update. There's really not much to report from me so I think we'll keep this post short.

Weekend plans include studying and de-stressing via college football games, pizza, and beer. Sounds like a fabulous weekend to me.

It's Monday Again

And I just want to lay in bed all day. I got the call Saturday morning that the IUI was a big fat fail even though the timing and everything was perfect. So we're back at CD 1 today but we'll be benched until at least December since I can't take time off from class to make all the monitoring appointments. Right now we are looking at IVF and getting that process started so we can jump right into it in December.

As for me right now I'm going to just try to focus on school and get through that and try to ignore the 5 people in my class that are obviously pregnant. I have a big skills test tomorrow so I'll probably spend tonight and tomorrow morning practicing for that. My biggest issue is always time so I'm not as worried about the skill part but could use as much practice as I can fit in. Fingers crossed that I pass the first time so I don't have to worry about doing this again!

Is Today Over Yet?

Because I am so done with this day. I actually have zero complaints about school stuff - I'm pretty stoked to get going. No, my complaint is with my lab draw today and the cluster fuck that has been. This morning I got up early to go to the health center and my progesterone level drawn before class. I walk in at 7:30 am when they open and am informed that they no longer draw for quest. I was there less than 2 months ago with the exact same paperwork and they did the lab no questions asked. But today as I was filling out the sign in sheet they straight up told me no they won't do it. WTF?

I didn't have time to argue so I went on to class with the intention of calling my OB/GYN's office to see if they could do the draw. They said they'd do it so I drove to the other side of town after class got my blood drawn and went back to the campus for work. About an hour ago I got a voice mail from them saying that the place they sent it to screwed up and didn't spin the sample down right or something and the lab can't run my progesterone now.

They said that they need a new sample but they are closing at 4 today and won't be open again until Tuesday and I should come in to get another draw then. Did I mention that this test is time sensitive and has to be drawn on this specific day in my cycle? Oh and my cell phone is dead so I can't call anyone right now so I have an e-mail in to my clinic asking what to do. Since it's nearing 5 pm and I've yet to receive a reply I highly doubt I'm going to get a response today. Awesome. I have one other place I *might* be able to go if they're still open once I leave work but I'm not holding my breath.