9 Weeks - Already Dancing

Today marks our official graduation from the fertility clinic! It seems surreal, trying to get pregnant, IUIs, IVF, infertility, it's all consumed our lives for the past 3 years. I can't believe we get to move forward with a real, healthy baby dancing around in my belly.

And boy are they dancing. The ultrasound tech kept having to readjust the cursor to monitor their heartbeat because they kept wiggling around and dancing away. I know it's still a long way off, but I can't wait until they're big enough to feel movement.

As part of our graduation from the clinic, Dr. D gave us copies of all my OB information and our genetics report with our embryo testing data. It turns out that we got one healthy embryo from each cycle and the one I'm currently carrying came from our second cycle, the one we thought had been a bust. All three of our affected embryos were the same gender and came from our first cycle, and our monosomy embie, who is missing part of chromosome 7, came from the second cycle. Knowing this, I'm more grateful than ever that we were able to do two cycles, this little bean wouldn't be here otherwise.

A little gift from the clinic for good luck :)

My labwork also came in from yesterdays Kaiser blood draw and my estrogen, 1565, is high enough that I'm able to stop the Estradiol pills. It is still too early for my placenta to be making tons of progesterone though so they're going to keep me on Endometrin for now. It was 16.9 which is perfect for a natural cycle, but some extra support can't hurt and I've got almost two boxes left anyway. This is pretty much the outcome I was expecting and I'm thrilled that I get to stop the Estradiol, it was making me kind of light headed and made my nausea much worse in the mornings.

Our next appointment is at Kaiser with a doctor we haven't met yet and won't be until 11 weeks 5 days. Waiting that long is going to be so tough after getting used to seeing little bean every week. I can only hope they keep growing and dancing right on schedule and that my nerves can be patient in the meantime.

Endometrin Again

Today's appointment was a quick one, just a single vial blood draw to check out my progesterone levels. Unfortunately, it looks like my numbers are just a tad low, they like to see a level around 2.0 and mine was only 1.5. This isn't a setback though, it just means it's time to start my Estrace and Endometrin as scheduled to boost it up a bit. It is rising as it's supposed to, it went from 0.7 to 1.5 with ovulation and since I haven't taken any hormones until now, that was entirely on my own steam.

 Still, it's time for a little extra support so as soon as I hung up the phone with the nurse, I swallowed my Estrace and popped in an Endometrin tablet and snapped on cloth panty liner. Then I rushed off to acupuncture for my weekly needles and nap session. I'm gearing up for the transfer with S as well, I did my last regular heat clearing and energy moving session today and will see her again Monday where she'll prep me for the embryo by improving blood flow to my uterus.  I'll be seeing her or her associate D on Tuesday after the transfer as well to help our little frostie stick.

Please don't kill my panty liners Endometrin...

Since this little babe IS going to stick and I'm going to be taking Endometrin for the next 10-12 weeks, I'm curious to see how my liners hold up to the assault. I'm trying out an all cotton flannel liner today and I'm thinking I might strip it with dish soap or something similarly grease cutting afterward, just to prevent any of the medication medium from affecting the absorbancy of the fabric.

My next check in is tomorrow to see how much my progesterone has gone up in 24 hours. My poor little arm, the tech can still only draw from one vein so it's taking a lot of abuse. This brings the FET calendar to two more days of Medrol, three more days of the Z-Pack and aspirin, and hopefully 10-12 more weeks of the Endometrin and Estrace to look forward to.

O is a Go!

More good news from this mornings appointment! It looks like my LH is surging right on time - it was 6 yesterday and jumped to 13.8 today so I am definitely ovulating. Estrogen was up to 219,  my progesterone was 0.7 so it should be getting ready to rise and my lining was nice and thick. This gives us a tentative transfer date of next Tuesday, the day after E's birthday. I should really find a way to be more articulate about how I feel but I keep circling back to a messy combination of anxious and excited that makes me want to cry. After almost 3 years, it feels like our take home baby is So Clos, even though I know we still have so far to go.

On Thursday I start the first of my medication - a Z Pack, Medrol and Baby Aspirin. The Medrol, a steroid that is supposed to help with implantation, is only for 4 days and the Z Pack, protection against infection since we're inserting something into my uterus and breaking the mucous barrier, is a 5 day course. I'm pretty sure the baby aspirin is also to help with implantation by improving blood flow and I might take that a bit longer.

Still a lot of meds for a natural transfer

The next appointment will be Friday to check in on my progesterone and make sure it's rising appropriately. Then I'll be starting the Estrace (estrogen) and Endometrin (progesterone) that I'll take for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. My clinic also prescribes Naproxen for the day of transfer, it's actually not a pregnancy safe drug but it prevents uterine contractions that can push the embryo out of the uterus. Since I'll only be taking it that day, before our little embie has implanted, it shouldn't have any effect on them.

Just typing this out I'm so excited and nervous I think I might throw up. By this time next week I'll have our embryo on board, crossing everything and praying to the universe and any deities out there that this little one sticks!

Embryo Selection

Since our FET is officially back on, we've reached the point where Dr. D has asked us to start thinking about which embryo we'd like to transfer! While this isn't an option in every country, many specifically forbid this due to gender selection, we do have the opportunity to personally select our embryos in the US. When PGD couples do elect to hand pick their embies, they usually do so based on carrier/disease status, doctor's recommendation, embryo grade (quality) and gender. However, in our case, these four qualifiers don't really apply.

For starters, we only have two embryos and both are "healthy". None of my embryos were carriers, they were either affected or not, so these two are both Fragile X free and chromosomally normal. Although grading tends to be less important once embryos have made it to day 5, both our embryos are considered the same grade and quality so there's no advantage to one over the other.  Because of this, Dr. D has no option or recommendation as he thinks they're both good, healthy babies to be. As for gender, E and I are keeping that a bit of a surprise but we have no children and we'd like at least one of each anyway.  Boy or girl, double of either, we'd be equally thrilled.

Since we don't have a clear reason or method for choosing Embryo A over Embryo B or vice versa, it's left me open to start over thinking things like birth order and its effects on personality and development. What if I don't select the embryo that would have done better being born first? What if the genders are different? Would it be better for a girl to have an older brother or a boy to have an older sister? Sometimes boys with older female siblings tend to be more calm but I loved having a "cool" older brother and I think it made me a stronger girl. What if the genders are the same like my sister and I, who would I have been if my younger sister had been born first?  What if the embryo we pick doesn't stick, or what if they one we pick does stick but the second one doesn't and by then I have no eggs left? It's a slippery slope and neither E or I really know how to go about making the decision.

This leaves us with just a few options:

• We could go with embryologist's choice and ask them to select an embryo randomly on the day of. This is probably as random a choice as we can make since we have no part in the decision. 
• We could pull names out of a hat. Make little Embryo A and Embryo B cards and see which one comes out. 
• We could read over the embryo reports and gender and look for anything that might indicate one embryo over the other to be transferred first

When we geared up for our first FET attempt, we made a soft decision to go with the embryo labeled  Embryo A. While we were both okay with that, so much has happened since then that we've started to doubt our decision, especially since we didn't have a good reason for making it. Now, we've got about a month to decide and the clock is ticking. A or B? How do we decide who gets a chance to come home first?

IVF Transfer Plan: Decision Made

I think we finally have a solid plan in place for our embryos. It's been a really tough decision to make but I think we're going to go ahead and give our first frostie, Embryo A, a chance to stick before we go through a third IVF cycle. When Embryo A successfully implants, because they will! and we deliver our healthy baby, we will have to wait a little bit before we can cycle again. I originally wanted to nurse our babies for at least 2 years since I feel really strongly about breastfeeding but that might not be possible since they won't let you cycle while nursing. It will also be a lot tougher to cycle with a young baby and a mortgage since we're hoping to buy a house as well, but I think it's the right decision.

Even though I have a wonderful showing of antral follies, there's no guarantee they could fit me in for an IVF cycle now with the holidays coming up so quickly. And since it's me, who knows if I'll have good follicles next month. The transfer protocol is a little lighter on ultrasounds and easier to schedule right now and they can definitely fit me in for a mid January transfer.  

Another IVF cycle right now would also mean a lot of money.  I'd probably want to order my meds overseas again to save on cost and international shipping is dicey right now with the holidays. We've also far exceeded the amount of medical expenses we can write off this year so we'd get no further return on our taxes. I'm not sure what we'd need to do to try and get PGD coverage for another cycle but I'm sure there's no way we could do it that quickly and storing biopsy samples for long periods of time can lead to degradation. We're just not prepared. 

As soon as the decision was made, E, who knows me so well, suggested I create a flow chart. I'm so glad he accepts my crazy because I was already thinking the same thing. And thus, our IVF Transfer chart was born:

I think it's a solid plan that examines most possible outcomes.  It does make the assumption that a third IVF cycle would yield 2 healthy embryos, which is a big assumption, but not outside the realm of possibility. If/when Embryo A sticks, I'm not sure if we'll go right to a FET of Embryo B or do a third cycle first. Those decisions are still a little way off but I think we're definitely set on a third cycle if Embryo A fails.

Unexpected Decisions

I finaaaally got my period after what feels like forever! I know it's only been one month off but man did it feel like a long month, especially because my period was a little bit late too. Now that it's here and I feel like my cramps are attempting to compact my insides, I gave my nurse a ring and she brought me in for my baseline ultrasound and labwork.

E and I went in together for this visit and took care of the thaw and transfer consent paperwork. This set has to be completed in person with a witness so we had to wait for a day when E had enough time to come in. We also filled out our financial commitment paperwork and gave them all our credit card information for the FET fees.

Everything was going pretty smoothly until we got to my ultrasound. I don't have any cysts or issues that could cause problems with a transfer but when she waved the wand over my ovaries I saw way more antral follicles than I usually have. I asked her to go back and count them and to my surprise, I have 19-20 antral follies! That's a crazy high number for me, I never have that many, it's a basically normal number. I was floored.

I mentioned the high count to my nurse in passing as I was leaving the ultrasound room and the first thing she did after confirming the number was ask me if I wanted to do another IVF cycle. I was both surprised and not at the same time, that's an amazing AFC for me and could potentially yield a really nice number of embryos. But it would mean starting from the beginning again, IVF, medications, PGD, PGS, the whole shebang all over. It would mean putting off a transfer for at least 2 months. Spending all that money right after we finish paying for the first two cycles.

I told the nurse E and I needed to discuss it further and that we'd proceed with the FET protocol for the time being. The first part of the procedure is the same, two weeks of birth control, so we have a little bit of time to figure things out.

I really wasn't prepared for this option. My last cycle was such a junker it didn't occur to me that I might be perfectly primed now. E and I have been waiting so long to hold our baby I really don't want to delay.  Then again, it's likely we'll need IVF again in the future since we didn't get quite as many embryos as we were hoping for to have multiple children, and doing another round of IVF now would be a lot easier than doing a cycle with a young baby and a mortgage.   It's such a tough decision I'm not sure where we'll go from here.

TWO BABIES To Be Thankful For!

We got our results a day early! We have TWO HEALTHY EMBRYOS! TWO!

We followed statistics for my mutation transmission almost exactly. We had a 50/50 shot of the embryos being healthy and we sent in 6 embryos. 3 of the 6 tested were mutation free, but unfortunately one of those 3 had a tiny chromosomal deletion. I asked if there was any way this frostie might still be viable but Dr. D said that with deletions like this, there are usually other segments or things missing as well. This makes me so grateful we decided to add on the PGS, without it we wouldn't have found out that this frostie is sick and would have had a heartbreaking miscarriage or worse, might have had to terminate for defects incompatible with life.

I'm so relieved, I feel like I'm going to cry and possibly be sick at the same time. We still have a long way to go, these babies need to stick! but we're so much closer to actually holding a healthy baby. After seeing so many of these cycles yield nothing to transfer, I'm so, so happy we have healthy babies to transfer.

We are all made of stars

Dr. D needs to confirm it, but it looks like one embryo came from our first batch and one from the second. They're both hatching blasts and although Dr. D told us the genders, we've decided to keep it a surprise. We'd really like at least one thing to be normal about our pregnancy process and since nothing else has been, this is going to be it.

After getting the good news, I asked Dr. D whether he thought we should proceed with our frozen transfer or whether he thought we needed to cycle again and try to get more embryos. They usually say (without PGS) that you need 2-3 embryos per child you'd like to have, and since E and I would love 2-3, but would be happy with any at this point, I knew with only 2/6 that we might need to cycle again. As I've said before, we don't know how quickly my fertility is going downhill but we definitely know it is going. I was ready to hear that we'd need to do this whole process again but Dr. D feels that with my age, if we need IVF again in the near future I should still be young enough to produce some good eggs. I'm not sure if I agree because FXPOI complicates things in ways not reflected by age but I'm going with it.

We have so much to be thankful for this year that I'm overwhelmed thinking about it all. I'm thankful for E and our friendship and marriage, going through this is incredibly difficult and I think it's amazing that we've been able to stay strong and united. I'm thankful for all our friends and family members, who have been incredibly supportive and have helped us stay sane thus far, especially through all the mind numbing waiting. I'm thankful for Dr. D and SCRC for helping us get these two embryos, who with any luck will both be coming home with us as two healthy babies. I'm thankful for IVF and especially for PGD, I'm so grateful that we live in a time where we have the tools and technology to create and screen embryos for so many horrible diseases. And I'm so, so thankful for the two healthy embryos, our two little fighters, who for the first time have given us a real shot at a healthy family.

With a whole lot of hope, wishing, crossed fingers, science and love, we will have a healthy baby in our arms this time next year.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you have a wonderful holiday with all of your loved ones.

Waiting, Wondering, Worrying

Well here we are, the day before Thanksgiving, the day before we're supposed to get our results. I thought I'd been dealing with the waiting and what ifs pretty well, I've been staying super busy and for the most part haven't allowed myself to think or dwell on it. I've been intently picking out super cute leggings from various Aussie websites (It's turning into an addiction and I don't even have my first pair yet), hunting for boots to go with said leggings, working on my aquarium which is always soothing and getting everything ready for Thanksgiving. I haven't been counting the hours but it would pop into my head every few days that we were that much closer to results. Somehow they always seemed far off, something that would be happening in the future.

Now, it's the night before and I'm thinking I'm not so okay. After a conversation about socializing with friends turned into a conversation about parents and babies, I suddenly felt quite irrationally emotional, like a cup in the process of overflowing. It's clear that even though I haven't been consciously dwelling on it, my subconscious has been drowning. I tend to internalize things so I can carry on calmly and I now feel like an idiot for genuinely not knowing why my hair seemed to be falling out the other day. It's one of the telltale giveaways that I'm under stress but at the time I couldn't think what it could be. Way to block out the big stuff brain, I'm sure that's super healthy.

On what will likely be the eve of our PGD results reveal unless the clinic closes for Thanksgiving, which is still a possibility, it appears my brain has run out of distractions. It's hit me like a freight train that this is it and I don't know what to do.  I can't stop going over horrible things even though I'm trying to put only positive energy and thoughts out there.

We still haven't paid for our PGS. H never called me back to get our credit card. Does this mean all our embryos were effected so they never did the PGS screening?

What if all our embryos are sick? What if we went through this for nothing?

What if they don't call with our results? How will I get through Thanksgiving with all those people? How will I get through it anyway if it's bad news?

E just got sick and has probably now exposed me. Will that effect our FET if when we get there?

I'm so, so scared our results won't be good. We've been through so much, I've been through so much I need these frozen babies to be healthy.  Now all I can think about is the worst case scenario and I feel like I'm going to choke on the lump it brings to my throat. Please be healthy embryos. Please be healthy.

News To Be Thankful For?

I still haven't heard back from H, the financial person at Reprogenetics, so I shot an email off to my Reprogenetics genetic counselor D to see if she could give me an update. H is usually really good about getting back to me, she must be on vacation or out of the office because she's never had me wait more than a couple days. I know they won't release my results until they're paid so she's going to have to get back to me eventually to get my credit card.

Lucky for me, D is in the office and she got back to me pretty much right away. I asked her to confirm that she'd received the samples since I had only heard from Dr. D about that, and asking whether testing had begun because we can't wait for some good news.

The message I got back basically said:

I know the waiting is hard. We've started testing,  it will take the full 15 days. You'll know on 11/27.

I know Garfield. I know.

For those who didn't catch that bit at the end, 11/27 is Thanksgiving. When we will have all sorts of people in the house. We will be getting either really good news or really bad news with a house full of people. The waiting is so tough,  I can't wait to find out, but this is not how I wanted to do it.

Plus, I'm sure Dr. D won't be working on Thanksgiving. If he's not in the office, we don't get our results. Reprogenetics is sending them directly to Dr. D not to us, since the sensitive information should be explained by a doctor yadda yadda. I'd honestly rather they just email them so I don't have to talk to anyone if the results are bad but that isn't an option.

E and I wanted time to ourselves to process and deal with the results. We didn't want to share them with the few family members who know, especially if they're not good, until we'd digested them and figured out our next move. Honestly we really wish they didn't know the testing was going on since their questions/expectations/hopes/certainty really make us feel worse and not better. I don't think they realize how difficult the process is, how often people end up with no healthy embryos to transfer. Even with 6 to test, we could very easily have no healthies and their certainty that all our embryos will be healthy and everything will be roses and sunshine feels shallow.

Maybe we'll get lucky and we'll get wonderful news early. I'm still hopeful that our embryos will be healthy, that we'll have 6 frosty babies to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. But it would be really nice if we could get our results without an audience.

AF With A Vengeance

Unsurprisingly, my period showed up exactly on time, 11 days after my trigger. There has to be something said for predictability, at least I know when the witch should be rearing her ugly head. The first couple days I had to top up my Advil every 4 hours instead of every 8+ like I usually would, those cramps break through surprisingly quickly. A couple days in they're not awful, uncomfortable yes, but I'm good with just a couple Advil each day.

I think the toughest part has been waiting with nothing to do. I've taken the supplements, done the injections, done the retrievals, and now all I can do is wait and wait for my test results to come back. There's absolutely nothing I can do to help or speed up the process which is a very unusual position for me to find myself in. I'm not even sure if they've started the testing yet since I haven't heard back from the financial person yet, I'll probably give both her and the lab a call tomorrow to ask for an update.

(And wait....and wait...and wait...)

Once I stop bleeding like a dying person and feel halfway normal again, my plan is to hit the gym hard and try to take off some of this IVF weight. I feel like I've been packing on inches by the handful and I'd really like to get some of it off before I get pregnant. I already know I won't be allowed to gain a ton of weight, not that I really expect to gain a ton anyway, but it would be nice to start at a more normal point for me instead of this far ahead. Of course, starting a diet/exercise plan right before Thanksgiving is probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, but I don't have a lot of time and I need to get rid of this IVF fluid belly so I have room for a baby in there!

Biopsy Samples Off!

This was supposed to post yesterday, I'm not sure why it didn't :/ Weird! 

I wasn't expecting a call this morning since our embryos have already been biopsied, vitrified and tucked safely away, so I was surprised and a little worried when I saw SCRC come up on my caller ID. It turns out Dr. D was just calling to give me an update and let me know that my biopsy samples had been shipped and should be arriving at Reprogenetics today! I wasn't expecting them to ship out so quickly, especially since today is a holiday, but we're officially ready to start testing.

Dr. D said he spoke with Reprogenetics today and they're going to run our tests consecutively - the PGD for Fragile X first, and then the aCGH PGS on any unaffected and premutation carriers. This means that only Fragile X negative embryos will be screened for chromosome issues, which makes sense. What I'd like to know, is if we pay for "up to" 8 embryos and only test 6, can we test 2 more in the future without additional charges? Probably not, but its definitely on my list of things to ask them since I've heard of other people doing this with their labs. I still need to give them my credit card information for the aCGH but I haven't been able to get in touch with their financial person H yet. I left a message with their messaging service on Monday so I'll probably call again tomorrow.

Cilly sneaks into the linen closet for a relaxing nap

Dr. D also hinted that he thought we might get our test results early. He said the 15 day estimate was quite conservative, if the lab was busy, etc. Once the PGD is complete, and this is the portion that takes a bit longer, the aCGH will be performed the next day and then we'll have our results. Everyone at the clinic has their fingers crossed for us and we're all thinking positive and willing these embryos to be healthy.

As for recovery, I'm still really bloated and starting to get occasional cramps in anticipation of my period which should be due at the end of the week. I can wear my regular jeans but the belly is definitely there and it's deflating unevenly. When I woke up this morning my belly button looked off center which is so weird, the right side seems to have gone down a bit faster than the left. I can't wait for my belly to be huge and lopsided because there's a tiny person in there, not just a ton of fluid.

Cycle 2 Trigger Time

I slept pretty poorly last night, which isn't a terrible surprise given my nerves, and didn't get to take full advantage of the time change and extra hour of sleep. I think I got up three times to pee (thanks hormones) and finally gave up on going back to bed around 7:30am. I had been worried about how I was going to take my morning meds since my appointment was at 8:45am, I usually start prepping my shot at 9 and inject around 9:25am, but I neglected to take into account the time change. With the extra hour, my shot clock was moved up to 8am and I was able to finish both injections before I had to leave.

My view from the ultrasound table

The clinic was pretty much empty with only a couple other people there for monitoring and I got in to do my blood in a flash. The lady tech was working today and she was able to get my arm vein in one go, giving my poor bruised hand a much needed break. She's gotten pretty darn good at finding that vein, I know certain techs have better luck with different patients, it's too bad she only works over the weekends.

After bloodwork it was on to the ultrasound, where I got to spend a few minutes waiting for the tech and admiring the fake sky ceiling tiles. When all these cycles are done and I'm good and pregnant,  I'd like to go back to Hawaii with E and enjoy some real tropical skies. I think we've definitely earned it and as long as it's safe to fly, I can't see any reason why a little bean couldn't bake just as well on the beach in Hanalei Bay as it can here at home.

The tech for this ultrasound was really thorough, I think she knew I was disappointed with the results we've been getting and she checked and double checked to make sure she wasn't leaving out any potential follicle that could be hiding. I'm still waiting to hear back from Dr. D with the results of my lab work, but from what the nurse said, it looks like we're going to be taking a stab at 4-5 follies - the 17, 20, 22, 22 and 26. Unfortunately the 26 is likely too mature to fertilize and the 17 is probably too immature but I'm not giving up on them just yet. We could still get 4 good eggs that turn into 4 good embryos to add to our batch.

12.6mm lining, nice and thick

My lining has also finally picked up which should be another sign that the follies are putting out a good amount of estrogen and it's time to trigger. I don't have the grapefruit sized ovaries feeling since I have so few follicles but I am still feeling bloated with the same weird temple pressure head ache I've had for a week. S says the pressure is dampness in my body so I'll probably ask her to put those needles in again when I go for my acupuncture appointment before retrieval.

Easy Peasy Fix and Oodles of Follies!

This morning was my stim day 4 appointment and we got surprisingly good news all around! Since Friday and Monday seem to be the clinic's busy days, there was a decent line for ultrasounds and blood work and I decided to go up to the financial office first. I hadn't received a call back from my contact yet but when I went up to her office she had already listened to my message and was ready to help.

As I already knew, everything on the estimate was incorrect. She took the aCGH testing off first since we are paying Reprogenetics direct and then corrected the third cycle ICSI to the second cycle price. I thought she might go back on her earlier statement about only paying the biopsy fee once but she didn't! She looked up the payment records, saw that we'd already paid it once, and took it right off the bill. I have to admit, I was impressed. I was expecting a lot more push back for what turned out to be a 5 minute conversation. Basically, I was working myself up, worrying about nothing. Whoops.

I would have just paid for the ICSI today since I had the estimate in hand, but our credit card company has helpfully decided to replace my card due to "potential fraud". As one might guess, the potential fraud they're referring to is my charge to IVFmeds.com, a charge that I had already spoken to a supervisor about and approved. This still wasn't good enough for them so I'm now waiting on a new card to come in the mail, and my old one will only work if they're swiping it directly, which neither SCRC nor Reprogenetics would do. Given the hassle, I figure it's better to wait and give them a card they can actually run.

With that all sorted out for the time being, E and I went down to my ultrasound and even more good news. Both my left and right ovary each had 6 tiny follicles, for a total of 12 follies after only 4 (really 3.5) days of stims! The largest on the left was 8mm with the largest right following just behind at 7mm. This means the follicles are well synced and will hopefully continue to grow at the same rate so they can all mature together. If you recall, I wrote about last cycles stim day 4 ultrasound here and I only had 8 follies visible at that appointment. I did an extra two days of suppression for this cycle so I'm not surprised these follies were a bit smaller but I certainly wasn't expecting to have an extra four right from the get go!

What I'm wondering now, is whether or not I'll have to stim longer than last cycle to give these follies more time to mature their payload. Are two extra days of suppression enough to require an additional day or two of stims? I already have to order a third cartridge of Omnitrope, with the adjusted dosage the two cartridges I bought will only last about 8 days and I'm anticipating needing enough for at least 11-12 days. I don't know if I'll get lucky enough to have Kaiser cover this last vial like the did the other two, but it would be seriously wonderful if they could.

Please order more things. I don't have enough boxes!

My next round of ultrasound/labs will be on Monday so in the meantime, I'll try to send lots of positive, growing thoughts to my follies. We want to keep them all growing nice and evenly so they're perfectly mature and ready to be fertilized after retrieval.

Our Probe Is READY!

Yesterday morning, I went ahead with my plan to phone Reprogenetics to get an update on our probe. I can never manage to catch someone at their desk so I left a message and waited for a call back. They're usually pretty good about returning calls and it only took a couple of hours for their New Jersey caller ID to pop up on my phone.

My rep for our probe process wasted no time in telling me that our probe is DONE! It's ready! We were originally quoted 6-8 weeks but it ended up being less than 4 weeks from the date they got our samples to the date of completion. I was so surprised, this is wonderful news :) I was anticipating a deadline closer to the 8 weeks and was worrying that we wouldn't get results in time to go right into a FET.

Once we conclude this cycle and the lab has received all our biopsy samples, it takes 15 calendar days to get PGD and aCGH results on our frosties.  Those will be two loooong weeks and I'll probably be going crazy but I know we'll get some good results.

(Source)

This is an example of Fluorescent In-Situ Hybridization, or FISH, a quick result type of PGD that we can't use for Fragile X but that is super cool to look at. This one is for muscular dystrophy. Embryo C is a normal male embryo, I believe the light pink is Y, the dark pink is X and since there's only one X in a boy, a single green dot for a normal chromosome. D and F are both normal female embryos, two green dots each, one for each X, the two dark pink dots. A shows a female carrier embryo, one of her chromosomes is affected but the other is okay, two dark pink dots and a single green dot, and B and E show affected male embryos, no green dots.

Hopefully we will have lots and lots of healthy embryos from both cycles but first we need a nice, big haul from this one. I just started up shots again today, this time 4 Menopur and Omnitrope in the morning and 4 Menopur in the evening. Every time I start up another cycle, I forget how much the Menopur burns!

IVF Meds Package!

Look what finally arrived! My first batch of meds for this cycle :) I would have had them yesterday but it was Columbus Day and I completely forgot that there was no mail. Since I have to sign for the package or they won't leave it, I worked my schedule so I could be home today. Then I waited. 

And waited.

Annnnnd waited. 

All Day!

My other two packages from IVFMeds came at 10am and 2pm. This package didn't come until FIVE! I could have done a million other things not the least of which would have been to pick up my Kaiser order which is still sitting and waiting for me at the pharmacy.

This batch of Menopur came in blue boxes labeled "MeRopur". The last batch came in pink boxes labeled "MeNopur", the left overs are in the bottom right corner of the photo. A quick google search told me that it's the exact same medicine, by the exact same company, but its from the lot distributed to Italy where they call it Meropur instead of Menopur. Apparently the word or pronunciation of "Menopur" in Italian translates to something like "Not Yet" which Ferring thought would have a negative connotation. I opened each box to inspect them and make sure none broke in transit and the actual vials themselves appear to be the same vials, with the same med pellet but with different labels. 

The 5 Cetrotide were the exact same as last time, little kits with a vial of powder and a pre-filled syringe. The remaining 43 Menopur vials are on their way from London to New York right now and I'm curious to see whether they'll be Menopur or Meropur. I might call and ask but I don't think it makes a difference either way.

IVF Meds Take Two!

Now that the stim start date is inching closer and closer, I went ahead and placed my order for the next round of IVF! Since we had such good success with IVFMeds.com last time and the meds are SO MUCH CHEAPER, we went with them again. Even with the good amount left over from the extra we had to buy for last cycle I still had to order a tooooon of Menopur.

Thanks IVFMeds.com for saving me a ton!

Last cycle I had some extra Menopur left over from my second IUI and even with that extra, I still used a few of the last minute Menopur order. If this cycle is anything like last time, they expect me to use 90+ vials and stim for at least 11 days so I'm ordering over 80 vials of Menopur. Since I was one short last time, I also ordered 5 Cetrotide injections and hopefully that will be enough.

After the second batch of meds took a bit longer than was ideal to get here last time, IVFMeds.com offered to credit me the difference in cost for the extra vials I didn't use. I was skeptical because come on,  that's really excellent custom service, much more than I would expect from an online company based in another country. Instead of placing my order online, I rang up customer service and got the same wonderful rep that helped me last cycle. He remember me and my order snafu and in just a few minutes was placing my new order with a credit for the difference in the extra vials.  I'm still kind of shocked! It was all quick and easy, I rang them up, rang the bank to authorize the transaction since it got flagged again, and my nurse emailed me the new scripts to upload only minutes later. After all the calling and price checking and back and forthing of last cycle, I never knew the process could be so smooth.  

Impossible to beat these prices!

They're moving like ninjas this time and have already shipped out the first batch of my order, 40 Menopur and 5 Cetrotide. Like last time, I ordered so much Menopur that their pharmacy can't fill it all at once from in store stock so they're shipping it in two separate batches. This order went out on Friday so I'm not quite sure when to expect it. Priority Mail Express International does a lot of things regular Priority doesn't do, it's even delivered by a separate branch of USPS. If the package moves on Sunday, it should arrive in New York tomorrow and will probably be delivered by Monday. If it doesn't travel on Sunday, it'll hit the big apple on Monday and I'll get it Tuesday.  I also have to call Kaiser to authorize them ordering my Omnitrope and needles/syringes. The order was called in on Friday but from past experience I know they won't actually order it until I ask for it.

It doesn't make a difference protocol wise if the Menopur arrives on Monday or Tuesday since I don't need it just yet, but since I have to be here to sign for it in person, I have to plan my schedule around the delivery. Kind of a pain but well worth the savings!