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.

Round Two is a Go!

This morning I had my official baseline ultrasound and lab work to make sure the birth control has done it's job. The tech who was so good last cycle couldn't find the vein in my right arm and gave up after repositioning the needle six times. She prepped my left arm, which is my less cooperative side, but gave up without trying when that vein didn't pop up either. The only option left was my hand which always stings in the weirdest way, but is at least easy to find. 

According to the ultrasound, my ovaries are nice and quiet, successfully suppressed! My lab work confirmed the suppression so we are officially cleared to start IVF number 2!

Fist pumping kitty approves!

Although it's only been about 4 weeks, I think I'll call Reprogenetics for a progress report on Monday. I know the probe won't be finished yet, but it will make me feel better to hear that there's progress happening. 

In terms of protocol, my last birth control pill was yesterday so I'll start stims on Tuesday morning. I've got everything ready to go except my Novarel which I don't need for a couple of weeks. Everything is falling into place and I'm predicting a November 3rd retrieval date.

Deep breath, cross my fingers, and here we go again!

Cleared For Round Two!

While sitting in traffic on Thursday afternoon, I noticed that I had finally started to spot! Yay, progress! I know my body pretty well and I could tell my period was definitely about to start so I called up the clinic. The nurse I spoke to said that many women spot for a week before they actually bleed and she couldn't make my appointment until my period started in earnest. The clinic closes early so when my period showed up right on time a few hours later, I had to wait until Friday morning to make my CD2 appointment. Since Friday counts as CD 1, that puts 11 days between trigger day and CD 1 which is pretty much my standard luteal phase. I almost couldn't believe it, even with all the hormone injections and the retrieval, my body is still running on it's regular schedule. Apparently there's no screwing with this body clock.

So, Saturday morning rolls around, bright and HOT, and E and I find ourselves back at the clinic for for another round of labs and ultrasound. The baseline ultrasound is probably my least favorite of all the ultrasounds. I'm bleeding, crampy, sore and the whole thing is messy and gross no matter what I do. Luckily, there's no follicle counting to prolong the ultrasound so it was as short as it was uncomfortable.

When the ultrasound was done, the tech was able to give us the best news possible. My ovaries look like they're completely back to normal, no more swelling,  and we are officially starting IVF round two! I was hoping Dr. D had aspirated that tiny cyst on my left ovary, he thought he might have gotten it too because one "follicle" over there had dark blood, but it was still there, stubbornly stuck in place. Little bastard.

A different nurse than usual called back to say that she's writing up my calendar now and I can start planning to order my meds. I didn't get an official calendar last time though I realize that most people do. I'm not sure how useful they are considering that everybody responds differently and every cycle is unique but I'll take it if she wants to write it up. Ultimately, it will come down to how my follicles grow and develop but I'm planning on ordering enough Menopur for 11 or so days and enough Cetrotide for 5 days since I was one short last time. I ended up having extra Omnitrope but it's because my nurse calculated the dose wrong. She told me to take 0.25cc of the 5mg/1.5ml but it should have been 0.37cc. I'll correct the dose in this cycle and maybe we'll get even more embryos :) Here's to hope!