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!

Where NOT To Inject

When I added Cetrotide to my IVF regimen, I was running out of usable belly space to inject. I made the rookie mistake of starting with one morning injection and two evening injections when my morning appointments take place After my morning injection is done.

This means that any changes, including additions, would need to be made to the evening injections, leaving my meds unbalanced. It wasn't the end of the world doing three injections at once but I did end up picking an injection site you should never touch because I was out of space.

Do NOT inject below the belly button!

I know there are acupuncture points all over the belly but somehow I didn't make the connection between those points and my injection sites. Duh. The second I put the Cetrotide needle in below my belly button, I felt a zing, saw stars and knew it was the wrong place to inject. Ouchie.

I asked the acupuncturist about it the next time I saw her and she told me there's a point you should never touch in women about 2.5 - 3 fingers below the belly button. The location is measured with your individual fingers since everyone's fingers are different sizes.

Fertility Points, I'm not sure if the "Don't Touch" point is one of these

My Menopur sites were good, they fall between the Zigong points and Ren 6 point so they're okay to inject. My Omnitrope points were okay too, they were outside the Ki 16 points so also in the clear. The Cetrotide injection might have been okay if I'd done it a little lower but there's a meridian line that runs straight down those points and I should have just avoided the whole area entirely. I somehow managed to hit a point twice and it hurt each time, definitely not worth it. 

For next cycle. I'll take my Omnitrope in the morning with my first Menopur injection so I can use the other Omnitrope site for the Cetrotide when it comes time to add it. This should keep things more balanced so I won't have to do so many injections at once and I shouldn't run out of injection sites.

Maybe Mature?

Tomorrow morning I'm going in for what is hopefully my last ultrasound and blood draw to check on the follies before I'm cleared to trigger. I was doing a little more research and it looks like Cetrotide can slow down follicle growth, which sort of makes sense since it's designed to prevent premature ovulation. It's probably why these follies didn't exhibit super growth from day 7 to 9, which is also a good thing since slow and steady wins the race in quality follicle development.

As of today I'm officially out of Cetrotide and the Omnitrope syringes as well, so I'm going to need to make a trip to the pharmacy to pick up one more Cetrotide injection and syringe for tomorrow night. If the follies need a couple more days of growth I will suck it up and deal but my poor belly is so, so ready for a break! Four injections is really a lot to do every day and my belly is starting to show the effects. 

I knew yesterdays injection was a bad one as I did it, and as expected it left a nasty bruise. I snapped a gross photo of it for your viewing pleasure in case you were wondering what injection site bruising looks like. In the upper left corner you can see two "good" injection sites where only the needle mark is visible. Then, obviously, there's the big nasty bruise from the shitty Cetrotide injection. Ugh.

Nasty Cetrotide bruise is nasty.

For tonight's Cetrotide injection, I ditched the included syringe and used one of my extras. It was still a pain to mix since it doesn't dissolve well,  but at least I was able to prime it correctly. I'm also not at all a fan of the below the belly button injection site, there has to be some sort of acupuncture point or meridian there since the needle zings and hurts every time it goes in. The lower right/left and upper right/left are much less painful to inject into so I'm definitely changing the site for tomorrow. My belly needs a break!

I've got everything crossed that the appointment tomorrow goes well. Come on follies, I need you to mature! And contain healthy, mature, fragile-x free eggs, that fertilize perfectly and grow into healthy embryos. Positive thoughts!

Ultrasounds and Shitty Labs

This morning was my first IVF appointment. It was a quick one, just a pop into the office for my pre-cycle ultrasound and labs.  I've done this routine a million time for my IUIs so I wasn't too nervous about going in.

The first stop was the lab for my estradiol draw. I asked the phlebotomist for a butterfly, warned him that I have difficult veins and pointed out the exact spot on the vein that would be easiest to draw from. He seemed really nice, confident and I thought he'd get it in one go.

Boooooooooy I was I wrong.

The first stick brought no luck, so he tried again. He wiggled the needle a bit here and there, tried to poke it in at a different angle, moved it a bit more and then tried again. I know I'm a difficult draw but at this point I couldn't help but compare him to the nice Kaiser tech in the infertility lab who always got my vein on the first go and used to chat with me about his weekend plans. Another wiggle, an under the skin angle adjustment, another poke, a particularly painful jab and the phlebotomist gave up. I was already bleeding, starting to bruise and he seemed no closer to reaching my vein than he had been before he put the needle in.  I was seriously unimpressed at this point and starting to sweat, which is my go to physiological response whenever I'm in pain and nervous. Ugh.

This one still hurts. That's all blood underneath the bottom tape.

After conceding defeat, he announced that he'd have to draw from my hand. Um, what? He promised it wouldn't hurt more than a bee sting (last I checked, bee stings aren't fun), had my flex my wrist and make a fix, and then stuck the needle into the top of my hand. He was right, it did in fact hurt like a bee sting, but since he'd finally struck blood I decided not to complain so I could get the hell out of there. Two cotton ball and tape band aids later I was free.

I've never had a hand draw before. I see many more in my future :(

The next stop was the ultrasound, which went off as it usually does. The tech was nice and efficient, sympathized with my many cotton ball bandages and didn't have to push hard in any direction to get a clear view. My ovaries are nice and suppressed from the birth control with seven little antral follicles snoozing away. The teensy simple cyst is still there on the left side but doesn't seem to be hurting anything. My estrogen eventually came back at 20, confirming the suppression.

The next decision is what to do about stims. I am clear to stop the birth control today, wait two days, and then start stims on Saturday. However, they only just shipped my Menopur from the UK. I'm supposed to have rush shipping but I have a hard time believing they will be here that quick. I have 15 vials of Menopur left over from my last IUI but that's one short of two days. If today is the last day for birth control and I bought one more vial of Menopur at Kaiser, I would have meds for Saturday and Sunday but my package would have to be here Monday morning for my morning injection. I don't see that happening.

The nurse said I'm clear to stay on the birth control pills a few more days if I want. She said I could easily take them through the weekend with no problem and not be over suppressed. I'm thinking maybe I'll split the difference, wait to take them until I hear more about my shipment. If it's coming right on time, I'll stop the pills on Friday or Saturday, and if it's running late I can get some Menopur from Kaiser or stay on the pills till Sunday.

Owie :( Nasty bruise is already forming

 

TWW: Owie

Over the past couple days I've been carefully avoiding thinking about anything TTW related. E had a rare day off, which we enjoyed doing a whole lot of nothing, and I've been keeping busy with work. Aside from the endometrin twice a day, and drinking my acupuncture herbs three times a day,  my plan not to think about it (much) was going pretty well. Until about 3am this morning.

E and I had gone to bed early, around 12:30 and I was sound asleep and dreaming until my dream suddenly turned very painful. I don't remember exactly what I was dreaming about, but I do remember dreaming that I was tossing and turning because my abdomen hurt. Then, to no one's surprise, I woke up tossing and turning because my abdomen hurt. I'm no sissy when it comes to pain, I usually have a pretty high pain threshold, but whatever was going on in there hurt and didn't seem inclined to stop.  Half asleep I got up and went pee, thinking maybe my bladder was just full, but the walk to the bathroom was enough to wake me up and realize that something was definitely going on.

(Source)

It definitely wasn't cramps, it was higher than my uterus, and felt higher than my appendix too. Once I got past the overwhelming feeling of "pain" it seemed to be worse on my right side, so I wondered if it could be my gallbladder or kidney stones, though I've never had any problems with either before, or if it could be an ectopic pregnancy or a ruptured cyst. It seems too coincidental that it should happen now when we're in the middle of fertility treatments and it didn't feel like an upset stomach either.

Finally, after tossing and turning and clutching my abdomen for some time, I decided that if the pain didn't subside within the next 5-10 minutes, I was going to wake up E and we were going to the ER. He was already somewhat awake, since I felt help patting me in his sleep, but I didn't have any bleeding and it didn't seem life threatening.  I gave my body a stern talking too, sipped some bubbly water, and finally feel asleep just a few minutes before my self imposed deadline. Thank goodness.

This morning I woke up and felt fine. No pain, no soreness, it's like it never happened. I'm definitely going to bring it up at my next appointment, but I don't think it warrants a separate visit. E was trying to think positive and told me it might just be really strong implantation cramps and I didn't have the heart to tell him my uterus doesn't hang out with my gallbladder. Fingers crossed for super strong implantation cramps!

Insurance Run Around and the Second Injection

Today I woke up a little sore. I was expecting most of the uncomfortable feeling from last night's injection to fade but it has stayed with me pretty much all day. It's not awful, just noticeable when I move around or bend over,  like some kind of tender heaviness in my stomach.

I spent pretty much all morning on the phone with insurance companies (aka on hold). My first call was to Kaiser, who reiterated that I should have coverage but oh wait, apparently I don't. The service operator at the Kaiser payment assistant center is also undergoing fertility treatments so she was sympathetic when I asked about discounts for cash customers, but she couldn't help. Her supervisor suggested I call Medi-Cal, which was just laughable.

Next I called our health plan provider, who said we have a separate prescription plan independent from Kaiser. This is news to me, considering that we've been getting all our prescriptions at Kaiser without issue until now, but okay. I rang them, they said hmm I don't think it's covered but it's on the list for injections so they transferred me to a different company that handles injections.  They said sorry, we don't cover infertility meds and transferred me to Freedom Fertility. We still have no idea if we have any kind of insurance for our prescriptions but my RE faxed over my scripts and we should have an answer tomorrow. Either way, I'm running out of donated meds so we'll have to get some in hand soon. Please keep your fingers crossed.

(Batiuk)

After my gym class today, I took my second Menopur injection. It was much less eventful than the first since I think I got out most of my internal despair yesterday. I didn't burst into tears at the sight of the syringe and I was able to psych myself up for it fairly quickly with some good music and a few deep breaths. This shot also burned a bit less so I'm hoping the injection site is less sore tomorrow morning when I have my next gym class. It still hurt to bend over and squish my tummy, but again it's really not that bad. 

My goals for the rest of the week are to sort out the prescription debacle and stay positive. We still have a 50% chance for a healthy baby if this works and stress will not do me any favors.