Gorgeous Girl

After having our ultrasound canceled because the doctor was running behind, E and I were able to reschedule for 35 weeks 1 day. Normally the growth ultrasound isn't done until 36 weeks, but since our little peanut is bigger than average, S wanted us to have it done sooner.

I've known for a couple weeks now that baby girl his head down. She was riding high and transverse until one day I woke up with a waddle and what felt like a bowling ball in my pelvis. The second the ultrasound wand touched my belly, the doctor said "Wow! She's really all the way down there!"as if I hadn't noticed lol. So for now, she's in a vertex presentation, head down and facing my spine, ready to go.  It was tough for them to get a shot of her face but they managed to snap one for us and we haven't been able to stop looking at it.

Our gorgeous girl

The doc also noticed, as everyone has, that I seem to have a lot of amniotic fluid. I'm right at the high end of the normal range but don't have any of the issues associated with having "too much" fluid. High fluid levels can come with some pretty scary worst case scenarios like birth defects, placental abruption, premature membrane rupture and still birth. With mildly high fluid levels you might see a smaller baby who doesn't turn head down, since they have more room to move, putting them at risk for having the cord deliver before the baby and cut off their oxygen supply.

Thankfully, baby girl looks perfect and it appears that a slightly higher fluid level might just be my normal. Far from being small, she's right on track for her high growth curve. With a current weight estimate of 6lbs 9oz, the 82nd percentile, she should be about 8-9lbs at birth as predicted. And as I've already said, she's definitely head down with that big noggin' lodged against my cervix like a cork.

Just in case, we're going to have a NST at our regular appointment to keep an extra close eye on our girl and make sure everything continues to go well. We already had an NST when she took a longer than normal nap and she had perfect, textbook tracing so they don't anticipate any problems. 

16 Weeks - Little Cutie

After several more unsuccessful house hunting ventures, I finally had my 16 week OB appointment yesterday. Although it's not usually an ultrasound appointment, I got to have a little peak at our baby anyway. They were so darn cute, kicking their legs and waving their arms.

Such a cutie already!

This was my first appointment with my awesome midwife S who I haven't seen in a few weeks since I stopped acupuncture. Although she prefers to use her hands and the doppler to check on baby, she hadn't seen our bean yet in person and knew I wanted to check on them so she obliged me with the ultrasound. I'm so glad she did, seeing their heart beating and legs kicking always makes me feel better. Overall I'm doing pretty well with the pregnancy too, no more morning sickness and I've come to accept that heartburn is clearly my new way of life. Considering that I'm a couple weeks into the second trimester now, I thought I would have gained a few pounds too but it looks like I'm still at 0. It's not a problem since I started off so chubby to begin with, thanks FXPOI and IVF, but I'm sure that will change over the next few weeks. 

That morning the traffic had been absolutely horrible, apparently Vice President Biden was in town blocking roads, so I'd ended up getting to my appointment at least 20 minutes late. S had been planning on putting in some needles for me but now we didn't have the time, which was a bummer. I think I'm going to schedule a regular acupuncture session at the center instead, certain points in my foot and on the inside of my knee are feeling kind of sore. Plus, I always feel better in general when I'm doing acupuncture. 

I also had a little bit of an upset tummy yesterday, something I ate the day before didn't agree with me. That coupled with skipping breakfast since I had to leave so early meant that I was super dehydrated by the time I got to Kaiser. I couldn't pee for them for over an hour, even chugging down water, and once I finally did, they weren't thrilled that my urine sample had some protein in it. I gave them a second one that looked much better that they had tested in the lab and thankfully it came back totally clear. No bladder infection, no protein, no sugar, nothing to suggest anything out of the ordinary. Basically, I have to be more careful about drinking even more water in this heat. Otherwise, everything looks nice and normal with little bean and I won't get to see them again until our anatomy scan at almost 20 weeks.  

12w4d - NT Scan

Today was our NT scan and I don't think I've ever enjoyed an ultrasound more. Little bean was much less bean and much more tiny, wiggly, stubborn person, I couldn't stop smiling and laughing watching them. I was holding my breath when the tech first put the wand on my belly but before I could ask if baby was okay and had a heartbeat, they started waving their arms around and squirming. They wiggled left, then right, arched their back and squirmed all around. It was beautiful.

Turning on their side, wiggling their little arms

We saw them swallowing big gulps of amniotic fluid and begin to suck their thumb. We got a peak at their brain, which is developing perfectly, and when we went to check out bean's organs, we caught them practice peeing! Their little bladder was full of amniotic fluid and they just happened to empty it right then. It was incredible to see them moving and dancing so much when they're still too small for me to feel. I can't wait to feel some of the acrobatics going on in there.

Baby on their side, showing off their tush

The whole point of this ultrasound was to perform an NT scan, a nuchal translucency scan. The NT scan measures the fluid in the tissue at the back of baby's neck to look for markers of chromosomal abnormalities. Babies with chromosomal problems often accumulate a build up of fluid in their neck which results in a larger fluid space and a bigger measurement.  To get a clear reading, the tech needed baby to look up so we could get good measurements of the back of their neck. It seems simple enough but little bean clearly had other ideas. Every time the tech got close to the right shot, baby would roll over onto their side and give the tech their butt. The tech would ask me to cough, which makes baby jump, but bean would just wiggle and squirm and show off their tush again and then I'd laugh which also makes baby jump.

Profile shot the tech was looking for

Eventually we were able to get a couple shots and baby's fluid is measuring a perfectly normal 1.3mm. Amazingly, although I'm only 12w4d today, baby is in the middle of a growth spurt and measured an impressive 7.08 cm which correlates to 13w2d! Clearly they're still an over achiever. Their heartbeat was also perfectly on track, 156 bpm. I wonder if this growth spurt is why my morning sickness came back, although they were measuring perfectly on target at my last appointment which was the day I started throwing up again.

Our next peak at baby won't be until the end of July, another long stretch without getting to see our little bean. They already look like such a perfect little person now, I can't wait to see how they've grown at 16 weeks. If anything funny shows up in my blood tests, they'll call at the end of this week but since we added on PGS and know baby has normal chromosomes, I don't anticipate any problems. Baby just needs to keep doing what they're doing and grow, grow, grow.

11w5d - The Pukes Have Returned!

Oh man. I haven't had a single incidence of morning sickness for several weeks now. I thought I was in the clear, almost 12 weeks, it should be gone. But no.

Yesterday, E bought me donuts, because he is wonderful. I was rushing this morning to make it to work for a meeting and I swallowed my prenatal vitamin, grabbed an old fashioned and jumped in the car. I was about halfway there, and 95% finished with my donut when I started to get that "feeling". For a few seconds I thought it might pass but when it didn't I decided to pull over and get the ziplock out of my purse just in case. I pulled down a side street that had no parking, so I pulled into the first driveway I could find, reached for the bag in my purse that was allll the way at the bottom, and promptly vomited all over myself before I could get the bag into place.

This was me before the puke. BWHAHAHAHA

It was disgusting. The first one got my shirt, pants and the seat, and then I threw up 6 or 7 more times, thankfully into the bag. I was now halfway to work, late, covered in puke, holding a bag of puke with no paper towels in the car. Ugh. I had wanted to wait until 20 weeks to tell my boss about the baby, but we had a conference call meeting in 20 minutes, she knew I was already on my way, I very clearly needed to go home and change and this is one I couldn't explain away. I shot her a quick text explaining the news and the puke, turned around and went home for new clothes.

Thankfully, she was very pleased for us and had horrible morning sickness with her pregnancy so she had many vomit in the car stories to share. I was able to conference into my meeting from the car on drive to work attempt #2 and everything else went okay.

Late afternoon, I had some tax things to go over with our tax guy and then FINALLY, our OB appointment. I had eaten a grilled cheese for lunch, which is my morning sickness go to food, but it turned on me and I had to throw up again on the way to the OB. Double ugh. This time I was ready and did not have a disastrous mess but I'm pretty disappointed in my stomach.

However, and most importantly, our little bean is OKAY. I've been having major anxiety leading up to this appointment but there they were on the screen, little arms raised up over their face, with their tiny heart beating away. It's such a huge relief to see them alive and well despite all my fears.  They measured exactly on track, 11w5d and looked so much bigger than last time, even though the ultrasound photo kind of sucks. The OB and I talked through our screening options and agreed that we should go ahead and skip CVS since we're not comfortable with the risk. The CA screening panel we did will look at some of the PGS stuff, down syndrome etc, and if we want to later we can get the amnio.

E had to miss this appointment which really sucked, but we're having our nuchal translucency ultrasound next week and he will be able to come to that one. Maybe baby will put their arms down and let us have a peak at their face for that one.

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.

8 Weeks - Heard Bean's Heartbeat!

This morning we had the absolutely exquisit pleasure of hearing little bean's heartbeat for the first time. It was such a beautiful sound, thumping away, beatbeatbeatbeatbeat like a strong, steady drum. I can't stop listening to it, I need to take a longer video of it next time so I can listen on repeat.

8 week little bean! Not a great photo but still adorable

The downside of the appointment is that we really didn't love the doctor we met with. She's not on my schedule for any other appointments so I'm hoping she was just the ultrasound dating person and not one we're going to have to see again. She argued with me about how far along I am, didn't seem to understand basic post IVF medication (estrogen and progesterone are pretty much standard), wasn't going to look for my SCH even though I told her I had one and more importantly didn't seem to understand PGD/PGS. I introduced myself, explained that this was an IVF/PGD/PGS pregnancy, these are the medications I'm on etc. And she's like oh....I see here you're a FX carrier? You know you could pass that on to boys....and E and I looked at each other like WTF? Is this lady for real? I explained again that yes, I knew I was a carrier since I JUST said we did PGD/PGS and that I was aware my mutation could be passed on to both boys AND girls HENCE THE PGD. Then she asked if I had seen the genetic counselor to talk about passing on my mutation. OMFG.

She was nice and thorough otherwise, I just don't think she has any idea what PGD/PGS is or she wasn't listening when I tried to explain what we'd done. It was disconcerting and we definitely don't want to see her again. We worked way too hard to get this baby to continue care with someone who doesn't understand everything involved.

7 weeks 2 days - Second Ultrasound

Eeeee, this weeks ultrasound actually resembles a tiny person! I think I can even see the hint of a face there,  little bean is looking at us with their face turned slightly towards our right. Their heart was fluttering away, I think the tech said 148bpm, but it's still too early to hear it out loud. If we're lucky, we should be able to hear it next week at our first Kaiser ultrasound.

Everything is looking really good thus far but I do have a tiny SCH to the right of the baby. Both the doctor and tech said it's really small and not anything to worry about, they're super common with IVF and I haven't had any spotting or bleeding. I'm already taking things really easy since I'm nauseous all day long and not up for anything, but they told me to take it even easier if possible.

As far as symptoms go, thus far the biggest challenge has probably been the morning sickness. I'm still having difficulty keeping down my Estrace, prenatal, aspirin and probiotic in the morning but Dr. D isn't overly concerned because my body seems to be making a good amount of estrogen on its own. Every time I find myself hugging the toilet, my first thought is always that I'm so grateful to be pregnant. It's a totally weird paradox to feel so miserable and grateful at the same time, I may be puking up this slice of toast/banana/random bland food but it's because little bean is doing everything right and growing strong.

Along with the morning sickness I've got the ever present crazy sore boobs and extreme bloating. My belly is so large that I can't hide it in regular clothing, for only being 7 weeks it sure looks a lot more like 7 months! It has me wondering whether the bloating will go down before the baby starts to legitimately bump or if there will just be a seamless transition between bloaty belly and baby belly. I don't mind either way, it's just leading to some awkward looks from people thankfully too polite to say anything about my massive tum. I'm not sure how long I can pass our little bean off as tacos lol.

Over Achiever on Board!

We had our wonderful ultrasound yesterday and we officially have one over achiever on board! And a tired, slightly nauseous mama lol. Our little bean is growing right on time, they correctly measured 6 weeks 1 day yesterday which is fabulous and much to my amazed surprise, we actually saw a tiny heart beating away!

Everything looked good, the sac, yolk sac, fetal pole and tiny flickering heart. Now that we've seen a heart beat, even though it's only 6 weeks, Dr. D says that our miscarriage risk has dropped to 5%. It felt great to hear him say that but the anxiety is still there. Our next check in will probably be next week and I think I'm going to ask E to video the screen so I can peak back at that heartbeat whenever I want to.

Hi little bean :)

I hope one little bean means an easy, healthy pregnancy. I'm feeling a good deal of queasiness but haven't thrown up so I consider that a win. The bloating is also getting even more noticeable, even from last week to this week. Our embie is still tucked way behind my pubic bone but with all the progesterone I'm shoving up my girly bits, my stomach is huuuuuuge. I'm already getting looks from people side-eying my belly but my lips are sealed, we're planning to keep things under wraps for quite some time. I don't think we'll be announcing even a hint until after all our genetic testing and our anatomy scan at 20 weeks.

23dp5/6dt - Still Climbing

Today's labs showed that my HCG has risen to an impressive 39,071! Go, baby, go! Even more exciting is that tomorrow is the big day - our first ultrasound, our first real opportunity to take a peak and see what's going on in there. Although it's probably too early to see a heartbeat, I feel like actually seeing a pregnancy where it's supposed to be will help quell some of the anxiety I'm still wrestling with. I know it won't really go away, but I'd like to be able to breathe a little easier knowing things are progressing as they should be.

According to Betabase.info, if we've only got one little embie in there, they are still gunning for over achiever of the year award. We're still way ahead of average and my doubling time is only just slowing to 77 hours. If there's just the one, they mean business. I expect this kiddo to come out ready for college or at least ready for some serious nursing sessions.

If there are two, my anxiety is probably going to explode. I can only hope that both are strong enough to hang on, grow well, and not become a statistic. Our end goal is a healthy, living child and if we can get two out this experience, great. I just need them to stay off each others cords and do their best to grow and thrive.

Guess we (might) find out tomorrow! Of course there's always the possibility that it's too early, twins do have a knack for popping up in later scans, but we'll just have to wait and see. I'm hoping I can keep my coughing/hacking/snotting under control long enough to get some good photos.

19dp5/6dt - Happy Mother's Day

(source)

 Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas, soon to be mamas, pet mamas and future will be mamas!

Unfortunately for me, I started off my first soon to be mamas day with what is probably a cold. I can't figure out whether it's a regular cold (pregnancy suppresses the immune system) or just pregnancy expanding all my vessels which produces more mucous. I've got a killer sore throat so I'm thinking I might have some sort of post nasal drip thing going on and irritating it. Instead of going out to dinner tonight like we'd planned, E picked up some Matzo Ball soup for me which I ate before falling asleep on his arm and stomach. I'm pretty sure I drooled all over him, my nose started to plug up and I was sleeping with my mouth open, but he didn't move and let me sleep for a good two hours. I seriously love that man.

Since I'm pregnant I can't take anything for a cold. It's not fun, but honestly this is one cold I'm more than happy to just suffer through, I'm not willing to do anything that might damage our fragile embryo during such an important part of development. I can get some decent relief gargling hot water with a little apple cider vinegar but I made the last batch too strong and ended up gagging which was no fun. It works pretty well for at least an hour but I'm not sure I can pull it off with a more sensitive palate. 

In better news, I got a voice mail from the clinic confirming that they want to do my ultrasound at 6 weeks. I was thinking they'd wait for 6 weeks and a few days since we're more likely to see a heartbeat on the 18th at 6 weeks and 4 days but their message said 6 weeks exactly. I'm planning on giving them a call tomorrow and see if I can't get an appointment date so we have something concrete to wait for.

Ahead of schedule!

I went in for a CD 13 blood and ultrasound appointment this morning and got the extremely pleasant surprise that we're running ahead of schedule!

I usually don't ovulate until CD 17 but it looks like I'm on track for a CD 15 ovulation! As of today, I have an 18mm follicle, my estrogen is 160, my uterine lining is trilaminar and my LH is 6 which means it hasn't surged yet but is likely to do so soon. Follicles ovulate at over 20mm and grow 1-2mm per day so I'm set to go either Wednesday or Thursday.

This follie is actually so ahead of schedule that they didn't include LH in my original blood draw and had to add it in last second. The next step is another blood and ultrasound appointment tomorrow and depending on how high my LH is, we should be able to tell whether I'm ovulating Wednesday or Thursday. I'm fairly sure that surge numbers are 20+ so it still has a ways to go but when it happens, it happens quickly. I anticipate another appointment on Wednesday and maybe one on Thursday as well to confirm ovulation has taken place.

Clearly, my body is just as ready as I am to get this frostie home. This is shaping up to be an ideal cycle for transfer, we just need this baby to stick!

Holy Follicles!

I think you could knock me over with a feather right now. 

I have 14 follicles. 

FOURTEEN follicles

Holy Shit!

I am totally and completely in shock. Where did they come from??? I only had 7 antral follies at my baseline, where the hell did the other 7 come from?!?! For someone who was told they'd never have more than 3 eggs to harvest I just can't wrap my mind around 14. Um, have I mentioned holy shit??

As you can see, they range from about 11-19, with one teeny one measuring -3 which is actually 7mm . I think 14/15mm is the smallest size that can contain a mature egg, so they still have some growing left to do before I can trigger. Originally I thought I might get away with only 9 days of stims but it looks like I'm on the hook for at least 12 days.  My poor belly isn't thrilled but I'll do whatever it takes to get these eggs to mature. My lining is also looking excellent, 11.6 today which is wonderful. I'm super hopeful that once we finally make it to transfer, our embryos will have a nice cushy home waiting for them.

Beautiful follies!!

Since I'm out of some of my supplies and meds, my nurse went through the cabinets to try and find some samples. She scrounged up one injection of Ganirelix, which is another brand's version of Cetrotide for me to take tonight. That saves me about $105 so I was really pleased :) The only problem is the packaging. I'm sure I've written before about how I'm allergic to Latex - I'm not deathly allergic, but it does give me a fairly unpleasant rash and I can't take the flu shot or other meds that contain Latex. This package of Ganirelix says right on the box that the "packaging" contains natural rubber latex. I asked both the nurse and the doctor about it and they all said I should be fine to take it but I'm still a little worried. Does that mean the rubber plunger on the syringe is latex? Will I react to the liquid since it's been in contact with the plunger, or will it be no biggie since the plunger itself wont touch my skin?  I'm skeptical but will give it a go since they both said it should be okay. 

My next appointment is tomorrow morning to check in and see how quickly those smaller follies are catching up. If everything looks good, I might be able to trigger on Sunday for a Tuesday retrieval. If they need another day, I'd trigger on Monday for a Wednesday retrieval. 

Come on follies, grow, grow, grow!

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

 

Slow and Steady

I just got out of my appointment and the follies are looking excellent. All seven are still plugging along, just at a slightly slower rate since the decrease in Menopur. I think the largest was 15 and the smallest was 13 so they're developing together, nice and even, but they're not quite ready for triggering.  I'm very pleased with their growth but but a little bummed that we'll need more Menopur like we originally thought. I thought we'd get off easy this cycle!

I just picked up two more boxes, another 10 vials, and got my Ovidrel trigger too just in case. If they need me to trigger on Sunday, the pharmacy is closed over the weekend so  I'd have no way of getting it. I will probably be back in for a rare Saturday appointment tomorrow morning depending on what Dr. K decides. If I don't trigger on Sunday (I don't think I will), they're thinking Monday might be the next contender.

My E2 levels came back this time at 926, an absolutely beautiful number, which if you average it out is about 132 per follicle. I'm sure they're not all in the 130s, probably more like 100-150 given the range of growth, but they're all on track and I have no reason to suspect that they won't all be ready to ovulate by the time I trigger. I love seeing those little follies on the screen, they show up as large, round, dark circles which is such a nice change from the empty, blurry grey ovarian tissue we saw last cycle. 

What a tiny order! This is the smallest one I've bought yet, it was only $730. What a bargain!

Although the appointment went well, the blood test this morning was a little hairy. I didn't have my usual phlebotomist and this new one didn't take my warning of difficult veins seriously. She tried first on the left, which is nearly impossible to find, before giving it up as a bad job and moving to the right. The right was already a little bruised from the draws on Monday and Wednesday and she only made it worse by repeatedly poking me and wiggling the needle around in my arm. It wasn't super painful, but was enough to raise my blood pressure up about 20 points as we saw when I went up to the nurse after. I usually have low pressure, especially in the morning, with a systolic reading around or below 100. My pressure today was 126/67 whereas Wednesdays reading was 103/60, already 4 points higher from a good blood draw than my usual haven't-been-stuck-with-needles pressure.

A nurse should be calling in the next couple hours to give me instructions on the Menopur and let me know if I'm going in Saturday. I'm predicting now that they're going to keep me on 6 vials, have me come in Saturday, but not trigger until Monday. I received a wonderful offer to hang out with my friend M, Roxie and Deano's mama, but my acupuncture appointment is smack in the middle of the day and doesn't allow for any other plans. Although I'd much rather hang out with M, it looks like I'll be spending the rest of the day driving to and from the acupuncturist in horrible Friday traffic. All this acupuncture had better be worth it in the end!

Black Outs and Trigger Shots

I'm currently sitting in the waiting room of my RE's office. I should be going in for my 4th monitoring ultrasound in a few minutes but the power just went out to the whole block. Living in Southern California, losing power is not exactly a shocker in the summer.  It's ridiculously hot right now and a city block with at least 6 hospital buildings must draw an insane amount of power.

The back up generators clicked on almost immediately and now the nurses are trying to get the stubborn computers back up. It sounds like half the building is without computers which makes patient check in an interesting experience. Three different nurses have now called for the same person who I'm pretty sure is already back in a room. 

Lucky for me, I was able to get my blood drawn before the power went out. My right arm which I use for blood draws 99% of the time is a little battered and bruised so I asked the tech to use my left with its more stubborn veins. I'm starting to make friends with the tech since I'm there basically every day, and I was super impressed when he got it in one go.  The vein on that side is really deep and hard to find but he only left a tiny bruise. 

Veeeeeeiiiiinnnnnssss

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Damn, I had typed up a whole post but it didn't save when I put my phone down for my exam. The appointment this morning went well, but it was conducted entirely in the dark.  The nurse led me down the dark hallway and into the exam room, lit only by the screen on the ultrasound machine. It actually felt a lot like my acupuncture appointments, minus the candles and soft music and I was afraid I might fall asleep since it was still so early.

Everything was a little awkward since the table was electric and the back up generators didn't provide power to lift it up, but we made it work. The "group of follicles" on my right has been reclassified as a cyst (as I had initially thought) but it's very small and isn't a big concern. The mature follie on the left is a perfect 20mm and has several too small 9-10 follies behind it. There's also a 13mm follie on the right, but it's pretty small too. Dr. K said not to discount it entirely, so we're calling my total loot a follicle and a half. My estrogen supports that at around 280 so I was given the all clear to trigger tonight!  I'm nervous and excited all rolled in one, I need that egg to have my healthy X chromosome.

In the midst of all this infertility chaos, my best friend J is marrying his wonderful fiancee, C. I'm the Best Woman in their wedding and have felt awful about my infertility crap interfering with their wedding plans. Luckily, our IUI will be done before the wedding but it's still on the morning of the Bachelor/Bachelorette party, and I'm going to have to sneak away after the rehearsal but before the rehearsal dinner for some quick acupuncture. I'm so excited for them to tie the knot and the ceremony should be intimate, personal and beautiful.

Jinx

At my ultrasound appointment yesterday, the nurse asked me if I was having any side effects from the Menopur I've been taking. Apparently it can cause cramping and a whole lot of other unpleasant side effects in many people. I was happy to report back that I felt just fine, no cramping, and the injections *didn't even hurt OMG yay!* as long as I did them slowly! I felt like I could ride off into the sunset on a rainbow shitting unicorn on because I felt great! *insert some rainbows, sunshine and glitter shit here*

Ha Ha. Not.

Yeah. Because that's not painting a big huge target on my back for fate.

So, naturally, the second I left the doctor's office I started to feel sick. Then I remembered that I had had some digestive upset when I woke up that morning, but I'd attributed it to nerves. I sucked it up, blamed nerves again, and went to my acupuncture appointment. I told my acupuncturist, S, all about the insurance woes and my low estrogen and she told me she'd already received a call from my RE, Dr. K, that morning.

Dr. K actually called S, personally, because she believes in what she does. Even though S sees Dr. K's patients and is a Nurse Midwife at Kaiser, S said she's never had a doctor personally call about a patient before. Dr. K asked her to please do whatever she could to help me, to try and get as much blood flow to my ovaries as possible because we have to help my follies develop and get my estrogen up or this wasn't going to work. This really choked me up, I don't know how my chances are looking for this cycle but I really love my infertility team. I couldn't ask for better, more supportive doctors.

With specific marching orders in hand, S began my treatment to clear out the cold and phlegm and get my blood flowing. I also told her about my weird stomach pain so she added on a stomach treatment for that. And for the first time ever, those needles hurt. She put the first one in my foot and my leg nearly jumped off the table. "I'm sorry," she said, "you're much more sensitive today. The Menopur can do that, make your skin much more sensitive". Ow.

This was the 4th time I've done acupuncture and the first time it's ever been uncomfortable. Each needle hurt a bit going in and was sore during my hour, although I was able to ignore it and focus on visualizing all my energy going to my ovaries. S strongly believes that you need to put positive energy out there so I'm sending every positive thought I've got down to those follies. Afterwards, the points in my left wrist and left foot were actually too sore for me to put my watch or sandals back on, another first. I usually feel relaxed and refreshed after a session, not sore.

Before I left S also told me that she had a patient who might have some extra Menopur. She had been planning to donate it to another woman who ended up not needing it so it might be available for me! This would be so, so wonderful, with the increase to 5 vials a day, I don't think the stash I just bought is going to get me through this entire cycle. I might also be one of those people who are slow to stimulate and require a couple extra days of injections, which would mean I'd definitely be short.  I should know on Monday if she still has the Menopur available.

As for the side effects, they continued for most of the day. S's stomach treatment worked for a couple of hours, but the general stomach pain eventually came back. I didn't feel nauseous, crampy, and I didn't have ovarian pain, my stomach just hurt. The injection was also much more painful last night, the needle itself was really uncomfortable for the first time and it took me a good 5 minutes to inject all the liquid. Even though the acupuncture hurt, I somehow wasn't expecting my injection to hurt and was completely surprised when I stuck the needle in and my skin went OWWWW. I hope this is a temporary side effect because I have at least 5 more injections to go.