Friday, May 16, 2008

Stimulation Day 9

Went this morning at 7:30. Still the same 10 follicles but larger sizes. Left: 15,14,14,14,13. Right: 16,14,14,12,12. Estradiol was 2608. My follistim was lowered to 75iu for tonight.

I go in tomorrow for another ultrasound and blood test, and we may have to do our "trigger" shot tomorrow night. Won't know til tmw afternoon. If we trigger tomorrow then I'll have surgery Monday morning!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Stimulation, Day 8

My Dr. is out of town today through Sunday so his partner saw me today. His partner found 5 follicles on each side. Left: 14, 13, 13, 13, 12mm; Right: 16, 13, 13, 12, 11mm. My estradiol was 1712.

My nighttime medication follistim was decreased down to 150iu, and I go back again in the morning. He thinks I might be ready for surgery on Sunday / Monday, so I have to bring my other meds in tomorrow so he can show me how to use them (the "trigger" shot).

Feeling a little more full and bloaty today, but not in pain or moody.

More to report tomorrow!!

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Stimulation Day 7 Update

Had a Dr. appt this morning, same routine with the blood test and ultrasound.

Today I had 4 follicles on my left sized 11,11,11,11; and 4 follicles on my right sized 11,11,10,9.

My estradiol level was 999. On Monday it was 235, on Saturday it was 66.

My medications were lowered for this evening from 300iu of Follistim to 200iu.

I go back again tmw!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Prednisolone During IVF

Every day I'm learning so many new things about this process.

Yesterday I went to the Dr. and had an ultrasound to check the progress of my ovarian stimulation. He had already upped my dosage to the "max dose" for stimulation, so he was checking the size of my follicles to determine if I needed to stay on the max dose. Previously I had 18 follicles. This time he measured 6 that were responding to the treatment, ranging in size from 6mm to 8mm. The nurse assured me the others are still there, they just haven't responded yet, but they will.

In addition to the shots I'm taking every day (5iu of lupron in the morning, 2 doses of menopur in the morning, one shot of follistim 300iu at night) I was also prescribed 7.5mg of prednisolone nightly.

The nurse explained that the prednisolone is "because you're on max dose". I go back to the Dr. tomorrow and I'm sure he'll explain it better. From what I've researched about prednisolone, it is a steroid used to treat inflammation. Most likely he prescribed it to make sure I don't get inflamed, but I'm happy he prescribed it for another reason.

There is a lot of controversy right now in the Fertility Field about auto-immune infertility issues. If you remember, Courtney Cox claims she couldn't get pregnant because she had anti-phospholipid antibodies which were preventing her embryos from implanting because her body thought they were invaders that needed to be destroyed. After taking medications to supress these cells she got pregnant. Prednisolone has been used to treat these same conditions. It is prescribed for women who have had multiple miscarriages due to auto-immune conditions, including lupus. The controversy lies in the fact that many Reproductive Endocrinologists don't believe there is enough evidence that these cells have that power. Most won't even discuss it with you, as I've witnessed on many websites.

I think it's very possible that I could have some of these "natural killer" cells in my womb, which prednisolone combats. For women who have been known to have these NK cells in their wombs, a cycle of prednisolone has suppressed the cells and allowed the woman to conceive. The cycle is continued through pregnancy until the fetus is large enough that the body can't attack it.

I wanted to take this medication when I first heard about it, so I'm glad it is being prescribed to me now, even if that's not why it was prescribed.

Other than some really ugly stick marks and bruises on my stomach I'm doing fine. I've given in to the process because I'm determined to succeed.

The doctor doesn't think I will have surgery before next Monday, so the timing is perfect because my job ends this Friday (my birthday!).

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Dilation is Over, Starting Stimulation Tomorrow

I drank half of a 64 oz bottle of gatorade this morning before my appointment, but it wasn't early enough, so I got reprimanded for not having a full bladder. When I go in for my actual embryo transfer I need to drink 8 oz of fluid every 30 minutes before my appointment. I'm going to burst!

I took half a xanax before my appointment, and the cervical dilation went fine. I was there about 30 minutes. He gave me a series of 3 lidocaine shots into my cervix to numb me, and then used a series of French dilation rods to slowly dilate my cervix. This is all going to help with the embryo transfer.

They did a blood test to make sure the Lupron was supressing my hormones, which it is. Starting tomorrow I will still take my Lupron in the morning, but I will also take Menopur in the morning, and Follistim at night. That makes a total of 3 shots per day in my belly!

The Menopur and Follistim will cause my eggs to grow. The Lupron will prevent me from ovulating on my own. Right now I have 11 egg follicles on my left ovary and 8 on my right. I don't really know if that number will increase or not, but the Dr. said 19 is PLENTY. Now we just need them to grow.

My belly is going to start growing, the Dr. says I will appear 3 months pregnant by the time they actually transfer my embryos back. I go in to the Dr. every couple of days now so they can check how fast the eggs are growing to make sure I don't hyperstimulate.

My next Dr. appt is on Saturday, for a blood test.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Lupron is Going Well

I had my fifth Lupron shot today, and I have to say, I'm surprised at how well it's going. We started on Monday, Evan learned how to give the shots at the Dr. office. The shots go in to my stomach anywhere below the belly button, and preferably into fat. No problem there! Bruising is normal because you can hit capillaries in the process. I got one giant black bruise on the first day, and one on the third. 2 out of 5 isn't bad! The shots don't hurt at all, and so far I haven't had any of the crazy side effects the Dr. mentioned. I feel great!

The trial transfer didn't go very well. As with in past insemination attempts, my cervical opening is very difficult to get through. Unfortunately, I have to go back next Wed. for another procedure. It's a cervical dilation, and the dilation will last through the next month.

If you want to read about another woman's experience with the dilation you can find it here.

Apparently if your cervix is closed too tightly and the Dr. has trouble getting the cathetar in to transfer the embryos then your success rate is greatly reduced. Something about having the embryos get "crushed" in the cathetar as they're in the process of being transferred. After this dilation my cervix will remain open enough for the cathetar to go in smoothly for the real transfer.

On a separate note, right after I sat up on the table after having my trial transfer, the Dr. started telling me about the next one and I started to have a case of vasovagel, which is basically where all the blood leaves your head and can cause you to pass out. I had it happen once before when I had surgery on my leg. I'm going to drink some sports drinks before I go in next time, because the sodium apparently helps. I'm also going to take a xanax!