We are almost ready to take the next step. I had three ultrasounds last week. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The growth of the follicles and the hormone levels were a slight bit more gradual than last time. The best guess on Tuesday was that I would have retrieval on Tuesday of this coming week and that is the date that looks like it will be indeed!
We were able to go to the Duck game on Saturday but I had to come back late last night after the game so that I could have an ultrasound early this AM. The follicles are rapidly growing now and the hormones are rising almost exponentially. My doctor says it just shows that the ovaries do what they want to do.
I am tired today though, a combination of elevated estrogen levels, large follicles and oh yeah, I only slept about 5 and a half hours last night.
Since I will have the week off, I have lots of knitting, movies and small projects set up to do. We will see if I can keep myself from going stir crazy!
I will have one more session of acupuncture tomorrow (he works too much).
I have been finding more and more company on this path of IVF. Some have had success and some have found more sadness than they deserve. It is not easy to explain why some couples are able to have babies without even trying and others try an try and spend lots of money and still have no success. It certainly isn't based on merit, or hard work, or ability to care for a child. I will have great appreciation for a baby when we finally have one!
There is a section from Randy Pausch's THE LAST LECTURE where he speaks of walls that you hit as an opportunity to demonstrate how badly you want something. So, I guess I will continue to find ways around the wall. I am thinking happy thoughts tonight as Tom steadies his hand for the big trigger shot to allow the eggs to be released.
I will let you know more in two days. There were about 20 follicles between the two ovaries and we will see how many are available for retrieval.
Have a great week.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Back in the saddle
It has been a couple of months since my last blog. And FINALLY we are back in the cycle and ready to go. We spent the month of July waiting for the cycle off. The date for the next cycle fell right on the weekend we were supposed to go to Seattle, so they worked with us to delay the start a little bit. It actually worked out well as my period was late in July.
I started birth control pills at the end of July and started doing Lupron shots (the turn off meds) about 2 weeks ago. Last Saturday (5 days ago) I started on the stimulation drugs. Yesterday was my first ultrasound and things are looking good. The goal this time is to have the eggs mature a little more slowly in the hopes of having some more mature eggs to work with. Last time we had 14 follicles, 10 eggs and 7 fertilized eggs before the arrested development debacle.
This time we are hoping for more follicles, more mature eggs, more fertilized eggs and embryos that want to grow into babies. We will be transferring the embryos at three days of development instead of the 5 days last time. This will hopefully allow the embryos to grow in a more accurate environment rather than a petrie dish.
Next week, I already had MOnday (Labor day) and Wednesday (my new normal day off) off, and had Thursday off as well just incase. BUT of course it looks like the extraction will likely be on Tuesday with transfer back on Friday. SOOOOOOO, no work for me next week.
I am collecting knitting projects to work on. I was able to go to the yarn store on Bainbridge Island while we were there this last weekend. I got a cute new book and yarn. I also ordered a digital piano - Yamaha with built in peddles and full keyboard. I have been wanting to play again and this will fit in my room without major cost or moving expense. Plus I can use the headphones to play without sharing all of my music with our new neighbors! I am sure they will appreciate this.
I am also looking forward to getting caught up on all of my errands.
We are also working on selling Tom's truck since we aren't really using it and trying to use mass transit and become a one care family.
Lots of activity.
Lots of action.
I will try to keep the posting coming more regularly again.
We are all hoping that things go better this time.
Oh, and I am doing acupuncture !! I really like the acupuncturist and although difficult to know if it is helping, at least it is a set aside time to relax and just clear my head.
He is worried about the possibility of his needles bruising me. I don't think he knows how much the one stimulation drug bruises and welts. His needles are nothing!!! He has encouraged me to be happy and relaxed to grow many mature and happy eggs. So I have been listening to more Disney music. Trying to do things that are relaxing and happy making. MOre time off and massages. We will see if this all works out and makes more happy embryos that want to grow. The acupuncturist thinks twins (one boy and one girl) would be nice and then we can be done....I wonder what meridian he needs to needle for that ;-)
I started birth control pills at the end of July and started doing Lupron shots (the turn off meds) about 2 weeks ago. Last Saturday (5 days ago) I started on the stimulation drugs. Yesterday was my first ultrasound and things are looking good. The goal this time is to have the eggs mature a little more slowly in the hopes of having some more mature eggs to work with. Last time we had 14 follicles, 10 eggs and 7 fertilized eggs before the arrested development debacle.
This time we are hoping for more follicles, more mature eggs, more fertilized eggs and embryos that want to grow into babies. We will be transferring the embryos at three days of development instead of the 5 days last time. This will hopefully allow the embryos to grow in a more accurate environment rather than a petrie dish.
Next week, I already had MOnday (Labor day) and Wednesday (my new normal day off) off, and had Thursday off as well just incase. BUT of course it looks like the extraction will likely be on Tuesday with transfer back on Friday. SOOOOOOO, no work for me next week.
I am collecting knitting projects to work on. I was able to go to the yarn store on Bainbridge Island while we were there this last weekend. I got a cute new book and yarn. I also ordered a digital piano - Yamaha with built in peddles and full keyboard. I have been wanting to play again and this will fit in my room without major cost or moving expense. Plus I can use the headphones to play without sharing all of my music with our new neighbors! I am sure they will appreciate this.
I am also looking forward to getting caught up on all of my errands.
We are also working on selling Tom's truck since we aren't really using it and trying to use mass transit and become a one care family.
Lots of activity.
Lots of action.
I will try to keep the posting coming more regularly again.
We are all hoping that things go better this time.
Oh, and I am doing acupuncture !! I really like the acupuncturist and although difficult to know if it is helping, at least it is a set aside time to relax and just clear my head.
He is worried about the possibility of his needles bruising me. I don't think he knows how much the one stimulation drug bruises and welts. His needles are nothing!!! He has encouraged me to be happy and relaxed to grow many mature and happy eggs. So I have been listening to more Disney music. Trying to do things that are relaxing and happy making. MOre time off and massages. We will see if this all works out and makes more happy embryos that want to grow. The acupuncturist thinks twins (one boy and one girl) would be nice and then we can be done....I wonder what meridian he needs to needle for that ;-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)