Wheeeew!

Ok, it's over so now I can breathe. The retrieval went great and I wasn't even freaking out or anything. It was actually kind of funny--when I got into the OR I knew the anesthesiologist was messing around with my IV while the nurses were keeping my attention and having me get on the bed, legs in stirrups, lie down, etc. Once I was almost situated I said, "Did the Dr already start the drip? I'm feeling kinda tired." The nurse smiled and said, "yes". The next thing I remember is waking up in recovery with my hubby just arriving and me thinking "gee, that was quick and easy". LOL

As for my freak out questions this morning, we've already taken care of some of them:

1) What happens if they get in there and see that I've already ovulated all of my eggs?

• Well, that just didn't happen...

3) What happens if they get in there and find nothing in my follicles?

• This also didn't happen...they aspirated 8 follicles and found 8 eggs. :-)

7) What if something goes wrong during the retrieval and I just don't wake up CV"S?!?

• Fact is, I'm writing this post and don't feel any more bizarre than I did this morning or yesterday (yeah I'm tired, but I was tired yesterday too). And I obviously woke up. :-)

There you have it, 8 eggs and we'll see what happens to them on Thursday.

Terrified

I am soooo nervous about my retrieval. Only 3 and a half hours to go and I'm already freaking out.

1) What happens if they get in there and see that I've already ovulated all of my eggs?
2) What happens if they get in there and none of the eggs I have are mature?
3) What happens if they get in there and find nothing in my follicles?
4) What happens if they get a whole bunch of great eggs but none of them fertilize?
5) What happens if they get a whole bunch of great eggs that fertilize, but they all die before the transfer?
(this is starting to remind me of the Passover song "Dayenu"...)
6) What if everything goes well (even the transfer and freezing), but I just don't get pregnant?
7) What if something goes wrong during the retrieval and I just don't wake up CV"S?!? (I know that sounds completely rediculous...it's a 15 minute procedure, it's not even general anesthesia, I'll be breathing on my own and even be monitored the whole time, and I don't believe ANYONE has ever died during an egg retrieval...plus the fact that these guys have done THOUSANDS of egg retrievals and I'm not even their first today...)

I'm just praying that everything goes swimmingly and that at the very least I wake up normally sometime within 15 mins or so after the retrieval. :-)

P.S. If you're curious about the song "Dayenu" go look it up or I can explain further on another post if you're stuck.
P.P.S. CV"S stands for chas v'shalom and basically means G-d forbid.

Woo hoo!!!

So, I actually had the same ultrasound tech today as on Friday, but I guess she was more on the ball this morning. Here are the results:

estradiol: 2579 pg/ml
endometrium: 13.3mm
left ovary: 19mm, 18.5mm, 17mm, 16.5mm, 16mm, 15mm, 12mm, 11.5mm (total of 8)
right ovary: 16.5mm, 15.5mm, 14.5mm, 14mm, 13.5mm (total of 5)

Grand total: 13 follicles (which will all hopefully be mature by Tuesday!)

So the doc is having me trigger tonight at midnight and I'm having the retrieval on Tuesday at noon (eep!). I'm really nervous about the sedation for the retrieval, because I've never been put to sleep before...if anyone has any comforting words about it, please send them!!

Follie Check

The ultrasound tech today didn't seem to be the most competant, but she was very sweet. After seeing 23 prospective follies and an 8mm endometrium on my last check, I was shocked to find only 8 measurable follies and a 13mm endometrium (it's only been 3 days). In any case, my estradiol was at 840 pg/ml and I (supposedly) only have 3 follies on my left (14mm, 12.5mm, and 10.5mm) and 5 follies on my right (15mm, 13mm, 11mm, 11mm, and 10mm). I'm hoping it's just the tech having a bad day and not finding everything. We'll see what happens on Sunday (and hopefully I'll get someone else)!

Follies

So, I have 13 small follicles (under 10mm) on the left and 10 small ones (under 10mm) on the right side. Now what I'm wondering is if this is normal... I've been stimulating at 125IU of Follistim for 4 days and I don't have any larger follicles yet?!?! My endometrium is already at 8mm, so that's fine. My estradiol was around 200 pg/ml, LH around 3 mIU/ml and Progesterone around .3 ng/ml--so those are all normal. Has anyone else had this??? Am I going nuts? I go back on Friday for another follie check, so I hope that I have a bunch of big ones by then...but I'm kinda nervous...
:-(

Trigger Time!

This is the absolute earliest I have ever ovulated in my life. The problem with this? I can't go to the mikvah yet! 😟 So that means no condom collection for IUI. Thank goodness we got the ok from the rabbi to forego condom collection and do it the "usual" collection way for these sorts of things. No need for details. lol

Anyway, I've got now two follicles looking good for ovulation - 16mm on the right and 18.5mm on the left. So I have a chance for twins! Now wouldn't that be cool? (Or terrifying...) My endometrium is at 11.7mm, so right about what it was yesterday, and my estradiol has soared to 1335 pg/mL, LH is down to 3.59 mIU/mL (probably because of the Ganirelix), and my progesterone is nice at low at 0.565 ng/mL. So it's looking good for trigger tonight. All told, I've done 9 injections this cycle - add one trigger from my first Clomid cycle, and I've given myself 10 total shots. Not too bad! Hopefully I won't have to do any more... IUI in 2 days!

First Monitoring

Well, things are looking pretty good for this first IUI cycle. I have a bunch of little follicles and one big one on the left side - 17.5mm. My estrogen is SUPER high at 795 pg/mL and my LH is hanging in at 10.2 mIU/mL. Because my estrogen is so high, Dr Glatstein had a bit of a freak out and I have to start Ganirelix to prevent myself from ovulating. Yay, another injection. Can you feel the excitement? (Not!) I have to go back in tomorrow to check in on my follicles and estrogen, and it will probably be time to trigger. Yay!

Almost Ovulation Time!

That 14mm follicle from the other day has now blossomed into a 19mm follicle that's getting ready to go! My estradiol is now up to 263 pg/mL and my LH at 11.8 mIU/mL. My endometrium is over-achieving and is up to 13.7mm. Whew! Looks like a great environment for a baby to grow in, so hopefully this will be our month! I'm going to be doing ovulation predictors for the next few days, and then start progesterone a few days after ovulation. No more monitoring needed for this cycle. Yay! Fingers crossed!

Cycle Day 11

Things are growing! I've got a 14mm follicle on the left side, my endometrium is up to 8.3, and my estradiol is holding steady at 126 pg/mL. My LH is also holding at 13 mIU/mL and my progesterone is still low at 0.319 ng/mL - that's to be expected, since I haven't ovulated  yet. Next monitoring visit is in 2 days, and we'll see how things are going then. Hopefully ovulate within a few days after that visit.

Monitoring Day

I got my results back from day 8 monitoring and things are looking good. My estradiol is at 110 pg/mL and my LH is at 18.4 mIU/mL. No huge follicles yet, which is to be expected. But I have a bunch ready to go on either side, and my endometrium is starting to grow and is now at 6.4mm. I'll go back in for more monitoring in a few days and will update then!

Even More Bloowork

So, here are our CD 14 results:

1 follicle on the left ovary at 22.5mm
endometrium at 12.9mm
Estradiol at 392 pg/ml
LH at 18.1 mIU/ml

These are all normal and it shows that I'm at the beginning of the LH surge!! This means that I do the hCG trigger shot tonight and then we just wait...

Test Results

So, here we are again. I got another prolactin level and it came back as 2.2 ng/ml, so we can see that the Dostinex is keeping that under control (yay!) and my estradiol level at CD10 was 99 pg/ml (which I was told is normal as well). I had 1 follicle at 13.5mm and my endometrium was 8.5mm (which are both normal--they want to see at least one follicle over 10 mm and the endometrium over 8mm) I am going back for CD 14 testing to see if it's time for my hCG trigger shot so that I can ovulate! I will update when I get the results!

More Bloodwork

I had my repeat prolactin test today and it came back with a level of 28.7 ng/ml, which means that it's still elevated (even though it's less than last time). So, my doctor has put me on Dostinex to get my prolactin level down (which will hopefully help me get pregnant really fast!!) :-) Also, I had an ultrasound which showed a 14mm follicle and a 9.2mm endometrial lining. Those both are normal for CD10!! YAY!