Stim Day 6

E2: 311

Yesterday's Stim Day 5 E2: 179

Cancel monitoring appointment for tomorrow...stay on same dose and come back Wednesday morning.

Nothing measurable on the screen yet. I had some .8's but nothing 1.0 an larger. Here is the pic of the ultrasound printout that I took with my cell phone:



Top pic is right ovary...black dots are the follies that are not quite big enough to measure yet. Bottom pic is left ovary. The round greyed out circle is a cyst size 15.

I'm finally starting to feel a little action going on so hopefully come Wednesday I will have lots of measurable follies.

My current schedule has me stimming for 11 days so I still have 5 more days of stimming to stay on track with that schedule.

Stim Day 5

Well I had my first monitoring appointment today. No ultrasound just blood work. My E2 is 179 which my nurse said my RE was very pleased with. Stay on same meds for tonight and tomorrow morning. Tomorrow starts the everyday ultrasounds and blood work appointments.

Comparison from IVF #4:

IVF#4: Stim Day 5 - E2: 520

IVF#4 had no suppression which is why I think my E2 was so high so quick which was not good in the end because my E2 ended up rising too fast and it didn't allow my eggs time to mature. At trigger my E2 on that cycle was 5526. Way too high and although 11 were retrieved only 3 were mature.

So I'm hoping this time my E2 has a steady increase allowing the eggs time to grow and mature as they should.

On another note - I just finished watching the movie Cars for the first time and that movie is actually very good and funny. DH was looking at me like I had lost my marbles for watching it but it was very good!

Awwhh....Good News....Again!!

Oh my goodness what is really going on....good news two days in a row!!!!

So my job sent this out today:

On maternity leave, the Board agreed that we should aim to be a market leader within the US employment market, and exceed international minimum standards - as set by the ILO. We therefore decided to increase the period of fully-paid maternity leave from two to eight weeks, with immediate effect.

This, plus the existing provision of 6-8 weeks leave under our short term disability benefit (70% of salary) will give local staff up to 16 weeks' paid maternity leave, with the option of adding annual leave entitlement and a period of unpaid leave onto that. The Board agreed that paternity leave (two weeks on full pay), which was identical to that for UK-based staff, should remain the same.

Okay so last time I got pregnant (the chemical) I figured out how much maternity leave I would get. I figured the most I could get using some personal leave times was like 2 1/2 months. With this new change I can now get almost 4 1/2 months of maternity leave. 8 weeks of that at 100% of my pay and 6-8 weeks at 70% of my pay and like 2 weeks at 100% of my pay using vacation time.

This is awesome and the change comes at perfect timing! I can't wait to the day I am able to utilize this new change! And its so much better that I would get more time to spend with the baby/ies before having to put him or her into daycare and now they can go in daycare at 4 months old instead of 2 months old and that makes a HUGE difference!

Okay....okay...bring me more...bring me more....I love getting this good news!!!!

Awwwhhh....Good News!!

Good news first:

So my nurse finally called and told me my blood results from yesterday. She said your FSH is 3. I said huh, say what? She said a 3. I said no seriously did you just say a 3 and she said yep. My FSH has gone from a 13 to a 3. No Way! I'm too happy about that.

Tears second:

Awwhh thanks everyone for cheering on my cycle. I had no idea I had so many waiting patiently with me to start my cycle up. I really do appreciate it.

Ouch third:

So I just did my nighttime shots. I did Lupron, Gonal F and Menopur this morning so tonight was Gonal F, Menopur and Lovenox. I must admit that I was scared to death of the Lovenox shots because of all the horror stories I've heard about the bruising (See Alison's belly here), and the burning. So I did my Gonal F and Menopur cocktail shot and my stomach decided to bleed. Enough to fill an alcohol pad so I had to grab a cotton ball. This doesn't normally happen to me...but I was like um okay, its cool. So I could no longer do the Lovenox on that same side because I didn't want to make that side all sensitive....I mean I still have a lot of days ahead of me. So I switch to the other side that I used this morning for the Lovenox.

Okay...jab....okay...they told the truth....it burns....all of it...but not to the point of OMG pass out burn. But its cool.....I can handle it. LOL! I say that now....but what will I do when I run out of easy to grab fat on my belly.

And One....

And the picture says it all. After 3 months of Depot Lupron, another SHG, and another Endo Biopsy, lots of waiting.....IVF#5 is finally underway.

It has taken a lot of patience to wait these 3 months out. Been lapped by so many pregnancies and oops pregnancies and thrown in my face I'm pregnant but don't want this baby ordeals. Just a lot to deal with. But now I can finally feel proactive at working towards getting pregnant.

At today's baseline I had 10 antral follies on the right and 6 antral follies on the left and a small cyst on my right ovary that they are not worried about. They did test my E2 and FSH level again but when my nurse called she didn't have the numbers so she said she would call me back tomorrow to give me the numbers.

So tomorrow morning I will do Lupron, Gonal F and Menopur and tomorrow night I will do Lovenox, Gonal F and Menopur. My RE also wanted me to start taking Caltrate which has Calcium and Vitamin D in it. He said this once he found out I would be on Lovenox for an extended period of time, so I guess it may effect my calcium level or bones or something.....not sure.

First appointment will be on Sunday which will be stim Day 5 just for blood work and everyday after that is blood work and ultrasounds.

Vegas Pics...

Finally got my pics from Vegas uploaded. Countdown is at 2 days. Baseline tomorrow. Update more then.

......7

So I think I can finally begin my count down. It seems like it has taken FOREVER for this cycle to start and come Wednesday I can begin sticking myself in the belly again. Who in their right mind would look forward to and enjoy sticking a needle in their belly, not one, not two, not three but FOUR times a day? That would be me....one desperate woman on a quest to make her husband a daddy!

So I had my Endo Biopsy done on Monday. I had this done back in November by my old RE after my second chemical but my new RE wanted to do it again ....one to check that everything is kosher in there and two because of some studies that showed having an endo biopsy right before your IVF cycle could possibly increase your chances. I found this article that talks about it in detail First Biopsy, Then Baby

And another one Mother of Invention

And another Endometrial Activation

What do you ladies think? Anyone done it and think it helped with your success?

It would be great if it does help out. Hoping that my results come back all clear. I should have them in about a week.