2 Embie Babies in Me!

My appointment for ET was scheduled for 0215 pm on Tuesday, July 28! (It looks like it is our clinics policy to not update the patients about the embryos till the very end if everything is in control - I didn't get to hear about our embies till I saw the RE). I was asked to empty my bladder and start drinking water (around 4 to 5 cups) at my scheduled appointment time. While loading up my bladder I had my pre-transfer acupuncture. My clinic provides laser acupuncture, which is very quick! I normally go to a different acupuncturist, but this was just going to be convenient (since it was right at the clinic)… so I decided to go with this one for the IVF. I was called in to the OR at around 0300 pm. After doing some paper work and speaking with the nurse I sat around for my RE. In the interim, I had to partially empty my bladder since it was too full (in the abdominal u/s scan).

The RE came in and handed over the picture of our sweet little babies (2 blastocysts). They looked perfect to me (I don't feel like blurting out the grade - I feel like I am comparing my babies - all I will say is one was a little larger than the other). As of yesterday we had 7 more growing… hopefully at least some of them will go in to the freezer for our future babies (I am supposed to hear from my nurse in the next 2 days)! The OR had a large TV, so I could see our babies journey from the petri-dish in to my womb. After resting for around half an hour (during which I had my post-transfer acupuncture), I was released. Overall I was pretty calm through out the process! We are glad to bring our emby babies home. I am praying that they snuggle in well for the next 9 months and we get some good news next week.

I think... I will be POAS before the beta! I don’t think I will be able to hold the suspense until I get the call from my nurse. I would like to know the results on my own terms and be able to handle it on my own. Though, I am hoping to test only a day before the beta… lets see how far I can succeed with that! :) Right now I am just resting on my couch and have been too lazy to even type up anything (hence the delay in posting - Sorry to keep you waiting)! ...Thanks for all your support girls! {HUGS}

IVF # 1 ET on Tuesday

We got up early in the morning (0700 am is super early for it being Sunday :P) and got ready... and then waited for the *call* (we were supposed to leave as soon as they called)... I was just telling DH, that watch... they said they would call around 0800 am and they probably wouldn't call us until like 1000 am! And there goes the phone... the clinic called sharp at 0800 am. The nurse mentioned that our ET has been pushed to Tuesday (July 28, 2009) and I will be getting a call from them between 0900 to 1100 am (on Tuesday). I enquired about our Embie babies! The nurse mentioned that they do not update us about it right now and since the ET has been pushed to Tuesday it means that everything is going well (so far). So now we wait for two more days! :) Constantly praying that our babies are doing well and are growing strong... and we have some beauties for Tuesday (and hopefully a few to freeze)!

The ER Story (and the after effects)

It all started off with me getting up to gulp down tons of water at around 1145 the night before. I am normally a water guzzler, and living without water for 12+ hours sounded awful to me. Fortunately the extra hydration I was working on from 2 days prior helped me not get dehydrated. Honestly, I cheated a little bit… at around 0230 am and 0630 am I had two sips! It wasn’t like I was going to retain that 1-2 ounce of water for the next 6+ hours for the anesthesia to act up. Anyways, I did feel guilty later on… but fortunately my water consumption didn’t cause a problem!

We reached the clinic at around 0826 am, our appointment was for 0900 am. There were two couples in the waiting room. One of the female was freaking out and the other one seemed cool (from what I overheard later on, both were first timers)… I guess I was somewhere in the middle. The more I thought about the whole process the more I panicked, and that has been the case all the way through… so I am trying not to think or over analyze things! I was the third female to be called in at around 0900 am. The guys had to go to Andrology department to do their job before they could join us. By the time I went in to the Recovery Room, one of the female was ready to go in to the OR and the other one was getting her pep talk. It felt like an eternity before my DH showed up and the nurse came to us with all the pep talk and the information. However, I had already overheard all the instructions that the lady besides me had received… so it wasn’t anything new when the nurse came to my section! Things moved pretty fast after that. To hook up to the IV, I had to squeeze a giant sperm… that was fun ;) and the nurse liked joking about it too! The IV didn’t hurt much, however it started trickling after some time… so they had to re-hook it onto me again! The doctors showed up right about then and introduced themselves… followed by me having to go pee, which was a waste, because I had already pee’ed out all the water consumed by now (by going to the loo at least 3-4 times the night before)! Also, pee’ing with the IV on was interesting, I was walked to the OR soon after… everything after that is a blur!

There were at least 5-7 people in there. I was strapped on to various monitors and before I knew I was asleep! As per my DH, I was in the OR for around 20 minutes and was completely awake 15 minutes after coming out! I was dazed when I woke up and had an oxygen mask on my mouth/nose! The nurse took the mask out and asked how high my pain level on a scale of 1 to 10 was. My answer: around 7-8. She said I should be okay with a Tylenol, though I demanded for some stronger medicine. I just realized how much of a wus I was… I have always dreamt of me doing a natural birth (when I get there)… and avoiding Epidural et al… but after this, I am not sure!:P I think, I was more afraid that something was abnormal more than the pain bothering me… a pain killer was of course not the answer to abnormality… but anyways, they injected something in to my IV and I was okay in around 10-15 minutes. After which, they offered me a choice of 3 beverages and 3 snack items… I chose apple juice and graham crackers! I dislike salty stuff and didn’t want to experiment with saltines. They also gave me Tylenol and Tylenol with Codeine… Once I felt stable, I had to go pee and then we were let go. By the time we left (at around 0130 pm), I was almost pain free (I better be right, after all the drugs)! We had a Ruby Tuesday lunch (to go) and after that I slept for around 2-3 hours on our couch while DH worked (from home)! Rest of the day was pretty uneventful, I guess actually the whole ER was not as dramatic as I had imagined!

At home, I realized I couldn’t get up on my own, my abdominal area was very sore; my DH literally had to pick me up. Unfortunately I had to pee a lot and it wasn’t fun getting up every now and then. By the end of the day I was very bloated and uncomfortable… I somehow fell asleep, though had to get up at least 4-5 times in the night to pee. Problem was that I was drinking a lot of water and on top of it my bladder got (partially) full only to pressurize my ovaries and hurt. That has been the case ever since I got home (…up until now). I hate having to pee or do the other job (forget sex, which they say is okay before ET). I have noticed that the bloating is at minimal in the morning and my abdominal area is hard as rock by the end of the day. However, I have managed to stay Tylenol free after coming home… I just feel like I shouldn’t be pounding on pain killers (unless absolutely necessary) since I have tons of medications in my system anyways and under ideal situation I would have liked my body to be as “organic” as possible during the baby making process!

I feel like my ovaries are slowly moving back to their original position (from the center location covering my uterus during the last u/s)… cause whatever pain I have is on the sides and no longer in the center. I started with Medrol and Doxycycline the day of ER and started the PIO yesterday. I am a little sore from PIO, but it really didn’t hurt as much as Follistim and Lupron while taking it. May be the ice made my rear numb! :)

I got the scare of my life today (Saturday – two days post retrieval). We were not supposed to receive any calls today! We were lazing around in the bed and my phone starts ringing… it was my clinic! No, I was not supposed to hear from them. We have 13 of our embies in the incubator… at least some of them have to grow into healthy babies; we should not be getting any news from them today! I picked up the phone… the reason they were calling was: They were not sure if our transfer was going to happen tomorrow (3DT on Sunday), but they just wanted to let us know that they would be starting the ET very early tomorrow morning and we should expect a call from them at around 0730-0800 am and we would have to be at the clinic by around 0900 am if the transfer is scheduled for tomorrow (in the weekdays the ET is supposed to happen in the afternoon)! Oh what a relief!

So here we stand today, hopefully one step closer to our baby. I am grateful that we have reached where we are today. I hope this cycle turns in to a BFP, but if not, hopefully we will learn a thing or two from it for our future cycles. Your support means a lot to me. Handful of people around us know about this journey, and I would have probably gone insane by now if I didn’t have you gals with me! I hope and pray that we all fulfill our baby dreams in the very near future!

Fertilization Report

OMG... you girls are awesome... I received the most comments ever in the shortest time ever... you touch my heart... I am humbled! Thank you for all the good wishes! The nurse called back and 13 out of the 27 fertilized. I asked as to why only 27 were retrieved from the 50-60 follicles that were visible during the prior u/s... the nurse mentioned that not all of the follicles have eggs, so in spite of them having cleared out all the follicles, we got the number that we did. I am just glad things have gone well so far and am praying that our embie babies keep growing! I won't hear back from them until Sunday. So we wont know if it is a Sunday or Tuesday transfer till Sunday! I am doing much better today... it is painful only when I have to pee... and pee I have to often (with the water being consumed)... feel a little weak, but otherwise okay! I will definitely be posting my ER story soon!

IVF # 1 ER Done!

Got done with the ER this morning... retreived 27 eggs... not as many as they were counting in the u/s till now (may be they were counting the same follicles multiple times :P ... or may be the eggs popped before I got to ER? :( )! When I woke up, I was in a lot of pain, but I think the drugs they gave me helped and are probably still there in my system. I am okay so far! :) My nurse is supposed to call back with an update tomorrow (fertilization count). Still on schedule for ET on Sunday/Tuesday. Will update in detail later. Thank you for all the comments and good wishes!

Final U/S & B/W before IVF # 1 ER

Triggered last night (with Ovidrel) and had another scan this morning. I think the follicles have now maxed out (in number)... the largest one is measuring 21 mm... I guess they will still keep growing in size until the ER. My ovaries are touching each other and were covering the uterus during the u/s.

The nurse called back in the afternoon to update me on the b/w results… my E2 is 6400. Tomorrow’s ER is definitely no longer tentative. It’s happening… it really is. I can’t believe it! I am grateful that we have reached thus far and my ovaries did decide to respond... a little too much! On the back of my mind, I feel guilty to be able to produce so many follicles when some of my fellow IFs have very few. I hope I am not coming out as an arrogant bitch bragging about my follicles. I am fully aware that having 60'ish (big-small combined) follicles doesn’t guarantee me a baby in my hand 9 months from now. I am aware that not all follicles will be mature; and not all eggs will fertilize; and not all embryos will survive (I could even be left with none)! Quality matters over quantity! The chemical pregnancy in May has taught me that it is too early to celebrate till I have a healthy baby (or two) in hand! The biggest concern I have right now is OHSS (with the gazillion follicles that I have) and how it is going to affect this possible PG! I have read that too high (above 4000) of an E2 value hampers implantation. I am not sure if we will even be doing an ET… it will be a last minute call based on how I am doing (we might end up with FET... assuming we have embies to freeze). My nurse mentioned that they will be clearing out tiniest of the tiny follicle… which hopefully will reduce the chances of (severe) OHSS.

Thank you all for the support and tips. I feel optimistic, yet highly cautious! And yes, I am definitely looking forward to a shot free evening (today). I hope 2 weeks from now I will have some happy news to share!

Thursday it is! ...ER for IVF # 1

Just heard from my nurse – the retrieval is Thursday (and not Friday). My E2 is screaming high and they do not want it to blow the roof off… it is 4680 (ICLW’ers: please read my previous posts for my follicle scan/count story)! I will be triggering tonight (with just 1 syringe of Ovidrel – I guess normally it is 2) and have to go in again (tomorrow morning) for b/w and u/s.

The dates so far for IVF # 1 are as follows...

• Egg Retrieval (ER): Thursday, July 23, 2009
• Egg Transfer (ET): Sunday, July 26, 2009 or Tuesday, July 28, 2009
• Beta: Thursday, August 6, 2009
• Tentative WTF appointment: Thursday, August 13, 2009… this is something I asked for! No, I don’t want to have that meeting, but just in case things don’t work out in our favor, I am not willing to sit on my ass till September mid/end wondering what went wrong. It is very difficult to get an appointment with my RE and on top of it he is supposed to go out on vacation around end of August... hence the tentative appointment!

I have already started loading up on Gatorade and drinking tons of water. As you might have already figured, I am shit scared of OHSS with the big team that I am carrying. I just ran the last batch of errands before my IVF break. I am trying to ease my DH’s woes in case I turn in to a zombie! I hope I look back and laugh at how much I prep’ed being worried that I would be knocked out with OHSS. Any tips about how to deal with it are greatly appreciated.

ICLW- July 2009

Welcome ICLW'ers! I am currently stimulating for my IVF # 1. The ER is tentatively scheduled for this Friday (July 24) and I need all your prayers and warm wishes. You can go through my IF history on the side bar. Sticky vibes to all of us! Thanks for stopping by and for your support! {HUGS}

My Jackfruits - IVF # 1 B/W & U/S Update

I stopped counting after my RE went above 25 follicles on each ovary. There probably are around 60 or more follicles in there. It sounds unbelievable to me and even to type this up, I feel like I am bluffing! My ovary dimensions are ~ 50 x 70 mm. The ovaries don’t look anything like they normally do… they look like a big-ass pomegranate… or may be more like Jackfruit (commonly found in Asia). Surprisingly I feel less discomfort than I have even felt during IUI stimulation (with 1 to 5-6 follicles with Follistim)… maybe it’s the Lupron! However, I am becoming an emotional wreck... I can start crying for any reason… I haven’t shed too many tears as yet, but I am at the verge of bursting out for anything out of the normal. I am so scared that this is abnormal and will result into not so healthy eggs and the cycle will be doomed!

When the RE just glanced at the ovaries, he was sure we would be triggering tonight, but after the measurements he realized that there were quite a few at around 15 mm, and he wanted them to grow more… so most likely we will be stimulating for one more night and will be triggering tomorrow for a Friday retrieval. Oh and it took him around 10 minutes to count and measure my package! Of course I do not have the blood results as yet… so will know for sure this afternoon. I also asked my RE if it would take longer for the ER for me since I have so many follicles, he mentioned that it will be a few minutes more than it normally does. He also confirmed what I have feared… since I have so many follicles, I will have a lot more discomfort after the ER and they will prescribe some pain medication. At my RE’s clinic, it seems that they clear out each and every follicle (even if they are less than 10 mm) during the ER… which reduces the chances of (severe) OHSS… I am not sure if this is the norm or this is something specific to my clinic.

5th b/w and u/s today (July 21, 2009 – after 8 days if stims).

• Follicle count: ~50+ eggs (both ovaries combined) measuring 11 to 18 mm
• E2: 4680
• Ovidrel Triger tonight
• Uterus Lining: 11mm (Type 3)
• Next appointment: Wednesday, July 22, 2009
  

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4th b/w and u/s (July 20, 2009 – after 7 days if stims).

• Follicle count: 30+ eggs (both ovaries combined) measuring 11 to 16 mm
• E2: 2619
• Follistim: Reduced to 75 IU
• Lupron: 10 units
• Uterus Lining: 11mm (Type 3)
• Next appointment: Tuesday, July 21, 2009

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3rd b/w and u/s (July 18, 2009 - after 5 days of stims).

• Follicle count: 8 between 11 to 13 mm (several between 5 to 10 mm)
• E2: 900
• Follistim: Reduced to 150 IU (from 225 IU)
• Lupron: 10 units
• Uterus lining: Type 3, 8 mm
• Next appointment: Monday, July 20, 2009
  

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2nd b/w and u/s (July 16, 2009 - after 3 days of stim).

• Follicle count: 20-30 follicles in each ovary... all less than 10 mm
• E2: 500
• Follistim: Reduced to 225 IU (from 300 IU)
• Lupron: 10 units (stays same)
• Uterus lining: Type 2, 5 mm
• Next appointment: Saturday, July 18, 2009
  

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1st b/w and u/s (July 13, 2009 – no stims).

• E2: 67
• Follistim: 300 IU
• Lupron: 10 units