Saturday, March 31, 2007

Moo

Boy that triple dose of Repronex is bloating me up tonight. I feel like AF is on her way I am so full and same pre-AF cramps too.

Trigger shot is done so now we just wait....oh and it didn't hurt at all.

OMG it's trigger time!

So off we go to Victoria this morning to get my bloodwork and ultrasound. We ended up getting there wayyyyy too early. Gosh we never can tell with that drive. Sat outside the Metro lab and slowly we see other cars driving up. Actually there was one dude there before us. When he opened his car door it was a free for all to line up. Randy jumped out to line up for me so we were second in line. By the time they opened the doors I swear there were 20+ people out there. Craziness! I walked in and my heart sunk - all these girls look like they are 13 yrs old - this is going to hurt. She first tried my left and then my right, then my right forearm and finally I am getting antsy and told her to just take it from my hand. Which she did. Yes it hurt, a lot.

Well once that unpleasantness was done we set off for VFC. They are closed Saturdays but still do ER and ET and of course my ultrasound LOL. Tami was there as was doctor Hudson, both in great moods. I have couple dominant follicles so we are triggering tonight. My Dr gave me 3 Repronex while we were there (225 dose) and said that he doesn't want those 3 bigger follies to get too big so rather than wait for the little guys to catch up, we are triggering tonight at 945!! (Was supposed to be 9 but they bumped me as they need to do a different procedure before us on Monday)

I have 11 follicles now. (R-19, 18, 14, 14, 14, 10 L-19, 15, 15, 12, 9). So those don't exactly match my Thursday scan but whatever, too tired to worry right now. The nurse said it's all relative to the plane that the ultrasound views each follie. Hoping that at the very least, 8 of those will be mature and not over cooked by Monday. My E2 was 9702 (2643 us).

So here we go...I can't believe we trigger tonight with Monday being our big day!

Thursday, March 29, 2007

U/S and B/W

I have 9 follies now which is one more than on Monday. Yay ovaries!

L=14, 15, 15, 14 (one extra in there)
R=14, 13, 10, 10, 10

He really wants those 10's to catch up - they were 7 on Monday. I asked are they growing at a normal rate (as I expected + 2 growth per day) and he said YES, absolutely. Randy is always good for asking questions that I won't ask and said sooo how are we really doing here and he said excellent, I am responding way better than he expected. It was kind of cool, we barely made it on time (traffic) and they were running behind (thank goodness) and I heard my doctor come out and say, time to do that transfer now to one of the nurses. You know, I just felt all that hope and excitement in the air. My doctor was in a great mood too and seems quite happy with my progress so I walked out of there with a big smile today.

We have to go back early Saturday (ugh leaving here at 6am) for more b/w and another u/s and he thinks we will trigger Saturday night. Fingers crossed for those 3 follies sitting @ 10. If they don't really pick up, they will be immature after ER.

Edited to add my E2 numbers were 5393 (1469us).

On our way back home we bought Jesse her first 2 wheel bike. It's adorable! She was so excited that she forgot to be upset when she left Auntie Michele's house. It was a nice treat for Randy and I - so stressful when she gets that upset every time we have to pick her up. On the other hand I am so happy that she has family to love and be loved by. She adores K&M so much .

Monday, March 26, 2007

VFC today!

So off to Victoria this morning for our first follow-up since starting stims. I did bloodwork first in Nanaimo and then we drove Jess to Michele's and then back home to quickly change and then fly out the door. These drives are monotonous!

Dr H. is back - he was away in Calgary and Toronto I think he said. He seemed to be in a great mood. I had 8 follies...3 on the left (13, 10, 9) and 5 on the right (10, 10, 7, 7, 7). So that is much better than the 4 or 5 I had been told in January. Got my E2 numbers back this afternoon and they were 3339 which is the same as 909 in US measurements.

Doctor H said that I am progressing nicely and exactly how he would have thought on the high dosages of meds that I'm on. The first thing he checked was my lining which was (in his words) "excellent" and 13mm. Randy said he was freaked for a moment as he couldn't see any 'grapes' LOL. Then he realized we weren't up there yet and breathed a big sigh of relief. I laughed - I gave him a pen to write my measurements down and rather than write in my book he wrote on his hand LOL. Anyhow, I digress... I do have the one dominant follie @ 13 - hopefully the rest all continue to grow and mature and maybe a few of the smaller ones might pop up, we shall see (they weren't mentioned but we could see them).

I go back in for b/w and another u/s on Thursday so I think by then I will know when my retrieval is. I am thinking Saturday or Sunday but truthfully I have no idea. I am still feeling really good though. These injects are good for me. I am having flushes of red hot cheeks here and there and I definitely don't deal with any stress appropriately but other than that, I feel darn good and clear-headed.

Friday, March 23, 2007

E2 - wooooooooooooo

Okay all that worry for nuttin! My E2 levels came in at 602 and I looked it up - anything over 100 is good at this point. They said stay on my same dosages and come in on Monday for an ultrasound and more bloodwork before I leave in the morning.

I was just about to go into a meeting with Ken and Jeff regarding web design stuff and so I called Dale who literally *just* got the results. Tami called me back and gave me the good news so I could go into that meeting with a clear head. Thank you power that be - thank you ovaries for working over time to make Jesse a big sister!

Wooooooooo!

I am freaking out

Okay so all through this week I thought I was doing pretty good, what a breeze, nothing like Clomid (evil evil clomid). Then today came, the day of my first bloodwork. Got up and headed downtown to stand in LINE just to get my bloodwork. Yes, a line starts forming at 7:15am - mostly a bunch of grumpy, starving adults who can smell the Tim Hortons half a block away. The joys of fasting before a blood test. I parked out front so that I could wait until I saw people walking in from the other parking lot and then run out in front and be first in line. LOL They were not happy about that. Anyhow, bloodwork done and I grabbed an x-large double cream, double splenda and breaky for the family and headed home.

Okay, in case I haven't mentioned this, I have given up caffeine. Dr H says its bad therefore I cut back. At first I did our morning coffee 50/50. I didn't tell Randy, we loves his morning brew. Then he busted me a while back when he saw me putting the decaf in LOL. Whoops...oh well, it's not good for us, it's certainly not good for fertility and since my ovaries are currently worth about $15 grand I think we need to put a lot of clout into everything our RE says.

Okay so back to that x-large Timmy's coffee. I just didn't even think about getting decaf. So here my poor body hasn't had almost any caffeine in several weeks (down to 1tbsp in the morning pot) and I guzzled the whole thing down. Add to a caffeine buzz the stress of wondering how my first bloodtest is going to go and I am a freaking mess.

For an hour I thought damn, this is a long anxiety attack and then it just got worse and worse. Finally I realized what was happening and I tell you, this lasted like 4 hours. Now I am sick to my stomach and I just want to cry. I am so stressed that my stims aren't working. I have all these horribly negative thoughts in my head and I can't seem to snap out of it. Randy thinks I need to be locked up I'm sure. I probably should be, I feel like a raging loon today.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Yay - we have started stims

Yes indeed we are on our way! Randy gave me my first injects tonight along with a lower dose of Suprefact and away we go.

Hard to believe on January 31st I just thought I needed just a little extra 'help' and now here we are, at the epitome of medical intervention. Boy the stories we could tell this baby...

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Injection #1

Okay so I was so excited to do my first shot last night. I purposely didn't dwell on the act of injecting a needle into my body, just the excitement of moving ahead. We were good to go standing in the kitchen, swabbed a chunk of tummy and needle in hand.

Needle in hand...

Needle still in hand...

Needle still in hand....

Randy says okay, on the count of threee, 1, 2, 3.

Needle still in hand...

Bah, I couldn't do it. It's such a wee needle too but I just kept looking at the pale chunk of fat I was holding and couldn't do it. I had to hand the needle to Randy and he did it. I flinched so he half poked me and then had to do it again LOL. Then it was done. Easy as pie. I think he will end up doing them all but we shall see if I can bring myself to do it tonight or not.

I did wake up at 430 DRENCHED. OMG it was disgusting to say the least. I had to get up and get changed. Side effect of the Suprefact is hot flushes so I guess this process has offically begun. I think once we start the stims this stuff will settle down...I hope anyways.

Friday, March 16, 2007

Baby names

Randy and I were discussing baby names on the way to Victoria today. It was fun to really chat about why we like certain names and why we don't like other names. He was really into it as much as I was:)

We both like Jack and Max for a boy. One syllable and both are good for little boys and grown men (hate pussy names). I still like Christian but agree with him that Chris for a boy doesn't feel right. I have more name son the list...Jonah (which a friend had a baby who died that was Jonah so it doesn't feel right anymore), Cole, Joshua (Randy doesn't like), Maxwell (good middle name), Ethan and Aslan (still love this one).

Girl names...we both used to like Isabelle but meh, not so much anymore. I think we like it because we like Izzy, not Isabelle (but maybe Isabella). I love Sophie, Lauren and Olivia as does Randy. Elizabeth is nice too and we could have our Izzy from that if we wanted to. Alexandria, Grace, Gabrielle (Gabby but still makes me think poodle) and Regan (but Randy isn't in love with the name Regan). Lauren is cool as it would be nice to honor Randy's dad (Laurent/Lawrence). I am currently thinking twin girls - Olivia Michele and Sophie Kendra. I don't know - I am trying to incorporate K&M as they have done so much for us in this IVF process. It's hard to thank someone for something so huge so I think it would be a nice way to honor them:)

Actually the name Kendra is growing on me as a first name too. Not common but non uncommon.

Green light!

Well I got up this morning and got my e2 level bloodwork done at 730am. Who would have thought that there would be a line-up at a lab? Well I guess everyone was fasting and wanted to eat LOL. I was 5th in line so it still went pretty fast for me. Then back home with a quick stop at rotten ronnies for breakfast and then off to Victoria.

I got to meet Dr Spence - he was a very nice man. I screwed up thinking my bladder was TOO full so I peed just a little but ended up emptying my bladder completely. Dr Spence wasn't too worried about it but apparently my uterus is very tilted (the things you learn). Since I have had a baby he isn't worried about it but I am kicking myself as it would be nice to get all of this right the first time. My lining looks good 'perfect' is what he said actually. 2mm. My ovaries are sleeping with 3-4 follicles on each side. I would love for 10 eggs to mature - that would give us some breathing room. We shall see how the stims and me work. I know Dr. H thinks I will be a poor responder but I can only hope for the best.

Got my call from Dale at 430 - E2 levels are under 100 so that was the final stopping point before starting Suprefact tomorrow...woohoo!

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

I'm a mess

Oh boy, the hormone train has hit me today. Here I sit just wanting to bawl for no reason. Well I hate my business and getting up each and every day knowing I have to put time and energy into something I loathe so much isn't helping. I used to love it and now, hard to want to even turn on the computer. *sigh* I so wish I could just do web design and work at the clinic but that will never pay all of the bills and it certainly won't pay Ken and Michele back for the IVF treatments that they are helping us with. So I need to kick myself in the butt, get over it and get to work. At least I have the options to be able to work form home and most mother's don't have that privilege. See I am trying to talk myself into thinking positively LOL.

Lord, am I going to be like this ALL month????

Sunday, March 4, 2007

LIttle dancer

Gosh I am so proud of Miss Jessica. Tonight was her last parks & rec dance class (she's been going Friday's to the regular class as well). She is really doing good! We practice just a little each day - her choice, she really loves this. Well she did awesome. All the parents got to come in and sit on the floor to watch this last class and she was smiling and dancing and doing so good! I am totally impressed how far she's come in 5 weeks. She still needs some practice to catch up to the class that started in September BUT, she is doing really good considering they started 6 months prior to her.

After dance she got to go for a sleepover to auntie Michele's. Gosh she loves her so much. She must have asked us 50 times if she was still going today LOL. She adores her and looks up to her. Plus the fact that she gets 100% one on one attention helps too I would guess:) When we dropped her off, Caitlin, Kyle and Kevin also dropped by - great for her to get to spend time with Ken's kid's as she really doesn't know her cousins all that well. After about 15 minutes she looked at me and said "You can go now mom, I'm ready". ROFL. Alrighty then, I guess that's our cue.

Randy and I proceeded to break my diet and go to Kelsey's for quesadillas and calamari and then to SS for a few groceries. Came home, watched Heroes, talked about how much we missed Jess and fixed the little tiles in front of 2 of the bedrooms. Tomorrow we are off to Victoria for Randy's SFA and to get our IVF package. Progress!

Thursday, March 1, 2007

frowns

Yuck, am I ever pissy today. BCP I assume. While I was out doing chores today I was just pissy...I felt like I could bite someone's head off had anyone been around.

14 days on these seems like a very.long.time right now.