Boom!

Trigger shot done!  All shots in the box except for one menopur and 5 bravelle still leftover...DONE!  I wonder if I will see two lines at tomorrow's appointment!! :)

Trigger Tonight!

Hi all!  I've been busy napping most of the day today--yes, very productive day!  Well...we did take a walk too :)  Ha!  I had my last u/s appointment this morning.  Lining is at an 18... 19 follies measuring from 9-25 mm.  We're a go for trigger tonight at 9:30PM.  So excited to give myself my last shot!!  Yipee!!  9:30AM Monday morning is our scheduled retrieval.  Hubby will know if he has to do PESA again Sunday night/early Monday morning.  Excited and nervous.

All in all this experience has been nothing of what I anticipated.  In fact, I really came into it with no real expectations.  We're just going to do what the nurses tell us and know we're in good hands.  It has been good to get away from "real life" by being at a hotel.  I have come to accept that anything can and does happen in this process and so far I feel blessed that we have made it this far and jumped over a number of hurdles.  However, I know that we are far from the process being over and the scary part is still to come.  On to retrieval we go in the hopes that great fertilization reports and a good transfer are in the very new future! 

Have a sizzling Saturday!

Moving ahead quickly...

Went in for my u/s and blood work today.  E2 levels are at 2,214.  They counted somewhere between 20-26 follies today, didn't get numbers this time.  It was quite busy in the clinic this morning.  Lots of young couples--I think I counted 6 and that was just in the waiting room.  We literally showed up at our appointment today, checked in, sat down, and were called back within 30 seconds.  When does that ever happen?  We even felt like we were "cutting" in line this morning as the 6 waiting couples were all there longer than us.  One of my favorite nurses brings us back to the u/s/Mr. Wando room.  I get all set up, put on my socks (thanks Mac and PC for your wonderful suggestions on what to bring on your visits) and get "probed." The nurse goes about measuring the follies and talking to us.  Then she says she has a present for us.  Wow!  After all the follies are counted and I'm clothed again, she brings out the cutest little jean purse filled with all kinds of treats.  The cutest thing is she made cookies too--they are soooo cute! Two babies--one in a pink onsie, the other in a blue onsie.  I will have to take a picture.  She said we have to eat them after transfer because they have brought lots of good luck to others!  She told us she drove over to our hotel last night to give us this, but brought the wrong thing and since she is the out of town liaison and we are staying at the hotel for awhile--she wanted to give us a welcome package.  So sweet!!  Of course, we had to keep it incognito because the other 6 couples in the waiting area didn't get one...oh great, we cut in line and we got treats and they didn't.....uh ohhh!!  we may have a mutiny on our hands people!! Can you just see the angry stares!!  Oh my!! :) 

So we get back to the hotel and long behold guess who else is driving up the driveway?!  yep, it's FED-X...yippee, more meds are here!  We go up to the front desk and find out that this is their second time here this morning...ours came at 9AM (it's now after 10AM)...whoopee!!  Grab our package and get upstairs to inject more stims.  Fast forward to 1:30PM...I get a call from my wonderful IVF coordinator. She asks, "Have you taken your stims today?"...Yes, I took them at 10:30..."Okay, great.  Tomorrow, only take your Lupron and nothing else!"...okay, should I bring the other meds? "Nope, we'll do one last u/s and give you a time to trigger tomorrow night."  Cue me realizing that I will be in surgery Monday morning.  Dawning hits and we end the call.  It all goes down tomorrow!  We have a full box of Bravelle left that most likely won't be used (probably should really give it back to the clinic since we 'stole' their gonal-f the other day) and one more menopur.

I'm ready to get these follies out and hope there are lots of eggies retrieved!  Let's get this show on the road!  I'm ready!! :)

Happy Friday! 

Numbers

Feeling good after my appointment today!  My u/s sound went well. My lining is at an 11.6. My right ovary has 8 follies (17.0, 16.4, 14.7, 14.5, 13.9, 12.9, 10.8 and 7.8 ) my left ovary has 9 follies (16.9, 13.0, 12.8, 12.2. 11.7, 9.5, 8.6, 7.6, and 5.4). I am to continue on the same dose through Saturday most likely. I go in for another u/s and blood work tomorrow to see how everything is looking. I may trigger tomorrow night if the little ones grow more for a Sunday morning retrieval, but most likely I will do meds on Saturday and trigger Saturday night for a Monday morning retrieval. I can definitely feel the eggies today!!!


Need to think about getting some work done today--still have one summer class I am working on and I probably should get that done before retrieval.  It's so nice to be at the hotel and rest and relax through this process!  I'm all caught up on So You Th.ink You Ca.n Danc.e, Ame.rica's Got Tale.nt, Mas.terChef, and Pre.tty Littl.e Lia.rs but I think I need to watch the first episode of B.ig Br.oth.er before doing work...now, that sounds like a plan!! 


Happy Thursday all!

In the Nick of Time!

In the nick of time!  We got the rest of my meds....as I've said before, they upped my dosage to 5:1 from 3:1 on baseline u/s day b/c I had only 8 follies and they wanted to see 2 more.  Not sure where those other two were hiding but they sure created a bit of commotion these last few days.  So...you already read our saga from a few days ago.  Well, I'm happy to say since my last post, if there was an award for getting every last drop of solution back into the syringe, my hubby would have surely been in the running!  .85-.96 mL after 6 re constitutions ain't too shabby!  However...due to the change in meds we needed more.  Of course, we have to need them on a holiday weekend but thankfully we have enough to get through Tuesday...yes, Tuesday...Wednesday (today) we're down 2 vials of bravelle.  I called the pharmacy yesterday with our order for 10 more bravelle and 2 more menopur (from our mess-ups the other day) who ships overnight...we should have them by today at noon.  I can take them at noon, no worries (I emailed my wonderful IVF coordinator...she said no problem).  However, it's 12:10PM right now and still no meds have arrived.  The cleaning lady has already come through and made the room sparkly again...I call down at the front desk..."Are you sure?" no meds have arrived yet...it's time to get everything ready.  1mL of NaCl solution....1 75IU of menopur...1 75 IU of bravelle....the phone rings (hey, I didn't know we have two phones in the room...), it's the front desk, "Fed-X has arrived and dropped off a package for you"...nice timing, we'll be right down...I hold on to the syringe while hubby goes down to retrieve the precious package...He takes out the last 2 bravelle....2...3...4...5..bravelle..inject .9mL into tummy..Success!  What timing! 

Later I get the benefit of a sick tummy and a bit of nausea from the injection plus my bloated, follicle stimulated ovary balloons...it's all good.  Thank you meds I know you're working in there!  On to tomorrow with wando--I can't wait to see what's all going on in there even though I know it's going to hurt :(  Hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday!

Our Morning

We woke up late this morning--9AM.  We go through the daily ritual of putting the meds together.  I walk down to the ice machine with my bucket and get some ice.  I proceed to get the lupron out of the mini fridge while hubby takes care of getting the 5 bravelle plus 1 menopur along with syringes, alcohol wipes, gauze, q-caps, etc.  It's day 4...we're pros at this right?!  I take off the tops as hubby puts together the q-cap and syringe...is it on tight enough???  He measures out the 1 mL of NaCl solution and injects it into the menopur.  I sit back and wait...I hear, OH NO!!  I ask, what happened??  I see that he has the NaCl solution on the syringe.  That's not right!!  What happened...oh no!  You injected it back into the solution???!!!  CRAP!!  There goes another $55.00 down the drain!!!!

We start over.  I put everything in order on the table...menopur first...5 bravelles all lined up.  Hubby replaces the q-cap, gets another NaCl solution (throws out the first one with un-usable menopur) and we begin again.  NaCl solution measured...I put it off to the side....Menopur reconstituted...ummm...it seems like it leaking a bit....unconcerned...1st bravelle reconstituted...loses a couple more drops...it's still over 1/2 mL..we're okay...2nd bravelle...better...3rd...leaks!!...4th bravelle...there is less than 1/2 mL there...cue kinda freaking out....5 bravelle...ummm...there's not enough liquid to reconstitute the powder!  Cue breakdown!!!  What are we going to do???  Another $400.00 of meds messed up!!!

Find the after hour number to the clinic in a hurry....leave message with message service lady...nurse calls us within 5 minutes....tells us to come in at 11AM...gather up meds...quickly do Lupron injection before we go (it's amazing we ever freaked out about this injection)...quickly take a shower, run over to the clinic.  The nurse says, "I am going to be your fairy godmother today"...she was!!  She gave me my injection for the menopur and gave me 5 amps of Gonal-F (Can you say Life-saver!!).  Shows us again how to properly twist the q-cap onto the syringe and how easy it is to use...we laugh after everything was so tense just moments ago. Cue sigh of relief!  All we need to get are 2-3 more vials of menopur--we may need more depending on how long I'm on it this week anyway.  We already have an order out for more bravelle because they increased my dosage on the first day--we can handle this--everything will be okay!  Whew! 

Lessons learned--first--do not hurry with these injections.  Second, have everything laid out so that we don't make mistakes and third--make sure the q-cap is screwed on tight!!  It was a rough morning but hopefully we haven't messed up things too bad!!  Ugh!  So happy at least we're close and the nurse helped us. 

We came home and practiced with the q-caps, a vial of NaCl solution (we have tons of extras) and with the long reconstitution needles...feeling more confident.  The saga continues tomorrow!  We're hoping for success!!  *I share this because 1)this is my blog and what's currently going on over here, 2)to hopefully help someone from making this mistake if you are reading this and having to do the reconstitution thing as well and 3)hopefully share a laugh afterwards as we move through this crazy, nutty journey!!

Other than that...really nothing new to report.  The bravelle seemed to give me the worst headaches but today's gonal-f doesn't seem to be bothering me at all.  It will be interesting to see if the headache comes back tomorrow or if it was just a fluke.  Boise is hot!!  We've been staying inside mostly during the day and going out at night.  So far I haven't felt too much from the meds just pinches every now and again and if I try to suck in my tummy.  I can still comfortably wear my jeans but maybe only for a few more days.  I think we're going to try and go to the park down the street tomorrow and watch the fireworks...it should be a nice evening to go out!  Hope everyone has a Happy 4th of July!!