Thank You, and a little humor...

I just wanted to thank everyone for their kind words. You really have no idea how much better it makes me feel to hear all of your comments. I woke up today feeling a cold coming on so lets hope and pray that it goes away. Lastly, a little humor, someone found my blog by searching "amiture n*ude pictures." Ha ha! I must be missing something, when did I dicuss this topic? There was also another search "Why did Baby V take N*ude photos?" WHAT! I'm actually getting a little concerned that people are finding my blog by searching these things and even more concerned that someone would search something like this. Ewwww!

CD 7 b/w & u/s

We arrived at the clinic today at 7:10 for our 7:15 appointment with the fanny cam. I got my bloodwork done and then we were sent into exam room one to wait. Well, the sonographer called and said she was going to be late so finally at 7:45 my doctor comes in himself to do the u/s. He had a terrible time finding my left ovary (they always do as I was told during my HSG that my left ovary is very high) and it was extremely painful. I was ready to come up off the table a few times. Anyway, here is the breakdown:

• Lining: I have no idea, he said it was "coming along nicely" (I will get the actual number when they call with my b/w results.
• Right: 20 follicles less than 10
• Left: 15 follicles less than 10

So, nothing going on quite yet. I couldn't get a good read on my doc to see whether this is normal or not. I did ask him if it was normal that nothing was happening quite yet and he said yes. He also said that he put me on a very low dose of the medication (I am assuming because of my PCOS) and that things may take a little longer to get started. My nurse will call sometime in the afternoon with my b/w results and the dosage for the Follistim. I think that my RE will keep the dosage the same but who knows. I go back for more b/w & u/s on Thursday which will be CD 9. I really wish I knew what to expect and what is normal development. The bad news is that I have a huge bruse on my right arm from my CD 3 b/w and now I have a huge painful bruise forming on my left arm from today's b/w so I have no idea where she is going to take blood from on Thursday. I don't know what to think because I have nothing to compare this cycle to because I have never done injectables. Part of me is worried that this will be like every other cycle I have had with the Clomid & Femara where my body does absolutely NOTHING! Part of me is happy that there wasn't huge cysts everywhere. The only thing that worries me is that all the follies we did see where mostly the same size. What if they all grow at the same rate? DH said that he saw three follies that were a bit larger on the right but I didn't really see a diference. The doctor really didn't measure any of them because he said they only start measuring once they get to a certain size. If anyone has any experience with this and can tell me if all of this is normal for a CD 7 scan I would appreciate it. I am assuming we will be able to tell more from my b/w to see if the E2 is rising like it should. Well, I guess that is about it, my left arm hurts so bad where they took the blood that it is painful to bend my arm. Oh joy! I will update later when I get my b/w results.

****Edited to Add****
The nurse called back with my bloodwork and treatment plan:

Lining: 6.2
E2: 137 (was 105 on CD3)

So I will continue to do the 75 iu of Follistim and go back on Thursday for another u/s and b/w. I did ask her whether it was normal that no dominant follies were developing yet but it wasn't my usual nurse so she didn't seem too sure.

CD 6

Yes, I know, not a very creative title. Well, we arrived at Shady Grove's Annapolis office at 7 a.m. on Saturday. My regular nurse from the Columbia office was there and immediately came out to get me. She told us she was so sorry that they made us drive out there just to sign a paper and that if it was her that called she would have just waited until we came in to our next appointment. So, we signed the paper and she gave us our dosage information. 75 iu of Follistim and I will go in on Tuesday morning for an u/s and b/w. She said that pushing things back one day wont make a difference at all. We did our first shot on Saturday night at 6 p.m. I wasn't bad, the worst part was trying to get myself to stick the needle in but once I got it in it was fine. I really haven't felt anything while giving the shots, no stinging no discomfort, nothing. And I haven't bruised or anything. You can't even see where I did the shots. Last night, after my second Follistim injection, around 9 p.m my left ovary started to hurt. It hurt all night until I fell asleep. It doesn't hurt today so I am not sure what that is about but it was definitly uncomfortable last night. I wonder if it is normal to feel some discomfort after only my second shot? Anyway, we do one more shot tonight and then go in for b/w & u/s tomorrow morning. Hopefully we will be able t osee that something is going on. Thanks for all the wonderful comments. It really helps to know that I have people who understand. Keep the comments coming, they really mean a lot!

ARGH!!

So, my RE's office called. They forgot to have me sign the Consent for IUI while I was there this morning. She told me that she cannot disclose my dosage amount until they witness both my husband and myself together signing the form. She asked if I could get there before 4:30 to sign it and I said no, we are both at work. So, she told me we will have to come to their other office which is 1/2 hour from my house at 7:00 a.m. so someone can witness us signing the document. So, now I wont be starting the Follistim until tomorrow night, assuming they didn't forget something else. It's only one day, but still!

CD 3 U/S & B/W

I just got back from my CD3 u/s and b/w. They had a little trouble finding a vein this time and the result is a painful purple bump on my arm! Ouch! The u/s went fine, my lining is still at 9 which means there is still more af left to be had. (blah) Both ovaires are quiet, no cysts (other than the usual pcos stuff.) I guess they don't count antral follicles because they always just put the same number (I think 10 or something like that.) Then we had a consultation to show us how to use the Follistim Pen. The consult was really rushed so good thing I read up on it and kind of already know how to use it. It scared me when she said if you dial past your dose and the dial the wrong way to correct it you could lose all of your medication. She also gave us a dvd which we will watch tonight before attempting the shot. My nurse will call with my exact dose after my RE looks at my b/w results. Then I go back on Monday for u/s and b/w. I guess that sounds about right, do the shots for three days and go back in to see if anything is happening. I wonder if I can expect to see anything happening that early? Anyone know?

***warning, totally TMI comment ahead***

Okay, you have been warned. Does anyone else think it is gross when you get your day 3 u/s and then get up from the table? I mean really, do I really want to leave my business on the table for someone to clean up? I am always so tempted to pull the paper off. ewww

***end of TMI comment***

Well, thats about it for now. I will update with my dosage when I get the call from my nurse.

CD1

Wooohoooo! AF finally arrived at exactly 8 p.m. last night. That would make today CD1, right? Since if you get AF later than 6pm CD1 is the next day? Hmmm, I will ask when I call me RE and set up my day 3 u/s and b/w. I talked to my nurse yesterday, she said everything is set for me to start this cycle and she doesn't know why the other lady used the word "probably." I was definitely relieved. So, if today is in fact CD1, which I believe it is, then CD3 will be on Friday. So we will start the stims Friday night. We have to go to the pharmacy tonight and pick up the Follistim cartridges (which supposedly come with needles?) and the RE's office will give us the Follistim pen on Friday. AF is definitely here with a vengeance! She must be mad because I have been talking crap about her in an attempt to lure her out of her hiding place. Now she is making me pay for my smart remarks. The Prometrium gives me a different kind of AF than the Provera. I cant explain it except that I have different side effects this time. Usually I have pretty bad cramps a couple of days before AF arrives, this time not much. This time I had much more emotional side effects (ie. being a real b*tch.) Last night, after I discovered AF, I went to bed at 8pm and slept until 6 this morning. I woke up at 6 completely drenched in a cold sweat and was actually shivering. Really strange. ***I just called my RE, today would be CD1 and my appointment is scheduled for Friday at 7:15***

So the plan is: CD3 u/s & b/w on Friday. They will give me the Follistim Pen on Friday and show me how to use it. They will call me in the afternoon with my b/w results and tell me what the doctor has decided my initial dose of Follistim will be. I guess he waits to see the blood work results. She didn't tell me when I will come back for my second scan. Does anyone know how soon they bring you back in after your initial injection?

A couple of questions for those of you that have done this before:

1. I want to pay much more attention to particulars this time (ie. follicle size and blood levels.) Did you just take notes while your doctor was doing the ultrasound? How did you get all the specific information like the exact amount of follicles, their sizes, and E2 levels? I don't remember them telling me anything specific about blood results other than it looks good. Is there a place I can look online that tells me where my levels should be?

2. Is it beneficial to temp BBT while doing injectables? I haven't done BBT in 4 or 5 years, before I knew there was a problem, but for some reason I have the need to really know what is going on with my body this time and to keep track of symptoms. Do the medications affect your BBT? Would it still be accurate?

3. Is there any limits to what I should be doing physically once I get the IUI? I am doing a dinner theatre for church which involves some dancing and a lot of moving around. I am contemplating telling the director that I can't do the dances after I get my IUI. I just don't want to do anything to hurt my chances after we spent all of this money.

Well, I guess that's it for now. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to comment on my blog and to those of you that just lurk (I know you are there) come out and say hello! Sorry I am so full of questions but remember, we haven't done any type of treatments for about 2 years so it's like starting all over again.

Last but not least, please stop by Cece's blog and give her some love, she is going through a hard time.

CD52

Yup, you read it right. Still waiting for the old witch! But, my last Prometrium was on Friday night and I have been having some brown discharge (TMI-sorry) last night and this morning so hopefully AF will be here either today or tomorrow. This will put my day 3 u/s on Wednesday or Thursday. A co-worker who knows about our IF came in this morning to my office and asked "did AF show up yet?" I couldn't help but giggle! She is even getting the terminology down. I am always the pessimist. I am still trying to figure out what could go wrong to keep us from starting this cycle. When I was talking to the nurse at my RE's office going over our plan (this was a couple of weeks ago) she said something about not starting stims this cycle. I asked why on earth would I be bringing on AF then if we weren't going to do anything this cycle. She pulled up my chart and said that she saw we already had all of our pre-treatment tests (Day 3 b/w, etc.) completed so we probably would start. Now, as I get closer to having AF and getting started it worries me that she said "probably." I can't imagine why else I would bringing AF on if we weren't going to start this cycle. I already brought AF on once just to do day 3 b/w. It isn't like this is the first time I have ever gotten any kind of IF treatment. I have done tons of cycles with this RE's office. Just some of my irrational fears, but somehow the always seem to be right. For instance, i spoke to my pharmacy on Wednesday and they said they were ordering my Follistim and it should be there on Thursday. So I just had a feeling that they didn't do it (they are a Kaiser pharmacy) so I called Thursday morning to make sure. Sure enough, the girl that answered the phone said she didn't order it because she had never ordered Follistim before. Huh? So, she simply decided not to order it because she had "never ordered it before?" So, she told me she was putting the order in right that second and that it would be there by Friday afternoon. We couldn't pick it up on Friday so we went to pick it up Saturday morning. As we were walking in I told DH that I bet that it wont be there. Sure enough, the Ovidril (sp?) was there but the Follistim was not. I asked the lady when it was ordered and she said Friday afternoon. So, obviously when I was speaking to the girl on the phone she lied to me when she told me she was ordering it "right that second." So I picked up my other meds. They were keeping the Ovadril in the bin with the other medications as opposed to the fridge even though it says on the box that it is supposed to be refridgerated. The label says it was filled on Thursday so basically it was not kept cold for two days? I have no idea if this will affect the medication but I just put a call in to my nurse to make sure. I can't believe how much I hate Kaiser. I never read that people have so much trouble with their insurance! My husband works for Kaiser so I feel that I have the right to complain. To top it all off, when we left the "confused pharmacist" gave me the credit card slip I signed instead of my copy. And when I aksed her "don't you need this copy?" she gave me a dirty look! All of this is really making me nervous about having prenatal care through Kaiser. What if they mess up on something? They don't seem to be concerned about anything, what if they are like that when I'm pregnant? When my DH broke his ankle and was taken to the emergency room they told him the bone in his ankle was shattered and that he needed surgery asap! They wanted to do the surgery there but called Kaiser and Kaiser said no, that they would find their own surgeon. So we took DH home and I called Kaiser as soon as I got him settled. The girl on the phone asked me why I didn't call them immediately why DH broke his ankle and that I need to call that sort of thing in right away. I told her I was sorry that it was the last thing on my mind as he was laying in the middle of a baseball field waiting for an ambulance. All in all, we ended up waiting 4 days just to get him in to see the orthopaedist that Kaiser insisted he see and then he had to wait two weeks for his surgery. Can you imagine sitting there for over two weeks with the bones in your leg completely shattered? So, this is the reason I have little to no faith in Kaiser coupled with the fact that my husband works for them and I see how they treat their employees. Anyway...sorry to go off an a tangent there.

In non-IF related news. I had a really busy weekend. It was one of those weekeneds that makes you feel like you didn't get any rest at all. I got my hair cut on Friday. I love my salon because they have the massage chairs that you get to sit in while you get your hair shampooed. But it is very pricey! I spent $80 on a haircut, shampoo, and conditioner! But, it was worth it, I love my haircut and I love the shampoo and conditioner. I never thought using the professional stuff would make a difference but it really does! I got a significant amount of hair cut off. My hair was donw to my mid-back and is now up to my shoulders. It is much easier to maintain though.

Then on Saturday I had a Longaberger open house. We did a joint open house with a pampered chef consultant and some other various consultants. I didn’t do great, I only go three orders but I also got a couple from church so not too bad. In case you are interested you can check out my site here. In case anyone is interested, this is the way I fund a lot of our IF treatments so if anyone is looking for an additional way to raise some money this is a good one.

On Sunday we skipped church (there could be a whole other blog about our church’s issues) and went to choir practice afterwards. We are doing a dinner theatre to raise money and have been practicing from 12 to 4 every Sunday. Then we had a Sunday school play at church that we attended (only because there were some people there that I wanted to hit up for Longaberger orders..lol.) We got home just in time to watch the Ravens get their butts kicked…again!

That’s about it for me. I am awaiting a call from my nurse from the RE’s office to put some of my irrational fears to rest.