dIUI: Trigger!

Got the green light to trigger tonight at 10:00 p.m. - Dr. W wants me to do a reduced dose of HCG - 1/3 of the 10,000 IU vial.

IUI will take place at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday!

Yippee-kay-yay!

 

(yes, that's Trigger*)

* Sorry for recycling this joke, but it makes me laugh every time.

Day 11: Trigger! (updated)

Scan went really well today. I was convinced I hadn't progressed much since Tuesday, but all 22 follies (Yippee!) had in fact grown. The biggest were all measuring 18 mm, which Dr. Z said was his sign to "go for it." Lining is a nice 9 mm. I'm waiting for my call-back with my E2 levels and a report on Mr. Jem's SA (yes, he "gave" again today, in search of live, motile sperm!).

So, yup. It's Trigger Day! At 9:00 p.m. exactly I'll be doing my HCG shot to trigger ovulation in exactly 36 hours after the shot. Egg Retrieval will be Sunday morning at exactly 9:00 a.m. 

I'm the only ER that morning. My Natural Killer cells are still elevated, so they'll just change out my IV drugs for Intralipids after ER.

I'm so excited about this cycle and ER. I'm glad it's on Sunday so I'll have all day Monday to relax and recover, too. I might work from home on Tuesday. We'll see how I feel.

Speaking of work, I better get back to it. I have a deadline today that I have to meet. My mother is in town, from the Pacific Northwest (where I went to High School) and is staying with my aunt. I want to be available to see them. They might come visit here tonight or tomorrow.

Okay, folks, we're really doing this! Hi-ho, Trigger, Away! (I couldn't resist).

~Jem

Update: E2 = 4,743 "good rise" considering I've been taking 4 mg of Estr.ace daily and have 22 follicles producing away. I did tell the nurse who called me with the update that I was starting to feel uncomfortable. She's going to consult Dr. Z who may put me on water restriction. Maybe having pizza (gluten-free) with mushrooms and pepperoni for lunch wasn't a great idea)

Waiting

Today I'm working from home (really I am!), except for the hour I went to the local Star.bucks (I had fruit juice) so Mr. Jem could have some privacy to do "his thing" and then make a deposit at the clinic for tomorrow's ER. Yes, it's weird that he's doing this the day before ER, but we're just following doctor's orders. Mr. Jem performed like a trooper! 

Yesterday's monitoring results:

• Right Follicles: 17, 14, 15, 19, 19, 13, 18, 16,17, and 20 mm respectively
• Left Follicles:  10, 20, 13, 17, 11, 12, 14
• E2 = 2,937
• P = 1.56

Our sonographer was so confident that we would trigger that night that she pledged, "If you don't trigger tonight, I'll eat my Dans.kos!" Luckily she didn't have to!

I feel very "full" and am glad to be home, working where I can be comfortable. I'm making a big pot of veggie soup, made with fresh veggies bought yesterday at the local farmers' market. Yum!

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary, so after trigger, and drying my eyes, we went to a local restaurant to "celebrate" our love (sans alcohol, bien sur!)! 7 happy years of marriage and things are only getting better!

Mr. Jem, I love you!

~Jem

Trigger Melt-down

I stood there, tears streaming down my face, vial of HCG in one hand and my phone in the other.

I was supposed to trigger at 6:30 p.m. and it was 6:34 and I was freaking out. Mr. Jem had been late picking me up at the train station - I stood there seething the whole time I waited, "He doesn't care about having a baby." (wrong - there was traffic). Now we were home and I was in a complete panic and having a melt-down.

"Sorry to call you after hours, Dr. On-Call." I sobbed into the phone, "This shot is different from last time. With Ovi.dril I knew what to do. This is pure HCG and the package says, "intermuscular only" and I don't know what to do". She calmly said, "Don't worry. You can shoot it into your tummy, no problem." Whew!

By 6:36 we had done the injection. No time to ice. But that's okay. It's not Meno.pur (evil) and doesn't sting.

I'm still a bit stressed, hate being all blamey with Mr. Jem. Isn't making a baby fun? (sarcasm)
So, we triggered. It's done. ER will be at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday. No shots tomorrow (yippee!) 

I don't have any more energy to type... going to crawl into a little ball and I don't know what. Or maybe I'll read other blogs to distract me...

~Jem

Trigger pushed back...

A nurse from my clinic just called. I'm not triggering tonight. Will go in for more monitoring in tomorrow morning.

Estradriol = 2,411
Progesterone = 0.980

I was feeling comfortable all weekend, but being back at my desk at work, sitting in my office chair all day, I'm suddenly very uncomfortable and can feel my abdomen and the swollen follies.

I'm a bit pissed disappointed not to be triggering tonight. I want to move forward with this already!!!!

More progress (updated) + June ICLW

Things are looking good:

• Right Ovary: 10 follies: 16, 11, 10, 12, 11, 15, 12, 10, 8, 12
• Left Ovary: 5 follies: 16, 8, 10, 14, 12
• Lining: 8.7 mm (over the 8mm mark! Yippee!)

Waiting for the phone call to tell me if we trigger tonight or tomorrow.

I have continued to eat pretty low carb, which has helped with the bloated feeling.

I'm very, very excited.

***

For you ICLW'ers - welcome to my blog!

Hi, I'm Jem, a (just) 40-year-old, eager to add to our family. We're smack in the middle of IVF #2, with ER scheduled for either this Wed or Thur. We are MFI, so even though it's Mr. Jem's swimmers that have ruled out us getting knocked up "naturally" I must have something to do with our lack of a viable pregnancy because our first fresh IVF ended in a chemical pregnancy and the second in an ectopic (or something).

Despite those two negative outcomes, we are very positive and full of hope for IVF #2. This cycle is WAY easier, as I know what to expect AND we have swimmers on ice so Mr. Jem won't have to have a testicular biopsy this time (he was a total trooper!!)
~Jem

Hi-ho, Trigger, Away!

As of 8:30 p.m. (Pacific) I am officially triggered, officially ovulating!

Yippy-kay-yay, mother-fraker!!!

In exactly 36 hours we'll be harvesting those eggs. BTW, here is my first sonogram of my right ovary!


Beautiful, isn't it? Look at those gorgeous follicles. A face only a mother could love.

***

I'm still feeling so many contradictory emotions, and it's not just due to the elevated estrogen! Right now I feel elated, hopeful. And then I think of Mr Jem's seaman (ha!) analysis tomorrow, and I'm full of dread. If it doesn't go well, he'll visit the urologist tomorrow afternoon to prep for surgery on Egg Retrieval on Thursday. If they don't find sperm, then we'll have to go with donor sperm. Mr. Jem was involved with the selection, but after looking at a bunch of profiles he said, "You pick, I can't take this anymore." This was when he was told that we had a 98% chance of getting sperm from a biopsy. We'll know for sure our chances tomorrow.

So many ups and downs in this process.