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

Right on track

Dr. W just called. This cycle is going great and I'm responding wonderfully to the stims.

Here are the results of my second monitoring appointment this morning:
Right ovary: 10 follicles; sizes: 7-14
Left ovary: 5 follies (plus a couple more small ones); sizes: 7-13

E2=989

I'm to start the Gona.relix tonight. Fun! Gotta give those smaller follies time to catch up with the big ones. Dr. W. said my ER will be either next Wed or Thur. He's 50/50 on which it will be. Next monitoring on Saturday.

My optimism continues. Looking forward to my parents' visit today.

I'm also super busy at work and really enjoying it. I met with the hiring manager of that job I'm interested in. I think I will appy... but I LOVE my current job in training - much more "sexy" than this new job in Marketing... or maybe I'm just very comfortable in my current role.

Jem

1st Monitoring appt.

After 4 days of stims - 225 IU of Folli.stim + 75 IU of Meno.pur (evil) - had my first monitoring appointment. Lining is still thin (3.81 mm), but that's to be expected as I just stopped bleeding and it's early on.

Follie count: 17!

• Left side: 7, ranging from 6 to 8 mm
• Right side: 10 from 5-12 mm

Had blood drawn, too, but won't know my e2 count until they call me in the afternoon.

I've been going to acupuncture twice a week - Monday and Thursdays. Last night I also had an abdominal massage, which was pretty intense. They want to make sure I'm getting as much blood circulating into my lady-parts as possible.

My spirits are really good. I've decided to "just relax" with this cycle and see what happens. Last time I actually stressed myself out trying to actively relax - I had the guided meditation CD that I listened to. I would do body scans, yoga, visualization, etc, etc. It got to be TOO MUCH! This time I know what's going to happen medically (although I was surprised about how much the Men.o.pur (evil) stung the first time). I'm taking the "chill" approach. We'll see how long that lasts!!

My next monitoring is on Thursday. Egg Retrieval is still tentatively scheduled for Wed the 23rd. (So soon!).

Jem.

Trigger day (I think)

I had my last u/s this morning - sans Mr. Jem - and the lady said I look ready to trigger.

Ovary report:
Right: 16 follicles ranging from 12 to 21 mm
Left: 14 follicles from 11 to 24 (!) mm

I'm very, very full and feel ready to pop!

My E2 was 3887 yesterday, so I cry at the littlest thing.

Waiting for a call from my IVF coordinator to give us the official go-ahead to trigger tonight. If it's a go, then we'll do retrieval on Thursday.

****

On Mr. Jem's side, he's schedule to give a sample tomorrow, our last chance to get a dozen or so decent (not good, just alive!!) sperm the "fun" way.

Plan B is to to have a urologist lined up to go in surgically to get sperm on the day of retrieval.

Plan C (Z, really) is using the donor sperm we ordered yesterday. Wow, it was surreal to be going online and checking out donor profiles. Close to $900 (gasp!) and 24 hours later we have our very own vial of donor sperm waiting for us at the clinic. I hope we don't have to use them.

Last night Mr. Jem and I both had acupuncture. Dr. Needles didn't hold back with Mr. Jem's treatment. The funny thing was that Dr. Needles put needles on Mr. Jem's nostrils. According to Chinese medicine the nose represents the pe.nis and the nostrils are the scro.tum. I kid you not. I couldn't make that up.

Mr. Jem is a total trooper!

All hinges on tomorrow's donation. Please send your positive thoughts our way. We need any help we can get!

Anyone else been in this 11th hour situation? Waiting for sperm?

Giggles on the u/s table

Giggles? More like uncontrollable laughter. Today's U/S was a comedy of errors.

Mr. Jem came to today's appointment. After having my blood drawn, we were sitting in the waiting room. The door opens and a woman I've never seen before calls, "Jem?"

Mr. Jem and I stand up and follow her into the u/s room. She leaves and I get undressed from the waist down, as instructed. I'm in position when she comes back into the room and I'm explaining to Mr. Jem that my follicles should be pretty big.

She looks puzzled and says, "The follicles should be small. Let's have a look." She inserts the dildo-cam.

I look even more puzzled. "Uh, no. This is day 8 of stims for us."

Her reply, "Your chart says this is is your baseline."

Me: "Nope. Not at all."

Her: "Hmm. Something's wrong. You're 'Jen' right?"

Me: "Nope. Jem" (Jem is not my real name and she had said a name that is one letter off from my mine)

Her: "Oh, that explains it. Your names sound similar. I did call Jen. Let me go get your chart."

Mr. Jem then offered to go get our chart, but she said no, she had to go. She then turned to Mr. Jem. "Can you hold this?" referring to the dildo-cam. The instrument still inserted into my va-JJ.

So there I was on the table, with Mr. Jem standing between my legs, holding on to the non-business end of the vaginal sonogram.

Then he starts with the jokes.

"Speak into the microphone." and "Who's your daddy?"

I start laughing uncontrollably. The ultrasonographer come back in and I'm laughing, howling with tears streaming. The u/s has unlocked itself so it looks like Mr. Jem is scanning me and the images is jumping up and down as I'm laughing so hard.

The tech takes the u/s wand back just as another nurse pokes her head in the room to double check the chart mix up. "It sounds like you are having way too much fun in here," she comments.

The rest of the visit was uneventful. My 20 follies are growing perfectly. Getting nice and big, all above 10 mm, and most of them around 12-14 mm. Next u/s scheduled for tomorrow. I'll post E2 and Progesterone numbers later...

As you can tell, Mr. Jem and I have processed the suckitude of the news from yesterday. We still don't like it, but we are dealing. And laughing together. That's what I love about him.

Good measurements...

Went for u/s this morning... here are my newest stats:

Right ovary: 11 follicles: 6-14 mm, majority around 11 mm.
Left ovary: 8 follies: 8-14 mm

Estradriol: up to 1,490

Adding Ganirelix at 10:00 p.m. tonight. Fun!

Jem