Monthly Archives: February 2014

Egg Retrieval…

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Woke up at 11pm on Tuesday for W to give me my trigger shot. I was so paranoid about not waking up that I set alarms on both of our phones and even had one of my night shift friends text me to make sure it got done! He gave it to me in my arm and he did great! Hardly felt it.

I’ve progressively gotten more and more bloated and sore, especially after the trigger. The more active I was, the worse it got. Still, nothing too bad. I do however feel like I look like this…

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I woke up this morning, the day of the egg retrieval, with some pretty good bloating and I was definitely the most sore I’ve been yet. We arrived at the office and were hurried to fill out the last bit of paperwork. I changed into my gown and they started an IV for fluids and access. They took me back, sedated me and before I knew it I was back in my recovery room. W said it took about 20 minutes.

Dr. S came by and said that things went great and they collected 12 eggs that were all mature.

I had a bit of nausea and got sick once after anesthesia but managed to eat something after I got home and I feel much better now. I was very crampy right after the retrieval but now as I’m resting, it’s not bad. They start to come back if I get up and move around but overall I feel pretty good!

The plan is to rest today and wait for the call tomorrow to see how many of the 12 eggs fertilized! Fingers crossed!

Welcome to Las Vegas!

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   We made it to Vegas last night for our two week IVF stay! We had a great dinner with family the night before we headed out. It was great to see everyone and we are so lucky to have such a great support system. Everything went incredibly smoothly and the dogs did great!  They even got a nice compliment from the flight attendants on how well behaved they were on the flight. (They are used to it, the little traveling fools.) The house we rented is perfect for us and the dogs have a little fenced in back yard to run around in. W’s mom and her husband drove up to visit us in Vegas and it’s been great to catch up with them. She brought an album of old pictures from W’s childhood. Seriously, how cute was he??

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   We had our first monitoring appointment this morning. They counted 25+ follicles, 15+ of which measured >1.5. (This means there’s a good chance that they contain an egg.) I was nervous about not having many to work with but it looks like if everything goes well, we should be just fine. There’s always a lot of hurdles to jump before the end result but you just have to go with the flow because there’s not much else you can do! Overall we had a great appointment. The staff and doctor were wonderful and he said I’m responding exactly like I should and we are on track to do one more night of stimulation medications tonight, trigger shot to mature the eggs tomorrow and then the egg retrieval on Thursday.

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I noticed last night that I looked pretty beat up and I thought that I should document it in case this works and I have an ungrateful teen 16 years from now! (kidding. sort of.)

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   We get to have an off day with no appointments tomorrow. I’ll update again when there’s something worth writing home about!

Will infuse for cupcakes..

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Results from the infamous unnecessary, necessary MRI are back. Normal! That means that they didn’t see anything (fibroids, etc.) in my uterus that could cause problems with the embryo implanting when we get to that point.
Today was my at home intralipids infusion day. IL is what they use to treat Natural Killer cells and this is what my nurse had to say about it..
“Natural Killer cells are a normal part of everyone’s immune system. They are what patrol our bodies trying to keep foreign things out of our bodies. Some people have Natural Killer cells that are a little more aggressive. In normal life, this is usually a good thing. Maybe they don’t get sick as often, or if a bad cold is going around it won’t hit them as hard. Natural Killers don’t realize there is a difference between embryos and germs though. They just see something is foreign and doesn’t belong and end up trying to keep the embryo from implanting inside the uterus. Dr. S has found that doing an Intralipids Infusion can help to calm these aggressive Natural Killer cells down to allow embryos a chance to implant inside the uterus. There would be an infusion prior to starting the monitoring process. After the embryo transfer if you are confirmed pregnant, there would be a second infusion done.”
Since I work in the medical field, they allowed me to do an at home infusion. Thankfully one of my wonderful friends agreed to swap cupcakes for helping me start an IV. Everything went well and the infusion lasted about 1.5 hours. The Stuffed French Toast cupcake was amazing. I have missed this particular cupcake shop!
W is back from Finland and we have plans to see family tomorrow before leaving for 2 weeks for our appointments. It’s really happening!!

To the lady who told me I needed a full bladder..

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Special blessings to you today. May you feel the need to pee all. night. long..
I had my unnecessary,necessary MRI today. The lady scheduling it told me to drink 32oz of water in the hour or so leading up to the MRI. “Huh”, I thought. Sounded strange for an MRI but I didn’t want to sound like an idiot so I didn’t question it. I arrive and the tech performing it asks if I need to use the bathroom. This is probably what my face looked like..

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I tell her what the lady said and she tells me that a full bladder isn’t required for an MRI. Tinkle I go.. Fast forward 40 minutes..

Tech over the speaker: “We are having trouble getting clear images. We need you to stay really still.”

Me: “I am still. I’m not moving. Ehh.. How much longer? I really, really have to go to the bathroom!”

Tech: “Oh! That’s probably it. It’s probably distorted from you clenching trying not to pee.”

I would assume my face looked like this as she pulled the table out for me to get up..

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Upon completion..
Tech over speaker: “Ok, we are done. Yeah, that must have been it because the images after that were clear.”

So after my 2 hour, never-ending, bladder filling, bladder emptying, bladder filling, bladder emptying, unnecessary, necessary MRI… Bless you scheduling lady. I have no other words.

In other news: Interview, check. MRI, check. Started my stims tonight! Sure hope those results are good!

So much for the relaxation…

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Does it always have to be two steps forward, one step back with this process? I had a good morning with good results from my baseline ultrasound and it looks like I should be all set to start my stims tomorrow! (Now that I have taken injections to tell my body to be quiet, these new injections will attempt to hyper-stimulate my ovaries to produce more ‘mature’ eggs than normal.

I had been dealing with a local fertility clinic and switched to another out-of-state clinic for IVF when I wasn’t pleased with the care we had been receiving. This clinic still performed my outside monitoring and did such recently. Or so I thought! My new clinic called me this afternoon and informed me that they still had not received some labs that I had drawn as well as the results of a fluid ultrasound. After lots of phone tag, I was finally able to reach someone at my old clinic who found out that the laboratory they use never ran the labs that were drawn and ordered! On top of that.. They did the WRONG ULTRASOUND! I needed this ultrasound done before my period started and now it’s too late.

New clinic nurse says that my RE does not feel comfortable proceeding to the point of embryo transfer without having the results of that ultrasound (the one that never got done and is too late to do now). {{Cue the profuse sweating, world is closing in. I think I’m going to be sick}} She tells me that we could proceed, freeze the embryos and then come back at another time for frozen transfer or that we could delay the cycle. {{Hyperventilating}} It’s not that easy when you’re flying to another state to do this, not to mention when your husband is traveling overseas on a weekly basis for work! Then she slipped in that another option is for me to have a pelvic MRI, or rather a pelvic $$$ to rule out anything that would interfere with embryo transfer/implantation. Of course I jump on that offer! Thank God insurance is going to pay 85% of it. Part Most of me feels like the clinic that messed it up should eat the cost! So now my list this weeks looks like : interview for new job, start stimulation meds, have labs redrawn, schedule and have MRI, pack for our 2 week IVF “vacation”, take the dogs to the vet, 2 more rounds of acupuncture, meet with 2 contractors so they can bid some work on the house, hire a painter to paint the interior, oh and finish unpacking my entire house- all with a husband in Finland who is returning home the day before we leave. So much for low stress and relaxation! Maybe it’s a hidden gift in that it will keep my mind occupied making sure I get everything done! Enough ranting. I shall remain positive. What else have you got? Bring it at me!!!!

**In other news, I may or may not have made a huge mistake by asking my wonderful friend to chop 6″ off of my hair! In hindsight, it was probably hormone induced but I haven’t cried. Yet. (Note to self: no more major decisions on hormones.)

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Baby Magic!

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Who couldn’t use some, right? Found this little gem today. Wishful thinking perhaps? I felt that my first day of meds wouldn’t be complete without a baby bum scented bathroom! (ha) I’m a NICU nurse so it smells a bit like a good day at work. That smell of course means that baby is doing well enough to have a bath! (Or that a nice nurse has smeared it on their blankets for aromatherapy!)
My intralipids arrived today. They were frozen. Guess I’ll have to call and make sure that’s not an issue!
Did your Lupron shots bruise you? I’ve done follistim (subcutaneous) in the past and had never had an issue with bruising. I had some redness and itching for about an hour and bruised on my first injection! I have a feeling I’m going to look rough by the end of this!

Pinch the fat.

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Image  It’s Lupron time! No, my meds did not arrive on time. I had to find a pharmacy in town that stocked Lupron. I found one near me and it was going to be $300 more than the original price that was quoted! Thank goodness for the few kind people left in this world. After trying a couple discount cards that I had found, the pharmacy tech pulled a card out of a stack of papers and said, “Let me try this one. That’s a lot of money to spend”. (Bless her heart. Isn’t it horrible that after paying for *the cycle* we blow off a $470 med?) Well, it worked! I actually ended up getting it for $30 CHEAPER than the original price. It’s the little things!

On another note, the moving truck should be rolling in with our furniture and another one of our cars tomorrow! Yay! Unpacking, boo!

Baby, it’s flippin’ cold outside!!

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Well… Where do I start. We made it 13 hours back “home” to our house in Missouri. We have rented out our other house down South for 2 years, thank goodness! One cracked windshield, one dog barfing in the car, a few hours driving in snow and we finally made it!
The truck with our belongings and one of my cars was supposed to arrive tomorrow morning but has been delayed due to the snow. They hope to deliver it sometime this week. My husband is in London for work (which means I’ll be directing movers by myself!) and since I have nothing at my house, my dogs and I are getting snowed in with my grandma!
Received a call today that my IVF meds may be delayed because of the snow as well! I’m supposed to start them on Friday. If they aren’t delivered on Thursday I’ll have to drive about 45 minutes to the nearest pharmacy that has Lupron in stock. Anything else?? Hopefully it’s only up from here!