FET#1 Update – CD3 Baseline

It has been 121 days since we started this transfer cycle. That is crazy! Well hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer. I took my NuvaRing out on the 22nd and Aunt Flo arrived on the 27th. I emailed my nurse on the 28th to book my CD3 baseline ultrasound, only to find out my nurse has left the practice! Cue tears! She was my rock! She knew me and my case so well and was so caring and kind. I was quite upset when I found out she left but the new nurse seems to be very nice and is genuinely caring. Luckily my old nurse briefed my new nurse specifically on my case since it is a bit strange. I really appreciated that!

Anyways, we went in yesterday, CD3, for our baseline ultrasound. There were no cysts (thank God!) and everything looked great! I got a call from my doctor on my way home saying everything was great and we were all set to move forward with the letrozole. She wanted to confirm that since we didn’t do a trial of this protocol, that if everything looked good we could go ahead and transfer. Heck yes! Let’s get those snow babies back where they belong! So I started the letrozole last night. Here is the plan:

• I am to take two 2.5mg pills a day for 5 days which will put us at CD7.
• On CD8 I am to start 2mg Estrace (orally) until transfer.
• We go back on the 7th (CD12) to check my lining and we PRAY that it is above 8mm and is trilaminar.
• If everything looks good on CD12 they will instruct me when to take my HCG shot and they said it will be in the morning this time
• After the HCG shot, I will start Crinone 1x day until 10 weeks gestation
• Transfer should be on the 13th!

That’s all for now folks! I am just kind of laying low after the holidays, trying to get the house back in order and get back into the routine of things. I will post about any side effects from the letrozole. Especially since this is an unusual protocol for an FET!

 

 

 

 

FET#1 Baseline Ultrasound and Blood Work

The past few weeks have felt sooooo long. It feels like it has been far more than 3 1/2 weeks since our egg retrieval. It feels like we have been waiting for much longer to start our FET. I think part of it has been because my parents have been overseas and I have been missing them. Side note: my parents went to Saltzburg (Mozart’s birth place) and bought us a baby’s first Mozart CD to play for the babies while they are growing in utero! Some people may see this as jinxing us, but I see it as good luck! 

We have accomplished a lot in the past few weeks. We have done some painting around the house and organized several rooms. I think I am nesting as well as wanting to pass the time. 

Anyways, today finally arrived! Today we got to go in for our baseline ultrasound and blood work to make sure everything is back to normal and that we could get the green light to start estrogen on Wednesday. The blood work part went off without a hitch. I didn’t even feel the needle this time! Maybe the IVF process really is breaking my fear of needles!

Next up, ultrasound. As usual, my uterus was being finicky and was hard to see. Once the tech finally got it in her sights, my lining looked great. My right ovary looked good and I believe there were 22 antral follicles on it. It has definitely gone down in size. Then she looks at my left ovary and immediately I see what looks like a cyst. My left ovary is the money maker. That is the one we got 12 out of the 14 eggs from. I was expecting it to still be a little big since it was so huge at retrieval 3 weeks ago. There were three areas that she measured that looked like large follicles or cysts. They were all about 2 cm in diameter. Instead of looking black in the screen (meaning filled with fluid) they were gray and grainy. 

 

How I felt when I saw the ultrasound

 
We left the appointment and I was upset. I was afraid that the cycle would be cancelled and we would have to continue waiting. I hate that the ultrasound tech isn’t allowed to comment on what she sees. So I get into my car in the parking garage. Chris leaves to go back to work since his building is only a few blocks away. I was looking, I swear…but I got into a little car accident. I backed into an old couple’s car as they were backing out too. Everyone is okay and there wasn’t much damage at all. The little old man was cracking jokes. After we exchanged information and parted ways, I finally got a hold of Chris and I just started bawling. I was scared of what we saw on the ultrasound and now shaken up because of the car accident. All before 9am on a Monday  morning! What a way to start the week. 

  
The rest of the morning I spent working and looking up ovarian cysts on my breaks. By the time the nurse called I had sufficiently freaked myself out thanks to Dr. Google…I know, I know…I will never learn. The nurse said everything looked good and all my levels were great. She gave us the green light to start estrogen on Wednesday. I asked about those spots that I saw on the ultrasound and she said those were bruises since we got so many eggs from that ovary and I had so much pain and discomfort after (for that story click here). She said that it was expected and completely normal. I breathed a huge sigh of relief!!

So after an eventful and stressful day, all is well…except the paint on my car. We are all set to go and are so excited to be reunited with our snowbabies in a little over a month!!

  

FET#1 The Plan

We finally received the paperwork in the mail that has a calendar of what medication to take and when. It is an extremely detailed piece of paper. Far more detailed than the paperwork for a fresh IVF cycle! I guess that’s because I took all the same meds at the same time every day. So here is the official plan:

• Current Medications: Prenatal Vitamins, Folic Acid 2mg, low dose Aspirin 81mg, NuvaRing (simply personal preference to OCPs)
• Monday August 31st – Baseline ultrasound and blood work to make sure my estrogen has returned to normal, that my ovaries are no longer the size of softballs and that I have no cysts. If any of those are present or abnormal we will have to wait another cycle. I am a bit apprehensive because I have been feeling some twinges that could indicate cysts, but I am choosing to be positive and believe they are nothing!
• September 2nd – start taking oral estrogen pills 3 times in the morning and 3 times at night every day.
• September 23rd – Monitoring ultrasound and blood work to check my estrogen level and thickness of my lining. Based on these results I will either be given a date to move onto taking progesterone or I will have to have my oral estrogen increased and possible add estrogen patches (anyone remember the craziness that I experienced on the estrogen patches?! My husband can never unsee the things I did).
• Date to be determined – when my estrogen level is where it is supposed to be and my lining is nice and thick and ready for our babies, then I will begin nightly Progesterone in Oil shots 1mg. In addition to the shots, I will also be on Crinone 8% vaginal gel suppositories twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. I have to remain laying down for 1 hour after each dose. I think I would rather have more PIO shots then have to deal with this Crinone. However, ask me a few weeks after the PIO shots have begun, I may be changing my tune.
• Week of October 5th – this is our anticipated transfer. We are planning on transfering both embryos. We are literally putting all our our eggs in my basket…again. I have been prescribed 2 Valium. One to take 30 mins before leaving the house and the other to take when I get there. This is to help calm my uterus so it doesn’t contract. Uterine contractions during transfers are bad as the uterus can push the embryos out. So I will be nice and relaxed for our procedure.
• From there we will be given a day for our first beta!!
• If we get a positive beta, we will have to continue the 3 estrogen pills twice a day, Crinone twice a day and nightly PIO shots through the 11th week of pregnancy. This will fall the week before Christmas!! I would love a Christmas present of no more PIO shots!! Christmas is my favorite season (I used to put up the Christmas tree at Labor Day and have been told by coworkers that I am a real life Buddy the Elf). It would be serendipitous to be entering our second trimester the week of Christmas.

So, that is all I have at the moment. I am waiting until mid-September to order the PIO and Crinone. The nurse said she had some samples to give me since those little guys are like $20 a dose! I don’t want to do the math on $20 a dose twice a day for 12 weeks…so please, bring on the samples!!

In the meantime we have been working on the house. We have the bathroom and bedroom redone. I will post pictures soon! We have been taking the time to catch up with friends and enjoy being “normal” for a little longer before the craziness starts back up. Luckily, an FET seems less stressful than a fresh cycle so I am looking forward to that!! We are so excited to start this next step!!

IVF#2 Antral Follicle Count and Baseline E2

We are fast approaching the start of IVF 2.0! Today we had our baseline bloodwork and ultrasound. As I have said many times, I am highly needlephobic. So when there was a different phlebotomist there I had a moment of freak out. I was used to the other lady. She knew that I would get anxious and nervous and she made the stick as painless as possible. Well, I didn’t need to freak out this time. This lady was just as nice and did a good job as well.

Our normal ultrasound tech came and got us and said that there was a new REI fellow and a new sonographer with her today and asked if I minded if they were in the room. I said that was fine. I have never been one to decline additional professionals in the rooms. Everybody has to learn some how and I am not all that private of a person. When it came to doing the actual ultrasound, the new REI fellow asked if she could do it so she could learn the clinics ultrasound computer system. I didn’t mind at all. The ultrasound took a bit longer than normal as she had to learn the right buttons to take the pictures and measurements but it was kind of cool to listen to her being instructed because we got to see and understand more about what we were looking at. Normally the ultrasounds are done so fast you don’t get a good chance to figure out what you are looking at.

After the appointment was over I headed to work for a bit, but ended up leaving after about 30 minutes. I have had a persistent migraine since yesterday morning and the fluorescent lights at the office were not helping the situation. I worked from home the rest of the day trying to get the migraine under control. I have it to a manageble level thanks to my migraine medications. Fingers crossed it will go away while I sleep tonight!

The nurse called this afternoon and let me know that my estrogen was 23. There were no cysts. I have 17 follicles on the left and 11 follicles on the right meaning I have 28 antral follicles. She also told me to go ahead and stop my birth control. We are all set to start stimming on Friday!! She also called in the antibiotics and pain meds to the pharmacy so we went to pick them up tonight. Our IVF medication collection is complete. Expect a video soon!

Immediately upon hearing my baseline numbers I started to compare them to last cycles numbers (read last cycles baseline here). This is something that I do NOT need to be doing. I started stressing myself out because last time my numbers were higher. I keep reminding myself that this is a fresh start. We have wiped the slate clean and are starting a new with a different protocol. I am focusing on looking forward instead of backwards.

Tomorrow I go in for another acupuncture session. I have begun to really look forward to these. We worked on my anxiety last week and it definitely helped. I am looking forward to relaxing a bit tomorrow during the session. Never thought I would say having needles voluntarily sticking out of me would be relaxing…but it is!!

IVF#1 Antral Follicle Count and Baseline E2

Chris and I had a bet. Because of my high AMH and the high amount of follicles on the ultrasound for the SIS we had a feeling there would be quite a few antral follicles…

Chris bet the left ovary would have more. He also guessed I would have more than 30 antral follicles all together. I guessed I would have 23 follicles. Well…Chris won! My left ovary definitely had more with a whopping 22 follicles and my right wasn’t far behind with 16.  That is a total of 38 follicles!! For those that might not know, that is a LOT. When the nurse called to talk to me she said that it was a “crazy amount”! Most women my age have between 15 and 20. So that’s good! That means that we will hopefully get a lot of eggs during egg retrieval. The down side is…I am about to feel AWFUL with the stimulation injections. I will basically be developing twice as many eggs as expected. That also puts me at even MORE a risk for ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.

The nurse called not too long ago to let me know that my E2 baseline was 38. So my ovaries are nice and suppressed and we are given the all clear to start injections on Friday. She said I am going to need to take it really, really easy because with this amount of follicles I am going to feel all the side effects of the medication times two. In addition, I am not really supposed to do much exercise or anything strenuous as even daily activities could cause damage to the follicles as they grow since there are so many and they will be cramped. I plan on finding a nice spot on the couch and working from home most of next week.

One more step towards our baby!!