Dilution, Dehydration and Delurking

First of all, it's International Delurking Week through this Sunday, the 15th. So please, I have 75 followers, and only a dozen or so faithful commenters. I'd love for all of you to take a moment to say hi and to tell me a little something about yourself. I'll ask you my favorite ice breaker question to help get you started.

If you were a candy, what candy would you be?

My answer: A Sweet Tart!

*    *    *

OK, on to my second topic. Dilution. 

Liz asked after my last post, why is my dose of Lupron so high. I thought I would explain it, since in addition to my being my sanity, I hope this blog will help other who follow behind me in this journey. 

I've been taking 40 units of diluted Lupron since Christmas, and now that I've started stims as of last night, I'll be taking 20 units until trigger. In a typical Long Lupron Protocol like my first IVF, the dose is 10 units, down to 5. The difference here, is that the amount of Lurpon I'm actually getting is super small compared to the long protocol. Say it's like 1 unit, or smaller. Now, any of you who are familiar with Lupron could imagine just how impossible it would be to actually fill a syringe with 1 unit or less. Yeah, pretty much not possible. It would be like a drop. So, what happens is, that drop is added to some other liquid diluant in order to make it easier to actually measure out an amount you can put in a syringe with some accuracy. That's why it seems like my dose is so big. But trust me, I would be out. of. my. mind. if I have been on full strength Lupron for 18 days. 

Now, the next question might be, why such a small amount of Lupron. Well, basically, the theory is that in my first cycle, I was too suppressed. At baseline, my E2 was > 10. I was on 150 of Gonal F and 75 of Menopur, and they ended up having to increase the dose a few times. My E2 after 5 days of stims was only 189. From what I've gathered, this was on the low side, and it is better for the eggs to grow at a solid steady rate, as opposed to start off slow and then be faced with higher and higher levels of stims to get the desired result. 

My second cycle was different entirely, making use of the antagonist protocol, with Gonal F only, 150 twice a day. The theory is that I got better quality eggs with Gonal F only as evidenced by a much higher fertilization rate (though ICSI was involved the second time, so it's hard to say for sure). But, I stimmed so fast (7 days!), we weren't able to get as many eggs. This is in part due to bcps as a suppression not leveling the playing field of the follicles as well as Lupron in some cases, so the eggs don't all start off at the same size. They had to trigger me or risk the largest follicle ovulating on it's own. 

So, this time, in addition to the change in suppression, we're sticking with Gonal F since it seems my body likes that best, but we've reduced the amount to 225, at night only, so hopefully I will stim over a longer period at a slow and steady pace and get a nice batch of high quality eggs when all is said and done.

The theory already seems to be working as my E2 at baseline this week was 13, so I was actually on the chart and hopefully not over suppressed!

*   *    *

And lastly, a little story for you about dehydration. Last night, I went into the bathroom to fill our humidifier from the tub. I yanked back the shower curtain and almost peed myself with I say little Roy, one of our furbabies, cowering on the floor of the tub. This is not normal behavior. It startled me half to death. 

He ran off, and as I left the bathroom, the other furry, Ziggy made his way into the bathtub. I exclaimed all this to Hubby, who said something about them being interested in the water I had just splashed. But again, not normal behavior. Then Hubby noted that he'd seen Ziggy licking the condensation off the window earlier that evening. And I remembered that Ziggy had been up on the kitchen sink the night before, which is more weird behavior. I went back down to the bathroom to find both boys sitting in the tub, looking up at my like I was a crazy person. 

And then we realized that their water must be empty! We have one of those big ones that looks like a mini water cooler. I ran down stairs, and sure enough, dry as a bone. I filled it, and an extra bowl, and within seconds, both boys were in the kitchen, pressed to the floor, lapping up the water like crazy. 

It made me cry. 

I felt so horrible that they were so thirsty, yet not complaining to us at all. I have no idea how long they were out water, as Hubby takes care of these things. And it made me realize just how out of it Hubby really is right now. He had a good session with his shrink just last night, who wants him back off meds. He sees the prescribing psychiatrist next week, which is good. He's definitely not been himself. When I came back up to tell him about the boys, I told him that I hope the fact that he dehydrated his poor little kitties will help him to take action and snap out of the funk he's been in. I know it's not easy, as it's a chemical thing with him, but he does better with exercise, so we just need to get him back up and running some how. We'll figure it out eventually. We always do.