Nearly 20 years ago, the first time I came home for a long weekend after leaving for college, my liberal-feminist-hippy mother sat me down at the dining room table and quizzed me a bit on current events. As she suspected, I was pretty clueless. Though happily so.
She held up a Newsweek magazine with a photo of a politician and said these words, which have forever been ingrained in my mind.
"New.t Ging.rich. Republican. Bad."
With each word, she jabbed at the photo with her index finger.
I think this article is proof that she was right.
He is trying to say IVF is immoral and to increase government control of this personal and medical procedure. This is an important topic. Please spread the word.
*I don't mean to insult any of my readers who may be Republican. I know you are not all bad. I'm just recounting a funny story from my mom that seems appropriate to this article.
1.30.2012
It can. It does. I will.
This is my mantra.
It can work. It does work. I will be a mother.
It can work. Of course it can. Why else would doctors recommend it? Why would (some) insurance cover it?
It does work. Even on the third try. I've seen it. For many of you. You are proof.
I will be a mother. Whether now, or sometime in the future, through some other means. The question is only when and how, not if. (But...soon, pretty please?!)
I have been repeating these words to myself over and over again since the day before my retrieval, largely inspired by my dear friend, and proof that it can, and does, the blogger formerly known as M from A Miracle 4 Us. (Thanks M!) Every time I start to freak out, every time my breath becomes frequent and shallow. I focus on taking deep breaths and trying to stay calm.
One week from today I go for beta. The day before, on Supe.r Bowl Sunday, I will test at home. This is because I have to fly to Buffalo on Monday night and I need some time with Hubby to process the news. I'm hoping it's a good day. I mean seriously, as a girl from upstate NY who decided to make New England her home, the Pats and the Giants playing has to be lucky, right?! Now, of course, I know from last time, that testing at home isn't a guaranteed answer, but it's still much better than getting a blind call at work and then getting on an airplane to be gone away from my Hubby for one to two nights! Doesn't the timing just always work out so perfectly?
I been doing a fairly decent job of distracting myself. I went back to work on Friday, and had a pretty slow day. Hubby and I had a very productive weekend, running errands, getting the house picked up, having dinner with friends, watching the US National Figure Skating Championships (I haven't finished yet, don't tell me who won!). It was the first weekend that has felt like normal since before the holidays, and probably even longer. It was great!
Today, I will admit to visiting Dr. Google a few times with some random things. Probably because I don't have an intense deadline at work right now. It's to easy to get distracted. At home, with Hubby, and house projects, etc. It's much easier.
It's 5dp3dt...so, what are the symptoms that are tempting me to visit the good doctor? I'll ramble them out for the sake of documentation, but not because the mean a damn thing, that's for sure! Boobs hurt (there's a surprise), an occasional twinge, but nothing really crampy like what I felt last time around should be implantation time (wait, is that a cramp or is that just gas?), ovaries (or that area) were achy this afternoon, lower back is starting to ache. I am. so. tired. I am falling asleep on the couch every night, dead tired. I am peeing all the time. Today, when ever I cough, I feel like I'm going to leak. And since I'm still dealing with post nasal drip, I am still coughing all the time. Although, today, I think I'm feeling that congested, but not necessarily flemmy, swollen hard to breathe feeling (is that progesterone too, or is that actually a good thing?) but it's hard to tell the difference with the damn cold that is lingering. Although I'm dead tired in the evening, when I wake up to pee multiple times a night, I have a hard time falling back to sleep. I am super hungry, and them keep eating too much, and end up feeling bloated and gross. And today, there was the teeny tiniest drop of what looked like ewcm on the tissue. Because, of course, you know there is thorough analysis going on to look for implantation bleeding. Oh, and the heat! I am like a freaking oven. It's unbelievable how warm I am, especially at night. Only a few nights of actually sweating though. And if for some reason, my body doesn't feel warm, my eyes always do. Whew! I think that's about it. I think I might hyperventilate.
Breathe.
It can. It does. I will.
Repeat.
It can work. It does work. I will be a mother.
It can work. Of course it can. Why else would doctors recommend it? Why would (some) insurance cover it?
It does work. Even on the third try. I've seen it. For many of you. You are proof.
I will be a mother. Whether now, or sometime in the future, through some other means. The question is only when and how, not if. (But...soon, pretty please?!)
I have been repeating these words to myself over and over again since the day before my retrieval, largely inspired by my dear friend, and proof that it can, and does, the blogger formerly known as M from A Miracle 4 Us. (Thanks M!) Every time I start to freak out, every time my breath becomes frequent and shallow. I focus on taking deep breaths and trying to stay calm.
One week from today I go for beta. The day before, on Supe.r Bowl Sunday, I will test at home. This is because I have to fly to Buffalo on Monday night and I need some time with Hubby to process the news. I'm hoping it's a good day. I mean seriously, as a girl from upstate NY who decided to make New England her home, the Pats and the Giants playing has to be lucky, right?! Now, of course, I know from last time, that testing at home isn't a guaranteed answer, but it's still much better than getting a blind call at work and then getting on an airplane to be gone away from my Hubby for one to two nights! Doesn't the timing just always work out so perfectly?
I been doing a fairly decent job of distracting myself. I went back to work on Friday, and had a pretty slow day. Hubby and I had a very productive weekend, running errands, getting the house picked up, having dinner with friends, watching the US National Figure Skating Championships (I haven't finished yet, don't tell me who won!). It was the first weekend that has felt like normal since before the holidays, and probably even longer. It was great!
Today, I will admit to visiting Dr. Google a few times with some random things. Probably because I don't have an intense deadline at work right now. It's to easy to get distracted. At home, with Hubby, and house projects, etc. It's much easier.
It's 5dp3dt...so, what are the symptoms that are tempting me to visit the good doctor? I'll ramble them out for the sake of documentation, but not because the mean a damn thing, that's for sure! Boobs hurt (there's a surprise), an occasional twinge, but nothing really crampy like what I felt last time around should be implantation time (wait, is that a cramp or is that just gas?), ovaries (or that area) were achy this afternoon, lower back is starting to ache. I am. so. tired. I am falling asleep on the couch every night, dead tired. I am peeing all the time. Today, when ever I cough, I feel like I'm going to leak. And since I'm still dealing with post nasal drip, I am still coughing all the time. Although, today, I think I'm feeling that congested, but not necessarily flemmy, swollen hard to breathe feeling (is that progesterone too, or is that actually a good thing?) but it's hard to tell the difference with the damn cold that is lingering. Although I'm dead tired in the evening, when I wake up to pee multiple times a night, I have a hard time falling back to sleep. I am super hungry, and them keep eating too much, and end up feeling bloated and gross. And today, there was the teeny tiniest drop of what looked like ewcm on the tissue. Because, of course, you know there is thorough analysis going on to look for implantation bleeding. Oh, and the heat! I am like a freaking oven. It's unbelievable how warm I am, especially at night. Only a few nights of actually sweating though. And if for some reason, my body doesn't feel warm, my eyes always do. Whew! I think that's about it. I think I might hyperventilate.
Breathe.
It can. It does. I will.
Repeat.
1.26.2012
Third Time’s the Charm
I hope!
Because for the third time in less than 12 months, I am pregnant until proven otherwise with triplets. That's right. Transfer was yesterday, and again the recommendation was to transfer three of our nine embryos. I was so hoping that they would walk up with a picture of two beautiful embabies. This to me, was a sign that they embies were awesome, and that I might actually, against all odd, have some left to freeze. Alas, this was not to be.
But, the three that we did transfer all look pretty beautiful to me. I will post a picture soon. I got a new scanner for Christmas which I have yet to set up, so I want to use that instead of again taking a photo of a photo.
So, let me tell you a little bit about Violetta Margarita, Luigi Limoncello and Lucia Sangria 3.0. My clinic doesn't give letter or number grades, so it's hard to compare. What they do is rank each embryo with cell number, a fragmentation score (0-4, 0 is best), a symmetry score which I don't fully understand, and one other number which they didn't go into. She had the chart in front of me so briefly, it was impossible to absorb the stats on all of them. But, the embabies that are snuggling in right now were 8-1, considered very good 8-2 and 7-2, (cells, fragmentation only, I don't remember the symmetry numbers, and the doc didn't seem concerned by it). Not too shabby, especially since it's improvement from two 7s and one eight the last time.
We had at least one other 8 that was highly fragmented, and a few 9s as well with the same issue. The sizes ranged from 9 to 3 or 4 I think. In any case, due to small size, or fragmentation, they don't anticipate freezing any, which was the deciding factor in transferring 3. They have this whole flow chart of statistics which tells them how many. I thought for sure, with 9 embies, I'd get only 2, but since it is my third attempt, and there are none to freeze, 3 it was.
But, I'm all about the 3s right now anyway, cause the third time's the charm, right?
The transfer itself went very smoothly, with the exception of running a hour behind. I was beginning to freak out each time I saw the doctor walk by to talk to someone else. Can't you please come tell me about my embies? The suspense is killing me? I'll wait as long as you want if only you will tell me how they are doing?
The other problem was the full bladder. When you time the drinking of a full bottle of water to coincide with a specific time on the clock, and then are made to wait an extra hour...well, let's just say, that's none too pleasant. After we were a half hour late, we signaled the nurse over, and she told me I could go in the bathroom, and pee to the count of ten, and then squeeze really hard to stop the flow if I needed to cut the edge, because it would be another half hour at least. I wasn't sure I could do it, but I took her up on the offer. At first, I thought, no way do I have enough pee for a count of ten. But man, when I got to ten, what a tease!! It was really hard to stop. But I did! When I finally went after resting for ten minutes after transfer, I peed for at least a count of 30.
The last problem with the time delay, was hunger. We were told to report at 12:45, which means we needed to be in transit during my typical noon lunch time. I decided that I was too full and bloated to eat a full early lunch, so I opted for a few pieces of fruit, and we decided that Hubby would make our pasta dinner early when we got home in the afternoon so I didn't have to get up to feed myself when he had to go out later that evening. Well, being an hour behind, meant that we didn't even go in the room until 2:45. We were able to leave the hospital at around 3:15. We were on the 5th floor. We waited about 5 minutes for an elevator which was full when it arrived (there were about 10 floors above us!). Luckily, I remembered another set of elevators around the corner that are key entry only from the lobby, but accessible from upper floors. When we finally got downstairs, we had to wait another 10 minutes to get our car out of the valet. When you add this all together, we were perfectly timed to drive across town at 4:00, just in time to begin rush hour is Boston. I was freaking starving! I had thought I'd be eating by around 3.
When we got home, I went right to the recliner and Hubby got me a glass of cider. He was under strict instructions to then immediately begin boiling water for our pasta. Instead, he went down to the laundry room and started sorting laundry! I was freaking out! I didn't want to complain, because he was doing laundry, which I had asked him to do while I was bed resting. But come on, didn't he realize the dire need of food??
When he finally came up, I next heard him emptying the dish drainer of all the recycling that I had rinsed out. Finally, I yelled, "Is there water boiling yet?!? Can you please start boiling the water before you do anything else?!" I felt so bad, because he was trying so hard to take care of me. He just wasn't doing it in the right order.
I realize that I am totally babbling on by now. I had wanted to write all of this yesterday, but after eating, and attempting to watch a comedy (I streamed The Big Lebowski which I had never seen. It was not as funny as I had hoped, but Net.flix had slim pickins for streaming), I passed out by 6:30 and slept for about 3 solid hours until Hubby came home to give me my PIO shot. I have been ridiculously tired since starting the shots. And super, super warm. A few nights of night sweats, one morning I had a low grade fever, which was still low enough at 99 to not qualify for calling the nurse. Monday and Tuesday nights, I came home, listened to C+B and passed out then as well. It's really pretty incredible. Aside from that, the whopping three shots I've had so far have gone just fine. We've been heating the area first, warming the oil in my bra, and then massaging after. The actually needle stings a bit going in, but doesn't really phase me after all the other shots and blood draws. We'll see how things continue after we run out of fresh spots on my ass to inject. I suppose the fact that I'm feeling so hot and tired makes me feel that the PIO is doing something more than the crinone ever did. Here's hoping that it does something more for the embabies and not just me!
Today, I am off of work to rest. I'm glad tomorrow is Friday, and I only have to make it through one more day at the office before getting more downtime. My creative project for the day, should I be able to stay awake, is starting a blurb book that will be the first 5.5 years of my life with Hubby. The plan then will be to make one album a year after that. But I have a lot of catching up to do first. I also have acupuncture scheduled for 3:30 this afternoon. I figured 3ish was afternoon nap time anyway, right?
So that's that.
And now, we wait.
Because for the third time in less than 12 months, I am pregnant until proven otherwise with triplets. That's right. Transfer was yesterday, and again the recommendation was to transfer three of our nine embryos. I was so hoping that they would walk up with a picture of two beautiful embabies. This to me, was a sign that they embies were awesome, and that I might actually, against all odd, have some left to freeze. Alas, this was not to be.
But, the three that we did transfer all look pretty beautiful to me. I will post a picture soon. I got a new scanner for Christmas which I have yet to set up, so I want to use that instead of again taking a photo of a photo.
So, let me tell you a little bit about Violetta Margarita, Luigi Limoncello and Lucia Sangria 3.0. My clinic doesn't give letter or number grades, so it's hard to compare. What they do is rank each embryo with cell number, a fragmentation score (0-4, 0 is best), a symmetry score which I don't fully understand, and one other number which they didn't go into. She had the chart in front of me so briefly, it was impossible to absorb the stats on all of them. But, the embabies that are snuggling in right now were 8-1, considered very good 8-2 and 7-2, (cells, fragmentation only, I don't remember the symmetry numbers, and the doc didn't seem concerned by it). Not too shabby, especially since it's improvement from two 7s and one eight the last time.
We had at least one other 8 that was highly fragmented, and a few 9s as well with the same issue. The sizes ranged from 9 to 3 or 4 I think. In any case, due to small size, or fragmentation, they don't anticipate freezing any, which was the deciding factor in transferring 3. They have this whole flow chart of statistics which tells them how many. I thought for sure, with 9 embies, I'd get only 2, but since it is my third attempt, and there are none to freeze, 3 it was.
But, I'm all about the 3s right now anyway, cause the third time's the charm, right?
The transfer itself went very smoothly, with the exception of running a hour behind. I was beginning to freak out each time I saw the doctor walk by to talk to someone else. Can't you please come tell me about my embies? The suspense is killing me? I'll wait as long as you want if only you will tell me how they are doing?
The other problem was the full bladder. When you time the drinking of a full bottle of water to coincide with a specific time on the clock, and then are made to wait an extra hour...well, let's just say, that's none too pleasant. After we were a half hour late, we signaled the nurse over, and she told me I could go in the bathroom, and pee to the count of ten, and then squeeze really hard to stop the flow if I needed to cut the edge, because it would be another half hour at least. I wasn't sure I could do it, but I took her up on the offer. At first, I thought, no way do I have enough pee for a count of ten. But man, when I got to ten, what a tease!! It was really hard to stop. But I did! When I finally went after resting for ten minutes after transfer, I peed for at least a count of 30.
The last problem with the time delay, was hunger. We were told to report at 12:45, which means we needed to be in transit during my typical noon lunch time. I decided that I was too full and bloated to eat a full early lunch, so I opted for a few pieces of fruit, and we decided that Hubby would make our pasta dinner early when we got home in the afternoon so I didn't have to get up to feed myself when he had to go out later that evening. Well, being an hour behind, meant that we didn't even go in the room until 2:45. We were able to leave the hospital at around 3:15. We were on the 5th floor. We waited about 5 minutes for an elevator which was full when it arrived (there were about 10 floors above us!). Luckily, I remembered another set of elevators around the corner that are key entry only from the lobby, but accessible from upper floors. When we finally got downstairs, we had to wait another 10 minutes to get our car out of the valet. When you add this all together, we were perfectly timed to drive across town at 4:00, just in time to begin rush hour is Boston. I was freaking starving! I had thought I'd be eating by around 3.
When we got home, I went right to the recliner and Hubby got me a glass of cider. He was under strict instructions to then immediately begin boiling water for our pasta. Instead, he went down to the laundry room and started sorting laundry! I was freaking out! I didn't want to complain, because he was doing laundry, which I had asked him to do while I was bed resting. But come on, didn't he realize the dire need of food??
When he finally came up, I next heard him emptying the dish drainer of all the recycling that I had rinsed out. Finally, I yelled, "Is there water boiling yet?!? Can you please start boiling the water before you do anything else?!" I felt so bad, because he was trying so hard to take care of me. He just wasn't doing it in the right order.
I realize that I am totally babbling on by now. I had wanted to write all of this yesterday, but after eating, and attempting to watch a comedy (I streamed The Big Lebowski which I had never seen. It was not as funny as I had hoped, but Net.flix had slim pickins for streaming), I passed out by 6:30 and slept for about 3 solid hours until Hubby came home to give me my PIO shot. I have been ridiculously tired since starting the shots. And super, super warm. A few nights of night sweats, one morning I had a low grade fever, which was still low enough at 99 to not qualify for calling the nurse. Monday and Tuesday nights, I came home, listened to C+B and passed out then as well. It's really pretty incredible. Aside from that, the whopping three shots I've had so far have gone just fine. We've been heating the area first, warming the oil in my bra, and then massaging after. The actually needle stings a bit going in, but doesn't really phase me after all the other shots and blood draws. We'll see how things continue after we run out of fresh spots on my ass to inject. I suppose the fact that I'm feeling so hot and tired makes me feel that the PIO is doing something more than the crinone ever did. Here's hoping that it does something more for the embabies and not just me!
Today, I am off of work to rest. I'm glad tomorrow is Friday, and I only have to make it through one more day at the office before getting more downtime. My creative project for the day, should I be able to stay awake, is starting a blurb book that will be the first 5.5 years of my life with Hubby. The plan then will be to make one album a year after that. But I have a lot of catching up to do first. I also have acupuncture scheduled for 3:30 this afternoon. I figured 3ish was afternoon nap time anyway, right?
So that's that.
And now, we wait.
1.23.2012
Nine
No, I am not talking about a somewhat bizarre musical about an womanizing Italian film director.
I am talking about the number of my eggs that fertilized. That's right. You heard me.
Nine.
Out of twelve retrieved, 10 were mature, and nine fertilized. Can you tell that I am starting to finally feel excited? I am feeling much less pain today as well, although I look 5 months pregnant, and I can't walk very fast. But that's ok, because when you add my last two cycles together, it took us two tries to get the same number of fertilized eggs as we just got this time! I will take it!
All right, busy at work. Need to get back to it, but also needed to take a minute to be super excited!
PIO starts tonight. Wish me luck!
I am talking about the number of my eggs that fertilized. That's right. You heard me.
Nine.
Out of twelve retrieved, 10 were mature, and nine fertilized. Can you tell that I am starting to finally feel excited? I am feeling much less pain today as well, although I look 5 months pregnant, and I can't walk very fast. But that's ok, because when you add my last two cycles together, it took us two tries to get the same number of fertilized eggs as we just got this time! I will take it!
All right, busy at work. Need to get back to it, but also needed to take a minute to be super excited!
PIO starts tonight. Wish me luck!
1.22.2012
Another Dozen
Something about getting 12 eggs on 1.22.12 seems lucky to me. I'm always looking for patterns in numbers. I'm liking all the one and twos.
So, retrieval went just fine. The IV has been the worst part of it for me in the past. I barely felt this one. It was kind of awesome. I think it hurt less than a blood draw.
And then of course, there is the fact that we got 12 eggs, when I only had 10 follicles measured on Friday. We don't know how many are mature yet, but I will take it! I was preparing myself for less than 10, given my low estrogen number of 700 on Friday.
I asked the nurse her opinion of my estrogen. She agreed that it seemed a little low, but assured me that the follicles looked great, and I was meeting criteria for trigger. The criteria basically consists of E2 of 600, an and at least 4 follicles, at least two measuring 18 or greater. She said that typically, a mature egg produces 100-250 E2, and that my lower number could indicate that some of my follicles were empty. You can see why I was pleasantly surprised to wake up an hear 12!
I remember being barely conscious, and hearing 12, and then asking hubby two or three times later as the fog lifted. Did they really say 12?
One thing that is different for me this time is the amount of pain I am feeling after the fact. I was feeling better with tylenol and an IV pain med before we left the hospital. But the pain started to come back a lot in the car. I took percoset and a nap when got home, and have only made it up the half flight of stairs to the bathroom once so far. I was also visibly bleeding, which didn't happen the first two times. I'm guessing that has something to do with the extra pain. Maybe they had to work extra hard for those last two eggs?
Another interesting tidbit. Transfer will definitely be a 3 day on Wednesday. My clinic does not do 5 days as their research has shown there is no difference in success rates between 3 and 5. Last fall, when we were doing our second cycle, they were actually doing 2 day transfers. The thinking was that if the response was poor, and there were fewer embryos then would have been recommended to put back, maybe it was better to put those back earlier. I asked today if they were still doing 2 days, and apparently, they have determined that this did not help. They are back to 3 days only. I guess it's nice to see that they are constantly looking for ways to improve their process. Although, we were relieved that we were not one of the guinea pigs this past fall.
And, now we watch a lot of football (it's much too stressful, but a good distraction!), and wait for the fert report tomorrow. If we get more than 5 embies, I am going to be beyond thrilled!
So, retrieval went just fine. The IV has been the worst part of it for me in the past. I barely felt this one. It was kind of awesome. I think it hurt less than a blood draw.
And then of course, there is the fact that we got 12 eggs, when I only had 10 follicles measured on Friday. We don't know how many are mature yet, but I will take it! I was preparing myself for less than 10, given my low estrogen number of 700 on Friday.
I asked the nurse her opinion of my estrogen. She agreed that it seemed a little low, but assured me that the follicles looked great, and I was meeting criteria for trigger. The criteria basically consists of E2 of 600, an and at least 4 follicles, at least two measuring 18 or greater. She said that typically, a mature egg produces 100-250 E2, and that my lower number could indicate that some of my follicles were empty. You can see why I was pleasantly surprised to wake up an hear 12!
I remember being barely conscious, and hearing 12, and then asking hubby two or three times later as the fog lifted. Did they really say 12?
One thing that is different for me this time is the amount of pain I am feeling after the fact. I was feeling better with tylenol and an IV pain med before we left the hospital. But the pain started to come back a lot in the car. I took percoset and a nap when got home, and have only made it up the half flight of stairs to the bathroom once so far. I was also visibly bleeding, which didn't happen the first two times. I'm guessing that has something to do with the extra pain. Maybe they had to work extra hard for those last two eggs?
Another interesting tidbit. Transfer will definitely be a 3 day on Wednesday. My clinic does not do 5 days as their research has shown there is no difference in success rates between 3 and 5. Last fall, when we were doing our second cycle, they were actually doing 2 day transfers. The thinking was that if the response was poor, and there were fewer embryos then would have been recommended to put back, maybe it was better to put those back earlier. I asked today if they were still doing 2 days, and apparently, they have determined that this did not help. They are back to 3 days only. I guess it's nice to see that they are constantly looking for ways to improve their process. Although, we were relieved that we were not one of the guinea pigs this past fall.
And, now we watch a lot of football (it's much too stressful, but a good distraction!), and wait for the fert report tomorrow. If we get more than 5 embies, I am going to be beyond thrilled!
1.20.2012
Full Waddle
Yes folks, that's right. I'm waddling like a duck, and my fat jeans aren't really happy to be buttoned anymore. Before I went in this morning, I knew we were getting close, based on the bloat, and the ridiculous amounts of vag gold flowing like Niagra Falls from from my lady parts. Like, ridiculous.
We are triggering in T-minus 13 minutes for a Sunday morning retrieval. We have to be there at bright an early at 8:15. I think we might actually get to be first, which I think will be nice.
So, the stats, 10 follicles! A few more than Wednesday. The biggest two are now on the right, 20 and 19. Interestingly enough, but estrogen is only at 700. At first I freaked out, but a quick glance at Dr. Google found an article that said estrogen is not nearly as important an indicator as follicle size, unless there is a danger of OHSS and the levels are too high. I'm choosing to focus on that interpretation.
I had more to say, but I worked myself up into such a tizzy needing to go grocery shopping before a snow storm tomorrow to make sure I have everything I need for my recovery. I need to just veg out for the night.
But, I'll leave you with a funny image. My cryptic notes from Wednesday's monitoring appointment scribbled on a sticky note at work. I hope I remembered to throw it away!
All right, Hubby is mixing my shot. I have to go!
We are triggering in T-minus 13 minutes for a Sunday morning retrieval. We have to be there at bright an early at 8:15. I think we might actually get to be first, which I think will be nice.
So, the stats, 10 follicles! A few more than Wednesday. The biggest two are now on the right, 20 and 19. Interestingly enough, but estrogen is only at 700. At first I freaked out, but a quick glance at Dr. Google found an article that said estrogen is not nearly as important an indicator as follicle size, unless there is a danger of OHSS and the levels are too high. I'm choosing to focus on that interpretation.
I had more to say, but I worked myself up into such a tizzy needing to go grocery shopping before a snow storm tomorrow to make sure I have everything I need for my recovery. I need to just veg out for the night.
But, I'll leave you with a funny image. My cryptic notes from Wednesday's monitoring appointment scribbled on a sticky note at work. I hope I remembered to throw it away!
All right, Hubby is mixing my shot. I have to go!
1.18.2012
Italian
Thanks for all the lovin' yesterday ladies. I needed it!
Today is sunny, and I am feeling a bit better after heading home to the couch and the TV, and nothing else, last night.We'll see how long it lasts.
Quick update. Today I had a monitoring appointment. I am still waiting of instructions*, but I do know that I won't be triggering tonight. So, retrieval is Saturday at the earliest, although I have a feeling it will be Sunday. (Because of course, my Little Bro will be in town on business and is going to stay with us that night!) Right now, I have 8 follicles. 5 on the left, 3 on the right. It's the exact opposite of where I was this point in IVF 2.0. The largest on either is 16, which I why I'm sure there will be no trigger tonight. I think I have three at 14, and 3 at 10 as well. I'm satisfied with 8 at this point, because I have always ended up with more eggs than the follicles that were counted after 5 days of stims. I'm sure there are a handful more that will catch up in the next day or two.
OK, before I get back to work, Chon is wondering what I will do if Violetta really decides she would rather be a boy. Well, the front runner name right now is Luigi Limoncello. I hadn't thought about continuing the V theme, but maybe Vincenzo Martini might do? Or Vinnie? Thoughts?
Oh, and if Violetta decides that she would like to have a sister, well then, she'll be Lucia Sangria of course.
PS - Now you all think I am way more Italian than I actually am. I'm 1/4. Papa was born there. Arazio. But I've got a heck of a lot of English, Irish and German in there as well. Though, if I were to hyphenate, my name would sound like something out of a bad feminist mobster movie. Hubby's 1/2. I'm kinda jealous.
*Updated later. Just heard from the nurse. She quoted me 7 follicles, unlike the u/s tech who said 8. They are upping my dose of gonal f to 225 twice a day instead of just night, which feels good, since in two days, my E2 went from 232 to only 310. I think it should have at least doubled in two days. It's time to kick the girls into gear!
The other weird thing I've got going on that I think I haven't mentioned yet is pretty constant (every time I wipe) dark brown spotting since my period ended a week ago. Good times. And now it's starting to mix with cm which is becoming more eggwhitey as E2 goes up, making for all sorts of interesting things on the toilet paper. In any case, I left the question for the nurse this morning, since I have not experienced this kind of thing before. She said not to worry, but to keep them updated. It's likely just because I was on Lupron for an extended period of time. The good news is that at baseline, my lining was nice and thin, and is thickening up nicely (to quote the nurse with the over use of the work nice) so the spotting is not affecting that. Whew!
Today is sunny, and I am feeling a bit better after heading home to the couch and the TV, and nothing else, last night.We'll see how long it lasts.
Quick update. Today I had a monitoring appointment. I am still waiting of instructions*, but I do know that I won't be triggering tonight. So, retrieval is Saturday at the earliest, although I have a feeling it will be Sunday. (Because of course, my Little Bro will be in town on business and is going to stay with us that night!) Right now, I have 8 follicles. 5 on the left, 3 on the right. It's the exact opposite of where I was this point in IVF 2.0. The largest on either is 16, which I why I'm sure there will be no trigger tonight. I think I have three at 14, and 3 at 10 as well. I'm satisfied with 8 at this point, because I have always ended up with more eggs than the follicles that were counted after 5 days of stims. I'm sure there are a handful more that will catch up in the next day or two.
OK, before I get back to work, Chon is wondering what I will do if Violetta really decides she would rather be a boy. Well, the front runner name right now is Luigi Limoncello. I hadn't thought about continuing the V theme, but maybe Vincenzo Martini might do? Or Vinnie? Thoughts?
Oh, and if Violetta decides that she would like to have a sister, well then, she'll be Lucia Sangria of course.
PS - Now you all think I am way more Italian than I actually am. I'm 1/4. Papa was born there. Arazio. But I've got a heck of a lot of English, Irish and German in there as well. Though, if I were to hyphenate, my name would sound like something out of a bad feminist mobster movie. Hubby's 1/2. I'm kinda jealous.
*Updated later. Just heard from the nurse. She quoted me 7 follicles, unlike the u/s tech who said 8. They are upping my dose of gonal f to 225 twice a day instead of just night, which feels good, since in two days, my E2 went from 232 to only 310. I think it should have at least doubled in two days. It's time to kick the girls into gear!
The other weird thing I've got going on that I think I haven't mentioned yet is pretty constant (every time I wipe) dark brown spotting since my period ended a week ago. Good times. And now it's starting to mix with cm which is becoming more eggwhitey as E2 goes up, making for all sorts of interesting things on the toilet paper. In any case, I left the question for the nurse this morning, since I have not experienced this kind of thing before. She said not to worry, but to keep them updated. It's likely just because I was on Lupron for an extended period of time. The good news is that at baseline, my lining was nice and thin, and is thickening up nicely (to quote the nurse with the over use of the work nice) so the spotting is not affecting that. Whew!
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