Please keep your hands, feet and objects in the vehicle at all times

Well this is a fun roller coaster.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday all found us driving to Glendale (about a zillion miles away from where we live) for ultrasounds, blood work, consults and sperm retrievals. Chad's part went great. Without typing the word "sperm" too much, let's just say that there were lots of perfectly viable gametes saved from a lifetime of swimming in the pool. I, on the other hand, have traitor ovaries, just like last time. I'm not quite responding to the Follistim the way Dr. Troche would like me to: my eggs just aren't getting big enough to "trigger" and get ready for retrieval. Today we went in again, with low hopes, and saw that really, they weren't growing much. Doc was wonderful and sweet and kind but basically said if my estrogen level didn't increase much we would be stopping. We could try again next month. (YEAH RIGHT, with what money please?) So this afternoon I spent a lot of time crying, feeling that we were just wasting our time and money, until we got a call saying that my estrogen had almost DOUBLED since just yesterday. I started out with a level of less than 20 (thank you birth control), went to 220's, then 600's, 900's yesterday and 1600 today. That means that my follicles should be doing some major growth here, so we're going to continue with two more days of shots (hello, money hemorrhaging) and recheck everything Friday. I'm really going two days past where he's usually comfortable stimming, but my cycle is normally so looooong anyway (I'm a late bloomer) maybe this is my norm. Who knows. But we're not giving up yet.

So there you are.

I would rather be riding California Screaming at Disneyland right now, but maybe this oh-so-special fertility roller coaster will all be worth it.

Need lots of crossed fingers please.

Yolo

Drove a thousand miles this morning to Glendale in rainy rush hour (awesome, since Arizonans freak the hell out when water starts falling from the sky, AND Alice my GPS guide kept telling me at the very last second to cross three lanes of traffic and exit during all of this, thanks for the advance notice ALICE) to the fertility doc this morning. Ultrasound showed eight follicles on the right (I knew I felt fatter there!) and four on the left. Last time I only had five, so this is quite an improvement. Still slightly small, but my body takes a little longer in the stimulation phase (shut up, Chad) so that's not a big deal. Might need to be on Follistim a few days longer than anticipated. Uterus looked good, and twelve is a perfect number. (Perfect for a scramble, as Dr. Troche said.) I return on Sunday for another check.

Interjection!

You must know that I just jumped up from my computer to scream and yell at Mother Nature, because I hear HAIL. And I literally just took these pictures ten minutes ago and I hope they are still standing:

I was doing the same yelling thing at five this morning when I heard rain on the window. It rains like five times a year in Arizona and it had to be on the day that we're supposed to get this finished:

Anyone want to go swimming?

Can you believe how small our backyard is? The last house had a much larger one so it will be an adjustment. Plus we are super smart and made the pool extra large so it takes up the whole yard. I will still find a way to cram lots of gardening space in there, you can bet.

Off to bed, work tonight!

Still here....

Yesterday I added another injection to my morning o' fun. So now that's two injections, precisely at 0830. (We use military time in this house, of course.)

300 units of Follistim: (Makes me produce a bunch of eggs, much like a sea turtle, as Chad has so romantically suggested.)

 

 

Followed by 250 mcg of Ganirelix. (Makes it so I don't ovulate.)

 



The shots don't hurt (I actually don't feel them at all because I am a nurse and I am AWESOME) but sometimes the drugs will sting after they are injected. I've had a day or two of massive cramps, but other than that....not much. I am feeling fatter than I did before the injections started, but this could be attributed to the excess girl scout cookies around here. Which are no longer in excess because they keep forcing themselves down my throat.

We go for an ultrasound tomorrow, to see what my ovaries are doing and do a follicle count, and then Chad gets his little swimmers chopped out on Monday. Should have an egg retrieval early next week if all goes well and then I could possibly be knocked up by the end of next week.

AND the pool dudes are supposed to show up and dig a big hole in the backyard today FINALLY.

Busy busy.

Today's drug menu:

I ended up getting the teensiest needles EVER for the Follistim pen, and they are awesome. If I was a crackhead these would totally be my needle of choice.

Today was day two of injections, I'm already starting to feel a little tired and moody and some strange left hip pain and swelling (I have no idea what that's about) but other than that there seems to be a lot fewer side effects than the Lupron/Menopur combo I used the last time we did this. I'm going to blame today's mommy/daughter meltdown on my kid turning into a teenager and not the result of me shooting hamster hormones into my belly fat.

Let's get this party started

Dear FedEx: When a signature is REQUIRED for delivery of $3000 worth of fertility meds, it's usually not a good idea to play dingdongditch and dump the box on the doorstep instead of obtaining the signature, especially when the recipient is hormonal, sleep-deprived and feeling generally crabby. I'm so glad I was home, 'cause some of that stuff needed to go into the fridge. (Not so glad that I had finally fallen asleep for the first time in a  few days and the doorbell woke me up.)

Got my meds today. Follistim, Ganirelix, and HCG.

Followup ultrasound showed that the cyst shrunk down to 11 mm, small enough for us to proceed. My estrogen level was perfect. I quit birth control pills two days ago and start injections tomorrow.

Here we go!

Come on ovaries, BEHAVE.

You would not believe how many times I have retyped this. Blogger - I HATE YOU.

I am such a good mother that I dragged my feverish, overly snotty face out into the fifty degree tundra (hey, that's freezing to a native Arizonan) and watched the fruit of my loins board a thousand-pound beast and force it to jump over things.

Sidetrack here, I swear I'll be quick. The first time we rode at these new stables (instructor moved) I saw something very large stumbling around in a strange manner over behind the arena where Emma is riding in the following video. I took a closer look over that fence and had to do a double take because this is what was back there peering at me:

Hello, that is a giraffe, people. Where do you even get a giraffe, unless you are the zoo? And this isn't the zoo, just a guy with like 20 acres of land in the middle of nowhere, AZ. ??!!

Anyway, back to my sad story, I took Emma to horseback lessons even though I was dying of the plague or dysentery or something.

But so worth it! This kid is making great strides at this new place:

 

 

 

Seriously, I was FREEZING during this entire lesson. The wind was blowing and my nose was running and my eyes were streaming and by the time we got home I thought I was going to die. We needed groceries, the house was a disaster, and all I could do was lay on the couch and bemoan the fact that the US Army doesn't care in the slightest that The Wife (I capitalize that because I am very important) has a stuffy nose - her husband still has to leave for four days to play in the snow.

The next morning I knew I was in trouble. I attempted to listen to my own lungs with my neonatal stethoscope and that didn't work out so well, due to my size not being the same as a preemie's, but I swear I heard crap in there so I dragged my feverish, overly snotty face and now painful lungs to the local Urgent Care. Got diagnosed with bronchitis and a touch of pneumonia, lucky me!  Good thing I didn't exacerbate anything by, oh, I don't know, going outdoors in the freezing windy cold.

My kid had better know how much I love her.

So now I'm enjoying a bouquet of drugs - some drug I can't spell and am too lazy to look up to spell (it's basically Mucinex with codeine), Albuterol, Azithromycin, steroids and tons of ibuprofen and Nyquil. Don't ask me if I shouldn't mix those, I have no idea, and frankly, don't care. I just know that I slept through the night without waking up to hack, sneeze, wheeze, blow my nose or tripod breathe even ONCE last night because of all of that stuff. The pharmacist tried to tell me that two of those drugs weren't covered by insurance and did I still want them and I was like SHIT YES. I actually used those words. GIVE ME MY CODEINE MAN I'M NOT PLAYING AROUND.

So IVF update! Yes, even though I am dying we are still plowing ahead. Had a procedure done in which dye was shot into my uterus and then ultrasound was used to see the outline of my internal lady parts. No blockages, but I do have a large 4-5 cm cyst on my right ovary and a smallish one on the left. These have to go bye-bye before I can start injectable meds in a few weeks, but hopefully the birth control pills will take care of that. Can I just tell you how uncomfortable it makes Chad to watch the doc do a trans vaginal ultrasound on me? The first time he watched he was all WOAH, that doc's going to put that giant phallic object where in my wife? I'm enjoying his discomfort a teensy bit, because there's really nothing else enjoyable about a transvag ultrasound. After I had switched into the lovely gown for the procedure the MA asked if I wanted my husband to be there (he was still in the waiting room) I just smiled a big smile and said "oh yes, he wants to be here for this". 

Hee.

And in conclusion, here is a picture of my pretty fireplace at the new house, which we are still enjoying immensely. We are waiting for construction to start on the pool, and that had better be soon because I am getting tired of the combination of a dirt backyard, frequent rain, and dogs.

Here we go!

Started my first batch of meds today! In vitro attempt number two has officially begun. This first part is around 2 weeks of birth control to regulate everything. I forgot how sick I get on birth control, since I haven't been on it for eight years. Emma decided to share her nasty bug with me too so I'm both barfy and feverish! Joy. But I'm going to smile because I'm happy we're starting this FINALLY.