This morning I went in for my first monitoring appointment since starting stims. There's not quite as much going on as I had hoped given that I am feeling pretty uncomfortable already and the doctors were being a little alarmist about my OHSS risk before I even started. I am actually feeling a little let down by my response so far, but I know things could change quickly. I have 5 follies at 10mm, 2 follies between 12-14mm, and 2 follies at 15mm. As I predicted, today was a little on the late side to start the antagonist, so the nurses were very happy that I brought cetrotide with me and I was able to do the injection right then and there after my ultrasound. My E2 is ~2700 pmol/L, which is equivalent to around 700 pg/ml - the units used in most American labs (there's an approximation sign there because I didn't quite catch the whole number over the phone).
The plan now is to continue along with the same dose of Gonal-F tonight and tomorrow night along with Cetrotide and then I will go in on Tuesday morning for my pre-op and another monitoring appointment. It seems like I am stimming pretty quickly but not necessarily with so many follies (weirdly, so far my response is almost identical to my response to just 50mg Clomid during the cycle when I over-responded...I think my body is pretty unpredictable/variable). I am really hoping to somehow hit that elusive sweet spot where they get a satisfying number of eggs but not quite enough to push me into high-risk for OHSS territory.
I am honestly just a little underwhelmed that I already feel as uncomfortable as I do with only 10 follicles (5 of which I would say are a little iffy...many times during IUI cycles the little guys at 10 or 11mm would just fizzle out).
All in all, things are moving along okay I think, but I hope I will have a more enthusiastic update come Tuesday!
P.S. I would love to hear from other ladies whose response was somewhat similar to mine in terms of how things ended up for you by the time of ER!
It's a little spooky how exact our cycles are. I started stimming the same day of the week as you, so on the sunday check I also had 3000 E2 and almost the exact same follicle count/sizes as you. My next monitoring two days later, there were already a bunch at 20mm and E2 of 8400, Thursday ER and they got 25 eggs! So give your follicles some credit, all those follicles that are 10mm are going to be a lot bigger and you'll have more little follicles as well. It looks like you're doing great, remember you don't want to overstim! It messes a lot of stuff up.
ReplyDeleteOh right, I guess this is obvious but I triggered that Tuesday, with the Lupron trigger.
ReplyDeleteNo experience with that stuff (yet). But wishing you luck! Keep us posted!
ReplyDeleteThanks, guys! :)
ReplyDeleteI think you are doing great! Hang in there & keep us posted!
ReplyDeleteOh how exciting - sounds like your body is responding well! Keep it up!
ReplyDelete