Tonight is my 7th day of stims. On Thursday after 3 days of stims I had 5 measurable follicles. Friday night my dose of Gonal-F was increased slightly and I added in Luveris and Cetrotide. This morning I woke up quite uncomfortable, which I took as a good sign that there must be some action going on. Today I had 11 measurable follicles, which I think is good, but similar to my last fresh IVF cycle, my stubborn E2 doesn't seem to correspond very well to the amount of follicle growth. In all, I am still feeling much more positive about this cycle than my last fresh cycle, so I am trying to maintain a positive outlook. This evening I went to my first acupuncture appointment of this cycle, which was very relaxing minus the hellacious trip getting there in terrible traffic!
Right now we are looking at a Thursday or Friday egg retrieval, but since last cycle I was also on-target for a Thursday ER but then didn't make it to ER until Sunday, I am not 100% sure ER will really happen this week. Y has been abroad since I started stimming and I haven't enjoyed going at it alone this IVF, so I am really looking forward to his return tomorrow. Also, I am really terrible at reconstituting and injecting the vials of Luveris and Cetrotide - somehow I always get the distinct impression that a not-so insignificant fraction of my injection is either on the kitchen table or on my skin rather than inside my body. My mixing and injection skills are quite pathetic for a scientist. I look forward to Y taking over the injection duties - then maybe my E2 will suddenly start playing nice :)
Showing posts with label monitoring update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label monitoring update. Show all posts
Oct 30, 2011
Aug 18, 2011
quiet
I know I have been pretty quiet lately. Not a whole lot going on. I went in for my lining check on Monday and my lining was 9.2, which is great. I am now just about in the middle of my cycle and I had noticed over the past few days that I was getting pretty severe cramping after running, like bad menstrual cramps. Sure enough, when I went running on Tuesday, not only did I get really bad cramps but I also started bleeding bright red, like I'm in the middle of my period. Luckily, it became just spotting by the next day. I called the clinic and spoke to one of the nurses who accused me of skipping estrogen pills (absolutely not the case) and told me to just come in next week for my next lining check as originally planned.
Hopefully bright red bleeding and cramping is common and not a problem while on estrogen for a FET, otherwise I might be in trouble. Since the nurse seemed unconcerned, Y said I should be unconcerned, too, but I don't know - it just seems...odd. I guess it's probably just breakthrough bleeding or something.
Dr. Google made me a little anxious (haha, when doesn't it?) because apparently cramping/bleeding after running is quite common in endometriosis because running can irritate endometrial implants and cause them to bleed. I also remembered that when I was younger and running competitively, I would have bright red bleeding and cramping after running at totally random times of my cycle, but I never really gave it much thought other than thinking it was a little weird. I didn't run yesterday, so it will be an experiment to see what happens after my run tonight, I guess.
In other uneventful news, my 2nd opinion appointment got cancelled, so I guess that's not right on the horizon anymore. I am meeting with the new acupuncturist on Sunday. I really hope she can help me at least feel a little bit more positive and relaxed. I am trying to think of new ways to distract myself from IF, so I am looking into signing up for an evening painting class at the local art museum this fall. I used to love to paint and I think it might help me to get back in touch with my creative/artistic side.
Also, after heavily procrastinating on signing up for any road races (due to my inexplicable and illogical belief that I could at any point become pregnant), I signed up for a 10K at the beginning of November, so I am pretty excited for that and hoping that cycling won't interfere (realistically, assuming this FET doesn't work and with our trip and the holidays coming up in Israel, I don't think we'd be doing another fresh cycle until November and I am okay with that).
Hopefully bright red bleeding and cramping is common and not a problem while on estrogen for a FET, otherwise I might be in trouble. Since the nurse seemed unconcerned, Y said I should be unconcerned, too, but I don't know - it just seems...odd. I guess it's probably just breakthrough bleeding or something.
Dr. Google made me a little anxious (haha, when doesn't it?) because apparently cramping/bleeding after running is quite common in endometriosis because running can irritate endometrial implants and cause them to bleed. I also remembered that when I was younger and running competitively, I would have bright red bleeding and cramping after running at totally random times of my cycle, but I never really gave it much thought other than thinking it was a little weird. I didn't run yesterday, so it will be an experiment to see what happens after my run tonight, I guess.
In other uneventful news, my 2nd opinion appointment got cancelled, so I guess that's not right on the horizon anymore. I am meeting with the new acupuncturist on Sunday. I really hope she can help me at least feel a little bit more positive and relaxed. I am trying to think of new ways to distract myself from IF, so I am looking into signing up for an evening painting class at the local art museum this fall. I used to love to paint and I think it might help me to get back in touch with my creative/artistic side.
Also, after heavily procrastinating on signing up for any road races (due to my inexplicable and illogical belief that I could at any point become pregnant), I signed up for a 10K at the beginning of November, so I am pretty excited for that and hoping that cycling won't interfere (realistically, assuming this FET doesn't work and with our trip and the holidays coming up in Israel, I don't think we'd be doing another fresh cycle until November and I am okay with that).
Jun 16, 2011
E2 never went up
According to the nurses, my E2 hasn't gone up at all since Tuesday and the rise between Sunday and Tuesday was very modest. Interestingly, my follicles continue to grow - today I had 21, 20, 19, 17, 16, and 16 on the left and 22, 16, 15, 15, 13 on the right with a lining of 13mm. Yet my E2 is still shy of 1000 pg/ml which just doesn't correlate with the follie growth. They decided we should still go through with ER, which will be on Sunday, so I will trigger at 11:30pm on Friday night. I will continue stimming right up until the trigger, taking my last dose of Gonal-F the same day as the trigger.
I already view this cycle like a failed science experiment but hopefully we will learn some valuable things for next time. It's safe to say that I would be absolutely shocked if this cycle results in a viable pregnancy - even if we do get a few half-decent embryos there is the whole issue of decreased endometrial receptivity that comes with stimming past the point when the lead follicles are in their prime. My lowered expectations are actually sort of comforting - I feel like a lot of stress and anxiety has been lifted from my shoulders now that I feel fairly confident in the outcome.
I do worry what my bizarre-o response says about my egg quality in general and what the future holds for us in trying to use my eggs, but then again, I am Jump to the Worst Conclusion Girl. At the end of the day, I will be really interested to hear what my doctors think of the E2 that doesn't budge despite growing follicles, but from what I've read it seems likely that my E2 isn't increasing because a lot of those eggs are of very questionable quality and/or that some of those follicles are empty. I am looking forward to the egg retrieval with a very detached intellectual curiosity at what will actually be retrieved. I think I am trying my hardest to emotionally distance myself from the cycle as a defense mechanism to prepare myself for failure. I just don't get it- this pretty much sucks.
I already view this cycle like a failed science experiment but hopefully we will learn some valuable things for next time. It's safe to say that I would be absolutely shocked if this cycle results in a viable pregnancy - even if we do get a few half-decent embryos there is the whole issue of decreased endometrial receptivity that comes with stimming past the point when the lead follicles are in their prime. My lowered expectations are actually sort of comforting - I feel like a lot of stress and anxiety has been lifted from my shoulders now that I feel fairly confident in the outcome.
I do worry what my bizarre-o response says about my egg quality in general and what the future holds for us in trying to use my eggs, but then again, I am Jump to the Worst Conclusion Girl. At the end of the day, I will be really interested to hear what my doctors think of the E2 that doesn't budge despite growing follicles, but from what I've read it seems likely that my E2 isn't increasing because a lot of those eggs are of very questionable quality and/or that some of those follicles are empty. I am looking forward to the egg retrieval with a very detached intellectual curiosity at what will actually be retrieved. I think I am trying my hardest to emotionally distance myself from the cycle as a defense mechanism to prepare myself for failure. I just don't get it- this pretty much sucks.
Jun 12, 2011
monitoring update - CD 9 (day 7 of stims)
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!
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!
Jan 23, 2011
a less than enthusiastic monitoring update
Guess how many follicles I have on my first injectables cycle?? One freaking lousy follicle (sorry lone follicle, I don't mean to insult you - I still have great hopes for your future!). I have a bunch of 10s, but my dominant follicle is already at 18mm, so there's no way the little ones are going to catch up at this point.
I know that during FSH cycles they usually like to trigger a little earlier than during Clomid cycles and that 17-18mm can be considered mature, so I was confused and surprised when the nurse told me to take Puregon again tonight and then to trigger tomorrow night (Mon) and come in for IUI on Wed morning. Doesn't that seem really late? I didn't have LH drawn today, just E2 and prog levels, but I did get a neg OPK so I don't think I started to surge on my own. STILL Wed seems really late for IUI given that I am already at 18 today (and lining is 10.5mm). What do you ladies think?
I know that the first time on injectables is often just a crapshoot to see how you respond to a guestimated dose (for me very low to start, since I over-responded easily on Clomid) and it's better that we figure this out now on an IUI cycle than later on an IVF cycle, but I can't help but be totally bummed I only have one follicle (and of course now I am convinced that the IUI will be too late). I know it's really stupid and it doesn't work that way, but I don't know, I sort of hoped since it's my birthday I was going to get news that made me happy. I am trying to still have a little hope for this cycle and also to remember that if it doesn't work out, that's one more cycle closer to fulfilling the health fund requirement for them to fully cover IVF.
I know that during FSH cycles they usually like to trigger a little earlier than during Clomid cycles and that 17-18mm can be considered mature, so I was confused and surprised when the nurse told me to take Puregon again tonight and then to trigger tomorrow night (Mon) and come in for IUI on Wed morning. Doesn't that seem really late? I didn't have LH drawn today, just E2 and prog levels, but I did get a neg OPK so I don't think I started to surge on my own. STILL Wed seems really late for IUI given that I am already at 18 today (and lining is 10.5mm). What do you ladies think?
I know that the first time on injectables is often just a crapshoot to see how you respond to a guestimated dose (for me very low to start, since I over-responded easily on Clomid) and it's better that we figure this out now on an IUI cycle than later on an IVF cycle, but I can't help but be totally bummed I only have one follicle (and of course now I am convinced that the IUI will be too late). I know it's really stupid and it doesn't work that way, but I don't know, I sort of hoped since it's my birthday I was going to get news that made me happy. I am trying to still have a little hope for this cycle and also to remember that if it doesn't work out, that's one more cycle closer to fulfilling the health fund requirement for them to fully cover IVF.
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