Monday, October 20, 2008

IVF#3 - HSG/Test Results

Today was my HSG. For any of you that are not familiar with this, it stands for Hysterosalpingogram. They inject contrast dye into the uterine cavity through the cervix and watch to see if the dye spills out the fallopian tubes via x-ray. This is done to determine if the tubes are open or not. One might wonder what matters when doing IVF since you bypass the tubes. Well according to Dr. Schoolcraft, if the tube is blocked, it fills up with fluid and this fluid is toxic to an embryo and significantly impairs implantation.

They started out by taking an x-ray of my pelvic area prior to starting the procedure. The x-ray is live on a screen in front of me. I asked what I was viewing and the nurse pointed out my colon and said all the white areas are air. Oh dear Lord that’s a lot of “air” is all I could focus on. The doctor came in and prepped me while I prayed for no pain as I’ve heard way too many horror stories of how painful this procedure is. He threaded in the catheter and inflated a balloon inside the uterus, the pain was a little intense. I closed my eyes and started singing a song we’ve been singing at church and instantly all the pain went away. Now of course I didn’t sing out loud, I’m pretty confident the doctor would have inflicted pain on me if he had to listen to that. He injected the dye as I watched it fill my uterine cavity and flow out my tubes. He said all looked normal and my tubes are open!!! Yippee! They removed the catheter and took one more x-ray and that was it… and thankfully the “air” stayed put.

All of our tests are now in… here’s the remaining results:

Jill:
Female Antisperm Antibodies: negative (yeah!)
Communicable Diseases: all negative (no cooties!)

Kerry:
Semen Culture: negative (no infections)
Communicable Diseases: all negative (cootie free!)
Frozen Backup Semen Analysis:
Count: 18.8 mil/ml (below normal)
Motility: 11% (way below normal)
Motility Rate: Twitching (time to get these boys some swimming lessons!)

2 weeks till injections!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

IVF#3 - Protocol/Calendar

AF arrived yesterday and I finally rec'd my protocol/calendar!!!! They are putting me on the standard long lupron protocol without BCP.

It's a little strange for me as the local clinic treated me as a poor responder twice and now I'm being treated as a normal responder. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Schedule:
Oct 19-29 Doxycycline (husband & wife)
Oct 20 HSGNov 4 Progesterone Level, start suppression if level > 5
Nov 4-14 Lupron 10iu & Dexamethosone
Nov 13 Suppression Check (u/s & b/w)
Nov 15-23 Stims (2 Menopur am, 300iu Gonal-F pm, Lupron 5iu, Dexamethosone)
Nov 17 Travel to Denver
Nov 18-23 Monitoring (u/s & b/w)
Nov 24 Progesterone & Estrogen Level, start Medrol & Tetracycline
Nov 26 Tentative Egg RetrievalNov 27 Bedrest (Thanksgiving... I know what I'm going to be thankful for!!!)
Nov 29 Tentative Day 3 Transfer -- or -- Dec 1 Tentative Day 5 Transfer
2 days of strict bedrest following transfer and then head back home

3 weeks till injections!!!

Friday, October 10, 2008

IVF#3 - Chromosome Analysis

One more result has trickled in… the Chromosome Analysis. This tests all 46 chromosomes. You can have an extra, missing or out of place chromosome that doesn’t affect you, but will affect your offspring or your ability to become pregnant. They wanted to test me for this since I have never been pregnant and have produced poo-poo quality embryos.

Results: 46, XX

Translation: I’m normal!!!! (at least microscopically) Oh, and I’m a girl!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

IVF#3 - Test Results

Hello!

I finally got a few results back, nothing too exciting, but never the less, it’s a tiny step forward.

These are the results from my blood work at my ob/gyn’s office:

Varicella Zoster: I am immune to chicken pox… could have told them that, not easy to forget that poultry.

Thyroid: normal… Hooray because that would have held me up!

CBC (complete blood count): all normal except I have mild anemia. I missed the normal range by 0.8. I was shocked as I’ve never had it before and my prenatal that I’ve been on for 3 years has 167% iron. But after a little research I think I figured it out. I found that baby aspirin is probably the culprit. I’ve been taking one a day for the last 7 months as they say it helps blood flow to the reproductive organs. But since it’s also a blood thinner, it made my blood a little too thin. Out the window it goes. I think I could fill a landfill with everything I've tried to help get me pregnant!

It will probably be another couple of weeks for the chromosome analysis results. Oh I hope I'm normal!!!

I haven’t heard a single word from CCRM which has been very frustrating. While in Denver, we left a nice box of chocolates on my ivf nurse’s desk as a thank you... no acknowledgement, no thank you. Maybe she doesn't appreciate brown-nosers, but I’m down grading my love to just like.

2 weeks till the dreaded HSG (dye test to check tubes). It will be fun, it WILL be fun!

That’s it folks, I told you it wouldn’t be too exciting.