IVF#3 - Acupuncture Blooper

Today I went to my 4th acupuncture appt and I had this new guy who I’ve only seen one other time. In addition to the uterine blood flow points, he said he wanted to do several stress points because he could tell I’m stressed out. Then he asked me to undress down to my panties and bra and I said “are you SERIOUS???”. I’ve done acupuncture for a year now and have never been asked to remove clothing. He said that since I had stretchy pants, I could just pull the pant legs up but he needed to get to my entire back for the stress points. He left the room so I could remove my shirt and have time to lay on the table. I thought, well, I’ll be laying on my stomach, he’ll only see my back, so I took my shirt off. Then I had a panicking thought, when was the last time I shaved my pits??? I took a quick peek and Ohhhh H E double hockey stick NO, that shirt was going right back on. He walked in and I was lying on the table with shirt on but hiked up and I said, sorry dude, the shirt stays.

So tomorrow is my suppression check. This is where they’ll ultrasound my ovaries to make sure they are nice and quiet, no cysts. They’ll measure my uterine lining and hopefully count micro follicles. They’ll check my estradiol and progesterone. Estradiol should be less than 50 and progesterone less than 1. With this particular protocol, you have suppression check the day of or day after you start your period. I’m fearing this more than anything, getting wanded while on your period has got to rank up there on the scale of humiliation. I’ve chosen to view this as a warm up to pushing out a baby. If I pass, I get to start stims. One big problem, there is no sign of auntie flo in sight. I was thinking, they are putting my body in a menopause state, doesn’t menopause mean no period? For the past 3 years I’ve begged her to stay away, now that I’d appreciate a visit, she’s flown the coop. I’ve tried teasing her with the home pregnancy tests, that usually always gets her attention. I guess I need to put on my sexiest undies, some white pants and go to the mall with no protection. You know me, I have a backup plan. I have another suppression check scheduled for Fri in case auntie is late, but she’s pushing it because I need to start stims Sat in order to not interrupt my travel plans which is to depart Monday. I already have the hotel booked and have a travel agent standing by ready to book a last min flight/car as soon as I say go.

Tonight will be my 8th lupron injection and I feel pretty darn good. If this is menopause, yeahhh…I can handle it.

Hope to give you suppression results soon…

IVF#3 - Not Pregnant!!!

Weeeeeeee, that was a FUN ride on the kiddie roller coaster! [insert rolling eyes]

So my beta just came in and I’m NOT preggo, so if you’re holding your breath, go ahead and breathe again. My ob/gyn was completely baffled why they ordered a beta at this stage, even if I was preggo, it would be too early to tell because implantation hasn’t even had time to happen. I agree, I think my IVF nurse was just being cautious thinking that if my progesterone level was induced by pregnancy, then it would show up, plus Lupron is not safe for pregnancy.

Now I’m getting in line for the adult roller coaster, the one that ends in Denver. Just waiting to see what my IVF nurse wants me to do next.

Thanks for being excited for me even if it was only for a day. It was the first time in my life a doctor/nurse thought I was pregnant, so even though it was emotionally draining, I got to experience just a touch of what it would feel like for someone to say “you’re pregnant” and it was the most amazing feeling. Moving on and looking forward to hearing it for real.

IVF#3 - Lupron

I just got the email from my IVF nurse and I'm to start lupron injections and dex tonight. I will take these all the way to trigger. OMG, here I go! Gosh, what a mind shift...

I'm also doing chiro 3x and acupuncture 2x a week to resolve my low uterine bloodflow.

Two differences with CCRM over my local clinic:
1. They insist that the Lupron is name brand, local uses generic.
2. They use Dexamethosone, local does not. This prevents the excess secretion of male hormones from the adrenal gland.

This little tiny vial costs $497 and it's only a quarter filled, can you believe it? Fortunately because it has many other uses, my insurance paid for it and I only had to pay a $25 copay.

IVF#3 - Pregnant???

Ok people, I'm totally freakin out. I had my progesterone level this morning and if the level is >5, I start lupron and dex tonight. It came back 27 so I thought, great, finally I get to start the process. Well then I get a call from my IVF nurse and she tells me my level is really high and to not do any lupron/dex tonight and instead go get a pregnancy test first thing in the morning! I was dumbfounded to say the least. She said that a normal level is 5-15 and that mine was the level of someone who's pregnant. I'm just like, there's NO WAY! It's not impossible, but come on, me... preggo??? We didn't even try this cycle. I actually told Kerry that he better not knock me up because I would need to start lupron before a pg could be detected. Lupron is very dangerous and causes birth defects. So I really don't believe I am, but how does a girl in my position not overanalyze everything? I asked my nurse if it could mean anything else and she didn't have any other reasons for it. So now I get a beta in the morning and then wait till it comes back in the afternoon.

Please pray for me, this would be an incredible miracle.

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!