On the Upswing

I am feeling better today.

For me, telling my secrets always takes away some of their power. I still will have to deal with all of these feelings and emotions, but now that I've come clean about them it doesn't feel like it's consuming me!

We live 45min-1hr from the clinic, so to avoid the mad rush I have made some hotel reservations 2 miles away. I booked the whole week and will just cancel what we don't need.

My switch to Lupron in the morning has been smooth, and my nurse assures me that my error won't screw up the cycle. On Saturday morning I'll take 150iu of gonal-f and Saturday eve I'll take 225iu. That's 5 vials a day!!!! I'll be on it for 10-12 days. If you figure $60.00/a vial times 50 vials--donated meds have saved us $3000.00. We could NEVER have done another cycle this year without them.

So to all of you who have ever donated your leftover meds to your clinic--THANK YOU!

The current dose is a 66% increase from my last cycle. Last time my E2 was only around 1500--which is nowhere near OHSS. I had 10 follies retrieved, 9 mature, 6 fertilized, and 3 survived to day 3 for transfer. The three survivors were about a day behind in growth, but had grade A appearance. So our goal this time is to up the dose to try and get more eggs. I want to try for a 5 day transfer which my clinic only does if you have 10 or more mature follies. I also would like to have some to freeze, and I don't feel like upping the dose will endanger my health.

The other thing we're doing differently is Dave's sample collection. Over the course of years of treatment, Dave has been tested many times, and has always been above normal. He has always collected at home. For our IVF cycle we were instructed that he MUST collect at the lab. For the first and only time, his sample was of super low volume. That forced us into ICSI and I think also may have contributed to our embryo quality. He has been tested again since, with a sample from home and was again above normal. So this time we have been given permission to collect at home or at the hotel as the case may be.

My progesterone came back last time at just 15, and after that test, the RE instructed me to up it from .5 to 1cc for the second week, so I am going to ask tomorrow if I can just take 1cc from the start. Even if it doesn't help I think it will make me know that I'm doing everything I can.

Amy