Last Day of Work for the Year!

Today is my last day of work for 2010! I will be spending the next few days wrapping presents, baking cookies, and doing anything else that I can to get my mind off of the 2 WW. According to my nurse, I should be able to take an HPT on New Year’s Eve…. So I will be either celebrating without alcohol, or celebrating that this terrible year is over WITH alcohol…. We will see! Last cycle, I had some major breast/nipple soreness after the Ovidrel injection but not this time. I’m not even having any side effects from the Prometrium. Hopefully that’s not a bad sign!

Since my last post, I have done a great deal of research on MTHFR in relation to recurrent pregnancy loss. For the most part it seems to be very treatable and taking a baby aspirin as well as a special prenatal vitamin (I’m taking Neevo) seems to help almost everyone with this condition. But I’ve also read that having 2 “C” copies of this mutation (like I do) is also the most severe. Almost everyone that I have read about with the 2 “C” copies is on an injectable blood thinner such as Lovenox in addition to the BA and special prenatal. So I am a little concerned since my nurse said that I definitely wouldn’t need something like that.

I called her this morning and she told me that she would feel more comfortable having the doctor answer my questions so she is going to have her call me within the next day or so. Honestly, I will be fine if she tells me that I don’t need the Lovenox. I definitely trust them… I just need some reassurance. I want to do whatever it takes to not only get pregnant, but stay pregnant. If that means daily injections throughout a pregnancy, so be it. I just want them to explain to me why I wouldn’t need them.

I also asked my nurse about the possibility of moving on to 100 mg of Clomid for my next cycle if this one is unsuccessful. She said that the doctor will let me know if that’s something that I should plan for when she calls me. I need to make sure I have a list of questions written down for her!

So that’s about it! Nothing too exciting to report.

If I don’t get a chance to post before, I hope everyone has a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

Good News… and Not So Good News….

I will start with the good news…. My follicle is at 20.1 mm! YAY! So I will be triggering tonight! Definitely didn’t see this coming as I thought we would have to cancel this cycle…so I’m super excited! My nurse told me that my LH levels went WAY up... so my my hubby and I will be busy little bees for the next few days…  :)

Now for the not so good news… When my nurse called me to give me my results for today she said that she also had the results of my RPL blood work. I tested positive for (please forgive me if I’m not stating this correctly) 2 “C” copies for MTHFR. I don’t know much about this except that I know it is some sort of clotting disorder which is sometimes treated by blood thinners. She said that I have a “good” kind (if that’s possible) where I wouldn’t need injections of blood thinners but that I could just take a daily 81 mg of aspirin. I started taking that when I started the Clomid (I heard that baby aspirin also can help with any lining issues) so she said that was good and to continue to take it. She said the other important thing that I will need to do is take a special prenatal vitamin with extra folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12. Apparently the MTHFR affects my body’s ability to absorb the folic acid and these B vitamins… So I am going to go pick up the prescription tonight.

Again, I have not had a chance to do much research on this so I’m only going by what my nurse has told me so far. She said that this is very common and very treatable so I’m hopeful. I’m SO glad that I insisted to go ahead with the testing because at least now I know that there really was an issue. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the vitamins will help correct the problem.

If anyone out there in blog land has any advice or information for me I would love to hear it!

I Think My Ovaries Read My Blog…

...Because yesterday morning, I went in for my monitoring appointment fully expecting to be told that we are canceling this cycle. Instead, my right ovary surprised me by producing at 13.3 mm follicle! I was shocked because I didn’t have any follicles bigger than 9 mm on Friday morning.

Anyway… I left the appointment in a pretty good mood… but I wasn’t getting my hopes up because I needed to get the results of my blood work to make sure things were moving in the right direction.

So my nurse calls me later on and said that my estrogen went up significantly since Friday morning and things were moving along just as they should be. She also said that my doctor reviewed my results and wanted me to come in the very next morning for another blood work and ultrasound. I didn’t expect that. Normally I get at least a little break in between appointments. When I asked her why I had to come back so soon, she said that the Doctor thinks that (based on my blood work) things are going to start moving along very quickly. Even though I HATE getting up at the crack of dawn when it’s FREEZING outside and driving all of that way for a 10 minute appointment, I appreciate the fact that my doctor is monitoring me so closely. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m doing all of this for a reason and that it will all pay off someday!  

So… after a relaxing evening at Acupuncture and a good night’s sleep, I went in AGAIN bright and early this morning for another ultrasound and blood work. When I went in for my ultrasound, even the sonographer was surprised to see me back so soon. I know follicles typically grow 1-2 mm per day so I was expecting her to tell me it was 14 or (at the most) 15 today. But it’s at 16.5 mm! She said, “Wow, you really are moving right along. You’ll probably be back tomorrow and by then you’ll probably be ready to trigger.”

So I really hope that’s the case! I’m still waiting for a call from my nurse with my blood work results from this morning and I guess she will tell me if I need to come back tomorrow or not.

I’m still really surprised that we are able to move forward with this cycle. I thought for sure that I didn’t respond at all. I know it’s pretty late (I’m on CD 19 today!) but I’m praying that things continue to go well and that this follicle will release a healthy, mature, and fertilizable egg. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Now I feel a little bad for calling my ovaries “total jerks” on my last post.

My Ovaries Must Hate Me…

…Because they are refusing to produce a follicle of a respectable size.

Also on today’s agenda…. My husband wants to do IVF.

But let’s start with this morning’s monitoring appointment, shall we?

It sucked. That’s really the only way I can describe it. Mark came with me this morning to the appointment and it was crazy busy. They took me back right away to an ultrasound room and then I guess they forgot about me. Thankfully, Mark came back with me and kept me distracted by making fun of the bruise on my foot and accidentally ripping the giant napkin while putting it over the naked, lower half of my body. Fun, fun times.

Finally my least favorite sonographer (I think that’s the right word for them?) came in to do the ultra sound of doom. It’s not that I don’t like her… it’s just that she is my least favorite because she doesn’t say very much.  Anyway… She started out with some with positive news…she said, “Your lining looks great!”. Okay… good news… let’s move on to my ovaries now please. She looked at them both and said… “You aren’t ready yet… they are still small.” Yup. Once again, I have no follicles over 10 mm. And what’s with this, “You aren’t ready, YET?” Um, lady, I’m on CD 15… do you seriously expect me to believe that one of these follies is going to grow nice and big overnight? Just tell me that I’m not going to ovulate this month, mmmkay??

After my fun and exciting ultrasound, Mark and I headed back into the waiting room for another 25 minutes while we waited for me to get my blood drawn. It wouldn’t have been so bad but I just wanted to get out of there. I feel like I just keep wasting time, gas, and co-pays because my body refuses to cooperate.

Now on to our exciting conversation on the way home…

After we left, Mark and I were both very frustrated. I know that this is only my second cycle at the fertility clinic but I have been off of birth control for over two years now. I am sick of it… Sick of waiting.  Mark feels the same way and tells me all of the time that he hates watching me go through all of this.

 So on the way to work after our appointment (we both work in the same building) he says to me, “Let’s do IVF.” Whoa. I didn’t know if he realized this or not but I’m on the lowest dosage of medication … there are lots more things that we can try before we decide to do the mother of all fertility treatments. He said that he knew all of that but he doesn’t want to wait anymore because he isn’t getting any younger and he knows how hard this has been on me. He promised that he would leave it up to me and that if I wanted to try different med dosages first that he would support my decision.

I hate waiting too. It sucks. And I definitely don’t want to go through cycle after cycle of timed intercourse with ovaries that won’t cooperate. But… I may just need a higher dosage of Clomid. Or Injectables. I just don’t know yet. And I don’t know that I’m ready to move onto IVF when there are some other things that we can try.

So I told him that I’ve decided to give Timed Intercourse a few more tries. Maybe try some higher dosages of meds. But if more than a few cycles pass with no response (or another pregnancy loss) then I won’t hesitate to move onto IVF. I’m tired of waiting and I know my hubby is too. I know that IVF doesn’t guarantee us a pregnancy or even a baby but I think that our chances would be a heck of a lot better.

Anyway…..when my nurse called me this afternoon with the blood workresults, she said that my estrogen only went up a little and that they are expecting that we will need to cancel this cycle (NO KIDDING). BUT… they are making me come in AGAIN on MONDAY for another monitoring appointment (UGH!) to make SURE that I truly am having no response this time to 50 mg of Clomid. If that is indeed the case, they will give me Provera to jump start my period (I’ve never had to take this before but she said it’s to help to move things along a little faster) and then I get to bump up to 100 mg of Clomid.

So, over all, I feel okay about it. I’m NOT happy that for some reason my ovaries decided to be total jerks and not respond this month but I’m excited that we get to try something a little different next time around.

And the best part of it all? No gross progesterone suppositories over my Christmas vacation!

CD 12 – Follicle Report #1

I have…. (drumroll please…) ZERO dominant follicles! All are at 10 mm or less. UGH!!!!!!  By this time last month I had a 16 mm dominant follicle. When the ultrasound tech told me the news I was really upset. I could have just stayed in bed instead of getting up at 5:00 am and driving there for nothing!

So I got to work and was upset all morning. And I had an evil cup of coffee (which was delicious).

But my nurse just called… and she made me feel so much better as always! She said that even though I don’t have a dominant follicle just yet, my lining is starting to thicken up and my blood work shows that my estrogen levels are rising nicely. She said that she is not concerned at all and that everything seems to be moving in the right direction. I explained that I was worried because by this time last cycle I had a 16 mm follie but she said that cycles can vary and that I’m more than likely just going to ovulate later this cycle. She wants me to come back Friday morning to see how things are going.

So, I feel a little bit better. I always do after talking to her! I’m just going to try my best to relax and pray that I will get good results on Friday. I guess maybe things could be off too because of the chemical pregnancy that I just had? I don't know... I forgot to ask her about that. But we'll see what happens I guess...

I've also decided that I’m going to dust off my Wii balance board tonight to do some Yoga on Wii Fit Plus. We’ll see how it goes… I just hope I don’t get bored with the yoga and decide to bounce some soccer balls off of my head or do some crazy hula hooping! :) If you’ve ever played Wii Fit you know what I’m talking about! :)

Not Much to Report …

Today is CD 11 and tomorrow I will go in for a follicle check. I don’t know why but I’m nervous! I had absolutely no side effects from the Clomid this cycle and I’m hoping that it doesn’t mean that it’s not working. We will see how it goes… Hopefully there will be one or two follies growing nicely! I have an acupuncture appointment tonight (which I'm really excited for!) so hopefully it will help me relax.

In other news, we took pictures for our Christmas cards this past weekend! I am a total procrastinator and didn’t book with a photographer so we ended up taking them ourselves. They turned out okay I guess… I think it would have been easier with a photographer who knew how to make the dogs look at the camera!

Here are a few...

Me and the Hubs with our pups – Mark is holding Sophie and I'm holding Josie:

Our whole family – Not sure if I’ve mentioned it before but I have a 14 year old stepson, Evan, who lives with us full time. Most people think that he’s my little brother when they first see us together which is fine by me! I’m only 25 so I’m way too young to be his mother!

Well that’s about it! Sorry for the incredibly boring post… :) Happy Monday!

RPL Testing

When my nurse called me to tell me that my latest pregnancy was not viable, I immediately asked her about the possibility of further testing. She said that she didn’t think it was necessary since I’ve “only had one real loss”. I guess she doesn’t count chemical pregnancies as a “true” miscarriage but to me, it was a very real loss... just as real as the one I experienced in April. Don’t get me wrong, I really do trust my nurse (and she is VERY nice) but I felt strongly about going ahead with testing BEFORE we experience another loss. She told me that she would email my doctor and get back with me.

Yesterday she called and said that the doctor agreed that if I wanted to, I should move forward with blood work and that they will order the full RPL panel. I’m really happy about this. I know that many people experience miscarriages and that chemical pregnancies can be common – but I just think it will make me feel better.

So on Saturday morning, after fasting the night before for at least 12 hours, I will go in for my blood work. It takes about 2 weeks to get the results so I will be hoping that all is well....