Of the fifteen embryos still developing after our day three transfer, ZERO were suitable for freezing on day five. They are all gone.
I am trying, very hard, to tell myself that this doesn’t mean the two we transfered are already dead or on their way there. It isn’t working.
We can’t afford another fresh cycle. […]
I am endeavoring to type this while flat on my back, keyboard near my chin, so please forgive any errors.
This afternoon we transfered two embryos: one a 7-cell, one a 9-cell.
I was under the impression that even, rather than odd, numbers of cells are to be preferred, but I shan’t quibble. Both were […]
Yesterday afternoon I had lunch with DD and Jitters. Alas I failed to fit into anything with a waistband, and was forced to meet them looking like a cover model for Caftan Living, but they were very kind about it, and about the fact that, while neither of them finished their meals, I inhaled a […]
Of twenty-two eggs retrieved, seventeen fertilized without ICSI. We have seventeen zygotes bobbing in their culture medium in a laboratory across the river.
Oddly, my first thought after I got the fertilization call this morning was that everything has gone so perfectly—too perfectly—that this cycle cannot possibly end well. I assume this thinking is yet another […]
At 8:30 this evening, Scott gave me the trigger shot. There was a brief panic when we realized we weren’t exactly sure where the shot was supposed to go. “Upper outer quadrant” seems suddenly vague when you are about to plunge an inch and a half long needle into it.
And then I couldn’t draw all […]
Right Ovary:
18, 17.5, 17.5, 16.5, 14.5, 13, 13, 13, 12, 11
Left Ovary:
17.5, 17, 16.5, 16.5, 15.5, 14, 13.5, 13.5, 12.5, 12.5, 12, 11.5, 11
Lining:
9.something (I may have dozed off for a moment while she was measuring it, and let me tell you the ability to fall asleep with a transvaginal ultrasound probe halfway to your […]
Today after the ultrasound I did a happy little Charleston before donning my underwear:
Right Ovary:
13.5, 12.5, 12, 11, 11, 10.5, 10 (plus 5 follicles@ 9 and 1@ 8mm)
Left Ovary:
15, 15, 11, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 (plus 2@ 9.5 and 2@ 8mm)
Lining:
7.8 (I know nothing about linings, but this is up from 5.6 on Friday, […]
E2: 127 (yes, really)
Right Ovary:
9.5, 9, 8.5, 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6
Left Ovary:
9.5, 8, 6, and a few smaller
So, 15 measurable follicles, but, as the nurse sadly observed, “They’re all really little.”
I go back on Monday morning, “To see if the follicles are growing at all.” We are still at threat […]
I first noticed it yesterday—sharp pinches coming from my ovaries. After the call with my low E2 number, I decided it must be my imagination. Today, though, there is no doubt: I am bloated, and my ovaries ache. In bed this morning I could feel them resting in my abdomen, particularly on my right side, […]
E2 is only 43 after four days of stims.
They “would prefer something in the range of 100-200.” I would prefer to be at home right now, eating the better part of a pie, but we can’t have everything now, can we?
My Bravelle dose is hereby doubled to 150. Menopur will stay the same (75), […]
The series of events that led to me administering my first stim injection alone in a hotel room twenty stories above downtown Minneapolis involved lightning, a pubic hair, a housekeeper in a Hijab, and 100,000 homes left without power. That description makes it sound rather more interesting than it was—you will have to trust me […]
Apparently you were all VERY intimidating, because as of this morning my lining was thin and and my ovaries dispirited and cyst-free. Well done, everyone! Three (very soft, due to my persistent headache) cheers for Lupron! Long live the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis*!
Though I had no cysts, I did get the standard “Are those entirely-too-many follicles in […]
Predictably, the headaches and night sweats started as soon as I hit “publish” on my last entry, the one that asserted that I “haven’t noticed much in the way of Lupron side effects.” Hubris, you bastard.
Also, the period I mentioned? Sometime that night it disappeared, replaced by spotting. Now, I am grateful not to be […]
Ow. Ow. Ow. Today is my fifth day of Lupron and my last day of birth control. It also seems to be the first day of my period. A period I am expected to endure WITHOUT IBUPROFEN. Ibuprofen and its ilk are not allowed during IVF because—well, I don’t remember why, but they’re not, and […]
IVF is like tax law in that it is generally only interesting to and understood by a small, obsessive coterie of practitioners. Unfortunately for my non-infertile readers, it will be the main topic of conversation here for the next several weeks. Believe it or not, an IVF cycle can be quite thrilling, but only if […]
I have been gazing for twenty minutes at a blank page, but I have nothing. Please keep the bridge collapse victims and their families in your thoughts.
