We made it to Houston. Again! There has been so much happening that I have been sitting in the hotel room in front of the computer for the past twenty minutes trying to organize it all into some sort of cohesive ball of thought process that more people than just me can understand. I wouldn't say there has been anything majorly bad that's happened, but if you have gone through an IVF cycle, you can appreciate the fact that anything that goes against the normal flow is cause for ZOMG FREAKING THE FUCK OUT!
There was Adventures in Elusive Fertility Medications that was so spectacularly confusing that I can't even write about it here without giving myself a headache. Bottom line: Next time, just pick one pharmacy to get all of the medications from.
There was last Friday's first monitoring appointment where I got a call from finally called the clinic in Texas at 4:15pm because I was worried they didn't get the faxed results from my local clinic that morning and didn't want to go the weekend. Well I was told to add another estrogen patch and oh by the way, we need this particular lab ASAP that we forgot to send to your clinic and you have two days to get it. Not to mention, oh actually your next ultrasound here in Texas is Thursday, not Friday like we said, and your husband actually comes in Friday, not Thursday.
Kthnxbai.
This led to more than one phone call to my satellite coordinator in Minnesota where eventually I found out the lab could be added on to my Tuesday blood work. Still, nothing like a little scrambling two days before you leave the state. Not to mention this was also during the Adventures in Elusive Fertility Medications and the combination of the two was making me FREAK OUT!
Then there has been concerns with my estrogen levels over the past week. So you would think that with how much I cry, I would have enough estrogen flowing through me to not think twice about it, right? Right?
Right?
Wrong.
In past IVF cycles, using my own eggs, I never found out until all was said and done and we were moving on that I have always had borderline low estrogen throughout cycles. I was told estrogen and uterine lining kind of go hand in hand. In other words, a thin uterine lining usually means lower estrogen levels.
So March 13th, my lining was 8.4 mm and estrogen was 249. The doctor had me add an extra patch to my stomach.
March 17th, lining was 9.1 mm and estrogen ended up being 195. They want to see a lining of at least 7mm, so my lining was great, but my estrogen level dropped. So in addition to the added patch, the nurse told me to continue my estrace pills three times a day under my tongue, but add a fourth pill vaginally at night. They wanted to see estrogen levels at least 200, so I was now in danger of shedding my lining early, aka get my period, effectively cancelling the entire cycle, so naturally I found myself once again FREAKING THE FUCK OUT! But not to fear, Infertile, let's just take those Estrace tablets that you have been putting under your tongue and just start shoving a couple of those bad boys up your vagina and hope that helps!
So now I am sufficiently Estrogenized and have the sore boobs to prove it. But estrogen shoved into every orifice of my body for the last few days seemed to help because the ultrasound yesterday in Texas showed my lining at 9.4 and an estrogen level of over 200.
You guys, I was terrified that the levels wouldn't rise. I was terrified that the cycle would be cancelled. Ugh. It just can't ever be easy. But at least today I am breathing easier because everything is back on track and now I can go back to FREAKING OUT about the impending egg thaw and FREAKING OUT about the fertilization that will happen today. We should hopefully get a call tomorrow telling us how many of the eggs fertilized.
Labels: Doctor Appointment, Infertility education, life, Reasons infertility sucks