Cycle 6: FET #1 – It Might Be Time To Create A New Category

Beta on 7/5 – 119
Beta on 7/8 – 800

I’m knocked up!

Cycle 6: FET #1 – Pre-test

Dear little string bean,

I’m glad to see you’ve decided to stick around. Hope to see more of you in the future.

Love always,
mamaBeaner

Cycle 6: FET #1 – Through Post-Transfer

The cycle went fairly smoothly – very little issues other than a very busy waiting room. Apparently the IVF lab closes for a month as a precaution, so they try to fit in as many people as they can before it closes. I would arrive at the office 5 minutes before it opened (and they open 15 minutes before the first patient is seen) and there would already be 5 people waiting. Crazy!

Before I started my FET meds, I was on BCP for 2-1/2 weeks. They were trying to time the transfer shortly after when I would free up (I didn’t want to do the transfer before the bean’s birthday so I made up a white lie about going away for a long weekend when we were planning on having his birthday party).

Once I went off BCP we started with the meds – 1 Estrace pill / 2x a day. Four days later, back in the office and they bumped it up to 2 Estrace pills / 2x a day. Four days later, back in the office. I stayed on the same dosage of Estrace. Four days later, back in the office. Still stayed on the same dosage of Estrace and then three days later I was to add the following: 1 pill / 2x a day of doxycycline for 7 days, 1 pill a day of medrol for 7 days and 1mL of the dreaded PIO. For the PIO, I would stuff the vial in my bra to warm it up and then after papaBeaner administered the shot, he would rub the injection site for a little and then I would warm the area with a heating pad. These hurt a lot less than last time – I think because papaBeaner was rubbing the crap out of my butt (pun not intended!) that it bruised the muscle. There’s still a little discomfort but I’m not flinching every time I try to sit in a car.

Once all the meds started I had a lot of things to do for the bean’s birthday to preoccupy my mind away from the FET. Next thing I knew, transfer time was here. I went in for 1 final check the day before my transfer and everything checked out fine and I was to administer a dosage of vandazole before bed. The next morning, the office called me. I opted to try laser acupuncture to increase the blood flow to my uterus, so they asked me to be at their main offices at 1:45pm. Eep! At 11:30am I was instructed to insert a progesterone suppository and then an hour later, we were on the road.

The laser acupuncture seemed a little hokey, but at worse it wasn’t going to do any harm. The first round took place before the transfer and involved directing a laser to various point on my body – tip of the head, ears, wrists, feet, calves, and abdomen. No pain involved, except for the point on my head became super heated because of my dark hair. It was over in less than 5 minutes.

Then came the eternal waiting. I tried to do some positive thinking and meditation but that only lasted so long before I became bored and asked for my phone. papaBeaner woefully complied but he wasn’t one to talk considering he brought his laptop in the hopes he could get some work done.

We waited probably 20 minutes before the nurse came in to check my bladder. I had only drank 2 cups but she said it was good enough and I didn’t want to overdo it because I would need to keep laying down at least 20 minutes after the transfer. Good point!

Shortly after that, the “crew” came in – a different nurse whose job was to hold the ultrasound wand, the embryologist with her beeping incubator and dr. oneOfThePartners. The doctor wasn’t at all up for chit chat or words of encouragement – he was all business. We went through the various checks to make sure the embryo was ours. The doctor then gave us what will hopefully be our first “baby” picture and mentioned that we still had 2 frozen, which meant that Huey was he first one up to bat. After I got all speculumed up and they found my uterus, we watched the embryologist carefully suck up little Huey into a pipette and hand it to the doctor. Through the ultrasound we saw him gently squeeze Huey out and watched him float up and then down until he reached a safe place to land. Those moments spent watching him moving around inside of me were unreal. When he finally landed I thought to myself, “find a good place to stick, little one.”

It didn’t take too long and in less than 10 minutes they were out of the room and getting the next embryo for the next patient. The acupuncturist came in 10 minutes later and applied the laser to a few more points on my body. And then everyone left us alone for a half hour. I was able o abstain from the phone and spent the time thinking “Grow, grow, grow! You can do it!”

The nurse came in and told me I could get dressed and empty my bladder. And like that, a little over 2 hours after we arrived, we were on our way back home. Oh yeah, and I was pregnant.

I’m still on the same dosage of Estrace and PIO and will be, hopefully, for a few more weeks. Even though the nurse said I could resume normal activities, I decided to take it easy for the rest of the day and avoided picking up the bean. The next morning I sent the bean to my mom’s and spent the morning in bed and then still tried not to carry the bean for too long. Today, I’ll most likely return to normal activity.

To avoid going to the main office on the weekend, I went to my local office the next day and my hormone levels checked out fine. My beta is suppose to be on July 4th, but we scheduled it to the next day so I could take the blood test again at my local office. Although, I will be POAS on the Fourth. No doubt.

Fingers crossed. Toes crossed. Everything crossed.

Cycle 6: FET #1 – PDG Results

I have 2-6AAs and 1-6AB. All boys. Squee!

I shall name them Huey, Dewey and Louie. But only for the time being.

I decided to wait to start the next cycle mainly because I didn’t want it disrupting any part of the bean’s birthday plans. So we start in 1.5 weeks with an ET sometime in late June.

Cycle 5: IVF Cycle 1 – Update #3

The beauty about really delayed updates is that I tend to be much more to the point.

The day before my ER my nurse called me and told me it was canceled. Out of 12 embies, only 5 were still growing. Of the 5 left, none of then had reached blast stage. I was devastated.

The next day another nurse called. Of the 5, 3 made it to blast and were frozen and sent for PGD. After 2 weeks the results would be back and we could start an FET cycle.

So that’s where I an right now. I should be getting the results on Thursday. I’m ok with an FET now, but that took a few days to get over.

Onwards to the next!

Cycle 5: IVF Cycle 1 – Update #2

Wednesday
Went in for morning monitoring after going in both in Monday and Tuesday. Big yawn! But Dr. crystalBall gave me some great news. He was almost certain that I would be triggering that night and egg retrieval would be on Friday.

I worked from home that day because of another doctor appointment which was a good thing because it was quite a lengthy conversation between myself and the nurse. It was a good thing they handed me a trigger sheet before I left that morning because it would have been too confusing to remember! I was going to be doing a lupron trigger so at 8:20pm that night I had one lupron shot and a pregnyl and I was to give myself another lupron shot at 8:20am. I was to report to their main office, an hour away, by 6:50am for a 8:20am retrieval on Friday.

I was finally on my way but I was starting to feel a lot of anxiety about the results, how many eggs would still be viable, how many would make it to blast, etc.

We had also made plans with my parents to have the bean sleep over Thursday night. It was that or drop him off Friday morning at 5am.

So, I took the belly shots at night. I had some trouble mixing the pregnyl so the shots were taken at 8:25. And then I started panicking that instead of drawing the mixed solution of pregnyl, I drew the water!

Thursday
Another morning monitoring appointment. Dr. crystalBall saw 11 follies between 16-20mm on the right side and 3 on the left.

Leaving the bean at grandma’s was bittersweet, but I’ll leave that for a different post.

I remembered to take my lupron with me to work. Luckily nobody was around at 8:20am and I was able to do the shot in a bathroom stall with no problems.

I got a call from another nurse to confirm everything looked good. Guest that meant I gave myself the right shots!

Since we didn’t have the bean with us at night we decided to go out to dinner. We haven’t had a night out just the two of us in almost 9 months!

It wasn’t a very restful night of sleep. My anxiety-filled thoughts kept me up for almost 2 hours.

Friday
We got an early start to our day. Luckily the empty stomach didn’t bother me too much. When we got to the office, they had papaBeaner give his sample and I went to fill out the paperwork and change for the procedure. The nurse started my IV, which hurt like anything! She also went over the schedule and the meds I’ll be taking over the next few days. After a while papaBeaner joined us. I also met the doctor that would be doing the procedure – Dr. bubblyLady.

Soon, it was time to walk into the operating room. I hopped on the operating table and met the anesthesiologist who properly knocked me out.

When I woke up, I was already back in the recovery area. PapaBeaner told me they had to shake me awake. That was prolly due to the lack of sleep I had the previous night. While I  was still groggy the operating nurse showed me how many eggs they were able to retrieve – 14!

As I started waking up more, I started feeling more and more pain, specifically crapping in the abdominal area. The nurse did mention that it could happen. They gave me some apple juice and crackers and then gave me some Tylenol with codeine. Slowly the cramps started to subside, but not by much.

The nurse had mentioned that I needed to stay super hydrated and drink a lot of electrolytes. She also drew circles on each of my butt cheeks to indicate where papaBeaner would be administering the PIO shot. She had him practice putting the needle in a pillow which didn’t make me feel more comfortable about him giving me the intramuscular shot.

Shortly after I used the bathroom, they told me I was free to go. I was definitely groggy and nauseous the entire ride home. PapaBeaner, being the sweet man that he is, set me up with some food, water, and a heading pad for my cramps. It was a pretty crappy day for me and I spent much of it in bed.

Saturday
A nurse called me bright and early with my fertilization report. Out of the 14 that were retrieved, 13 were mature and 12 were fertilized. Wahoo!

Much of the day progressed without any bad feelings lingering from the day before.

The first PIO shot went smoothly – barely even felt the needle.

Sunday
Started feeling nauseous again, which I blame on the PIO. And this time I most certainly felt the needle. Happy Mothers Day to me!

Next time
A few bloodwork results, my latest fertilization report and (hopefully) embryo transfer.

Cycle 5: IVF Cycle 1 – Update #1

I’m a week into all the shots. Last week, it was 2 shots nightly – 150 of leftover Gonal-F then switch to Follistim and 15 of Low Dose HCG. It still freaks me out to give myself shots and the needle still hovers over my belly for a few second before it goes in. Plus it doesn’t help that the Low Dose is a duller needle. After that first shot I learned that icing the area for 10 minutes helps a little.

Thursday was my first monitoring appointment after starting the shots and not much progress. It was expected. So I stayed on the same dosage.

Next appointment was on Saturday and I got so lost! For some reason when I checked the directions the night before it told me to get off a few exits than I really had to. Thank goodness for google map navigation! Things started happening with my right ovary – I had 2-12mm and 1-13mm. My doctor said in the office that they might decrease my meds but something must have happened with my bloodwork because they ended up increasing it to 200 of Follistim and they had me add anther shot of Ganirelix to my nightly regiment, which is another dull needle. And I’ve noticed that the right side of my belly is a lot more sensitive to the shots – every time I’ve had a bleeder.

I’m definitely feeling like a human pin cushion. Definitely feeling bloated, but I don’t mind that because it means the meds are working. Definitely feeling tired – on top of these early mornings, I have a persistent cough and it takes me an hour to fall asleep and inevitably I wake up once in the middle of the night and can’t fall asleep for over an hour.

This morning’s appointment showed one busy ovary! I lost count after a while. Righty has 2-17mm, 1 15mm and 14mm each, 2-13mm, and a 12mm and 11mm. Lefty is slowly coming up to speed with 2-13mm. I’ll be back tomorrow and depending on how today’s bloodwork turns out, I should be going in for my retrieval on Thursday or Friday.

Wow.

The Cost of IVF

Earlier this week I made a partial payment to my RE clinic for their part of the IVF cycle I’m scheduled to go through later this month. Today I’ll call them to complete the rest of the $9050. Ouch.

I’m lucky enough to have insurance that pays for part of the expense. Yes, almost $10K is only part of the cost and it’s not my only out of pocket expense.

This clinic bills out a one time cost of $10,500 for all office expenses – monitoring, bloodwork, sperm washing, and doctor fees for retrieval & transfer. My insurance covers 90%. But there’s a large chunk they don’t cover. There’s $2500 for ICSI which is only covered under insurance if there’s an issue with the male partner, which in our car there isn’t. There’s $4500 for PGD, which I’ve discussed before. Both of these points I could argue about with my RE but it’s not worth it. Then there’s $1000 for cryopreservation.

Other out of pocket expenses include medications, which I’m completely out of pocket. I’m estimating $4000 since we won’t know how much Follistim I’ll need and it’s the most expensive drug. Then there’s the expenses for anesthesia and out of cycle doctor visits, which will be about 3. So I’m guessing that’s another $1500.

The total? $14,550.

I’m not trying to dwell on it, because there’s no point. If you want something badly, you do what you need to do.

I had a morning monitoring appointment this morning and I’m expecting to start BCP. 10 days of that, a period, and then we’re on our way.

Cycle 5: IVF consult

We met with my RE yesterday to talk through our IVF cycle. She went through a lot of stats which now escape my memory. And she went through the various stages of the embryo, all of which I already knew. She pushed a lot of things back to my nurse and I forgot to ask her why an antagonist protocol. Not that any of it matters since I’m blindly putting my fate in hands of this clinic.

There were a few interesting things I learned:

They don’t do a Day 3 transfer. They say their labs are able to mimic a uterine environment perfectly and the longer the embryo has to grow in the lab, the better. So they only do Day 5 or 6 transfers.

They don’t do single embryo transfers without PGD. Well, they will but it sounds like it would be fighting an uphill battle with them. Originally, we were going to ask for a single embryo without any genetic testing but spending the extra $2500 on PDG out-weights the expense of possibly having twins. She said for me the odds of getting pregnant with a single embryo having gone through PGD would be about the same as if we transferred 2 without any genetic testing. She did a hard sell on PGD, but it wasn’t really necessary considering we would have done anything to just transfer 1 on the first time around.

I’m hoping that having been pregnant once helps my odds of having another baby. She seemed to think so. But our luck has not been good this year, for a number of reasons. So we’re hoping our luck will change in a few weeks.

So, the plan is to call the nurse later this week as a follow up to the RE consult. I go in for morning monitoring on Monday to hopefully get a script for Provera so I can get a period and then start BCP. Oh yeah, and I have to pay the finance department a chunk of money. I think I’ll go into our out of pocket expenses on a separate post.

It’s all getting very real for us. I wish I could be more excited than nervous, but I’m not. And it’s not the shots or the doctor appointments or the procedures or even the money that makes me nervous. It’s the chance that this might not work that has me sleepless.

We’ll see.

IVF here we come

I got AF yesterday. Heartbreaking.

So IVF will become our reality. We’ll take a break for a few months just to give ourselves a break from the testing, needles and the stress of it all.