Friday, December 30, 2011

Mission 2012...Operation Thicken Lining

Let's start with a brief picture of my day:

As I was walking out of the RE's office, I of course reached for my phone to tell Mr. GG the ultrasound results.  But no phone.  After going to my car and digging through my small purse until I was satisfied it was really not there, I walked back into the office and found it inside the Vogue magazine I was reading.

Then I drive to a new pharmacy that sells fertility drugs at good prices.  It's in a huge medical center and is not easy to find.  After walking in circles for a few minutes I finally find it on a map.  Then I realize I left my parking ticket that needs validation, in the car.  Ok...back to car.  Then I finally find the pharmacy, give my prescription, etc.  I wait for a long 10 minutes and finally get called back up.  I dig in my purse for my wallet.  Not there.  Palm to forehead, I took it out when I was looking for my phone.  So back to car (far away), back to office.  Finally get everything.

That's it...it just gives you a truer picture of how things are going for me today.
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And the reason I've been so lax about blogging during vacation: grading.  I've literally spent the last 3 days straight at my dining room table grading mounds of essays.  Some stupid AP teacher had her students write 7 different essays in 7 different modes on the same subject.  It takes me nearly 4 hours to read 20 (which times 7 is 140 mind you).  At least a couple of kids wrote about Harry Potter : ).

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Back to the real story.  Today was my CD11 ultrasound on my second round of 50mg of Clomid.  To recap; last month I had three follies ranging from 17 to 23 and a lining of 6.

I was really lucky that the actual doctor, not a nurse or NP was in today and performed the ultrasound.  He is such a nice man.  He reminded me why I put complete faith in him the first time we met.  It was really great timing too because I was feeling a bit neglected and rushed by the staff that performed my last 2 appointments.  Let's give the Dr a name, shall we?  How about Dr. Hummingbird?

So Dr. Hummingbird first measured my lining which was 5mm.  He didn't say much at this point and I mentioned to him that it was 6 last month.  Then he found a 13mm follie in my left ovary and a 19mm follie in my right.

**Sidenote**  My follies have always been kind of oval-shaped rather than a perfect circle.  I asked him about it and he said that the shape doesn't matter much and that the largest measurement is the important one.

I also mentioned to him that I didn't get an LH surge last month until CD14 in the afternoon, but that I had already ovulated by the next morning when we did the IUI.  He thought that was strange and said that maybe we just did everything right near the end last month.  At this point he had me sit up (Thanks Doc!) and then said he thought we should take more control of things this month.  Great! Please take lots of control!  He told me to get dressed and he'd meet me outside and explain the plan.

Plan:
  • starting CD11 take 3 Estradiol 2mg pills vaginally  - not sure how many days...I need to email and check
  • Take Ovidrel trigger shot CD12 at night - Should I take it at the stroke of midnight?  It IS New Year's Eve...
  • IUI on the morning of CD14 - Right when I wanted!  I feel very relieved having a set time instead of worrying everyday about finding a surge.  Also, they are closed on the 1st which obviously would not work.  AND, I don't go back to school until the 3rd (Tuesday).  Ideal scenario IMO!
This may sound like a disappointing appointment, but I'm feeling pretty good.  Sure, I was hoping everything would just be magical and Clomid would immaculately knock me up, but nothing in this process has been ideal so I not too surprised.

The last few days I've been really frustrated feeling like I don't really know why it hasn't been working, etc.  But I do know why...my lining doesn't support a bebe.  We fixed the progesterone issue with Clomid (it was 19 last month), now we need to fix my lining.  IVF still won't work if my lining isn't thick enough.

So Mission 2012...Operation Thicken Lining is a go!

By the way, acupuncture went well.  I will write another post about it.  I will continue with it to keep trying to work on the lining - but it obviously didn't miraculously work in just 1 session 5 days ago...no surprise there.

3 comments:

  1. I love this new plan and the doctor sounds fabulous, I think it's great that he decided to take charge. Are they planning on checking the lining again before the IUI after you've been taking the estradiol or is it just for sure that it'll thicken?

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  2. @Elley - That is a very good question! I think they'll have to check again to see if we should do the same next month, but either way we're doing the IUI (although I guess we wouldn't if it was still a 5). He seemed pretty positive it would thicken my lining fast.

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  3. I hope this new plan works for you! And I'm sorry you had such a crazy day. Just reading your post wore me out!

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