Progesterone Complaints and an Update

I am anxiously awaiting "the call" to see how the chickies are doing and when we transfer tomorrow.  This would be the only day they actually don't call me until the afternoon!  Since I am waiting to call a sub (I secretly might not take the day off tomorrow...crazy?)  I just don't have any more good lessons the kids can do without me there.  And the AP test is in 2 weeks!  But I need to know a time to know if this is even in the realm of possibility.

But this post is about Progesterone.  I'm taking 1 pill orally in the morning and evening as well as 1 Endometrin suppository at the same time.

The Endometrin sucks.  The discharge is disgusting.  Thick and chalky, but also chunks.  Gross.  I'm seriously contemplating switching to the PIO shots, but I already have all of the Endometrin. I don't know if I can handle it for 3 months though.

And I'm getting slight blurriness and dizziness again like I did on Estrace.  It sucks too.  I just feel a little spacey.

Anyway.  I will update when I have more information.

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Ok, got the call.

We have:

• 2 morulae stage embryos (ideal stage)
• 2 compacted (right before morulae)
• 2 compacting 
• 1 8 cell
• 1 5 cell

So they're all still alive and kicking, but the 5 cell probably won't make it to freeze.  

Transfer is at 12:30 pm (Pacific) tomorrow.

I asked about freezing and he said it's usually 30-40% that make it to freeze.  We will be using 2, so that leaves 5 with a strong possibility of getting to freeze, but some don't survive the actually freezing process (I don't think).  So I'm going to hope for 2 frosties.

I'm very excited and definitely starting to worry about a BFN and how I will react.

One day at a time, right?

IVF#1: Day 3 Update

So today the embryos should be around 4-8 cells.

Here's what our chickie babies are at:

• 1 - 10 cell (over-achiever!!!)
• 5 - 8 cell (awesome!)
• 1 - 6 cell
• 1 - 5 cell
• 1 - 1 cell (this one is obviously not gonna make it...no biggie, I haven't been counting it)

They are all graded good or fair with minimal fragmentation which is also great.

: )

Actually, I'm pretty thrilled with the news, my little smiley face won't cut it.

= ) (That's a tiny bit better.)

Day 2 Update

My embryology lab is awesome.  They called me at 9:30 in the morning to update me even though the little card they gave me says that today is an afternoon call.

Today the embryos should be between 2 and 4 cells.

This lab grades either good, fair, or poor.  Good has to be essentially perfect.  Fair is fine for now.

We have:

• 5 - 4 cell embryos; 3 good, 2 fair
• 1 - 3 cell embryo; fair
• 2 - 2 cell embryos; fair
• 1 - still hasn't divided; they'll keep watching it

So we'll be doing a Day 5 transfer!  I'm really excited and relieved.  

I also asked about the possibility of a Day 4 transfer if things don't progress well and she said she sees that in about 5 cases out of 600 per year.  So she's pretty confident we will transfer on Day 5.

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I know at least 4 bloggers that had their ET within a day of mine.  We are all getting different news at different times and while it's really nice to share this experience, it's also really difficult to compare your results with someone else.

Because of some disappointing results from other bloggers, I've been doing some research.

1) The overall success rate for IVF seems to be about 40% depending on where you look.  Some of the studies are a bit old, but I like being low conservative anyway.

2) 40% of the women who don't get pregnant during their first IVF get pregnant on their second, ostensibly because of the adjustment of protocols based on the initial response.

3) Number of embryos does correlate to the number available to freeze, but does not seem to have a high correlation with actual pregnancy rates.

4) Neither does day 3 or 5 transfer (according to an Oxford study from 2000 - not sure if things have changed).

So if you have an embryo, you have a chance.  It really only takes one.

I hope we can all get pregnant this cycle, but realistically, that will not happen.  Let's make sure that we continue to be extremely supportive in whichever manner each blogger wishes.

Hugs to everyone.  I hate the phrase "baby dust," but maybe I need to use it this once.

We made babies!

The fact that we conceived babies yesterday really blow my mind!  We've only conceived once that we've known about, but that only lasted 4 1/2 days.  Let's hope these babies make it a bit longer.

The embryologist called and 9 eggs were mature (that's exactly what I was expecting based on the number of follies that were 15 or larger on trigger day). 

She said that 9 fertilized...woo hoo!  But one is lagging behind so they separated it from it's brothers and sisters (Mr. GG is calling them chicks) and we'll see if it makes it until tomorrow.

I'm going to die waiting for their call each day.  Especially tomorrow!  I have no idea how many they are going to want to survive the night to call for a Day 5 transfer.  But I think it would have to be most of them.

Before she called I said to myself that I would be super ecstatic if she said more than 9.  Very happy if she said 9 or 8.  Ok with 7 and a little said at less than that (on down to potential devastation).  So Very Happy it is!  I like managing my expectations and emotions in this way...very helpful.

ER: The Long Version (seriously, it's long)

Ok, I'm ready for the long version.  I tried twice yesterday, but the computer made me even more nauseous, so I had to quit.

I feel soooooooo much better now.

So here's the long version of the story.

*     *     *     *     *

I got up easily yesterday morning.  And totally unlike me, I cleaned the kitchen before we left.  I knew it would stress me out if it was messy when I got home and I wouldn't want to clean it.

Also, Mr. GG was gone last night.  I'm pretty sure he told me the other day, but it didn't really click that he'd be gone the night after Retrieval.  I was a little stressed about, but he told me he'd cancel if I was feeling too bad, so I felt better.  He also took the rest of the day off work yesterday which he wasn't planning to do because he felt guilty.  So that was nice. : )

Before I left I also got all of my meds together for last night and the next few days.

• Endometrin (vaginal progestrone)
• Prometrium (oral progesterone)
• various meds for the next few days - I'll tell you about them when we get there

When we got to the RE, I took my Zofran.  I was a bit hungry after not eating since 9:30pm but not too bad.

They took us back to the recovery area and went over procedures and discharge instructions.   The doc came in and leaned in awkwardly close to my face and told me everything would be ok and that he would take very good care of me and that he would be meticulous about finding all follicles and eggs.  Then the embryologist came and went over what would be happening the next few days.  She also said that we qualify for a research study which we get $200 for. Score!  The study checks for biomarkers in the morula and the follicular fluid (stuff they would remove from the egg and throw away). So it won't affect our IVF in any way, but they'll see if any of these biomarkers can predict fertilization and pregnancy rates.  Last, the anestheseaologist came in to start my IV.

Then the doctor seriously "hug-walked" me to the room.  The nurses kind of laughed at him because he was technically doing their job.  It was sweet, but extremely awkward.  I got on the table, lying flat with my legs hanging over the edge.  The doctor held my hand and said more comforting things while the anesthesiaologist put the sleeping med in.  He said I might taste it. I did and it was nasty.  I filled up my whole throat with a weird taste (but no liquid) and it made me cough.  I remember closing my eyes about 5 seconds later, then I was OUT!  They weren't kidding when they said it takes 10 seconds to work.

I woke up in the recovery room and the nurse told me they got 12 eggs.  Then for some reason I started streaming tears.  I won't say "crying" because it was more of spontaneous leaking.  No one was in their then, so I just moved my mask and wiped my tears.  I was extremely woozy and sleepy and kept dozing off.  When the nurse came in again, I said "You said 12, right?"  And she confirmed.  Mr. GG was on a conference call, so he took about 15 minutes to come in.  They gave me a hot IV bag to place on my abdomen and I asked for one more because my stomach felt uncomfortable higher up too.  My pain never reached higher than a 4 (the entire day) but I did still have her give me some IV pain meds.

The only time I really started crying was when the dizzyness got really bad.  This was after she explained my discharge instructions and I had to read (or I did anyway) and answer her questions.  I was not in a state to attempt listening and speaking. 

The doc came in again to tell us that everything went great in his opinion, that getting 100% eggs from follicles was rare and to expect 70% of those on average to be mature.

Then we left...

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The ride home was pretty painful (nausea-wise).  I guess some people go eat lunch right after?  I was in no state to be in public. Every time the nausea got really bad, I had a major hot flash.  Mr. GG was blasted the AC the entire way home.  Cold air was the only thing that really made me feel better.  I decided that I wanted an Acai Bowl from a coffee shop by my house and Souplantation chicken noodle soup.  So DH got the Acai Bowl, took me home and then went to fill my pain prescription and get the other stuff.  When we got home I went immediately into the back yard and just sat.  I figured it would be nicer to puke on the grass and the cold air felt good.  About 5 minutes later I was ok.

My best friend yesterday was pretzels!  During the retrieval DH got my shopping list: pretzels, bread, soup, rice, yogurt, berries, milk of magnesia (which I haven't tried yet), and Tylenol.  

I never puked at all, but I had what I would call 3 major episodes of nausea.  It was seriously horrible.  It makes me think being awake would have been better.

I guess that there can be bleeding and other pain from the procedure.  I didn't have one drop of blood.  I'll have to credit my awesome doc for this.  I feel a little uncomfortable when I sit on a hard surface, but I think it's more due to the gas and liquid pressure than anything else.  

So I'm glad I took work off today. I probably could have been there, but I would have been moving really slowly and I would have had to get up early.  Sleeping in (until 10) was really nice.

The embryologist called when I started this post, but I don't want to put the results at the bottom, since this is sooo long and I bet few people made it this far.  So I'm gonna make it a whole other post.  My babies deserve it. : )

Happy, but feeling like crap.

I'll start with the news that you probably want to hear first. 

We got 12 eggs! 

The doc said that there was an egg in every single follicle...normally only about 70% yield an egg.  He was very happy and so are we.

I feel disgusting.  But pretty much all of it is due to anesthesia, not to the retrieval.

I'm almost too dizzy to be typing, but I've got to update my peeps!

We find out tomorrow how many eggs fertilized and then on Saturday whether we do a 3 day or 5 day transfer.

I'll tell the longer story later, but I am having massive waves of nausea (no puking yet) so I need to go lay down some more.

Love you all! Thanks for your support!

Retrieval-Eve

Sidenote: Some of my longer-time readers might remember that I have the same birthday as Harry Potter...July 31st.  Well I don't know how I missed it the past 6 years I've been teaching it, but I have the same birthday as Juliet too!  The nurse says "Come Lammas Eve at night shall she be fourteen."  Lammas Day is August 1st.  (Naming this post "Retrieval-Eve spurred that digression in case you were wondering...)

But that is not the point of this post.  I want to talk about preparing for retrieval.

One of my IVF graduate friends had a doctor who called for very low carbs and high protein during the entire stim period - with special emphasis after retrieval.  Apparently this has been shown to lower the incidence of OHSS (which she still had a severe case of).

I asked my office about this and they said that it can be good, but didn't not stress it in any way.  They just said to avoid caffeine and alcohol (or maybe they just said alcohol!).

I chose to eat healthy, but somewhat normally during the stims.

But I am now hearing that I need to prepare for extreme constipation after anesthesia.  Awesome.  My first hint of this came from a blog mentioning another blogger's "poop" post and saying that prune juice didn't cut it.  Then my acupuncturist asked her secretary to go over the "retrieval diet" with me.

To prevent a painful situation, I am eating as easy-to-digest foods as possible.  I forgot about it until after I had bought a lamb gyro last night for dinner.  And I kind of forgot when my student offered me a cupcake this morning.  But now I'm on track.  I even gave away my organic (high fiber) apple.

Mid-morning snack: plain bagel with low-fat cream cheese (I haven't had a plain bagel on purpose in years!)
Lunch: Chicken Noodle Soup
Beverage: Grape G2 (and water)
Dinner: Regular pasta with olive oil (I'll have to see if I have any non-whole wheat pasta!)

I'm probably going to just pretend chocolate is easy to digest for dessert.

Then, no eating after midnight...retrieval is at 10 am.  Arrive at 9.

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By the way, I REALLY appreciate all the well-wishes!  It's really nice to have a sort of "team" cheering me on.  Yesterday I had 430 some page views.  Incredible!  Thanks for the support.

-Sarah 

(That's my name!  I think I'm going to start using it now...  But you can still call me Mrs. Green Grass too.)