Post 45: Shot free!

I'm probably more excited than I should be over a shot free day! I had my trigger shot yesterday evening at 9:30 on the dot, and today and tomorrow I only take my antibiotic. I guess the trade off for tomorrow is that I have surgery, but I'll take it! 

Post 44: So many!

We're in the middle of our third monitoring appointment, and are officially up to 27 follicles - 14 on the right, 13 on the left! Holy cow! The ultrasound tech said I looked just about ready for retrieval!

We talked with our doctor, and they're moving up our timeline! We trigger on Tuesday, then have our retrieval on Thursday! I'm beyond excited, and I get two entire days without shots! Woohoo!

Post 43: Flashbacks

So I've discussed it with my friends, but never really on my blog or with my family. As a child, I always played with dolls. Plural. Dolls. I would carry around an armful of babies, all the time. Also, I've always expected myself to have multiples. So this reality of IVF, and the significant increase in the chance of multiples, almost feels like we've come full circle. 

One of the oddest things is that I have vivid memories of a movie from when I was a child. I don't remember the full plot, but I clearly remember that it was about infertility, and the couple went through a procedure where the woman's legs were up in the air, and there were big needles involved! Well, low and behold, I believe I found the movie today, and it gets a little crazier! The movie was, "Maybe Baby," staring Hugh Laurie.  

I've been trying to find this movie for quite a while, to see if it really did exist. To make it more ironic, the couple in the movie suffers from the same diagnosis that we have, which is unexplained infertility. Also, the wife writes about her journey, just as I am. Furthermore, the name of the movie is also the name of my blog...Maybe Baby. I couldn't have planned it even if I tried.

It could all just be coincidence, but I really find it odd that this movie stuck out to me for so many years. I'm expecting that I saw this originally when I was in middle school. I had mono, and was on home bound for three months. I watched a lot of lifetime movies at the time, and the movie was released around the same time. So maybe it is just a random moment in my life that I remember, or maybe I've been preparing for this all along, which explains why I haven't had any major breakdowns since we started this process. Hopefully, our first IVF cycle will be successful, and my blog can turn to parenthood!

Post 42: Holy Cow!

Our second ultrasound appointment at Wake Forest was shocking! I've been through more ultrasounds than I care to think about, so I'm used to seeing the follicles on the screen. Typically there's maybe five on each side of varying sizes, and one or two dominant follicles. Yesterday, Shaun and I stared in amazement as the ultrasound tech found twenty-three large follicles! There were thirteen dominant follicles, five on the right, and eight on the left, and multiple smaller follicles. The twenty-three that she counted were on track to be harvested next week!  This definitely explains my bloated stomach.

Also, my blood work came back, and my estrogen level was at 552, which is much higher than a regular estrogen level (150), but is in line with IVF treatments, when the levels can get to 4000. However, my number was progressing a little quicker than they wanted, so they're changing the dosage of my gonal-f. So, now I'm taking 187 IU gonal-f (dropped from 225 IU), 75 IU menopur, 5 IU Lupron (dropped from 10 IU when I started stims), 100 mg doxycycline twice a day, and 81 mg aspirin. I am officially a druggie! 

The current game plan is to go back to Wake Forest on Monday and Wednesday of next week for monitoring, then they'll do my egg retrieval either Thursday or Friday, depending on how I've progressed. So, only one more week until retrieval, then five more days until transfer! The end is near!

Post 41: All about that bloat, bout that bloat, no baby

Three days of hyper ovarian stimulation, and almost I'm ready to give in. I'm bloated to about the belly of a 10 week pregnant woman, and am pretty uncomfortable. The antibiotics are wreaking havoc on my colon, so I'm running to the bathroom on a continual basis. And, I will be making a trip to Wake Forest today for monitoring. That's at leas six hours in a car for a ten minute appointment. I was supposed to be monitored by David, but we missed the first appointment because of the ER visit, and he can't get the blood work results back the same day, which is easential for monitoring. Therefore, I get to spend the day driving, with a bloated, unhappy stomach. Right now I'm just hoping for the right number of eggs! Too few and they could cancel, too many and they could cancel. Let's hope they find what they're looking for today! If you couldn't tell by the tone of today's entry, I think it's safe to say that the hormones are officially in over drive.

Post 40: Another day, another ER visit

I've decided my ovaries hate me. Ok, so really it's just my right ovary, and more specifically, the small endometrioma. I'm yet again in the ER for a ruptured cyst. I believe this is my forth month in a row that this has happened. Yay!

So, here's my list so far:

14 shots of Lupron

8 Transvaginal ultrasounds

6 rounds of clomid

6 day 21 progesterone screenings 

4 ER visits

3 abdominal ultrasounds

3 IUI
1 HSG

1 soon to be IVF

All I'm missing is a partridge in a pear tree...oh yea, and a baby! 

Post 39: Shot Thoughts

Though we're only twelve days into my ivf schedule, and I still have around 8-10 weeks of daily shots remaining if I become pregnant, I'm already beginning to dread 9:00PM! My stomach is sore, and frankly, they just hurt. We've tried different positions, areas, temperatures, and nothing seems to help. Luckily, it only takes about two minutes from start to finish, but regardless, it's not much fun. 

My sister and I have been helping my parents clean out their attic, and purge a great deal of "stuff" that has no important value. Today, we went through old books and bibles, and I found so many things that I needed to read. The first was from an old Public Health book, from 1920, called "A Child's Day," by Woods Hutchinson. 

The second was from a bible that was given to my grandmonther on her 21st birthday, May 24th, 1950:

These two pieces reminded me that I have to keep trying, and that all of the shots will be worth it. I have to stay positive, and believe that it will work - have faith, and keep hoping! I will be a mother, and Shaun will be a father, in God's time.