Intermediate

So far stuff is going really well. I'm now on CD8. I went for monitoring on CD5 with nothing much going on, just my E2 was already on the rise. So, I started with 150 of Gonal F and stayed on that dosage for 6 days. The sixth day I also added in Cetrotide.

Today I went in for more monitoring and stuff has finally started moving along. I have about 12 follicles right now (divided pretty evenly between the sides) that are above 11mm and I have a bunch that are closer to 14mm, the largest one is 15. My RE seems really happy with my response so far and he says it looks like the retrieval will be on Thursday. My E2 has gotten pretty high at 3000 so I don't think it will go on for too much longer. He says that sometimes it only takes 8 days of stims (originally he had estimated 10-14).

I'm excited about the eggs cooking in my ovaries, really not so thrilled about the upcoming ER, but there's no going back now. Overall I'm feeling pretty good. I felt like crap after my first dosage of Gonal F, but I guess the shock to my system wore off and I feel pretty normal even. I'm definitely more tired and my emotional threshold is pretty low, but compared to how I felt on the BCPs I feel great. Last night I started to feel seriously bloated for the first time. Which turned out to correspond to the follicle development. I think I'm giving up on pants with a real waistband until the ER.

It Begins

I just finished my first Gonal F shot. The first of an undetermined amount but I'm hoping not too much. The protocol I'm on really does have much fewer shots than what I'm used to seeing in the infamous medication photos that people are always posting. Right now, I have one Gonal F pen, and a box of Cetrotide, Ovitrelle, and that's it in the shot department. I'm going to use endometrin for the progesterone, so no PIO. Yay. I'm appreciating whatever break I can get.

I have to say the Gonal F definitely stung a bit. Until now my only experience with shots is the Ovitrelle and that really didn't phase me at all. Gonal F was much more unpleasant than I expected. I'm assuming I'll get used to that as well. It just worries me a bit because the nurse mentioned the stinging with the Cetrotide so I don't know what I'm in for with that one.

One day at a time, one shot at a time. I'll just try not to think about it. Monitoring Thursday.

Finally

Approval came though, my sanity has returned.

Did my ultrasound and bloodwork today, everything looks clear (haven't gotten my period yet but it's expected over the weekend so my doctor sent me today to do the tests). Starting Gonal F on day 2. Yay! Picked up my meds at the pharmacy.

Everything is feeling so productive. We even had a new Tami 4 water filter bar thingy installed today, kind of as a present to ourselves, in preparation for the long hot summer. It's light blue and very pretty, kind of like picking out a kitchenaid.

Patience

I am having a very hard time being patient. I still haven't heard from my health insurance. I am having a hard time understanding why the first person to read my case didn't even blink twice before approving me for IVF, whereas now I'm in limbo due to the second person who decided to flex his bureaucratic muscles with my case. My doctor seems calm about it, and I'm really trying to be calm and take his lead since he does have a lot more experience with this than me. It's still very upsetting.

Don't Count Your Chickens

Ugh. Just after we got approval for our IVF I noticed that the approval was for the wrong hospital. The Doctor said no problem, just a small change. Well apparently all the paperwork had to be resubmitted and it was a different dude reviewing our case and he rejected our IVF! Our doctor made it sound like it was just an iterative process and this was their way for asking for more information, but seriously! We had already been approved! I'm so frustrated. I'm continuing with the BCPs until the approval comes through. Our doctor seems confident that it's just a matter of a couple of days, but this really sucks.

What the...

I just got some blood results back from a whole battery of tests I did to prepare for IVF and my TSH was completely out of whack. It was 12.3, and it hasn't been over 1.5 for about two years. What has changed???? That's a little scary, I've gotten used to tweaking my meds to fine tune between 2 and .5 (I feel best when it's at about 1), but 12.3? Holy crap, I'm surprised I'm still functioning. I'm thinking it might be due to the BCPs, I think they might be interfering with the absorption of the medication even though I take them at night and thyroid medication in the morning. I called my RE and he said to bump up my meds and we'll retest in two weeks.

My RE is great, but the one thing is that he doesn't take hypothyroidism particularly seriously. I know people have different takes on it, but I can't imagine that it is helping me get pregnant to have my thyroid be so out of whack.

Green Light

Ack! Maccabi approved my IVF!

I had my appointment with my RE this past Sunday. It was a bit disappointing because we didn't talk much about protocol like I expected, we just filled out lots of paperwork (I'm sure the other people waiting in line for their appointment were thrilled with that), to get the approval from my health insurance for the IVF. I really didn't expect it to be done this week due to Independence day and Memorial day, but low and behold I went to the website this morning on a whim and it was approved! Holy Shit! (I always feel like I have to censor my language when I write here, but this is my blog, not a TV show, so enough of that).

I am currently still on BCPs, which ended up being a good thing so that I wasn't too stressed while waiting for the Israeli bureaucracy to process my request. Now I wait to hear from my doctor as to what to do next. I have a bunch of prescriptions waiting in my folder to be filled, and from what I understand so far, I will be told to stop the BCPs, wait to get my period (again...) and go from there. From looking at my prescriptions it looks like I'll be doing a Cetritide, Gonal F protocol. I will update with details when I get them. I'm excited and terrified a the same time.

Catch Up

Well I managed to go a whole cycle without updating, good job me. IUI #5 is now over and done with, not a huge surprise (how did I ever get pregnant the first time?, no freakin clue) . I had my hysterescopy, it was a bit uncomfortable but was over so quickly (like 90 seconds quickly) that my brain didn't even have time to register the discomfort. The results are that everything looks healthy.

By the end of the week I had one pretty large follicle, but my hormones were apparently still too low to trigger, plus my lining was on the thin side. My doctor decided to let things progress, we had an IUI on the Friday before passover so we wouldn't miss ovulation on Shabbat (interesting infertility in Israel fact, it's easier to get and IUI done on a friday than to get monitoring done, so that's what we did, a little rediculous don't you think?), we also got an u/s which showed one follicle of 28mm (the tech asked if it was a cyst, no) and 20mm, and lining of 10mm. I got an ambiguously positive OPK that morning (no blood work on Fridays) so we decided to do another IUI on Sunday. This ended up being a good decision as I took another OPK on Saturday and it was super positive (I hate those things). E's sperm was very normal for him (2 million) for the first IUI, and surprisingly high (9 million) for the second one.

Two days and one Seder later, I hopped on an Airplane with my family to go visit the rest of my family in America. The plan was to take progesterone, take an HPT 14 days later, and if it was negative to stop progesterone and start BCPs the same day.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, I got a negative pregnancy test (this time I even started spotting with the progesterone, though not too early), started taking the BCPs and got my period anyway! I don't get it, my RE had told me that the BCPs should have kept me from getting my period and kept me in a holding pattern until we started IVF (I have an appointment this Sunday). So, right now I'm confused and I hope that the fact that I got my period isn't going to seriously push off IVF. I'm now waiting for a call from my clinic, so we'll see.

In the meantime, I did have a really good trip. I'm having a really hard time coming back, I feel pretty depressed about it. The fact that I'm coming back straight into IVF is not really helping things. I want to do it, but would rather not have too, and that's making me sad.