Things are proceeding apace. On Saturday (CD 7/Stims day 5) my lining was 6.something, and I had about 5 follicles in the 8-10 range. Now, on Monday, my lining is 8 (yay!) but the follicles are still only 9-11. Depending on the bloodwork, I suspect that we may be jacking up the dose in order to hurry the follicles along.
All this rigmarole is for the sole benefit of my lining, so I'm glad that it looks like the stims are helping. I think my body's not a big fan of estrogen pills. I know my brain chemistry isn't.
Stims day 5 E2: 176
Stims day 7 E2:298. Raising Follistim dose to 150iu.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
CD3: Hip hip hooray! FET #2.5 starts today!
Before I start getting excited about FET #2.5, I have something marvelous to celebrate:
Goldie is here! Goldie is the daughter of Olive and Fern from Insert Metaphor. I've been 'net friends with them for years, literally years. Difficult years.
Olive first left a comment on my blog in February of 2008. We were embarking on our first IVF after a year of unsuccessful home insems and IUIs. They were just starting home insems.
After that, we traveled together. Our journeys have been so similar; they too moved from home insems to IUIs to IVF. Along the way, Olive has written beautifully and vividly about the grinding pain, isolation, and weariness that goes with measuring your TTC time in years. Looking at her old entries gives me the same lump in my throat that I get when looking at my old entries, when every word beat a tattoo of please. please. please.
So welcome, Goldie, and welcome to parenthood, Olive and Fern. Thank you for sharing your journey with us. The road was less lonely with you along.
Hokay, onto the cycle news! We start shooting up Follistim tonight. Yesteday's CD2 appointment went well: 13 or so antral follicles, lining 4.4 (is that a little thick for CD2? Does it matter? Probably not.), E2 43, FSH 5.9. All just ducky.
100 iu of Follistim every night for the next four days, then a lining check on Saturday. Wheeeee! I'm in a marvelously moodswingy up-mood. The only thing that makes my stomach drop is thinking about thawing the embryos, how my poor little two vitrified (badly vitrified?) embryos might or might not survive, and whether the five slow-frozen ones have much of a chance. Did so few of my vitrified embryos survive because they were badly frozen, badly thawed, or because for some reason I make embryos that just aren't very cold-resistant? Please let it be the first. It makes some sense; they were vitrified within the first three months of my clinic beginning their vitrification program. Maybe someone forgot to, I dunno, add salt?
Breathe. I can't affect it. All I can do is try and grow a nice cozy lining, and hope for the best. I'm chugging wheatgrass juice and trying to think plush, loamy thoughts.
Rock on, FET #2.5!
Goldie is here! Goldie is the daughter of Olive and Fern from Insert Metaphor. I've been 'net friends with them for years, literally years. Difficult years.
Olive first left a comment on my blog in February of 2008. We were embarking on our first IVF after a year of unsuccessful home insems and IUIs. They were just starting home insems.
After that, we traveled together. Our journeys have been so similar; they too moved from home insems to IUIs to IVF. Along the way, Olive has written beautifully and vividly about the grinding pain, isolation, and weariness that goes with measuring your TTC time in years. Looking at her old entries gives me the same lump in my throat that I get when looking at my old entries, when every word beat a tattoo of please. please. please.
So welcome, Goldie, and welcome to parenthood, Olive and Fern. Thank you for sharing your journey with us. The road was less lonely with you along.
* * *
Hokay, onto the cycle news! We start shooting up Follistim tonight. Yesteday's CD2 appointment went well: 13 or so antral follicles, lining 4.4 (is that a little thick for CD2? Does it matter? Probably not.), E2 43, FSH 5.9. All just ducky.
100 iu of Follistim every night for the next four days, then a lining check on Saturday. Wheeeee! I'm in a marvelously moodswingy up-mood. The only thing that makes my stomach drop is thinking about thawing the embryos, how my poor little two vitrified (badly vitrified?) embryos might or might not survive, and whether the five slow-frozen ones have much of a chance. Did so few of my vitrified embryos survive because they were badly frozen, badly thawed, or because for some reason I make embryos that just aren't very cold-resistant? Please let it be the first. It makes some sense; they were vitrified within the first three months of my clinic beginning their vitrification program. Maybe someone forgot to, I dunno, add salt?
Breathe. I can't affect it. All I can do is try and grow a nice cozy lining, and hope for the best. I'm chugging wheatgrass juice and trying to think plush, loamy thoughts.
Rock on, FET #2.5!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Canceled for bad endometrial behavior
After four more days, my lining was... about the same, less than 7mm. I decided not to try the Viagra, given that the evidence was unconvincing and I was feeling kind of like cancelling this cycle and starting again, anyway. See, I always made not only decent linings but really nice linings before. Even if I could have eked it up to 8mm with Viagra, I want to roll the dice again and see if I can't produce something plushy and 10mmish.
New plan: low-dose stims. It'll be as if I were doing a fresh cycle, except with lower doses of FSH, no Lupron (ovulation suppressor), and no retrieval. Hopefully I won't hyperstimulate, given the lower doses, and hopefully my body will react to the estrogen produced by its own follicles better than the little green Estrace pills.
I keep repeating to myself: marathon, not a sprint, marathon, not a sprint.
New plan: low-dose stims. It'll be as if I were doing a fresh cycle, except with lower doses of FSH, no Lupron (ovulation suppressor), and no retrieval. Hopefully I won't hyperstimulate, given the lower doses, and hopefully my body will react to the estrogen produced by its own follicles better than the little green Estrace pills.
I keep repeating to myself: marathon, not a sprint, marathon, not a sprint.
Monday, October 10, 2011
CD 2,257
Oh okay, not that bad, but it feels like I have been taking estrogen for. ever.
Things aren't looking too good for this cycle. After 20+ days on estrogen, my lining is... 6.9, a.k.a. "real skimpy". Giving it a few more days, then we'll probably cancel this cycle. I could pay $200 for some hits of Viagra and shove them up my hoo-ha, but I could also roll up $200 in cash and shove it up there with probably as much benefit (i.e., evidence is spotty for the use of sildenafil to improve endometrial linings).
I've never had lining problems before, so I can only think that
1) This is a fluke
2) My body simply doesn't like exogenous estrogen.
If I think it's option 1), we can just cancel this cycle and try again next cycle. If I think it's 2), we can cancel this cycle and try again with a natural cycle. That means some fairly harrowing monitoring/wondering/waiting/seething. But there's going to be monitoring and waiting anyway, And at least I wouldn't be crazy on hormones. I'd be crazy all on my own.
If anyone has any experiences or insight into this, please do share.
Things aren't looking too good for this cycle. After 20+ days on estrogen, my lining is... 6.9, a.k.a. "real skimpy". Giving it a few more days, then we'll probably cancel this cycle. I could pay $200 for some hits of Viagra and shove them up my hoo-ha, but I could also roll up $200 in cash and shove it up there with probably as much benefit (i.e., evidence is spotty for the use of sildenafil to improve endometrial linings).
I've never had lining problems before, so I can only think that
1) This is a fluke
2) My body simply doesn't like exogenous estrogen.
If I think it's option 1), we can just cancel this cycle and try again next cycle. If I think it's 2), we can cancel this cycle and try again with a natural cycle. That means some fairly harrowing monitoring/wondering/waiting/seething. But there's going to be monitoring and waiting anyway, And at least I wouldn't be crazy on hormones. I'd be crazy all on my own.
If anyone has any experiences or insight into this, please do share.
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