Bad Omen?

If I stim for the expected 10days.... my egg retrieval will be on Friday the 13th!! Is that a bad omen?? Although, I just realized that if I had my egg retrieval on Aug 12 as originally planned I would get my fert report on Friday the 13th! I think I rather have my egg retrieval on Friday the 13th! Who knows....maybe I'll stim 11 days and avoid the 13th all together :) And on the other hand, I hope I'm even continuing with my cycle (so nervous about the possibility of a cyst and cancellation) so I'll take Friday the 13th if that's what it is!!!

AF is here!

AF started this afternoon...but not full flow. I talked with the nurse and she said I should have one day of full flow, so should wait till cycle day 2 to go to suppression check. So, I will go in on Sunday! Hoping for no cysts and bloodwork suppressed!

If all looks good, I'll start stims on Monday! One day later than I thought, but I can handle that :)

Suppression check cancelled

So, AF still hasn't shown up. I surged on July 14th (confirmed with bloodwork).... so it should be coming right? I'm crampy too...I think it'll show up today or tomorrow. I hope!!!!

I was concerned about going to my suppression check if I won't even pass...what a waste of money and time. I pay for these local u/s and bloodwork out of pocket and it's pricey!!! So I called the nurses yesterday...no response until about early evening.
The nurses said DO NOT go to suppression check until AF has come. My nurse did not make this clear at all. I was glad know and to cancel my appt for today. She said keep waiting for AF and then get checked. I am hoping it comes today!! Then, I can get checked tomorrow and start stims as scheduled for Sunday. If not, I will just have to wait day by day. The first nurse I was talking to said they only start stims on Thurs-Sun..... so that means I'd have to wait till next Thursday if I don't start this Sunday. But then another nurse chimed in and corrected her....she said they'll let me start anyday... so just wait for AF and we'll get started. I was relieved to hear that cause just a couple days delay isn't a big deal but another 5 days definitely throws off our plans. Ughh! Cycling out of town is a big stress and so frustrating!!!

Feeling Better

I snapped out of my bad mood a couple of days ago... feeling much better. Lupron is treating me ok. I've taken it before since I've done the long lupron cycle 4 times before this!!! Usually minimal SE from lupron so that's good. AF is due today or tomorrow. I think I feel it coming!!! I hope it comes or it could delay things. But I don't see why it wouldn't come, we did confirm my LH surge with bloodwork so it should be on time.... unless I miraculously get pregnant naturally!!! The other hurdle is no cysts... still a little nervous about that too! NO delays, please!!

We've been working on planning our trip in the meantime. I booked the car today and used the CCRM discount with Enterprise and got a good discount. We're staying with friends for the first few days. They live in Fort Collins which is about an hour and a half (without traffic) to CCRM!! After thinking it over some more, we'll probably stay in a hotel for rest of our stay, there's some good deals with the CCRM rate and the drive just seems like too much everyday if we stayed in Fort Collins. I think my mom would feel more comfortable if we stay in a hotel (she'll be watching my son while I'm at appts). I feel like I'd be abandoning her for a few hours if I left her in Fort Collins without a car at some people's house she doesn't know. My mom and I are looking forward to spending some time together and doing some fun things in Colorado. The zoo sounds fun for my son. Anyone have any suggestions?

Bad mood

I wasn't in the best mood this weekend, it was my DH's birthday on Saturday, we had a big party at our house. My poor DH! I was really not excited about the party at all. I don't know if it's the lupron or what but I just couldn't seem to snap out of it. I was also dreading having certain guests at the party...especially our friends that recently had their second baby. By the time the guests arrived, I was in a better mood and was friendly and happy. I felt bad cause I wasn't as friendly as I'd normally be with our friends with the newborn. I didn't talk about the baby at all and avoided any interaction with the little one. How horrible is that?

I've also been worrying that at my suppression check they'll find a cyst. I know not all cysts cause a cancellation since I've had non-functional cysts in prior IVF cycles... but there's a girl on one of the internet threads who just got cancelled due to a cyst secreting E2... and she is soo bummed. That would be soo frustrating!! I'd have to tell my manager to put me back on the schedule once again! Ughh! I have found coverage for all my shifts at this point and it took a lot of effort and stress. I hope my plans stay in place! I just don't want to wait another month + anyway. I'm ready to get this overwith!!

Lupron!!!

Got the call late this afternoon.... I was nervous to get the call, all it is is a progesterone check!!! Geez! I feel the nervousness coming already! All the stim/follicle checks and bloodwork. All the reports- how many eggs? How many mature? How many fertilized? How are they growing??????etc! It's beginning!!! I always over worry and analyze every number,etc.

So my progesterone level is 11! Greater than 5 is what they're looking for- so 10 U lupron and dexamethasone start tonight! We're on our way!!!!!! We've made our flights, sent our $$$ to CCRM, most of my meds are here, found coverage for 3 of the 5 shifts for work, I think it's all falling into place!!

Sooo much money and effort on the line! This has got to work!!
I'm hopeful but so scared!

Thyroid Drama

I've been taking melatonin along with the other supplements Dr Schoolcraft recommends for egg quality (inositol and Coq10). I started these supplements in early June. The melatonin bottle has a warning about not taking it if you have a thyroid condition. I ignored the label and took it anyway. Well, my recent TSH is elevated at 3.57!! It was below 1.0 not too long ago. So I googled about melatonin and it looks like it can elevate TSH levels. It's often used for those with hyperthyroid. Well, it definitely worked. I think that's why my cycle was so messed up last month. My cycles are NEVER that long!! and usually pretty regular within a at least 5 days or so at most. Ughh!!!
So I emailed the nurses this weekend and they said they'll ask Dr Schoolcraft about it.

Today I was emailed this note:

"After some research, we are now advising any patient that is currently taking some form of thyroid medication to stop taking melatonin. If you are not currently taking thyroid supplementation then it is okay to continue on the melatonin supplement.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, we truly have great
patients."

I had stopped taking it last week when I had that kidney scare and then started back up just one day until I got my TSH level back and googled around... The Dr managing my thyroid upped my dose from 75mcg to 88mcg. The nurses said it's ok that my thyroid is >3.0 as long as it's <3.0 for transfer which it should be by then.

What a relief!!

I heard back from the nurse this afternoon... my creatinine level is normal, what a relief!!! I was starting to do too much googling about the possibilities of why my kidneys weren't functioning!! I'm a bit of a hypochondriac sometimes. My back is a little sore and I swore it was my kidneys!
My LH bloodwork did indeed show that I am surging. I think my LH was 59?? So I surged on cycle day 28!! What's up with these long cycles?? So it looks like I'll just get going with this ovulation...I guess there's a bright side to all this craziness!! No more waiting!!
My manager was supportive about me changing the dates, I've been calling everyone on the unit to see if anyone can cover for me. She just said worst case scenario- call in sick, but I just feel so bad leaving without my shifts being covered. It was really nice to hear my manager be so understanding. She told me to put this first and not to worry about it. Huge weights are lifted off my shoulders this evening when I found a coworker to cover a couple of the days already.

So the next steps are- next Wednesday get my progesterone checked, if it's greater than 5, start lupron! Start stims around Aug 1st :)

UGHHHHH!!!

This last day and a half has been interesting to say the least....

Since I am taking the supplements for egg quality CCRM wants me to check my kidney/liver function tests before taking them. Well, I already started taking them in early June and I let them know but they still wanted me to get the levels checked. I had the level drawn on Monday and my nurse called me yesterday to let me know my creatinine level is elevated!!! I freaked out and stopped all of the many supplements I am taking!! Then I spent much of the night googling about creatinine levels and it turns out that you should not eat meat just prior (or even 24hrs) prior to the test. Meat can falsely elevate the results. Well, I had meat (left over smoked ribs that DH cooked this weekend) and had my blood draw about 2-3 hrs after. All of the lab prep says do not eat meat before!! I had no idea!!! I hope that's the reason and I don't have some kidney problem either from one of these supplements or for some other unknown reason!! Ughhh! One more thing to worry about! I had the blood re-drawn this evening, should hopefully find out tomorrow what's going on.

I've been crampy these last day or so. Figured AF might be coming since I am on cycle day 28. But today I noticed EWCM.... so I did an OPK and it's ++++!! So late!!! Ughh! I am way off schedule. So I called my nurse after 3pm and emailed her asking her to call me. Thankfully, she called back and we talked about how I am possibly surging. I will either be another 2 weeks behind (meaning egg retrieval will be around Sep 13 or so!! and that's if I ovulate on time next month!! so probably even later!) or I can get started with this ovulation!! Since I was on my way to get blood drawn (for the creatinine level re-check) she said to check my LH too to confirm if I am surging. I will find out the result tomorrow. It would be nice to get going with this cycle, but that would mean figuring things out quick!

On Monday, I asked my manager for time off for what I thought my schedule was going to be in late August. She took me off the schedule already and found coverage for those dates. Ughh. I shouldn't have told her the dates yet, I wish I had waited for AF to tell her. Now, I have to call her tomorrow and ask her to put me back on the schedule! UGHHH! She may be annoyed about that, to top it off I may need to ask time off for early August if we get going with this cycle. I hope she's supportive. I will call everyone on our unit if I have to...someones gotta be available to help. It looks like there's just about 4 days I need to get covered and if someone will switch weekends with me I may need only 2 days off! That's not too bad!

We'll see how things go tomorrow I find out if my kidney levels are ok, find out if I am surging, talk to my manager, see if our friends in CO are ok with us coming in early Aug! Lots to figure out. Oh- and order my meds too!

Hopeful

Lately, I've been feeling so hopeful about our upcoming cycle, it's a nice feeling :) As the cycle gets closer I'm sure I'll be nervous as heck though.

I am finding so many success stories on various internet threads...where ladies barely get to blast at local clinics and get a complete turn around at CCRM. It truly is amazing what CCRM can do!! So many have been told they have egg quality issues (like me) but at CCRM- there's no issues! Dr Schoolcraft thinks our first two IVF cycles where we had terrible results were mostly due to the lab. We had dismal fertilization rates at 30% (with ICSI) and poor embryo quality and growth (we only had one 8 cell ok quality embryo) I was 29yrs at the time and we didn't even attempt to try to go to day 5. It was devastating. But with the second clinic we went to our fertilization improved to 60% and our embryos were good quality and grew much better. We were at a better clinic, probably the best in our area. It's encouraging to know we can can better results with lab change/protocol adjustments.

What is it about my eggs or our embryos as a combination that they don't grow in local labs? I asked Schoolcraft this and he didn't have an answer for me. So much of this is still unknown. We've had friends who's embryos grow perfectly locally. Why can't local labs achieve what CCRM has with their lab? I don't know enough about embryology labs, I guess. I'd like to know more, I find it so interesting. I always wished we could tour our IVF lab, but I understand how they wouldn't want anyone else in there (and netiher do I)!! I just love science and I find the whole process so fascinating!

Even though we don't know what results we will have at CCRM, I am so thankful this clinic exists.....so thankful for the hope it gives us!!

Update

My nurse got back to me later today....the final word is no BCP!! Bummer. Oh well. I hope my body cooperates. It would have been helpful if I knew when I ovulated this month (if I ovulated!). And I ran out of sticks so I didn't test today. I'm going to try to be as calm as I can and not stress over this. I am tired of stressing over the schedule. We're only doing this one more time and I am going to try to roll with the punches.
Dr Schoolcraft said I could try Saizen. I asked my nurse I'd like to know more about it. I think I'd like to try everything we can!

Just waiting....

Not much new here......just waiting. I've been doing OPKs since cycle day 15 (today is cycle day 22) and still no +OPK. Hoping I missed my surge and AF still comes on time. I am still stressing a bit about not being on BCP especially since I not sure about my cycle length lately. I asked the nurses if I could be on a progesterone only type BCP since I've read this is safe with the factor 2 mutation. I'm waiting to hear back from the doctor. I also have been seeing some CCRM ladies on saizen and meant to ask about this at my regroup but forgot. I asked the nurses about it and they said he'll offer it to patients that ask for it. I thought that was strange.... I'd like to try it if it could possibly help my egg quality. I don't know if there are any cons (besides the cost) for using it. The nurses did tell me how to induce my period last cycle, I'm thinking about doing this to assure my period arrives as scheduled. Hopefully I hear back from the nurse today...I'd be so happy if I could be on BCP. I'm pretty sure he'll say no- it seems Iike he would have offered this option when I asked a couple weeks ago.