It's back

6/29/2009
So, as much as I thought I felt better this past weekend, I was wrong. The bloating was back with a vengeance, my waist was up 5 inches and my weight up about 10 pounds. I called the RE again; they were probably getting sick of me at that point, but they told me to come in on Tuesday, to keep measuring my waist and my urine output.

6/30/2009
I went in to the RE first thing in the morning. They prescribed me some Vicodin for pain, drew some more blood, and did a u/s. My ovaries were about the size of grapefruits (!). RE said he didn't want to get my hopes up, but b/c I felt better and then felt worse again, this OHSS could me a sign of PG. Too late, you already got my hopes up. Anyway, they told me if the shortness of breath or pain got unbearable to call them. I ended up going home after my appointment - per my RE's orders. :)

Intro to OHSS

6/23/2009
A couple of days after my ET, my waist girth had gone up 3 inches, my weight had gone up about 5 pounds and I was starting to feel uncomfortable. I went in to the RE, they said I definitely had some fluid (they called it "moderate" OHSS), and to start drinking Gatorade and avoiding salty foods. They drew some blood and gave me a "hat" to pee in. That was really fun - taking that to work and in and out of the bathroom. I had to record my urine output and call the RE if it dropped below 33mL an hour.

I guess I shouldn't assume everyone knows what OHSS is. Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) is a complication from some forms of fertility medication. Symptoms are set into 3 categories: mild, moderate, and severe and some others. Mild symptoms include abdominal bloating and feeling of fullness, nausea, diarrhea, and slight weight gain. Moderate symptoms include excessive weight gain (weight gain of greater than 2 pounds per day), increased abdominal girth, vomiting, diarrhea, darker urine and less in amount, excessive thirst, and skin and/or hair feeling dry (in addition to mild symptoms). Severe symptoms are fullness/bloating above the waist, shortness of breath, urination significantly darker or has ceased, calf and chest pains, marked abdominal bloating or distention, and lower abdominal pains (in addition to mild and moderate symptoms).

In mild forms of OHSS the ovaries are enlarged, in moderate forms there is additional accumulation of ascites with mild abdominal distension, while in severe forms of OHSS there may be hemoconcentration, thrombosis, abdominal pain and distension, oliguria (decreased urine production), pleural effusion, and respiratory distress. Early OHSS develops before pregnancy testing, and late OHSS is seen in early pregnancy.

6/27/2009
I had been drinking the Gatorade, which was pretty tough b/c I think Gatorade is disgusting. Every flavor. Urine output got down to about 50mL/hour, but started to rise again. I went to a July for Kings concert at the Madison Theater in Covington, KY. One of my and L's friends proposed to his gf on stage. It was really sweet and I was impressed; it took a lot of time and effort to pull it off. Of course she said yes, so congrats to the two of them. I was still really bloated, and I wore a shirt that accentuated my "bump." I had been walking around like I was pregnant for a week - people were holding doors for me, etc. It was really nice, even though I was being a big faker. I do have to say that standing on my feet for 4 hours at that concert was a mistake. I was very uncomfortable afterwards.

"It doesn't get much better than this."

That is what my RE told me at my ET yesterday. We transferred 2 8-cell embryos - 1 was grade 1 (perfect) and the other was grade 2 (almost perfect). The actual transfer went smoothly. MH was there with me, and our nurse, Mandy, was great. She gave me a "fertility bracelet" to wear, and put some stuffed rabbits next to the chair. Her explanation for the rabbits was, well, they are pretty fertile animals. :) I'll take all of the luck I can get. I stayed lying down for another 30 minutes after the transfer, and then was on bedrest for the rest of the day. I'll be honest, I did get up a couple of times...and I slept on my stomach. I don't know if that is against the rules or not, but I just cannot sleep on my back. I can foresee that being a problem if this IVF was successful.

Today, I slept in and tried to stay in bed for as long as possible, but MH and I are remodeling our house (little by little). Right now, we are working on the master bedroom. The next steps are to paint and lay carpet. We looked at Lowe's previously; they weren't too bad. Today we went to a warehouse-type place. God, no. Sure it was cheap, but it looked it. Finally, I suggested Buddy's Carpet because I had heard from one of our neighbors that they got a really good deal from there. It just so happened there was a Buddy's right next door to the warehouse so we decided to stop in. Good news! We found a multi-tonal frieze for $1 cheaper per square foot than Lowe's. I think it is going to look really nice, and I'm glad I didn't settle for something else that was in our "price range."

On another note, we took our dogs with us to go to the store. This is a pretty normal practice as they are very spoiled. While we were in Buddy's - let me point out that we were in there a total 0f 20 minutes - some woman comes storming in. She says, "Are those your dogs out there in the car?" Oh, you mean the dogs in the car parked in the shade with a bowl of water and the windows rolled down? But I only told her, yes, they were my dogs. Then she goes, "Um, you know it's, it's really hot out today." Then just stands there. Is it hot? Gee, I hadn't noticed. Thank God you came in here and butted your big nose into our business. Anyway, then she storms back out and stands there staring into our vehicle and then glaring into the store at us. She did that for about 10 minutes, and finally gave up. I hate people; those dogs live better than she does.

They are fine, by the way, if you were concerned.

ER

My ER was Thursday. Last cycle, they did not give me enough meds during the procedure, and I felt every follicle being sucked out of my enlarged ovaries. I made sure to tell them that this time, and they made sure that didn't happen again. Cycle 1, I was up and out of there in 30 minutes or less. This time, it took me forever to even wake up. When I finally did, I felt nauseous and faint. I went home and slept all day. Pain in my ovaries is what finally woke me up. My stomach was super-bloated and really painful. I took my temp and it was only 98.8, but I was still worried about the possibility of OHSS, so I paged the RE on call. She asked if I had a temp or was having trouble breathing, and since I didn't, she basically told me to suck it up.

Friday I went back to work, which was awful. I used the old rubber band trick to keep from having to button my jeans. Luckily, I am open with my boss about my IVF. I told her the situation and she let me go home early. I got my fert report, too. Of the 25 eggs retrieved, 20 were mature. They ICSI'd all 20, 10 fertilized, 1 abnormally. So we had 9 embryos and my RE froze 3. At this point, we have 6 that are hopefully growing like rockstars. I asked the nurse who called with my report about a 5dt, and I guess she mentioned something to the RE because he called me later. He basically said he isn't a big fan of 5dt, or of freezing at blast stage - I agreed to go with the 3dt. Honestly, tons of people get PG with 3dt's every year, and my 3dt is on Father's Day; maybe that's a good sign.

Saturday night I went to a friend's wedding. It was a great time and everything was beautiful. The only thing that sucked was the DJ. He even mispronounced the bride and groom's last name when he introduced them. Um, their name is kind of an important detail; maybe you should have taken a second to double-check how to say it? Anyway, not my wedding, but there is no excuse for that. And actually I lied, the other thing that sucked is that I couldn't drink. Everyone else was drinking. I mean, literally everyone. I think I even saw a couple of 14-year-olds sneaking beer in the corner. Maybe I was just imagining that part, but maybe not. You don't know where I grew up. Hopefully, in 2 weeks, I'll find out that these sober times have been more than worth it.

My ET is tomorrow at 8:15 a.m. EST. Say a prayer for me.

Bloat

I guess the IVF bloat has come early. All day at work I have had my pants unbuttoned. I can't use the rubber band trick b/c they aren't normal pants, they are tab-waisted dress pants. But I have a long shirt on, and I don't think anyone has noticed. If they have, they haven't said anything to me, in which case I really don't care.

My RE had me do my last stim shot last night. The nurse actually told me to do 87.5iu. Newsflash, lady, that is not a real dose. I didn't do my shot until around 11, so I had to make a judgment call - 75iu or 112.5iu? I decided I'd rather have too much medicine than too little, so I went with 112.5. Hopefully I didn't ruin everything.

Now, tonight I do my Ovidrel shot, along with my last Cetrotide. I was originally supposed to do 2 hCG shots. Apparently I am now only doing 1 because my last b/w came back with an e2 of 3376. Last cycle, my e2 at my last blood draw was 2000. I am taking this super-high e2 as a good sign of things to come at my ER; or it might be a sign of impending OHSS. ::fingers crossed:: for a good sign.

ER. Thursday morning. 9 a.m. My mommy is picking me up and getting me chicken nuggets afterwards. I heart her. L offered to wait and take me home, but I told him to forget it because, honestly, who takes better care of you than your mom?

We rollin'

I've had a relatively busy weekend, actually. I took Friday off of work so that L and I could take our nephew out for his birthday. We let him pick what he wanted to do, and he chose to go to the Newport Aquarium. It takes most people a couple of hours to get through, but a 4-year old boy can get through it in like 40 minutes. True story. After the aquarium, we went to Dewey's Pizza and then to the park at Sawyer Point. When we finally gave him back to his parents, we were both exhausted. I seriously went home and took a nap for at least an hour (maybe 2).

After I woke up, we went down to the river to Italianfest. L got an Italian sausage sandwich and I got chicken alfredo; both were delicious. L also got a cannoli which was sub-par. But the highlight of the night was definitely the tortilla-wrapped cheesecake from Pompilios. oh.my.god. It was heavenly. Of course, what I was really looking forward to was a meatball hoagy and the ever-elusive funnel cake. I got neither, but the cheesecake made up for it.

Yesterday I went to my nephew's actual birthday party, and then to a friend's wedding in Oxford, OH. I don't know what it is with Miami University grads, but they loooove Miami - hence why my friend had her wedding reception at Miami. But I digress. It was a lovely wedding and she looked really beautiful. It was also nice to see a bunch of old high school friends who I hadn't seen in awhile. You know how, when you see old friends, you always promise to keep in touch and to get together soon but it never happens? That makes me sad. I wish it did happen a little more often.

Speaking of seeing friends more often, we stopped by BW-3 after the wedding to watch the UFC fight. I got to see my old friend Tony, who I adore and don't see nearly enough of. Plus, Rich Franklin (who is from Cincinnati, by the way) won his fight. Yay! I love to see hometown boys do well.

This morning I had yet another RE appointment. I felt guilty for having to come in on a Sunday, but they scheduled me; nothing I could really do about it. My e2 this morning was 2786. I have no clue how many follies I had, but I do know that they were bigger today than Friday. They lowered my stims again today to 112.5, and I have another appointment tomorrow morning at 9. They told me this morning before they got my b/w back that my ER would be Thursday. However, also this morning, they set me up to come back on Tuesday. I am taking the earlier appointment to mean that I'll likely be going on Wednesday. Who knows? It doesn't make a difference, really. I'll keep you updated.

I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat. :)

Going up

Short post today b/c I'm tired right now. My e2 this morning was 1226 and I had 28 measurable follies. Yes, you read that correctly - 28. Shocking, to everyone but me apparently. I just told the nurse yesterday that I was about to explode; my ovaries did explode literally overnight. I went from 5 measurable follies at my last appointment to 28 today.

Now, your initial reaction may be, "Yay, 28! That's awesome!" However, you must be aware that more than 30 eggs retrieved means that the quality of each begins to reduce. Everyone knows quality is more important than quantity. I really love all of the REs at my office, but I really wish that they listened to me more. I mean, who knows my body better than I do?

Tonight, they reduced my stims to 225, and tomorrow it will go down again to 187.5. I go in for another u/s and b/w on Sunday. I will update then, but at this point I anticipate my ER will be Tuesday or Wednesday.

418 and 200

418 is what my e2 was this morning. I think I had 4 or 5 measurable follicles; the biggest being 13.5mm. They are keeping me at the same dose of Gonal-f (262.5iu) and I also did the Cetrotide injection tonight. Cetrotide is the "antagonist" in my antagonist IVF cycle - it keeps me from ovulating so that my follicles can keep growing until they are retrieved at my ER.

200 is the least number of dollars that it is going to cost me to buy another Gonal-f pen. My ovaries are evidently demanding a superhuman dose of medicine in order to do their job, so God knows how many more days I am going to have to stim before ER.

On the up side, this cycle is still a go. In fact, my RE today said they are pleased with how it is progressing so far. Did you hear that? Pleased. That's good enough for me.

Just (below) average

I'm really not used to being average. I mean, I was salutatorian of my class in high school, was awarded a full scholarship to undergrad (which I eventually lost as a result of my torrid love affair with many varieties of alcohol). I was pretty good at quite a few sports. I had a pretty nice body - I wish I would have been happier with it back then. The last couple of years are really helping "bring me down to Earth."

Let's see:

1. I've put on about 50 pounds (no lie) - Nothing else to say about this really. I don't like exercise but I love food. Not a real shocker that I've gotten fat and am staying that way.
2. Everyone around me is getting PG but me - I'm currently on my 2nd IVF cycle. As I mentioned the other day, my e2 levels mysteriously dropped after they raised my dosage of stims for 2 days. How odd. So they raised them even more, and I can now report that my e2 has risen to 177 from 95. Still not as high of a number as I was expecting. Thinking back on my last cycle, they didn't test my e2 nearly as often; it very well could have done the same thing then. In fact, at day 6 last cycle my e2 was 66, and this time it was 95. So maybe all is not lost. I go back tomorrow - I'll update you then.
3. I'm in law school with people who are waaay more accomplished and / or smarter than me - Serio. People in my class have their PhDs, multiple Masters degrees, and have traveled the world. I graduated undergrad, then took a couple of years off to...what? Fu.ck around? That's pretty much what I did. Needless to say, I am not ranked in the top 10 of my class; hell, I'm not even in the top half. I got my grades back for the spring semester. B-, C+, C. Eh. At this point, as long as my GPA is high enough that they can't kick me out of school, I'm golden. Am I right, people? School's hard.

Just livin' the dream.

Weekend Update

I meant to update this on Sunday - obviously I never got around to it.  I did go see "The Hangover" on Friday, and it did not disappoint.  In fact, it was hi-frickin-larious.  I may even go see it a second time; this time with L.  Speaking of movies, we rented "He's Just Not That Into You" on Saturday, and it was also pretty good.  Not nearly as good as "The Hangover," but still good.

Also on Saturday, I had my first RE appointment since starting stims.  No growth at that point, which wasn't surprising.  My e2 was 107, which I thought was pretty good, but apparently my RE was not so impressed.  She raised my dosage from 150iu to 187.5iu on Saturday, and then to 225iu on Sunday.  There goes that first 900iu pen.

So today, I go in for my 2nd monitoring appointment.  I was pretty stoked because I had 2 follies at 10mm after only 5 days of stims!  Last cycle I only had 1 measurable follie after 7 days of stims.  Of course, nothing can ever be easy.  I get a phone call from my RE today that my e2 actually went down to 95.  Um, excuse me?  It went down?  After I increased my meds?  Of course, immediately, I think that this is a sign that my cycle is going to be cancelled.  And it very well may be.  But I am going to try and stay positive.  The nurse said sometimes this just happens; but I have a hard time believing that.  

Anyway, tonight my dose was 262.5, and I go back in tomorrow at 8:15 a.m. strictly for a blood draw.  Hopefully my e2 skyrockets overnight.  I don't understand how we are doing the same amount of meds this cycle and my body is reacting totally differently.  Damn body.  Can't you ever cooperate?  Can't you do anything right?

::sigh::

"Nobody said it was easy; No one ever said it would be this hard..."

I went to the Coldplay concert last night with L and my brother. We ended up meeting my uncle and his wife there also, which was nice since I don't see them very often. It was a really good concert - of course I may be biased because I love live music in general, especially when it's playing outside in the summer. Anyway, Pete Yorn and Howling Bells opened for them, and they were really good, also. Coldplay ended up giving everyone in the audience a free CD. It is called "Left, Right, Left, Right, Left" and is some type of live version of some of their songs. And free is always good.

The one negative of the night was that I was supposed to do my stim shot at 9:45 pm; obviously I didn't leave the concert until around 11, so I wasn't able to do it until way late. I just hope that doesn't mess this cycle up somehow.

Tonight I am going to see "The Hangover" with my friend, S. It looks really funny - I love Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms, so I am pretty excited about this movie. I will let you know what I think later; a little "review", if you will. I don't go out to see movies very often, and now I will have seen 2 in a week! I guess not being able to drink really limits your options on things to do, at least when you are in your 20s.

Regardless, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Here we go

I had my first monitoring appointment of IVF cycle #2. Today was my baseline; they drew blood to check my e2 level and did an u/s. I actually found the vein for the IVF nurse, which wasn't hard because I only have like 2 good veins in my entire body. But, she got it right the first time, which was nice. I also asked them to check my FSH level, purely to satisfy my own curiosity - I'm sure it is fine.

As for the u/s, my lining was thinned out (2.7mm) and I had 87 antral follicles. Antral follies are potential eggs. I have 87 potential eggs. 41 on one ovary and 46 on the other. PCOS is actually paying off, for once.

So my RE should be calling me this afternoon with my b/w results and to tell me the dosage for my first couple days of stims.

Dear God, let this month go by quickly and please let this be our BFP cycle!

Amen.

ETA - My RE called. My e2 was < 30 and my FSH was 6. So good and good. Yay! And I am to start stims tonight at 150iu of Gonal-f.

Wow

Father Time is teaching my Criminal Procedure class.

This is real life.

Now I have to read for tomorrow's Crimes Against Justice class. This 4 nights a week thing is going to be the death of me.