CD11 - What a Day

Just another manic Monday! (wohhhh ohhhhh)

Today was just a whirl. Like I said earlier, today is CD11. I NEVER have ripe follies by now, but we decided to do an earlier u/s since I upped my Femara dosage.

The day got a little crazy after my RE appt. Here's how the last 11 hours have been:

9:30am - RE appt. HUGE follie. She tells me to immediately find a drugstore and buy a digital OPK. Tells me to hold my urine until 1pm.

10:00am - I get a digital OPK ($45!), and hold my pee. I had to pee SO bad at 10am, and holding it was so stressful. I was counting each minute.

1pm: Pee on a stick. waiting for results in the bathroom - people outside waiting for me to leave, so they could use the restroom. (stressful) Smiley face on OPK!

1:10pm - Call RE, schedule IUI for 11:30am Tuesday. She tells me to trigger between 5-6pm. My Ovidrel is at home in the fridge!

1:15pm - call acupuncturist, to tell her I will be late for my 6pm appt.

4:45pm - I leave work early (ugh-it looks really bad to leave early where I work), and race home. Becky is supposed to leave at the same time, but she spends 20 min trying to find her phone. I get home 30 minutes before she does. She has to give me the shot, because I'm a wuss.

6:10pm - Becky finally gets home to give me Ovidrel. She literally walked in the door, got the syringe, stabbed me in the belly, and I ran out the door to acupuncture.

6:20pm - acupuncture. She works on my fertility. She also gives me some calming points. I am stressed out the ENTIRE time, thinking about work, TTC. I couldn't unwind at all, which bummed me out.

So tomorrow I go in for IUI#6. I'm trying not to worry that my follie is massive, which may mean unfertilizable. WTF - let's just do the stupid IUI and see what happens. I was hoping to have a better layup for this round - perfect sized follie, etc. But Mother Nature never seems to give us ideal conditions, does she? :)

Eggs. Lots of eggs.

Today was my CD3 ultrasound. It started out rough, but got better. Here's the summary:
Arrived on-time at 8:30am (ouch, considering it's a 40 min drive on a Sunday!) for appt. Doctor hadn't arrived yet! They had me take my tampon out and sit in the exam room. We waited and waited. At 9am, the nurse came in and said RE was STILL on her way in. I was mad. She finally arrived at 9:07am, a full 37 minutes late.

Doc looked at my ovaries. I always get nervous she'll tell me have another cyst. I saw lots of black dots - this is good! She said my ovaries look great. She counted 8 follicles on one side, and 3 on the other. Looks like my left ovary has the 'leading horse' follicle. She said my ovarian reserve looks great, which was a relief.

I asked, "How do I always have so many follicles, yet only one mature one??" She recommended I up my Femara dosage to 5mg, which I agreed to. Let's hope we get 2 follies this time.

I also decided to just do one IUI this month, instead of two. We'll do one IUI between 36-40 hours post trigger. I have such few vials left of my favorite 2 donors (and they are both retired), that I don't want to blow through all the vials. I'm not 100% convinced that two IUIs is the best idea. I think we will do 1 IUI this month, 1 IUI next month...then reconsider.

To my surprise, my RE encouraged me to consider injectables. To be fair, I brought it up first, but she said it would be a great idea. She likes my idea of trying 2-3 more times with Femara, alone, then trying a small dose of injectables. I was glad she approved...my old RE tried to talk me out of it, saying I should try straight IUI's for a year before injectables. Ugh!

So we're off to another hopeful start. I begin 5mg of Femara tonight.

B and I had a great day yesterday. We drove up to San Francisco, drove along the waterfront, went to a good BBQ joint, got my favorite beer on EARTH at this dive bar in the Haight, watched the sunset at our secret spot overlooking the GG Bridge, got oodles of cheap dim sum, and went home. So nice. Oh, at our secret spot, we dug a hole and buried a list of all crappy 2008 events. It was very symbolic.

Today B cooked me runny eggs - it's a treat since I can't eat these during the TWW! Pretty soon we're going to ride our bikes down the Los Gatos Creek Trail. It ends up in downtown Los Gatos, this cute town, where we might do some wine tasting!

Ahhhh, enjoying the last 24 hours of holiday vacation.

"Your ovaries look beautiful"

It's funny what constitutes a "compliment" in the TTC world.

Today I had my CD3 appt. I've never had an ultrasound while on my period, so I was somewhat dreading this. (I managed to get some pretty bad IBS all morning, good times) This appt was with my new doctor, at a totally new facility.

They had me remove my, ahem, feminine products, and sit on a potty pad on the exam chair. I waited for 20 minutes, and kept praying she'd come in soon. She did, and the ultrasound wasn't too bad. I suppose they see that stuff every day, right? I go back on CD11 for a mid cycle ultrasound.

So here's the good and the "ok:"

The Good:
- She said my lining looks good, and my ovaries look beautiful
- She had me start Femara tonight. She asked if I wanted to start with 2.5 or 5mg, and I opted for 2.5mg. I first want to see how I respond. She said my odds of multiples go up 10% with 2 pills, so I figure no need to rush into it.
- She said if the timing is right with my IUI, my odds could be up to 15%!
- She got me a good deal on Ovidrel. I've been paying $100, since insurance won't cover it. She helped me use a Rx by mail program, and it's only $44, including FedEx shipping!
- I feel like I'm officially on the TTC wagon again!

Now here's the "OK:"
- Friggin timing! It looks like my IUIs will be next Sat and Sun. They are only open a few hours in the morning which means my IUI's will be 24 hours apart. My RE agreed that ideal timing is late afternoon for IUI#1, then morning for IUI#2. The weekend hours leave a high possibility that I might ovulate inbetween the two IUIs....but the egg will deteriorate before IUI #2. So this is the only thing right now I'm really bummed about.

Overall, though, I feel a strong sense of renewed hope. I go back next Friday for my ultrasound!

Now starts the Femara. I took my first one 3 hours ago, and already feel flushed cheeks. ha. Joy. :)
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