Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Overachieving, stim days 5 & 8

Apparently, I'm an overachiever. 

Saturday was stim-day 5, which simply means I was stimulating my ovaries for 5 days with medications. I had been doing Lupron daily (to stop my body from trying to ovulate), as well as 300 of Gonal-F and 1 vial of Menopur. I had a blood test Saturday to check estrogen levels (E2). That gives them an idea of how well the body is responding to the medications and stimulating. By stim-day 5, ideal E2 is between 500 and 1000. Mine was 1159. 
Overachiever. 

They reduced the dose oh Gonal-F for 2 days, and only Lupron today until after the ultrasound. 

Now, keep in mind: 8 days ago, I had about 20 resting follicles in each ovary. The hope was that about half in each would mature to 12-18mm. That's around 20 viable eggs to hope for at retrieval. 

Today was stim-day 8 and the first ultrasound of my ovaries.  They found 39 measurable eggs! That's 39 eggs above 8mm. 24 of those were ALREADY above 12mm. And they tend to grow 1-2mm a day. So, doc is thinking she will get close to 30 eggs!!!
Overachiever. 

Here's a picture of the right ovary. All the black circles are follicles/eggs that can be seen in that view. They move the wand around & prod to measure others. 

Here's lefty. Lefty has more, which seems correct, since that's the side I feel fuller on. 

And boy, do I feel full!!  I tell Keith I feel like I have gas, but I can't fart. To put it in perspective, each ovary is normally the size of a small almond. Right now, each ovary is the size of a tomato. Not a cherry tomato, an actual tomato. On each side.  Youch!



The stim-day 8 ideal E2 level is 2000 to 2500. I'm at 4024. 
Overachiever. 

Oh, and my lining - ideally 7mm - is at 13.3mm. That's a whole lot of cushion for a sticky bean to snuggle in to!
Overachiever. 

So, now, for today, I'm down to Lupron and 75 of Gonal-F only, no Menopur. I have another ultrasound & bloodwork tomorrow morning. The nurse said I'm doing so well, I may actually trigger tomorrow, which would put my retrieval date as Friday. Wow!

Keith wanted me to add that he's the best husband ever (he really is). Because the clinic only does IVF every other month, every patient in there right now is somewhere in the IVF process like us. The waiting room fills up really quickly. The waiting room is all women except for him and one other husband. Most wives do the ultrasounds alone. Not me. He's there for every appointment, no matter how small. 
(He's an overachiever, too). 

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