Drama!

On our way home from Reno this morning I noticed my bladder was way full! The pain was from my bladder not from the procedure! So, we stop in Colfax and I'm in tears at this point! I can't go! Not even a little bit! To make a long story short, Jeff drives me to my doctor in Roseville, actually Lincoln, and he Cath's me! While they were draining my over filled bladder, the nurse asks, "how much can a bladder hold?" The Doc says "oh 750-800 cc" guess how much was in my bladder! 800 cc's! My doc's in Reno just called to check on me and were very happy to hear I have pee'd on my own! So, the saga continues!

Egg retrieval went well

I'm still a little loopy and extremely soar! They got 40 eggs! Its a great number but not all of them will be usable. They will fertilize each of them by sticking one of Jeff's swimmers into each one and then they will call me tomorrow with a fert. Rate, or a survival rate. Then they will call me Saturday to give me an update and we will determine how many to freeze and how many to grow out to blastocycts. Then, on monday we head back up here for the transfer.

A day early, again!

I'm a day early for egg retrieval, just like last time. I'm headed home today and will come back on Wednesday for the retrieval. So, the embryo transfer will happen on Monday now. That's it for now, stay tuned!

The count down begins

After my ultra sound this morning it looks like I'll have lots more eggs than last time. We counted 18 on my right side ovary and 11 on the left. Its a 2D image so there are likely more behind the ones we saw. I'm going to guess we'll get about 34 this time (last time we got 26). Tomorrow they're going to do a blood test to see if I'm ready for egg retrieval (harvesting) early. In which case they'll harvest Wednesday and transfer Monday. Well, that's it for now, got to Lake Tahoe just in time for fantastic thunderstorms! So awesome!

Estradiol

Today I got routine blood work done to check my estradiol levels from the meds. This makes sure my estrogen levels aren't too high and I'm not getting hyper stimulated(ovaries going too much into over drive). Well as much as it feels like I am, I'm not. In comparison, last time around my levels were in the 700's. This time they're just above 1000. No need to worry until it gets over 3000 and as planned, I should be between 900-1200. Safari so goody, as my father would say! Appt sunday, stay tuned!

Here we go again!

So, I started the meds that kick my ovaries into over drive on Sun. May 24th. The bad news, it already hurts! The good news, we'll have lots of eggs to work with, in turn, lots of embryos = higher success rate. I'm doing acupuncture treatments this time around and I'm loving it! The egg retrieval or as I like to call it, the harvesting, will take place next week, tentatively scheduled for June 4th.last time I was ready a day early so I could be early again. The day of harvest I'll know how many eggs I produced. They are going to manually fertilize each egg and I'll get periodic reports as to the survival rate. They are going to grow the embryos out to 5 days to weed out the weak ones. At 5 days they're called blastocycts. On June 9th (if the harvest is not early) they will transfer back to my uterus. They say that they only transfer two because the success rate is higher with a blast. Transfer but I'm thinking I'll ask them to transfer three. We'll see how things go and what the Doc says. I'll be staying in tahoe May 31st through June 2nd for daily appointments. I'll be home on the 2nd and go back up for the harvest just for the procedure. I'll be home with my family receiving updates from the embryologists and return the day of transfer just for the day. After that I have three days of doing nothing and another 7 days of waiting! The worst part! That's it for now, I'll be in touch now that I have constant access to the internet. Third times a charm!

3rd time is a charm....right?

Another failed cycle! Even though the news was bad I got some more answers as to what is going on and why I'm not getting pregnant. The Doctor assures me he is extremely optimistic. He thinks that whatever insults I have had to my reproductive system in the past (I have had some sort of infection in the past I was unaware of until I started this infertility adventure) has effected my ovaries and in turn my eggs. The thaw process is a good indicator as to the strength of the embryos, and eggs. Sense my eggs have been exposed to infection at some point in the past and sense our embryos had a difficult time though the thaw process that tells us the problem is with my eggs. We have decided to try again and the Doctor said we are going to aim for more eggs, and in turn, more embryos to work with. Our hopes are high, thanks to my family; my optimism is lifted by the support of my hubby, hands down the best guy in the world, and my family and friends. As much as this whole situation...sucks, for lack of a better term, I'm incredibly thankful for the people in my life!!