Stims day 9

(written 2/11/15)
After 8 stims doses, again at a smaller dose than my last 2 long DR cycles...

I have over 20 follicles ranging from 19-23mm!  Uterine lining is 16mm and triple stripe.  The dr said we can expect 20 eggs!!!!!  I pushed her to give me a chance of success, she said 60-65%.  I will take it!!!

Lots of exclamation points today.

They sent me home with a smaller dose of stims and cetrotide in case they want one more dose, but I don't think that's gonna happen. They also sent me home with 2 separate trigger shots, depending on my E2 level as to probability of OHSS.  

Omg I'm feeling really positive. Hope I'm not setting myself up for failure.

I asked about freezing eggs.  (Freezing embryos is frustratingly illegal here!!).  I asked how many mature eggs we would need to think about freezing half.  She said if we end up with 16-18 or more mature eggs we should probably freeze half.  Any less than that and we will just fertilize all of them.

Ooohhhh please let this work.   We are ready for you little Arabian Bebe!

Day 5 stim monitoring

(written 2/8/15)
After 4 days of stimming with Merional 225 units (compared to 375 total units on my last 2 long cycles) I have "tons of follicles" measuring 11-13mm.  Uterus is triple stripe and 13mm.  Estradiol is 348.  Clearly the short protocol is going to stim me faster even though the dose is decreased.  My last 2 cycles at this point my estradiol was 200 and my biggest follie was 9mm.

Feeling really positive about this cycle.....good vibes to the universe please....

CD2 monitoring appt

(written 2/3/15)
So here we goooooooo!

Hubby's last hormonal panel was all normal, so no meds are gonna get his numbers up high enough for IUI.  So IVF/IMSI here we come!

CD2 monitoring appt today went well!  U/s showed lots of "baby follicles" as my dr put it, and labs were all normal. 

FSH 7.5

LH 5.9

Estradiol 21

Progesterone 0.7

Tomorrow I meet with the IVF nurse to go over my meds and protocol, and to be taught about injections. Seeing as this is my 3rd IVF and I'm an RN I think I have it covered but oh well.  They offer daily injections in their clinic but will allow me to inject myself at home. Thank god as its a bit of a cab ride to and from the clinic and it would get old and expensive quickly!!

She looked over my old records and said they will not stimulate me as hard as my previous clinic did.  I was on Bravelle 300 and Menopur 75,  she said they use a different but similar med and we will probably start with 225 instead.  Sounds good as I think I was overstimulated both times prior with estradiol a over 6,000!

I'm not nearly as nervous as I was last time, and I think it helps that I'm keeping this secret from almost everyone in my life.  Thus why I'm blogging but not publishing until later.  I want a record but like not having to immediately report everything to my mom, mother in law, All my friends etc.

Zen, positive feelings, good diet, moderate exercise and warm compresses to the abdomen are my mantras.... 😬

CD 12 and DH's test results

(written 1/15/15)
Went to the IVF clinic again today, mostly to review DH's labs.

His SA was his best yet! 12 mil/ml, 2.0 ml volume, motility 40%, morphology 4%.

Why his numbers are all so much better than a few years ago I'm not sure!  Perhaps he was extremely vitamin D deficient back in the Midwest, and moving to the desert has fixed it?  He's also started meditating, although I would doubt that would cause a 125% increase!

His hormones were all normal. Testosterone, FSH, estradiol, prolactin, LH.  All normal. So really no meds could help his counts come up.

So we are left with the recommendation of him taking multivitamin, fish oil, antioxidants and to ejaculate every other day (helps with motility and morphology, wouldn't help overall count).

IUI would be futile, yet we were also told to try naturally until we do IVF.  

She said I had a lead follicle of 23mm today, so I'm to ovulate tonight or tomorrow. DH gets home tomorrow night, we shall see if we can muster up the energy, lol.  He's been travelling like mad and I have a pulled muscle in my neck.

Today I rode in a cab with my husband's jizz in my bra

(written 1/9/15)
I know other infertiles have had this job before, but it was my first time! I felt to protective of those little swimmers.  Lol.

So this morning DH had an appt at the ivf clinic to give a semen sample and have a hormonal panel drawn.  Due to miscommunication between us he told them he didn't need the blood draw (I had told him he didn't need the TSh drawn as that was just done last month!  Still needed testosterone, FSH, LH, estradiol and prolactin drawn).  That was no problem, I sent him to his GP next door with the lab order form. That may actually save us some money if insurance covers it!  I know they wouldn't have touched an order from the IVf clinic.

For the semen sample DH says they walked him down this scary isolated hallway to a teeny tiny closet, with no "material" inside at all!!  Unbelievable.  Luckily he had his iphone with him lol.  So he is doing his thing, when he hears a heated conversation between two clinicians in Arabic going on outside his door....and then a few minutes later they tried to open the door!  Crazy!  He then tried to go back to business, and then someone started yelling in Arabic down the hallway!

That was the end.  He left lol.  Luckily the clinic was so mortified for him that they ended up running the SA for free, saving us 300 aed (approx $80).  

We got his lab results from December when he had his early physical, and I was  surprised to see they ran a testosterone then!  And his level was GOOD!

In April 2010 his level was 180.

In June 2010 his level was 285.

In December 2014 his level was 513!!!

We shall see what the Jan 2015 level is, LOL.

Normal is 270-1070.  So his testosterone level is waaaaay better than back in 2010.  His SA went up dramatically from 2010 to 2014 also (4/5mil per ml to 11 mil per ml). We shall see what today's result was!  

Dare I say I'm starting to feel hopeful that we could get his levels up to IUI standards??  Wouldn't that be something??

Back at the R.E.......

(originally written early January 2015, just publishing some drafts now :-) )

So things have been interesting lately.

We tried naturally last month, used ovukation detector and BD at perfect times.

Obvi it didn't work.  But I had textbook implantation spotting.  Then I had an evap line on a clear blue easy hpt.  I swear those things are evil.  See here:

It never fooled me, but the 1 second moment of thinking it was possible left me knowing we should try again.

I researched all of the IVF clinics here as nauseum.  The one I picked I did so due to them using the newest technology: IMSI (increased magnification during sperm selection increasing fertilization rates) and the embryoscope (takes time lapse photos of embryos during development to assess embryo quality.  No need to disturb those embryos).

If we are gonna do it again I want to know we are giving it everything we've got.  

I had a consultation today, CD 3.  She did an ultrasound, saw a small fibroid outside of my uterus, "not worrisome".  She didn't see a polyp but will repeat the U/s later in my cycle.  She said my ovaries looked "awesome", lots of follicles, and "if it wasn't for your husbands sperm you'd be getting pregnant every month."   

She reviewed DH's semen analysis and lab tests from 6 months ago.  She showed it to the andrologist.  (This is a different clinic than the one we visited 6 months ago, they only said "everything is normal you need ICSI).  He said he wants DH retested, that his testosterone and FSH are on the low side of normal, and he wants his estrogen checked.  If his estrogen is high we can definitely start him on some hormone therapy to get his levels in better form.  "We could get you pregnant maybe with IUI or regular sex!". 

Wow.

And she said if we can't then we will try IVF with IMSI.  Probably not until September.  We have travel galore in spring and summer.  That gives me that much longer to get DH and I healthy!

Speaking of which, I've lost 15 pounds in the last 2 months on the paleo diet!  I've been exercising regularly and drinking way less also.  

I weigh 24 lbs less than with my first IVF.  Can you say new diagnosis of infertility tubby!?!?

So that's that. Recheck for DH, healthy living, we shall see!!!!!!

Microblog Monday - travels

So as you all know we have been living in the Middle East for over a year now, and loving it!  Besides missing our families and friends it's been great!  The best part hands down is the ability to travel.  Pipsqueak at nearly age 3 has been to 3 continents and 5 countries.  Soon to be more!  We are traveling to Prague for Christmas, then to Scotland and Ireland this summer.

And I may get hated for this, but travel with her at this point is a cake walk.  14 hour flight?  I mean of course it sucks but she is so well behaved!  She's learned to sleep anywhere, adjust to jet lag quickly, and takes in new surroundings with ease.

Confession: while traveling when I see parents struggling with their 2-4 kids it makes me really happy.  I enjoy their troubles,

Does this make me a bad person?  Or am I just making lemonade out of my lemons?