Mock Transfer

As you all know, yesterday was my mock transfer appointment so I thought it would be good for an update.  But first an update on how I have been feeling.  I think my body is getting used to the Lupron shots because my headaches and daytime hot flashes have gone away, and I just get the occasional night sweats now.  My blood sugars are getting better as well now that the birth control pills have stopped, but they still aren't perfect.  It has been nice having my hormones depleted because it's really cleared up my skin I have noticed!  But I know that won't last long once I start the estrogen patches.  

So I started out the appointment with my ultrasound to check how my ovaries look and get the measurement of my uterine lining.  Here are pictures of what the ultrasound room looks like where you can watch what they are seeing on the tv on the wall.  I will spare you the photo I took of the machine they use. haha!  It was very surreal to go back in there and have another checkup.  It feels like just yesterday that I was doing my fresh cycle! 

Ultrasound Room

Once I had stopped the birth control pills, I ended up starting another period on Friday so my uterine lining was extra thin at 4mm.  They need to get the thickness up to at least 8mm by the time I am ready for the embryo to implant.  Here's a really bad picture of my uterus check.  You can't really see anything but hopefully that will change in a few weeks!  I was glad to see that my ovaries didn't have any cysts.  

My Uterus

Next, they did the mock transfer where they take a hard catheter and stick it in my cervix and measure how far it is to my uterine lining.  I have to have a full bladder for this so it isn't very comfortable and your cervix cramps and burns when they insert it.  Of course, since I had one done previously by Dr. Christman and he said it was one of the easiest ones he did, he let the resident try to do it this time.  Of course she didn't know what she was feeling so that made it more uncomfortable and therefore Dr. Christman took over.  They measured me last time at 8.2cm but this time they got 7.9cm.  I hope they get it right during the transfer!  But I believe they use a soft ultrasound guidance catheter which makes it easier.   

I asked why we had to measure me again since I already had it done and Dr. Christman loves to explain the science of why we do things.  He said that they use a "Friedman" hard catheter that is named after the French guy who did the very first IVF in France which "scratches" the uterine lining during the measurement.  Research has shown that this "scratching" technique sort of tells the uterus to thicken more than normal this month which promotes pregnancy.  So even though he already had measurements, he just wanted to scratch me! haha. 

So then I had a urine pregnancy test which of course was negative and my baseline estrogen level checked.  My estrogen level resulted at 25.  This was a little bit lower than my baseline estrogen for the fresh cycle which was 28 so 25 is a good number.  I am officially suppressed and ready to start estrogen patches tonight!  Here are some pictures Justin took of what those look like.  I have to change them every other day and titrate myself up to eventually wearing 4 of them at once! 

My Estrogen patch

I like to call this "Thank you Jesus for modern medicine!"

I am so happy to hear that our cost went down so much for this cycle.  I already had a $2270 credit on our account from not finishing the last cycle that was applied to this one.  They had quoted me $1743 more but I had met my out of pocket expenses for the year so they reduced it to $474.  I am still not sure that it should have been reduced that much because she used a different pricing sheet than she used for the quote!  But I'm not saying anything!  Our living room tv has been intermittently not turning on again when we just had some capacitors replaced in it 4 months ago for the same thing!  I am thinking eventually we will need to use this money saved to replace it.  Super frustrating as the thing is only 3 years old! I guess I have heard Samsungs have had these capacitor issues for years but this is the only Samsung tv we have had issues with.  Hoping we can get something cheap so we can still use the extra money towards our future a/c.  It's always something!!

FET Quote

FET Actually Paid

So what do we do now?  Now I just sit and wait for my upcoming appointments.  The next one is on September 6th right before Justin and I go with friends to the USA vs. Trinidad & Tobago soccer world cup qualifying match in Jacksonville!  Should be fun!  I will be getting a lining measurement and estrogen level checked and will update you then!  That reminds me that I need to go ahead and make my acupuncture appointments before the transfer.  Eek!  Exciting!  A fellow IVF friend told me when I was getting worried and anxious that NOW is the time to be happy and excited.  I have every chance to be sad and anxious when things don't work out but enjoy the moments of anticipation now so that is what I'm doing! 

And So It Begins...

My last Opus coffee :(

Well everyone! I have officially started my Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) protocol.  That means no more caffeine, hot tubs, or alcohol for me!  We started out the month with an appointment with Dr. Christman, our fertility doctor.  It was a super quick appointment because we just had to sign consents again for the transfer.  We had to decide how many embryos to thaw and whether we wanted to re-freeze them if they weren't used.  We decided for health and financial reasons, we would only be thawing one embryo and if that one didn't survive thawing, to thaw one more embryo.  Luckily we have 4 embryos that are frozen in each of their own individual straws and 2 sets of 2 embryos frozen together.  So I don't think we will need to do any re-freezing of the embryos.  So this means that only one embryo will be transferred in me on September 19th, and if I end up with twins, I will honestly be telling you that it was all God's perfect miraculous plan haha.  If this cycle does not work out, then of course we would be putting in two the next time!  

I have been taking the birth control for almost a month now and on Saturday, I started my baby aspirin pill and Lupron injections.  Lupron is a subcutaneous (in the fat) injection that overstimulates the body's production of leutinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH).  In doing so, Lupron causes the production of hormones to temporarily shut down and will cause ovulation to stop completely.  They use this drug sometimes to treat women with fibroids or endometriosis, or even men with prostate cancer.  The goal is to suppress me to a low level of hormones so that they can prime me back up with estrogen and progesterone to the levels they want for pregnancy.  The only problem with the medicine is it creates menopause like symptoms and boy am I experiencing them!  I pretty much have had a bad headache every day and the hot flashes and night sweats are awful.  I don't think I have become moody yet but you'll have to ask Justin. haha  Some other side effects that I'm nervous about are: high blood sugar (I am already seeing this! ugggghhhhh), bone density loss (my mom has osteoporosis and I am sure I will too with my low Vitamin D levels), forgetfulness (please excuse me if my short term memory starts to suck!), tiredness, and weight gain!  It's just not a fun drug to be on and I will have to take it for 31 days.  I will be adding this to my prayer requests that the side effects remain tolerable and that I can figure out these blood sugars once again.  I am losing my mind with the daily adjustments and freaking out about my a1c again at the end of the month.  I am trying to take things day by day.

My meds this time around

Here are some pictures that Justin took of me trying to figure out my medication schedule and giving my first injection.

First Lupron Injection

The FET protocol and schedule is written on a piece of paper like this which is really hard to figure out. 

My FET Protocol

I used a fellow IVF friend's suggestion of writing everything on a calendar to remind myself which meds are when. 

As the calendar says, today is my last day of birth control pills.  I will continue Lupron and Aspirin for the remainder of the week until Monday when I go back in for my ultrasound where they measure my uterine lining, mock transfer (measuring exactly where they will put the embryos in me), and blood hormone levels.  As long as my hormone levels are suppressed enough by the Lupron, I will start Estrogen patches the next day as well as continue the Lupron and Aspirin.  I am hoping this will make the symptoms not so bad to have hormones back in me.   I will go in only twice this time for hormone levels and ultrasounds where they are concentrating on my uterine lining measurement.  

Six days before the embryo is placed in me, I will stop the Lupron and begin Progesterone vaginal suppositories twice a day with a nightly intra-muscular (IM) Progesterone shot that Justin has to give me.  I have to continue the Estrogen patches, Aspirin, and Progesterone up until I am 10 weeks pregnant!! NOT EXCITED!  Justin got IM injection teaching done at our consents appointment by the nurse Ursula since Melinda was out of town.  I have to confirm with Melinda where I need to put these shots because at first it was the upper outer butt, but Ursula said they have moved to the ventro-gluteal site which is the hip!  And then she proceeded to measure me but I swear she measured me wrong because these permanent marker circles on my back are towards my kidneys and not my hip how I learned in nursing school.  I will ask again at my mock transfer. 

My IM site but I am pretty sure this is too far back

As you all know, I enjoyed my 30th birthday back home in Melbourne and it was just what I needed.  We loved going to the beach and eating at all my favorite places.  It was really relaxing without the dogs.  

Birthday Cake 7-11 Slurpee!

Celebrating at Red Lobster!

The Ultimate Feast!

We have continued to work on our home improvements and Justin is just now beginning to paint the ceiling again. haha it's going to look so good!  I have a "Countdown to baby" on our fridge and it's t-minus 35 days until the transfer.  I have that as a reminder for us to hurry up and get stuff done before I feel miserable pregnant.  All of these Olympic events have distracted us from working!  We moved our loveseat couch to our current "dog play room" and created a little reading area that I'm sure will be a future kid's play room.  It has a lot of natural light and I can get away from Justin if he's watching TV without having to read in our bedroom and falling asleep on our comfy bed haha.  I will post pictures once we get everything completed.  It has created a lot more open room in our living room having just one couch.  

The start to my reading room decorations

BTW- I have read this amazing book called The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life by Hal Elrod.  It talks about waking up earlier than you need to in your day to create time for yourself to meditate, exercise, read a book, work on your goals, etc.  I highly recommend it and read it all in one day!  If anyone wants to be my accountability partner, let me know! haha 

Ollie and Me!

As many of you have heard, we found out our air conditioner has a leak in a few coils and therefore we will need a new air conditioner sometime in the next year.  I was really upset hearing this as I had to make the "big girl" decision to stop going to my barre gym classes to save money for the air conditioner.  They were getting me so strong and I met some great ladies.  I am thankful that I can still attend GHFC with Justin and I am hoping that I will enjoy the yoga classes there.  I know I should be able to do those while pregnant. But it won't be the same!

I think that is enough for now.  I will post another blog after my appointment on Monday.  Have a great week!

Prayers:  That medication side effects will be tolerable, my blood sugars will get managed quickly, and that my hormones are suppressed enough on Monday.