Today I am feeling a little better.  Enough that I went to work, but not enough that I can actually DO anything at work.  It feels like I swallowed a little electric beach ball that every now and then decides to give me a ZING-say when I bend down, walk, reach for my water, or type the letter Q :).  But I am definitely feeling better than yesterday.

Now my daily regimen consists of one shot and 3 pills.  The shot is progesterone in oil.  During the second phase of a normal cycle, your body produces progesterone from the follicle that busted out the egg.  This signals the body to not shed the uterine lining, giving that fertilized egg a chance to travel down the fallopian tube and implant in the uterine wall 6-10 days after ovulation.  When your body stops producing progesterone, you start your period.  If you stop producing too early, the embryo does not have time to implant and is just shed with your period.  This is called Luteal Phase Defect, when the second half of the cycle is too short to produce a viable pregnancy.  So during the IVF cycle, they want to make sure this does not happen, so you take progesterone shots starting the day of the retrieval.  They are supposed to hurt and be very sore afterwords, but mine last night was not so bad at all!

We hear back tomorrow between 9am – noon on how all those little fertilized embies are doing.  I am so excited!  Praying for at least three to make it through this process.  We will then find out if we are doing the transfer on Friday or Sunday…I can’t decide which I prefer!  Ready for Phase 2!

Yep…I went with my husbands creepy moniker for the egg retrival..Cue the creepy children of the corn music….

Anyway!  Retrieval was this morning!  All went well.  We arrived about 9 am, were quickly wisked back, and before I knew it I was in looney tune land.  Man, I wish the pre-knockout euphoria phase before being completely knocked out would last just a LITTLE longer.  For me…30 seconds and I am in la la land.  As for the retrieval….drum roll please……8 potentially fertilizable eggs.  I was hoping for at least ten, but all it takes is one!  Since there are 8, they want to maximize the potential of fertilization.  Instead of letting the eggs sit in the dish with the sperm and fertilize, they will actually do a process called ICSI, Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection.  This means they will actually select out the best sperm and inject one into each egg.   Ahhhh science….

I am definitely in more pain than I was expecting.  The cramping was so severe that I started seeing stars and had to be taken to the clinic.  They performed another ultrasound to make sure it wasn’t that dreaded hyperstimulation syndrome, but all looked well.  The doctor stated he had to do the procedure a little differently, and had to go to through the bladder to get to the eggs in the left ovary.  So my bladder got poked with a big ol’ needle, which is most likely why I am experiencing so much cramping. After a few hours of lying perfectly still,  I am starting to feel better.

Now we wait for our fertilization report either tomorrow afternoon or Thursday morning.  They will let us know how things are progressing and if they recommend transferring them back into me @ 3 days or 5 days post retrieval (Friday or Sunday).  Keep your fingers and toes crossed that these little guys keep chugging right along!

My egg retrieval is tomorrow at 10 am.  This has caused some sort of warp in the space-time continuum, where minutes are now hours and time has slowed down to a near halt.  I look at the clock-swearing that an hour has gone by, and it has only been 10 minutes!  But this too shall pass, and we will be on our way tomorrow!

The trigger shot went great last night.  The biggest needle and intramuscular, this was somehow the least painful.  Walking is difficult.  I am doing more of a waddle.  Very, very tired all the time.  I ended up taking a half day at work and nap time was my friend.  Got the call from my nurse that everything was looking great, my e2 level jumped to around 3400-a nice big number, but not TOOO big (We don’t that painful hyperstimulation syndrome).

So tomorrow I will go in, they will give me some feel good anesthesia, and then the retrieval begins.  This involves going in through the vaginal wall and sucking the contents of any good size follicles out.  That fluid should contain an egg that was in each follicle.  They will figure out how many are mature and give us a number! Those guys will then go into the petri dish of love and let the magic begin.

So I am not a betting girl (except when in Vegas!), but my bet is that they are going to get 10 eggs.  My husband bets 13.   My mother-in-law says 14!  (weigh in Mom and everybody).  We shall see!  I am feeling very positive and ready for this next step!

So after a rough day yesterday, we will finally be taking the trigger shot tonight at 11 pm.  Friday night, they halved my medication because I was responding so well.  Well, ultrasound and E2 yesterday showed a drop in some of the follicle size AND a drop in my E2 (from around 2000 to 1800).  The doctor decided to increase me to 150 menapur and 150 follistim and bring me back in this morning.  It felt like getting to the top of a mountain and then riding a semi-landslide back down.  I made myself get a lot of rest and drink lots of water last night.  Today, another ultrasound and I prayed the whole way there it would be my last one-in a good way.  I seem to be back on track…My follicles measured: 19.8, 23, 16, 19.22, 19, 16 on the right and 21.5, 21.5, 25 (WOW–Too big) 13, and 14.5. My E2 levels rose back up to 2400.

The nurse just called with my instructions for the day.  It is officially TRIGGER DAY, which is the last step before the retrieval.  The trigger shot is called Novarel and is composed of hCG (Human chorionic gonadotropin).  Its purpose is to initiate the final maturation of the eggs in the follicles.  They also trigger the egg to release from the follicle wall and start floating around in the fluid, ready to ovulate (burst from the follicle).  I take another Ganirelix to prevent that bursting from taking place.  Trigger time is 11 pm tonight.  Then, no more medication or shots!  At least for a couple of days.  Tuesday is my retrieval day!!! I can’t believe I am already at retrieval.  In some ways this has flown by, and in some ways it feels that it has take FOREVER.  I am looking for the few days between retrieval and transfer when my body is officially off duty.  A chance to relax, rest, and ramp up for the next step.  Feeling exhausted right now…so I am off for a lovely afternoon of couch time and some Parks and Recreation watching!

Blood results are in..E2 levels at 1911!  Jumping up!  The nurse said things were looking great!  Last time she said “good”  now it is “great”!   They brought my meds back down to the original 75 follistim, 75 menapur, and the Ganirelix (They don’t want me to overstimulate).  I think my doc just wants to give those few laggers one more day to get in the game.   ANOTHER ultrasound tomorrow and I am willing to bet my favorite pair of cowboy boots that I take the trigger tomorrow night.  And boy am I starting to feel it.  Feels like I am walking around with two water balloons in my lower belly.  Tonight, you shall find me on the couch watching some sort of lovely TV marathon.  I can’t wait for tomorrow to get here!

Today I had what I hope will be my final ultrasound before the retrieval.  Lookin’ GOOD!!! Lefty the Troublesome Ovary is making a real comeback.  The nurse was able to see six follicles on that side @ 19 mm, 18.84 mm, 18.75 mm, 17.9 mm, 14mm, and 9 mm.  The right side continued to chug along with six follicles at 18.69 mm, 18.63 mm, 17.1mm, 16.5 mm, 12.5 mm, and 12.2 mm. Looks like we will get at the very least 9 mature eggs (Plus the other ones might catch up or they may be some more hiding somewhere)!  Happy!  This process has me constantly amazed at what our bodies and minds are capable of doing.  I feel so grateful that I live in a time where options such as IVF are available to me, and cannot imagine the heartache women faced 20-30 years ago when the answer to infertility was just “Sorry..There is nothing we can do”. 

Now, I wait for the word on what my doctor wants to do (3 pm phone call).  I, of course, hounded the nurse for her best guess.  She felt the doctor would instruct me to take the stimulants 1 more night to try to give the little guys one last chance to catch up.  I would then take my ovulation trigger on Saturday night and have the retrieval Monday morning!  Wow!  For however stressful this process has been, I feel like it has FLOWN by.  My husband, however, would adamantly disagree.  Last night he just kept repeating, “I am ready for this part to be over.  Whatever happens next, I am ready for this part to be over!” He has been a trooper though.  It must be such a nerve-racking experience for the guys too.  He knows he needs to give a good sample on retrieval day and he also knows that his best samples come from 3-4 days of abstaining.  But you can’t plan for that because each day is a “anybody’s guess” on what day the retrieval will actually be!  Since he is a guy that likes to plan and work in absolutes, these little unknowns are causing big time stress.  But, like I keep comforting him, we have a totally PERFECT sample on back-up in case the one that day is a bust.  And I mean PERFECT.  250,000 million, great morphology and motility, and very little DNA fragmentation.

We are getting so close!  Then it is on to phase 2!  Retrieval….or as my husband refers to it..The Harvest.  Sounds a little too Children of the Corn for me…..

A lot of people ask me what I am doing extra to increase my chances of a successful cycle, or just fertility in general.  See, I am a little bit of a hippie girl and have always believed that changes in what we eat can translate into big stuff involving our health and well-being.  I have personally witnessed my husband’s sperm count do a complete 180 after changes in his diet.  He went from a count in the 4-15 million range to a count > 250 million with excellent motility and morphology. (I’ll post more about that later).  While I obviously believe in the miracles of science (Hello IVF!), I am also a big believer in herbal/holistic remedies.  So what am I doing this cycle?…

1)  Bee pollen/Royal Jelly- This is what is feed to the queen bee in the hive.  Royal Jelly is rich in amino acids, lipids, sugars, vitamins, and proteins. It contains high levels of vitamins E and D, and also has iron and calcium. The way I see it, anything that helps that queen lay up to 2000 eggs per day has GOT to help this little bumblebee make more than one!

2)  Super-B complex-So must of us know that a prenatal and folic acid are especially important when trying to conceive.  Folic acid helps prevent neural tube defects in your baby. So I take these and then add a Super-B complex vitamin every other day.  The  B-complex family of vitamins are necessary to produce the genetic materials DNA and RNA. Together with vitamin B12, folic acid works to ensure that your baby’s genetic codes are intact.  All of the B vitamins seem to be pretty essential during the pre-conceptual period.

3) I haven’t been eating much meat, so I have to make sure I am getting plenty of protein and iron, as well as whatever I feel will help.   I was soooo tired of trying to find a way to fit all the things I needed into my day-to-day eating habits.  One day I realized, “I don’t really care what this takes like!  Just get it into my body so it can do its thing!.”  My solution was to make what I now refer to as my “baby-makin’ casserole”.  Going back to my southern roots, I convinced myself that if I didn’t like the way it tasted, I could just cover it in hot sauce.  The thing is….I think it tastes AWESOME!!  So in my biggest casserole dish I combine..

• A layer of quinoa (a  great “complete” protien and high in iron)
• A layer of black beans (protein, folate, fiber, B1)
• A layer of sweet potatoes (Vitamin A, Vitamin C, @ Beta Carotene-which promotes a healthy hormone balance and may decrease risk of miscarriage)  mixed with butternut squash (B6, Fiber, folate).
• DIced red onions and a variety of chopped hot peppers for improved circulation and antioxidant/anti-inflammatory benefits
• Two cut up bananas (Potassium, B6, and B12)
• Chopped up fresh garlic because garlic is one of those superfoods that does just about everything awesome

I then pour some sort of Indian curry sauce over the dish…the hotter the better for me.  I have tried both Jalfrezi and Vindaloo–both worked (I consider “worked” as making me fan my mouth after the first couple of bites).  I cover with foil and back at 375 degrees for about 1.5 hour until the potatoes are soft .  Sometime I eat the dish plain or with spicy humus and chips.  The result is what feels like a Caribbean/African/Indian dish…hot, with a little sweet, and LOADED with good stuff for me and my fertility!

4)  An Acai/Goji/Noni/Mangosteen super juice blend.  One ounce a day. This provides the wealth of benefits you get from juices including free radical scavenging, immune system support, and lots of energy!

Whew!  That is a lot of stuff!  But I feel healthier, happier, and like I am somehow acting as a partner to all this crazy science, IVF stuff.  I have cut out alcohol (BOOOOO!), caffeine (double BOOOO), and limited my meat and white carb intake.  If you are on this crazy infertility ride, please remember that there is always conflicting  information out there on that lovely beast called the Internet.  I encourage you to do your research and make the choices you feel are right for you.  But seriously…try the baby makin’ casserole….especially if you like it HOT!!

I wanted to give you guys a little visual of what I am seeing during the ultrasound. I had the nurse print out some pictures for me.  So without further ado…let me introduce you to my ovaries……

The top is of ol’ lefty. Those black grape shaped objects are the follicles.  Each time you go in, they take measurements.  Lookin’ good,  right!!!??  TThis is just one view (you can only see two of the three that were there.  The nurse rotates the wand around to get multiple angles.  The bottom picture is the right ovary.  You can see about 4 of them.  Ain’t science cool?

This will be quick!  My E2 levels came back at 974!  So a good descent jump from 571 yesterday.  The results have been Day 2@ 34, Day 5 @ 179, Day 7@ 552, leveled off Day 8 @ 571, and now a good rise day 9 @ 974.  The nurse stated anything over 800 translated to “being in the clear”.  Thanks to everyone for checking in on me, giving me support, and sending messages of encouragement.  It means so much to both of us!  Back for bloodwork again tomorrow!