Today is the 18th day of my stim cycle, and the first day on estradiol valerate and neupogen. I have done all three injections and taken all meds and supplements except my 9pm dose of LDN. The Lovenox and neupogen, I inject in the morning and do the Lupron at 6pm. Everything went smooth. I only inject the estradiol valerate every three days.
I hope I have made the right decision to do the injectible estrogen instead of the vaginal estrace.
I hope everyone has an amazing New Year !!
Woot Woot !!! After a consult with my RE, the nurse called today to inform me that they want to proceed with my next step in this cycle. The RE thinks that the imaging center overread my lining or either that my lining just didn’t thin out this month as much, but either way, he is not worried about it. Tomorrow, I am adding Neupogen and Estradiol Valerate to the current protocol, except I take the Lupron down to 5 units instead of 10.
On the 11th, I go for another baseline and as long as my lining is not over 16 and has thickened, then my egg thaw will be on the 12th and my transfer will be on the 15th !!
I had an eventful day with my film crew. We went out today to capture new scenes and to also get B Roll footage for the reality show. We filmed me doing location scouting via helicopter ! Anyone who knows me, knows that I am petrified of heights ! The flight was so much fun ! We flew over the ocean and around the city.
Today is my 16th day on Lupron and I got the results from my sonogram yesterday. For some reason, my uterine lining is still thick. It is 7mm, down one millimeter from last week. The nurse called and left the message and said she wanted to know how much bleeding I did over the last few days and she wanted the lining under a 7 to proceed. I have to call her tomorrow morning to go over my scan. I texted my RE and asked him his thoughts and he asked me a series of questions and then said he wasn’t concerned, as my saline sonogram was fine and I had a endometrial scrape with biopsy that came back fine as well and sometimes the lining just doesn’t thin all the way out every month.
This afternoon, the imaging center I made an appointment with on Thursday called to inform me that they do not read infertility scans, thus they were cancelling my appointment ! WHAT THE WHAT?? I asked to speak to the ultrasound tech and she explained that they no longer do infertility scans and the Radiologist decided they were no longer doing them and that is all the explanation she could offer. I explained to her that I read the entire order to the intake person and they were aware that I was doing this scan for infertility and that I had been referred to them by the hospital radiology department as the one imaging center in this area which DOES infertility related scans. Long story short, she gave me a half assed apology and could do nothing for me. I will let the nurse know tomorrow and just let it go since I just did a scan yesterday and insurance companies do not like for patients to keep repeating tests unnecessarily.
The plan is for me to start the estrogen injections on Monday and then go in for a repeat scan on Jan 14th. I talked to a few ladies today who had thick linings and one lady had a lining thickness of almost 19 on the day of her transfer and she is a few weeks pregnant with twins ! I guess it can not hurt for the lining to be thicker than normal. My usual lining is around a 7 or 8 at transfers. I am kinda glad that I do not have to do another transvaginal ultrasound ! Not really my favorite thing to do LOL.
This afternoon, on my 15th day on Lupron, I went to a local imaging center to repeat my baseline ultrasound to see if my lining has thinned to where it needs to be so that I can start estrogen and I left there and went to LabCorp, which is down the street from my condo, and got the blood work repeated. Tomorrow I will know the results. I told my nurse that I wanted to just stay on the Lupron for the remainder of the week and start the estrogen on January 4th as planned so that it does not interfere with my travel plans. I do not want to have to change my travel dates, so I will start the meds on Monday and then do a lining check on January 14th.
Today is my 14th day on Lupron. Other than the typical hot flashes, there is nothing unusual or new to report on the stimming front. I hope my lining is thinning out so that I can proceed to the next phase of this cycle…
This morning, my mom, me and my camera crew arrived at our beach-front condo. It is peaceful here, although I miss my sisters, brother in law, nieces and nephews. My nephew is coming to the beach one day this week once he works out his transportation. I was hoping my sister would let the baby come, but she has to get back to school.
I went out and went grocery shopping and then came back, pulled out my pressure cooker and made a quick broccoli fettuccine alfredo with boneless fried chicken breast. I then baked sweet potatoes and then made two deep dish bourbon sweet potato pies. They smell divine !
I am going to bake a couple of rum cakes tomorrow morning and ship them to our family friends who lost their 84 year old mother last week. Her home going service will on Tuesday on my hometown.
I am excited to report that there has been a preponderance of twin pregnancies at my fertility clinic !! I have referred a lot of girls lately and they are all getting pregnant, most with twins ! Omen??? 🙂 I just need the doctors to keep that up until after my transfer ! Lol
Can you believe six months has passed and in a matter of weeks, I could be pregnant? How humbling… that this could happen ! I deserve this ! I claim this !!!
I do partition your prayers for our mother. She has not been feeling well and is sleeping an awful lot. She is making an appointment with her oncologist for a petscan and I can tell she is terrified that cancer will be found. It is likely that all the pain meds and other meds they have her doped up on for neuropic pain is the reason she can not stay awake. That coupled with depression. She was extremely happy at Christmas being with the entire family. We will all be taking a vacation to Florida to Disney for Easter break. It should be fun, if I’m not battling morning sickness. Lol.
Have a great night everyone !
Today is the 13th day of stimming with Lupron. So far, everything seems to be going good. My uterine lining appears to be cleaning itself, which is good since my lining was an 8 on CD 2.
I am hoping that the lining is in the normal range when they recheck it on Monday.
I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas. I spent the day with the family in DC. Today, my mom and I went to the movies to see Concussion. It was an awesome film…. definite must see !
Have a great night~
Merry Christmas Everyone !
Today is stim day 12 of Lupron for my sixth IVF cycle. Above is the first picture of my baby girl, Harper Jean, who would have been born a year ago today. Today, I honor her memory and miss her so much. How I wish she would have made it. She is my angel baby. I do not think I will feel complete on a Christmas morning until I am holding a child in my arms….
Today started with my Lovenox injection, followed by a nice quiet breakfast with my entire family, except my brother in law who is in Iraq working. We then started opening gifts. My mom was blown away by her gifts: Burberry bag, Tiffany & Co. Holiday Mug, Ancestry.com DNa kit, UGG Australia shoes, Heated Blanket. My mom gave everyone Amazon.com giftcards. I gave my nieces and nephews giftcards to their favorite food places or stores, my sisters: one three designer sweaters, the other a velour leisure suit and a hooded top, my brother in law in Iraq: a Gucci wallet, my other brother in law: giftcard to his favorite store, my cousin: Visa giftcard, and my videographer: Amazon.com giftcard. I only purchased Christmas gifts for my Godmother and my best friend. Typically, I only buy gifts for friends who either buy me gifts or if they are having a party/event. I have too many friends, so I normally just bake something delicious and ship it to everyone else when I have time. I have to go out this weekend and get a giftcard for my doorman. I have a friend in the Bay Area who is having a birthday party again this year, so I got her a Tiffany & Co. Holiday mug. Every year, I normally just get her a new mug or wine glasses from Tiffany & Co. Who doesn’t like receiving a little blue box?
I went to Union Station this morning at 11 am and picked up Mark (videographer) and my cousin Chris, who lives in DC. Mark is going with my mom and I to the beach for a week and we will be filming segments for my reality show.
We are all chilling today at my sister’s house in Northern VA and may go out tonight to see Concussion at the theater. We leave at 3 am so I hope I have enough energy lol.
My brother in law grilled chicken wings, ribs, chopped chicken bbq, and my sister cooked a roast and a ham. We are also having mac n cheese, slow cooker collards, string beans, string bean casserole, sweet potato souffle, potato salad, peach cobbler and a whole bunch of other stuff my sister has whipped up. I cooked Thanksgiving Dinner and hosted at my condo at the beach and everyone came in, so I am chilling for Christmas AND Easter ! My other sister will be hosting Easter in North Carolina this year, unless we decide to take the family annual trip to Orlando at that time. Then she will have to cook there lol. I am retired until Thanksgiving ! I will definitely have my meal catered if I am blessed with my babies, because I will not feel up to cooking a spread after a c-section !
Tonight, I will be doing my Lupron injection and taking the LDN at 9pm. That is it for me…
I hope everyone is having a fantastic Christmas and I hope we all have babies en route in 2016 !!
Today is the 11th day of stims. Nothing new to report. I am still injecting Lovenox and Lupron and taking a boatload of meds and supplements. I have been doing my Lovenox injections in the morning prior to my bath and the Lupron at 6pm daily. I will continue on these same meds until after my baseline appointment. I made one appointment for Monday and another for Wednesday. The hospital called to get my insurance information so that they could call for preauthorization.
I am hoping that my lining is looking good and thin so that I can start the estrogen. Right now, if I can only do the appt on the 31st, then I start the estrogen on the 4th, go for baseline on the 14th and my transfer will be on the 18th or 20th.
Merry Christmas to everyone and I pray that Santa brings you everything you dream of ~
Today, I had my CD 2 baseline appointment and unfortunately, my transfer is going to be delayed a week because my lining is 8mm. I was instructed to stay on Lupron for an additional week, allow my period to complete and shed my lining and then go for another lining check and blood draw next week.
I called around to find an imaging center back at the beach so that I would not have to travel to Washington again for an appointment and was able to schedule an appointment on Monday at a local hospitals offsite imaging center, which does not do detailed radiology scans because they do not normally do IVF related scans. They referred me to another private imaging center which does do detailed scans so I made an appointment with them and the first available appointment was on Thursday, New Years Eve. I faxed my orders to them today and I emailed my nurse to ask her which appointment she wanted me to go to, since I am not sure exactly what she is looking for. I have to wait until after the next scan to start taking the estrogen. Luckily for me, I am just going with the flow and am not on any particular time schedule. Now it looks like I will be bumped back until the week of the 18th for my transfer.
I called Xytex today to get an idea of their dates and times of operation and when to have them ship the sperm vial so that I can get it there in enough time for my fertilization. Now I have a little extra time and will not worry about the shipment getting caught up in holiday travel.
So for the next week, I am still on Lupron and the other meds and supplements I am supposed to take.
Have a great night everyone ~
Today is CD 1 !! It is also my 9th day on Lupron. In the morning, I go in for blood work and a baseline sonogram. I am now on 3.0 mg of the LDN and I have not noticed any increased side effects. I will receive instructions tomorrow on the estrogen after my baseline.
This morning, my mother and I arrived in Washington DC, where we will be spending the holiday with family. After getting settled in to the hotel, my mom had a quick dental appointment and then we met our friend for a late lunch/early dinner at Benihana. It was soooo good ! I even managed to run into the mall and grab three gifts I needed for my nephews and for my sister.
I am a bit worn down, so I am turning in early tonight since I have to leave for the hospital in the morning at 6:45 am.
Plan B Chronicles 