Tag Archives: Delestrogen

Baseline… Let’s Get The Party Started ! – The 411

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Today was my final baseline appointment !  My mom went with me and after my appointment, we went to Benihana for lunch to celebrate.

At my appointment, I learned that my lining has increased to 8.6mm.   It is a good thing that I added two to three Estrace vaginally with my every three day Delestrogen injections.  It took my lining up  !  By the time I transfer on Monday, if I do the Estrace until tomorrow, I should be about a 9mm, which is perfect.

I started my progesterone in oil (PIO) injections today as well as the Endometrin three times a day.

This morning at 6:45 am, my eggs were thawed and at 1pm, the sperm vial was shaved and the eggs were fertilized.  I will get a fertilization report tomorrow when I get to the clinic, unless they call while I am enroute.  I am praying all of the eggs survived the thaw and also fertilized normally.  I just want to have something to work with.  I am praying that the first transfer takes and then I will just leave the others frozen until after the birth of my babies.  I am praying for TWINS and done !   Healthy, happy, beautiful, highly intelligent twin girls or a boy/girl twins !  Just putting out there into the universe what I would I would like to receive ! I will later make the decision as to what to do with the remaining embryos.  That is all dependent on (1) if I have twins (2) if the first transfer takes (3) that I have a live birth. After I have two babies, I am leaning towards donating the additional embryos, if there are any, to science.

Well, I am off to bed now since I have to get up at 1 am to leave by 1:45 am for Syracuse.

Tomorrow at 10 am, I have my HCG wash and then my intralipid infusion. I will update tomorrow once I get settled.

Good Nite !

Blog Update 01/05- The 411

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Today, I spent most of the day laying around in bed until I finally got up around 12:30 pm and headed to Target to pick up my prescriptions.

I am still feeling queasy but nowhere near as bad as I did the first two days.  This morning, after breakfast, I took both of the doxycycline at the same time so I could just get it over with.

Upon waking this morning, my mom came to me to show me some posts  Cristal, using one of aliases, had posted on my films Facebook page.  She liked the page then proceeded to post lies about my family, me and my ex.  I blocked the username and then banned her from the page.  I then spent the next 30 minutes going to each of the pages I admin and blocked anyone from ever being able to post on it.  After seven months, you would think this demon would have gone away and found a new target.  I am beyond the point of wanting to meet her down a dark alley and beating the brakes off of her, but what would that solve?  She is mentally insane.  I will be visiting NYPD and the FBI offices again while I am back home in NYC next week.  Enough is enough.

After 22 days of stimming and 10 more to go, I am worn out with sticking myself and swallowing pills !

Since I am feeling a little better, I got up and decided to bake buttermilk banana nut bread with all the bananas my film crew had to have and never ate.  I have three large loaves in the oven now.  I will ship them to my brother in law and friends.

Tomorrow, I plan to make homemade grape candied apples.  A friend has been experimenting with various flavored candy apples and they look amazing.  I bought all the stuff last week at Hobby Lobby, so I will make some tomorrow and ship them to my nieces and nephews.

Tomorrow, I have decided to forego injecting the Delestrogen and will switch to doing the 3 Estrace vaginally.  I am praying my lining cooperates, thickens, but doesn’t thicken over 16mm.  I am ready to get this show on the road !

My cryobank delivery will arrive at the clinic on Friday !! Yay !!  Things are moving forward and expenses are again racking up. It was sooooo nice the past six months to keep all my money to myself and not have to spend most of it on meds and ivf related stuff.  In the end, I pray it’s worth it and not over $100,000 blown on a dream.  2016 is the year my dream WILL come true !

IVF #6- Stim Day 21- The 411

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Today is my 21st day on stims.  This morning, I added doxycycline to my ever growing list of medications and I have been feeling terrible and in bed all day.

Currently, I am injecting lupron, neupogen, lovenox, and delestrogen.

I am taking the maximum dose of LDN (4.5mg), 1500mg Metformin,  150 mg synthroid, prenatal plus, baby asprin, Optimized folate, biotin and epa/dha.

It seems that all day I am either swallowing pills or sticking myself in the tummy or tush ! It will only become more fun when I have to also inject progesterone,  insert estrace and endometrin up the hooha and also cleocin ! Lol

The things we endure to try to have a child !

If only I could just skip the low dull  headache and nausea, I would be okay.

Over the next two days, I have to pull all my meds together and pack for my 2 week trip to DC and hopefully Syracuse.

I ordered two custom infinity scarves from Janelle of New York and they are oversized so I am ready for the cold !  I am still rocking summer and fall clothes.  I am glad that I brought a few coats and sweaters so when I am traveling I will be warm.

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Today was my second delestrogen injection.  My next is due on Wednesday, but I am going to do the estrace three times a day starting Wednesday so that my E2 doesn’t rise too much and I end up with another blood clot.

I am off to bed to watch TV until I fall asleep.  I have one more med to take at 9pm and then it’s a wrap for today.  I feel awful, but grateful for this opportunity to make a life  (or 2).

IVF #6 – Stim Day 18 – The 411

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Happy New Year 2016

 

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 !!

IVF # 5 – Blood Clot – The 411

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So, I spent the night after retrieval in excruciating pain.  First it was the awful gas bubbles in my tummy that were trapped and had no where to go.  I was ridiculously uncomfortable.  I way lying in bed and then noticed the backs of my knees were also hurting pretty bad.  I could not get comfortable and  my right knee pain was radiating down into my calf.  I was finally able to fall asleep after the Dulcolax I took earlier in the day kicked in.  I was still bloated and the abdomen was distended and my legs ached.  I told my camera man to keep an eye on me and if he noticed my breathing change to call 911 immediately.

I talked to my nurse when she called with the fertilization report and she suggested I go to Albany Medical Center.

When the camera crew was leaving, I arranged for a cab to come pick me up to and take me to the emergency room. I got there in about 20 mins, checked in and waited for a room.  I was seen by an ER doc and then sent to radiology in the middle of his interview.  I gave him my list of meds that CNY printed out for me to take over the next few days and off I was rolled to radiology.  That was THE longest ride ever !  I had a doppler done of the groin and both legs and the scan did not show anything above the knee.   After I was done, I was rolled back to the room #13 that I was previously in and two more ER docs and an assistant came in shortly after and explained that doppler scans and xrays do not show much below the knee and that it was suspected that I had a clot in the right leg in the calf. The good thing was that the Lovenox was started again after egg retrieval, so it will help dissolve any clots, being that it works very quickly, unlike Cumadin and other blood thinners that take days to build up in the system.  Lovenox begins to work within two hours of the injection. Next, the insurance coordinator came in and got my information, registered me, and took copies of my insurance card and id.  I relaxed on the cot and watched television for two more hours before they finally let me go.  It took AN HOUR for a cab (after calling 2 different companies) to show up to pick me up and take me back to the hotel.  I ordered pizza on the way back and it arrived within 20 mins of my return.

I was instructed to walk several times a day to increase blood flow and to monitor for various symptoms.

The leg pain was gone by last night before bed, so I was happy about that.  The bloating has done down some and I am no longer in pain.

This morning, I got up an inserted the estrace, Endometrin, did the PIO injection, took the antibiotic, and later took the Prednisone, Claritin, and prenatal vitamin.  I have to insert the Estrace three times a day and the Endometrin twice a day.  I was going to do the Delestrogen, but since my elevated hormone levels are the cause of the blood clot, I will just stick to the vaginal dosage.

Tomorrow, I have to report to CNY Fertility Center and Spa in Albany at 9 am for acupuncture and then I will be having my transfer of prayerfully all three of my embryos at 10:30 am.  I called today, but they do not check the embryos again until tomorrow so I am praying and hoping all three of them are still with us and growing and dividing strongly.  I won’t know about the 4th one until tomorrow either.  I have had dreams about three and so has my mom, so I am going to go with THREE !

IVF # 5 Stim Day 15 – The 411

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Today is my 15th day of stims !   One more week to go before retrieval !!  Woot Woot !

I got up this morning and did my morning injections of Ganirelix, Lovenox, and Neupogen, popped the Prednisone and ran out to my early am monitoring appointments.   I got my scan done and my follicles are finally starting to grow.  I have a 12mm as the largest.  I have 9 on the right and another 4 on left so far.  I am to stay on my same meds and then go back for scans and more blood work on Monday and again on Wednesday.  I will possibly trigger on Wednesday, depending on how things look and report to Albany on Friday for retrieval and then a transfer on the following Monday or Tuesday.

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I had to order more meds as I was out of Ganirelix since I have been taking it for 15 days now.  I was able to get two boxes from another patient and got five more from another patient who are on the Facebook support group boards I am on. Why pay the pharmacy $250 per box when I can get them from other patients for $50?  #diapermoneyforlater

Now that I am no longer injecting the delestrogen and my estradiol levels are dropping to normal range, I am not as tired as I have been.  Then again, I have been stressed and sleeping more, so that could be why I am not as tired.

My friend, Cristal, who lost her son and grandmom this week and my best friend, Gary, who’s mom has stage four cancer, have both launched funding campaigns that I am promoting, so I have not had much time to work on my book this week with that and all the documentation I had to pull together for the network submission of my show.  I have to tape additional segments this week and get them to the editor to revise the sizzle reel plus tape an interview.

Tomorrow, I am attending a class at Howard University School of Divinity that my dear friend, Pastor Nawanna Lewis-Miller is hosting.   I am really looking forward to attending the class with my mother.  I hate that I will not have the time to do acupuncture tomorrow, but I will try to get an appointment and go on Tuesday in the middle of the morning. Parking is so horrendous in DC during the week….

Tonight, I will be injecting 175 units of Follistim and 37.5 units of the Menopur.  My tummy is starting to look black and blue and depending on which med I am injecting, since the needles are different, I am noticing that I am bleeding a lot.  The Lovenox is the culprit !  I am being very careful not to bump into things or fall since I bruise so easily on Lovenox.

Have a great weekend !!

IVF #5 – Stim Day 7 – The 411

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Today is stim day 7 of my IVF #5 stim cycle !!   This morning, I had to inject Delestrogen, Lovenox, Neupogen, and Ganirelix.  I took my vitamins, supplements, and meds throughout the day.

Follistim is the devil !!   Well, at least I think it is the Follistim, since I started it last night and today I have been bitchy, weepy, and irritable ALL day !  I am almost ready to bite people’s heads off and I feel like I am going to burst into tears at any moment.  This is NOT cool !  lol.

I just did my Follistim injection for the day and I have another monitoring appointment in the morning and then blood work.

I had a little break today since my sister and her daughters came over to spend the day with the baby.  She has been fighting and crying off and on all day.  I think the Benedryl I gave her this morning has her sleepy and cranky.

I took my mom to the imaging center today for her annual mammogram. The new 3-D mammogram is kinda neat !  I am now looking forward to getting mine done. (Yeah right 🙂 )

Have a great evening everyone !  More tomorrow ~

IVF #5 – Stim Day 5 – The 411

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IVF 5 stim day 2ivf 5 stim day 4 neupogen

Today is stim day 5.  Nothing too exciting….  I took my synthroid, prenatals, Vitamin D, B6, L-methofolate, and prednisone at various times today and did the am Ganirelix injection and mid day Neupogen injection.  I took my pm prednisone, claritin, and will take my other all natural prenatal vitamin before bed tonight.

For some reason, I am very tired and anxious.  I so dislike that feeling.  Like something bad is looming…  I am assuming it is because of the Delestrogen or the Ganirelix, as I have never quite felt like this before during stims.

I finished my mom’s tax return and am now working on my grandmom’s which is very simple and I am going to relax for the rest of the evening. The medical delivery service just delivered my intralipids for tomorrow’s infusion.  I have my blood draw and an sonogram in the morning at 7:45 am.

Hope everyone else is progressing in their cycles, pregnancies or in their TTC attempts !

IVF #5 – Stim Day 4 – The 411

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Today is stim day 4 !!  It is Delestrogen (tush injection) day.  I did my Ganirelix injection this morning and took the other meds and prenatal that I am to take.  At lunch time, I looked on my instruction sheet and realized that today was the day I am to inject estrogen.  It is done every three days.  To give my grandmother something to do, I asked her to do the injection.  She is a retired nurse, but does have alzheimers so I was hoping and praying the whole time that she “still has it” and she does !  I did not even feel the needle go in and she proclaims, all done !  🙂

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I finally got my neupogen script and had to make an adjustment to my dosage after my dear friend informed me that the dosage I was taking was not the therapeutic dosage that Dr. Braverman wants us to take.  I was taking .1 ml and the correct dosage is .34 ml ! 🙂  WHEW !  Glad I know now so that is one more thing I can not worry about going wrong.  With the increased dosage, it should really help with the NK cells and cytokenes and also help the NK cells in my lining remain dormant as well so that my body is not fighting the embryos that are transferred.

I am nervous and excited and scared all at the same time about proceeding with the protocol.  After my next baseline on Wednesday, I am to start Follistim, which I’ve not taken before.  I am hoping there are no crazy side effects.

I will keep you updated and please continue to send up positive affirmations, prayers and thoughts on my behalf.  If this cycle works, I will will be having New Years babies !  Go figure….