Updates!

My apologies, again, for my long hiatus. There really hasn't been much going on with ART for the past couple of months, so I've been trying to place the focus on other areas of my life.

Well, anyway, you're not here to read my excuses for being a delinquent blogger and I am here to provide details! Over the Labor Day weekend, Doc and I headed out for four fun-filled days in Denver. Our trip to CCRM was turned into a mini-vacay, so we spent one day going to the Taste of Colorado festival and touring downtown Denver. Then on Sunday, we went to Mt. Evans and drove the highest paved rode in North America. And, on Monday, we hiked in Rocky Mountain National Park. By far, the highlight of those three days was the hike in RMNP. It's beautiful! Anyone going to CCRM, should really take the two-hour drive from Lone Tree and visit.

I have to say, the elevation in Denver kicked my butt! I was constantly dehydrated and hiking the short 4 mile trail had me weezing and panting. Not to mention, no matter how much lotion I slathered on my body, I still ended up with alligator skin. And to think, I thought the Bay Area was arid!

Anyway, for our last day in Denver, we did our one-day workup at CCRM. To say the clinic is big is an understatement. It's huge and they have their processes down! Our schedule was waiting for us as soon as we walked in and we started the day.

It was really impressive how smoothly everything went. The appointments were all on time and everyone was very helpful, friendly and professional. Our schedule was packed from 9am - 2:30pm with a 30 minute break for lunch. All the tests were run and everything came back clear! They even did a doppler to check the blood flow through each ovary.

We spoke with Dr. S at the very end of our day and he basically told us that we should think of this IVF as our "first" real IVF because the last two were like trial runs. He will be placing me on an antagonist estrogen priming protocol, starting the estrogen one full cycle before my IVF cycle. He's also looking at having me take DHEA to improve egg quality. Based on my issue with egg maturity, he'll also have me stim for an additional day or two AND give me a combo lupron-HCG trigger rather than just an HCG trigger.

CCRM also provides the ability to do genetic screening on your embryos. Doc and I will probably do this if we have more than 4 blastocysts, but that's getting way ahead of ourselves since we've never had more than 2 fertilized embryos.

After our trip, I have a wee bit of hope starting to grow. Between now and January, when we plan to do the IVF, I'll continue to go to acupuncture, take herbs and just prepare my body for our cycle. Keeping my fingers crossed that this is it!!