What Not Wednesday (A Day Late)

Yeah, it's Thursday, but I'm going to pretend it's Wednesday and post random What Not thoughts for the day. I know my blog has been seriously lacking in any sort of interesting, stimulating or even somewhat engaging content and for that I apologize. IVF #4 has sucked the life blood right out of me and my blog, but now that it's over, I can post the most exciting aspects of my life starting with:

Korean Dramas: Since I started IVF #3, I've been hooked. I started watching one that my mother recommended  to me while I was in Denver. I had the time and it was brainless, but one thing led to another and now I'm hooked. All the crying in the rain while Girl A waits for Boy A to come home from the military. The mother-in-law/daughter-in-law drama. The independent, head-strong Girl with attitude gets Rich Boy because he falls in love with her no-nonsense personality. All of the story plots are the same, but they are oh so good. Guilty pleasures, I tell you!

Coffee and Exercise: I can have both...again! Hallelujah! I had my first cup of coffee on Monday morning and it was so delish! And as for running, I went for a 3.5 mile run on Saturday, outside, in the sun and I didn't do too bad. I made it with a pace of less than 10 min/mile. Not great, but not bad.

Vacations: Doc is putting the last minute touches on our itinerary for our Iceland/Scandinavia trip. We'll be spending 5 days in Iceland, renting a car and driving around the island. We'll be spending the remaining 9 days in Greenland, Sweden, Finland and Estonia. I know...it's a lot of countries to be covering in such a short amount of time. Luckily, they countries are close and so the flights are quick. I'm excited, but at the same time, a bit anxious because I know it'll be a pretty tiring vacation. We're also going to Sequoia National Park over Memorial Day weekend. Not as exotic as Scandinavia, but I'm still looking forward to it. Both Doc and I haven't been since we were in elementary school, so it'll be nice to get away and commune with nature.

That's about it in a nutshell! I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that we get to do the FET in July. The sooner, the better!

One More!

We got one more blast! I just got the call today and we got our last embryo to develop to a 5BB blast. That means out of the four initially fertilized, we had three make it to blast. Amazing!  I am so thankful and happy and relieved all at the same time. So now we have four blastocysts: 4AB (IVF #3) and 4AB, 3BB, 5BB (IVF #4)

I wish I could figure out what made this cycle so much better than last cycle, but it's so difficult to say. It could've been the saizen or the cocktail of vitamins that CC.RM recommended or it could've been that the reduced work schedule that I started back in February. Shoot! It could've been that the stars were aligned just the right way. Whatever it was, I am so freakin' thankful and happy that we have four chances for a success.

I know we're not in the clear yet and I don't want to get my hopes up, but this gives me a glimmer of hope that it might just work. We haven't figured out when the FET will be, but probably sometime in July/August. We're going on vacation to Iceland and Scandinavia at the beginning of July and want to do the transfer afterward.

So, our next step is a phone call with our doctor on Friday to discuss our transfer and then we'll take it from there!

Blast Results

I just got the call from the embryology lab and it looks like we have two blasts. Out of the 5 eggs (4 normal maturation + 1 late maturation), we had 2 make it to blast and 1 that may potentially make it to blast by tomorrow.

I asked about the quality of the two blasts and one is a 4AB (which at day 3 was an 8-cell 4-) and a 3BB (which at day 3 was a 7-cell 3). With only two blasts we decided to forgo CCS testing.

We talk to Dr. Surrey on Friday about our options with the transfer, but we're anticipating a July/August transfer.

Five of Fourteen

My apologies for the delayed update, but I wanted to have all the info before I posted. So, first off, I want to say that my body is very consistent. Out of fourteen eggs (yes, this time we got a lot of eggs) only 5 were mature (same as last cycle) and 4 fertilized. We had 7 that were immature and only 1 of the 7 was fertilized, so we've added only 1 extra to the fab four. So, I guess the results are that even with additional eggs, my body just can't manage to produce any more mature eggs.

I'm hoping that out of those 5 at least 1 makes it to blast. Then we'll have at least one blast to add to our single blast from last cycle.

Amazingly, I'm actually ok with the results. I'm not happy with them, but I feel like I'm in "acceptance mode." If this doesn't work, then I'm ready to move on to adoption. I just don't have the energy, stamina or desire to do anymore IVFs.

Showtime!

I just got the news and tonight is trigger! My follies are pretty big:

Left side, I have about 8-9 ranging between 28 (I think this was mismeasured because yesterday the largest was at 21 and I've never heard of a follicle grow 7mm in one day) and 14.

Right side, I have about 3-4 ranging between 21-18.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the retrieval on Wednesday goes ok and we get a good number of mature eggs.

Mile High

Yes! I am here in Denver once again and you could say I'm having a bit of deja vu. My cycle is going almost identical to last time I was here, except it's the mirror image with my left side having the majority of the follicles and my right side lagging a bit in production.

On the left, I have 6 follies ranging from 14 to 6mm and on the right I have 4 ranging from 13 to 6mm. What can I say except that my body is very consistent...doesn't throw my any curve balls which I guess is a good thing, but based on my results from the last IVF, I'm hoping that maybe we'll have a better outcome.

Anyway, I get the day off tomorrow from going in to the clinic and Doc flies in tonight, so it'll be nice to hang out with the hubby and relax for the day.

Forgive Me

I've been a terrible blogger for the last couple of months. I apologize, but my life has been none too interesting and since I've just been farting around until my I start IVF #4, I just haven't had anything to write about.

But now that comes to an end! I have started my stims as of today and on Sunday I fly out to Denver. Being a veteran IVF traveler, I've picked up some tips from my first trip out there. First, I only ordered just enough meds to get me through the first day in Denver. When I get to Denver, I'll order the remainder of my meds. This way, I only have to travel with a small amount versus last time when I had to pack a freakin' pharmacy. Second, Doc is coming out one week after me. Since I take a year and half to stim, there's no reason that both he and I both have to sit around waiting for my eggs to cook. So, he'll be flying out a bit later. Then, lastly, the rental car is in my name. Last time, Doc was the sole driver on the rental agreement, so he had to play Driving Miss Soo around and it was a pain in the ass. Since I have all the appointments, it's better for me to drive.

So, what drugs am I taking? Well, there's the 150iu of men.opur and then the 0.33 of saizen and then 300iu of go.nal-f. This is the first time taking saizen, so I'm praying that it helps, particularly since it cost me $700 bucks for 5 doses...talk about highway robbery.

Oh, and needless to say, my Bay Area RE (the one that I am going to for at-home monitoring before I travel to Denver) reminded me that studies have shown stress and depression are not good for IVF. Great...I swear, trying to destress has resulted in causing me even more stress. I call it the great Infertility Paradox: Stress from attempts to destress results in additional stress causing initial stress factor to worsen. Blah.