Flur-RE of Activity

This past weekend has been a whirlwind! When my RE agreed on Friday that I could be monitored by the hospital's facilities, he asked me to come in on Saturday for the ultrasound. The sign in time on the weekends is between 7-7:45am. For a night owl like me, that was pretty much the worst news possible. DH was kind enough to go with me for moral support since the idea of the dildo cam made me a little anxious. The ultrasound tech told me that she wasn't able to easily image my left ovary--it was behind my uterus, so she couldn't see if there were any follicles developing. When the nurse called later with the results, she mentioned that there were three reasonable sized follicles growing on my right ovary: two were measured at 14-by-something (the latter numbers I don't recall because I didn't write them down). She also mentioned my endometrial lining was at 4.4 mm, which concerned me a bit. The nurse didn't seem concerned, but she did ask me to return for reimaging on Monday. I was also informed later that day that my TSH levels that were tested on Friday were a bit high, so the doctor is putting me on a low dose (25 mcg) of Synthroid.

That evening, Spyro and I went to Progressive Formal, which is the social dance/party for the progressive law student group (although it's open to everyone).

My wonderful blowout got totally mangled by the humidity from all the sweating, dancing bodies in the room (including mine). If I had to sacrifice my blowout to be able to teach the group how to Dougie, it was worth it! We went to a local bar afterward to hang out with friends, then home way too late for someone who woke up so early that day!

On Sunday, we had the pleasure of going to the first birthday party of one of the sweetest little boys I know. I met his parents through the law school's couples association--his dad is one of my classmates and his mom was president of the organization. He is such a no fuss baby--rarely cries, gets along with everyone, usually smiling. I only pray I have a baby like that!

Happy birthday, Evan!

After our busy weekend, we went back this morning for reimaging. Waking up before 6am is definitely not my idea of a good time. Even more so because I am using a Clear Blue Fertility Monitor, which requires I POAS and put it into the monitor within a 6 hour time span that I set at the beginning of the cycle. The earliest I can do it is 7:30am, which meant that I had to PIAC and leave it on my bathroom counter until I got home. I know, gross. Squicky gross. The things we do for TTC.

Luckily today, the tech was able to image my left ovary. The nurse called and said that of the three follicles that were growing in my right ovary, the smaller two were no longer of viable size. But the larger follicle is now 20x19 mm. And my left ovary has a follicle that is now at 19x12mm. My lining thickened from 4.4mm to 5.1mm in just two days. Still no sign of ovulating yet since my OPKs are stark white, but I'm hoping that all the vitamins and other craziness will lead to the cushiest possible environment for this egg.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too. For those who are going through treatments, where are you at in the process?

First RE Appointment!

I was SO NERVOUS this morning before my RE appointment. It wasn't so much about meeting him as it was nervousness about actually liking him, whether I'd trust him to help us conceive, etc.

I got there 15 minutes early, then went in to have my vitals taken. I then waited for about 20 minutes or so after my appointment time and we were taken back to Dr. A. I explained by history to him, showed him my records, and waited to hear what he had to say. I actually learned a lot from him!

First, the doc put me at ease by looking at the image of my HSG from November. He showed me my uterus and said it was a "textbook" uterus, then said "It could be on the cover of a uterus magazine!" From that point, I cracked up and knew that I felt very comfortable with him.

In terms of potential issues, he noted that my FSH was high. Although it's well within the normal ranges that doctors recommend, while TTC, it should be below 2.5. My test showed a 2.75. This was about a year ago though, so I went for another test. We'll see what happens with that. We also discussed my past Clomid cycles and my current Clomid cycle. He is willing to start working with me now, so I get to wake up super early tomorrow to get a follicle scan ultrasound. We will see how well they are developing.

If this cycle doesn't work, my next step is to get another CD 3 test done. Well, I should say, get it done for the first time. When I was in the middle of an anovulatory cycle last year, the doctor had me do a panel that included the traditional CD 3 tests like estradiol and FSH. It's slightly annoying because after my first BFN cycle of Clomid, I asked my doctor if I should do a real set of CD 3 tests, since the last ones weren't technically on the right date. He pooh-poohed it and said it wasn't necessary. Dr. A disagrees. He did also mention that he didn't like using more than three rounds of Clomid, so because this is my third, my options are a bit more limited. He did say that we could try and use injects+IUI next cycle which would be fine with me, but my infertility coverage SUCKS. I only get a $5,000 yearly benefit which is definitely more than some people get, but sadly, it doesn't seem to be enough. Dr. A said that the IUI costs about $1000 with everything but meds included. However, when I include injects, he said the cost of those is like, $3,000. That seemed SUPER high to me, but I am not the professional! (Though, I did do some research with online pharmacies and the cost seems to be much lower than he anticipated, based on the number of days/amount of injects I'd need). If I can get the drugs for substantially cheaper, we could probably squeeze in two IUI cycles with injects, even if I had to pay a bit out of pocket. When I asked about the possibility of doing IUI+Femara, he said he doesn't like to use Femara because it doesn't have necessarily better results than Clomid, and he prefers to go straight to the needles.

All in all, I am happy with him. He seems like a great doctor and was awesome in answering my questions and making me feel at ease. I think that he could actually help us get pregnant, which is an amazing feeling to have. I am so hopeful for our reproductive future!

Taking Charge of My Fertility

I took charge of my fertility and great things are happening for me in the past few days.

First, I called my current OBGYN on Monday morning to let him know I had started my period and to check in to see what dose of Clomid I should be taking. I strongly believed that I should be on 100mg even though the doc insisted that I had ovulated with 50mg. A low progesterone number like I've had the past two cycles (7.2 and 8.0, respectively) doesn't seem to jibe with ovulation or at least a strong ovulation. The OBGYN nurse told me he was on vacation and hadn't left any orders about possibly upping my dosage. LULZ. Seriously, dude? You just went on vacation and didn't bother thinking about the patient who you are pumping full of hormones? Luckily the OBGYN nurse is very sweet and had another doc review my file. Boom, 100 mg of Clomid obtained on Tuesday.

The Chief of Medicine at the student health clinic reviewed my file on Tuesday morning and agreed I should visit a RE. Since I thought that's what they would say, I had already scheduled a RE appointment for next Friday (the first one available for a new patient).

My husband had a urology appointment yesterday to review his SA and ultrasound. The first appointment, we waited for more than an hour past his appointment time. This time, I had to get to class at 5pm (his appointment was at 3:45 and the hospital is a 5 minute drive from school). We walk in to find a packed waiting room and were told he wouldn't be seen until 5:30 or so. Thanks for the phone call heads up. I went OFF on the person . . . and I can't even blame it on the Clomid Crazies, just total frustration with an inefficient office. I think my pissy mood made them just give me a copy of the SA results so I can take those to the RE and hubby can go back and meet with the doc on a different date.

(As a random aside, I hate to be all TMI, but I was really impressed with hubby's SA. Very good volume and numbers. But holy crap, FANTASTIC motility. It was over 80%! I was impressed by that. The only think we have to work on is the morphology since that was about 33%. Given the high number of actual sperm and the ridiculously high motility, I'm sure the doc isn't worried about the morph. But I personally would like to see it higher)

So, 9 days until my RE appointment and I don't know all the questions I should ask. For those who have visited with an RE before, what are the kinds of things you wish you knew or the questions that you're glad you asked?

I spoke to the RE nurse this morning