Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Stim Day 6 / Ultrasound

The good news:
Dr. A did my ultrasound this morning and he seemed pleased with the results. My lining was 8.2 mm, which he said was "great." The largest follicles were a 10 mm follicle on the right side, and an 11 mm follicle on the left side. There were many follicles on both sides that were near that size, but he didn't measure them. He also didn't bother to count exactly how many were there, but said, "about 12" on each side. He said that they might not all continue to develop, so there is no reason to count them now. He explained that the purpose of today's ultrasound was to make sure that I wasn't developing a lead follicle. (My interpretation is that a lead follicle might lead to suppression of the growth of other follicles, which would be bad). Since I had many follicles, all about the same size, this was considered to be good.

I asked the nurse when she thought ER would be, and she said that it looks like we're on track for Tuesday (the original estimated date). It's still too early to know for sure, though.

The anxiety-provoking news:
Today my E2 level was up to 575, and it's making me nervous. My results for the last few days are: 47 -> 110 -> 255 -> 575. This is more than doubling each day. If this trend continues, I would think that my E2 will be (more than) 1100 tomorrow, 2200 Friday, 4400 Saturday, 8800 Sunday, 17600 Monday....ummm...HELP! Damn, I hate exponential numbers. I've read (pubmed and google) that high E2 levels (above 4000) are highly associated with OHSS and cancelled cycles. I've been instructed to continue my current dose of meds, but I'm definitely going to ask them about this tomorrow. I don't want them to feel like I'm a demanding/pushy patient, and I don't want to be my own doctor, but I just want to make sure that they have noticed that my numbers are more than doubling every day. I don't want to be cancelled! nor do I want OHSS! I just want my E2 to keep going up, but a little bit slower maybe (?), and for me to have nice mature eggs by next week.

On the other hand, my ovaries are not really bothering me today, and that seems like a good thing. Bloodwork again tomorrow (and every day), and my next ultrasound is on Friday.

I am so glad that I have a lot of work to do right now. It's the only thing that is keeping me sane.

5 comments:

Hilary (Maya Papaya) said...

I remember feeling nervous at one point because my E2 levels shot up. Don't worry, your doctors and nurses are doing everything they can to keep you from getting OHSS.

This is so exciting! I love these daily updates!!

Jen said...

Things are moving along quickly! But definitely do ask your RE tomorrow about your E2 levels if you are concerned. I mean your paying them not only for the treatment but answer questions!

CJ said...

Cool! Sounds good. I have my e2/sono today at noon, so I will be posting my levels on my blog this afternoon. My scheduled ET is May 1st, Thursday. We'll see!

JJ said...

Sounds like things are progressing well, Sarah. I know it can get nerve wracking with all the levels to look at--stay away from Dr. Google=)
Best of luck at your next US tomorrow-Ill be back to see how it went!

Jen said...

Good luck! Hopefully the rising of the E2 slows down as time progresses. I never asked for my E2 numbers, so I can't give you mine to compare.
But Tuesday? OMG! That is so close now!