Stim Day 8 / Ultrasound

(This post refers to Friday, April 25).

I saw the couple with the needle-phobic wife in the RE's office yesterday. They looked kinda happy, so I'm wondering if maybe she's pregnant now. Or maybe it was beta day for her. In my imagination, I think they are ultra-wealthy people from Tijuana, but that's purely a guess on my part. Anyway, good luck to them.

One of the blogs I was reading recently referred to the wrongness of bringing a toddler to the RE's office. I'm not sure whether I agree or not. On one hand, I can see that it could be really painful to see young children right after getting bad news. On the other hand, I am usually pretty hopeful and optimistic on the days of my RE appointments. (When I get bad news, it's usually at home with a negative HPT). On the few times that I have seen a mom with a toddler in the office, I think, "well, it obviously worked for her the first time, and now she is back for baby #2... I hope that's me someday."

I had my bloodwork and ultrasound at 10AM. Dr. W performed the ultrasound. She said my lining look very good at 14.5 mm. I said, "Isn't that too thick?" and she told me that it sometimes can be, but in my case it looks great with a very nice organized pattern. Of course, now I'm wondering if it's going to be way too thick by ER and transfer day next week... ack!

On the right side, I had 3 14 mm follicles and 1 13 mm follicle and many others just a bit smaller. On the left, I had a 16 mm follicle, a 13 mm, a 12 mm, and also may others just a bit smaller. Dr. W reassured me that I will likely have more eggs retrieved than the 7 follicles that she measured. Echoing Dr A's comments from Wednesday, she said that she just measures the largest ones to make sure that none of them were really getting ahead of the others. She made me feel really good by basically saying that she couldn't ask for anything different in the way that I'm responding so far. She said that if she had to guess, she'd bet on my trigger being on Sunday night, with ER on Tuesday. It's still up in the air, though.

After my appointment, I had to go down to the pharmacy to pick up another 300 units of Follistim. That's another $234, which seems like small change at this point in the game. I'm wondering if I should have asked for a 75 unit and a 150 unit vial instead, but it's too late to second guess... If I don't trigger on Sunday night, I will also need to buy more Menopur for use on Monday morning. The pharmacy is closed on the weekend, but apparently my clinic has a "weekend/emergency supply" that you can buy from if needed.

A few hours later I learned that my E2 level was 1282. So much for the doubling pattern that I was so worried about a few days ago. My medication doses are still the same.

We went out to dinner with some friends, M and Sc, and their 8 year old son. It's funny because my S is a work colleague of M (the wife), and I happen to work with Sc, who is a nephrologist and about 6-7 years ahead of me in terms of his career. Anyway, while I was busy chatting away with Sc about workplace stuff, my S told M that we are going through IVF right now. M then confided that they had gone through a few Clomid/IUI's and then were about to embark on injectibles when she was suddenly pregnant on a natural cycle. Good for them!!

I just had about 2 hours worth of dreams in which I kept missing my RE appointments and calling them and saying, "I'll be there in half an hour," and then forgetting again. It was stressful! Then, in a related dream, I was suddenly in the RE's office and ran into a pharmacist that I know from the hospital. In the dream she told me that her husband had morphology issues also, but that my REs had helped her overcome them (she has two cute little kids).

S and I talked last night about what we will do if the RE leaves the 1 vs 2 embryo transfer decision up to us. (Assuming that we have embryos...please God!) We both agree that if the embryos' quality is fair and we are advised to transfer 2, we'll do so. Also, if the quality is absolutely perfect and we are advised to transfer 1, we'll do that too. However, if the quality is good/very good and we are left with the choice of 1 or 2, it's going to be a tough decision. More than anything, I'm worried about the health dangers of a twin pregnancy, mainly prematurity. There are a LOT of things to consider, and I think the topic deserves its own post at some point.

Well, I have bloodwork and ultrasounds both today (Saturday) and tomorrow, so I'll update again later. I have to go get ready for my appointment now. (Fingers crossed!)