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I had my scan and blood test this morning and things are looking good. It seems that the doubling up of my dosage on the gonal-f has increased the number of follicles and I’m up to about 8 at the moment. My doctor mentioned that there are at least 4 in my left ovary, and counted 1 – 2 – 3 and a couple more small ones developing there, so it’s all looking good for my goal of 8 or 9.
She tells me that I will need another scan on Monday morning, and the egg retrieval will happen on Wednesday.
The bad news is that I need to continue with the Luveris which is the expensive drug, and that’s for twice as long as I used it last time, so I really need to sit down with a calendar and work all this out one day.
On the other hand, I love that it all seems to be going according to plan again.
The nurse asked me today how many embryo’s I want to transplant this time, and I told her that I’m thinking of transplanting three! The problem with that is that I definitely couldn’t cope with three babies (but on the other hand, I’ve never not coped with something, so I’m sure I would work it out, but I just don’t want to). We talked about if it would increase my chances of getting pregnant and the fact that I’m 40, and she told me she understands where I am coming from and that I should talk with the doctor about it. She said that other women my age transplant three for the same reasons.
The problem I have is that I have no statistics on the chances of all three embryos sticking. In any case, I can’t really make a decision until I find out how many eggs fertilise and then I can work out how many to implant, based on how many I will be freezing.
So I guess that’s another decision that will have to wait until Wednesday night/Thursday morning, and I will get a chance to talk to my doctor about it on Monday before the operation.
So now I have to choose my baby’s donor again, a new one this time because the previous donor is no longer on my list.
The bottom line for me is getting this to work… I’m not sure I can go through this again, and I’ve worked out I was pretty naive through my first cycle. The first time you do anything difficult (give up smoking, lose 5 kilos, bungee jump etc.) seems pretty easy because you don’t really know what you’re up against until you do it. The second time you do it, you know what to expect, and it just gets harder and harder. I now have a deeper understanding of couples who have been doing this for years and get to the point where they give up.
One of my gonal-f injections each day has been hurting and tonight I think I worked out why. I’ve been reusing the needle for each side (I checked with the nurse that this was okay) and I think that’s been blunting the needle for the second shot. I have enough needles left over from the last cycle, so from now on; I’ll be using a fresh needle for each injection.
And in addition to that, the first time I injected myself, I had forgotten to load the dose, and didn’t see how I could do that with the needle inside me, without hurting me, so I had to take it out, load the dosage again, and reinject!
But the biggest hurt tonight was the Luveris injection. I’m sure the needle was blunt because it just would not break the skin. And I drew blood up into the needle and the hole it left in my belly was big. Still just explaining and documenting, not complaining… but certainly going to use this against this kid one day lol.
I had my blood test locally this morning to check my LH levels, and just like last time, I got the call this afternoon that I needed to take the Luveris again. Luveris is used to stimulate the follicle growth and help make my eggs a better quality. Another rushed drive at the end of the day in peak hour traffic down to the Clinic to pick up enough doses until my scan next week. Very expensive too, but if I’m honest, I’m a little bit secretly pleased in some weird way… because everything that happened last time got me pregnant, so if it all goes the same, there should be no reason why I don’t get the same outcome, right?
So now I’m up to three needles per night.
I can’t remember if the Luveris needs refrigeration or not, but it does have to be kept at less than 25 degrees, so I’ve put it in the fridge. And I couldn’t remember how to mix the two vials… but I got there in the end. And it hurt like hell again, but still worth the effort. And it was a nice lesson for my niece and her diabetes needles… just get in there and do it, because the bigger picture is far more important than the brief pain that lasts only moments.
I decreased my dosage of synarel spray today… down to only one nostril in the morning and one in the evening. It still gives me head spins tho.
Well tonight is the night that I start the Gonal-F injections… and that requires TWO needles per night this time. My dose has been increased from 450 to 600 units and is designed to stimulate the ovaries a lot more than last time in an attempt to produce more eggs this time. The good news for that is that we are now hoping for some embryo’s to freeze in case this cycle doesn’t work, which makes future cycles more affordable and easier to go through as I think there is no need for the drugs to work on those occasions. I can’t say for certain because I haven’t gone through it yet, but my guess is that it is as straightforward as thawing the embryos and inserting them like last time. Of course, that’s my laypersons view of the situation; I would probably still need a cycle of drugs to help them stick. Who knows… let’s cross that bridge if we come to it, which I hope we don’t because I want this cycle to work, but I’ll continue to hope to create more eggs this cycle “just in case”.
Ouch! I forgot how much the needles hurt. I also forgot how to prime the injection, so it’s lucky I got a page of instructions to talk me through it.
I injected 300 units into each side of my abdomen, and only bled a little bit on the left side. I’m already worried about this dose as last time my ovaries ached so much and I was only injecting on each side every second day, now I’m injecting on both sides every day! But I’m not complaining, just explaining… and keeping my fingers crossed the whole time 
I arrived at the clinic a little late this morning and got straight in to see the nurse. She took my blood and told me that I was here for my ‘down regulation’. When I asked what that was she said that basically they are taking my body into menopause, which means I might get some of the symptoms (insomnia, headaches, fatigue, lack of concentration etc.) but it’s nothing to worry about, and the blood test is to ensure that this has occurred. They do this so that they can control my body with hormones now to stimulate the ovaries to produce eggs.
I received the needles and the bad news that I need to have 2 needles per night now as they have increased my dosage to try an increase the number of eggs retrieved.
After my blood test, I went to see the stand in Doctor to have my internal scan, and the good news is that my ovaries are exactly where they want them to be at this stage in my cycle.
Finally, I’ve started the drug regime, which starts with the Synarel nasal spray. What my nostrils have to do with my ovaries is beyond me, but it worked last time, so I’m sure it will work again.
It’s the same dose as last time – 1 spray in each nostril, morning and night. I’ve decided on 10am and 10pm so it doesn’t interrupt too much with my social life (what social life???).
And I forgot about this drug giving me head spins… it is such a weird feeling the tingles in the nose, the head spins, the awful taste in the back of my throat… oh well, the things we do huh?
I arrived at the Clinic at 3.00pm and found out that I was just seeing the nurses today… no appointment with my Doctor. I also got told that it was going to cost me a bloody fortune again. Every procedure is all so expensive, that’s all I know… but hopefully, worth every cent.
The appointment itself was pretty straight forward, but as expected, I asked a whole heap of questions about what could have gone wrong, and could the miscarriage have had anything to do with my internal scan. The nurse assured me that it was just “one of those things” and that I didn’t do anything wrong etc. the bottom line is that most miscarriages are for reasons totally unknown.
I was given my synarel spray today (2 packs) and the nurses called me this afternoon (actually, I got a few calls with conflicting information, but we finally got to the bottom of it) and told me to start sniffing on Saturday.
Well, I’ve never welcomed a period in my life before as much as I welcomed this one! I rang all the family and told them the good news haha (and they loved it so much that a few weeks later, my sister called me to give her the good news that she got her period!).
I have my appointment booked for 3.00pm on Wednesday 7 January 2009, which seems so long away, but with Christmas coming up, I know it will go quickly. Now I just have to work out how I am going to skip out of work early without anyone knowing!
I rang the fertility clinic as soon as I got home and learned that they can see me as soon as my cycle kicks back in. I’m to ring them the day I get my period, which is expected to be around 5 weeks (if I’m lucky). This is broken down to 1 week of recovery and bleeding, and then 4 weeks of the cycle to start again. It can take up to 8 weeks for the body to kick back to normal, and I’m in so much of a hurry!
When I ring the Clinic, they will make an appointment for me for 21 days later. This will be the equivalent of my appointment just before I went on holidays in August, so it should take about 6 weeks from then to see if I’m pregnant. I’m keeping my fingers crossed every day for another positive result.
