A Little More Progress

Psych Evals are done! Reports should be sent to the lawyers office and RE's office in the next few days. What a long day that was, a good 4 hours! It was worth it though, because we all got to talk about any loose ends we may not have been clear on, such as who would be in delivery room if they only allow one person (my husband was voted "IT" since we all have been present at deliveries before except him!) a good weekend all in all. Things are also moving along with my cycle! I start Lupron on 4/4 so I have to be at the clinic on 4/18 for bloodwork and ultrasound (aka bw & u/s) that morning so at least now I know when I am heading out of town! Retrieval date is tricky, the nurse believes it will be 4/28, I say it will be 5/3 because I think it's going to take longer for my E2 to get to a level we (the RE and ME!) are happy with! I guess the nurse thinks she is in "charge" of my cycle, but she is wrong, I AM IN CHARGE! The RE and I talked about this during my consult and she agreed that I can stim longer and more aggressive to get my E2 to a level much higher than the 1865 they brought it to and triggered me.. That's a definite bone of contention from the last cycle! So anywho... that's where I am so far. Lupron start date and a definite travel date (will drive up to NJ that weekend to be there on that Monday) and then we are making a beeline for egg retrieval after what I hope is a phenomenal stim phase! More when I have something to tell, later gators!

Getting our heads shrunk!

Yup! Tomorrow we head out to Atlanta for the weekend to have our psych evals done! I am nervous, excited, anxious and probably several other things too! I am so happy to be getting past this hurdle and another thing crossed off our list! Each time we mark something off the list, that means we are another step closer to transferring! I am in awe sometimes to think that in the next month we could very possibly be at the "first" finish line! Not the true finish line, because of course then we have 9 months of worrying until delivery! I am just taking each day as it comes and X'ing the days off.. I know in my heart my time is coming and soon!

On the weight loss front, I know I am not going to make my goal of 44lbs in 45 days.. It is not for a lack of trying, but some days I just didn't lose anything or only lost a 1/2 lb and I hit a plateau for about a week! I am sad that I didn't make my goal (I still have a few weeks left until day 45, but not enough that i can make the goal in a healthy way and I can't do it any other way!) but I am very happy that I did lose over 10% of my weight SO FAR and by the time day 45 does come around I should be at 15-20% of my weight lost! Now depending on when I actually start stims, I may get a reprieve on the actual number of days and it may extend out longer than 45 meaning I have a chance to make a few lbs up! Fingers crossed!

On the IVF front, so far I am still just on birth control pills (BCP) today was day 21 in fact.. Also today I got a BAD HEADACHE! I was doing so well on these new pills I got a little cocky thinking, "I beat the bcp headache this go 'round!" HA! Yeah right.. this is the 3rd one in 21 days (BOO!!) Hey, it's waaay better than the EVERYDAY headaches on the last brand (APRI, stay away from them!) and then the dreaded Lupron headaches, so I guess I should quit whining while I am ahead huh? Whatev's once I start stimming look for this to be the whiningest blog EVER! With the exception of the Lupron every shot will be in the ass, so uh.. yeah I will be definitely complaining, even if it WAS my idea!

So that's all I got for now.. I will be back Sunday evening or Monday morning with another update!

I feel Good!!!......

My consult went exactly as planned! I had a nice long talk with the RE and IT WAS AWESOME! The RE REALLY LISTENED to my concerns from last cycle and what could be done differently this time around. She also had several ideas and when I made suggestions she said they were good and between the both of us she said she feels we came up with "one helluva good plan" The major changes are:

#1 Instead of doing Lupron 10U then dropping to 5U it's staying at 10U all the way thru.
#2 Having a blood draw done day after trigger to make sure my LH hasn't spiked indicating ovulation.
#3 All of my stims are going to be done IM instead of subQ. (yeah butt shots the entire time, no belly shot except Lupron)
#4 Starting stims off with 150IU of each and possibly raising either or both to 225IU depending on how I progress.
#5 Retrieval will be 32hrs after trigger instead of 36-37hrs.
#6 No cautious stimming either, She will allow my E2 to rise and monitor me closely instead of triggering when it is at 2000 or less. Since the transfer is not happening to me, there is no danger in letting me go a little high, I mentioned this since last time I didn't even get to 2,000 before other DR. WITCH had me trigger! She agreed and said I will just be monitored every day and as long as i feel ok we can push it to a safe but higher level (I'm thinking high 3,000's to low 4,000's personally!) I can live with that!
#7 NO OTHER RE can make any change to my protocol without talking to her, no exceptions.
(most times the nurses ask the nearest RE to look at your file and give instructions based on your bloodwork/ ultrasound report)

And that was the jist of it! Our talk was so great and I thanked her for listening to my ideas and concerns. She said my ideas were good ones and that they were all valid (both my concerns and ideas! )

So I am feeling very hopeful about things moving forward.. I am already on BCP, so things will probably start moving pretty quickly from here on out! YAY ME!!

Success!

So "D" had her consult today and it went AH-MAZING!! Dr. B said she had no problem working with me and that with all of my bloodwork results, things looked really promising! (YAY!!) She also said there are things she is going to change monitoring wise and several changes in the meds and the dosage to get the best results possible, I am VERY thankful to hear that! For starters she is going to change my retrieval and trigger time to a 32 hr trigger vs. 36hrs like last time (Actually it was closer to 36hrs and 45 minutes but who's counting!) and also lowering my dose of Lupron since I was over suppressed last time and upping my dosage of meds for stimulation (LOVE HER, I agree with all of these things!) She said things could have been done differently last time and that the results this time will be better. That is what I wanted to hear! The best part is all of our testing is already done, so there is nothing stopping us from moving forward right away! "D" only has one other test that needs to be done! So the Dr. said she will talk more in depth with me next week for my consult with her (YAY!) so things are at level AWESOME for today!