Stim Days and Patience

I meant to post this photo a long time ago when our meds came in the mail. This is a photo of all the drugs (syringes, alcohol wipes, sharps container, etc included) that will be going into my body at some point during this IVF cycle. It's a lot of drugs!

 Jave's IVF Medications

OK, so  last I posted, we were doing self injections of Lupron to stop any type of hormone production in my body, thus allowing the RE to introduce follicle stimulating hormones (FSH).

 Jave's Lupron Shot - needle about 1/2"

The FSH will cause multiple eggs to grow in my ovaries, as opposed to the one egg women normally create each month.  I have a summary of how my stimulation (stim) days went down...

Jave's Modified FSH Shot (done 2x/day -AM and PM): Saline (Gray), Menopur (Tan), Bravelle (Green); needle about 1/2"

SD = stimulation day

SD 1: Baseline Appt (6/21)

• This is where they tell me if I can or have to delay starting the IVF process. They are looking for low estrogen levels, thin endometrial lining, and "quiet" ovaries (nothing happening in my ovaries)
• Blood Draw Results: Estrogen (E2) < 80 pg/uL (perfect)
• Endometrial lining thin (awesome)
• Ultrasound showed one dominant follicle in one ovary and a much smaller one in the other ovary
• Started follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) injection = 75 iu Menopur + 225 iu Bravelle,  mixed with saline into a 1 ml solution (1 shot - AM)

SD 6: Mid FSH Appt (6/26)

• This just checks to see if the dosage of FSH is appropriate - do they need to up it (low estrogen results) or do they need to lower it (high estrogen levels)
• Blood Draw Results: E2 = 181 pg/uL (This was considered low [200-300 was expected] 
• Upped my FSH dose = 150 iu Menopur + 300 iu Bravelle, mixed with saline into 1 ml solution (2 shots - AM and PM)
• The increased dose of FSH made it very difficult for me to breathe. On 6/27, I had a few moments where I had to take 20-30 mins to just catch my breath. It was very rough.
• This was the lowest part of the stim days for me and Lara. We cried, we argued, and we prepared to get less than 2 eggs from this IVF cycle. We ended up resigning ourselves to hoping the next appt would yield better news - increasing the stims was enough to give us hope.

SD 8: Progress Check (6/28)

• The next few days referred to "progress checks" are just more frequent checks to see if I'm ready to move on to the next phase - egg retrieval. When I am ready, we will do a self inject shot of hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin), which makes the eggs ready for retrieval
• Breathing much better as I adjusted to the dose increase (thank God!)
• Ultrasound showed:
• Right Ovary has 1 dominant follicle and 2-4 much smaller follicles
• Left Ovary has 1-2 dominant follicles and 5-7  small follicles
• Because my follicles were small, they extended the length of my injections, cancelled my SD 9 appointment since I was no where near ready to getting the trigger shot

SD10: Progress Check (6/30)

• Anticipated this being our last day for injecting FSH (see the video we made showing how we do the FSH shot), but no no no... 
• Ultrasound needed to show 2 follicles at least at 18 mm in size in order to move on to the trigger shot, but none were at that size yet..in either ovary. We ended up going another full day of FSH shots (3 doses). C'mon!

SD 11: Progress Check (7/1)

•  Ultrasound showed I only had 1 follicle greater than 18 mm - ended up going another 2 doses (PM and AM) of FSH shots. Joy...

 

 At Nevada Center of Reproductive Medicine doing what I do best, taking off my pants and smiling about it (SD 11 Progress Check)

The infamous screen giving me unchanging news and an extension of FSH shots (SD 11 Progress Check)

SD 12: Progress Check (7/2)

• Praying this is my last day of FSH - I cannot wear my jeans without excessive discomfort to my uterus; it's like having bad bloat and cramping
• Ultrasound showed:
• Right Ovary - 1 follicle at 23 mm and another at 14 mm (this is the min size considered for mature egg; it is the RE's hope that by the time of retrieval, the 14 mm will grow to 18 mm)
• Left Ovary - 5 follicles over 18 mm and about 2 follicles approaching 14 mm
• The good news on the ultrasound led to a blood draw for E2 - the anticipation is 200 - 300 pg/ml, just to be sure we are ready for the trigger shot (if my E2 levels were still low, they would have extended my FSH out even longer to give the eggs more time to mature)
• Blood Draw Results: E2 = 1,935! This means about 5-7 eggs are ready for retrieval. My ass is ready for that trigger shot...holla'!
• Received instructions for trigger shot, day of egg retrieval, and everything that will be covered in another post!

Video of FSH shots done everyday at 5:30 am

Photo of all the vials used for stim shots this IVF cycle - 75 containers (saline included) for 12 days of stims

Next up, trigger shot tonight at 10pm - sharp (very important). Exactly 36 hours after the trigger shot, my egg retrieval will take place...so yes, that means at 10am on 4th of July, I will be getting my eggs retrieved! Wish us luck! Stay tuned for news on the retrieval, and the tail end of this IVF cycle.