Let The Stims Begin

There is a lot of waiting involved with IVF, and infertility treatment in general. Waiting in the lobby, waiting for test results, waiting to save money, waiting until you can take a pregnancy test. As much as I hate the dreaded two week wait leading up to a pregnancy test, I hate waiting for cycle day one even more. It so tedious to wait for a new cycle to start. Knowing any moment it could happen, but it hasn't yet.

We made it through our suppression phase and are now onto the good stuff. Monday morning I went in for a baseline ultrasound and to get my estrogen levels check. The Lupron has been doing it's job, and my estrogen levels were at 35.8, they like to see less than 50. My lining is at 6mm, nice and thin, and we were able to see lots of visible follicles. 17 on the left and 18 on the right.

Once I was done getting poked and prodded, I got my calendar, was handed a stack of consent forms to go over, and handed over a big fat check. I was super excited when I left the office. Excited for 9pm to roll around so I could give myself a myriad of injections. I know that sounds crazy, but it's true. Right now I'm not anxious, I'm just excited. We've been through this before. For the most part I know what to expect, and at least for a few days, I'm in control. 

My nightly protocol now includes 5 units of Lupron, down from 10. 125 units of Follistim and 150 units of Menopur. Follistim is by far my favorite injection. Yes, I just said favorite injection. There's no mixing or measuring. You just click the pen to the right amount, screw on a needle, and shoot up. Menopur I could do without. It burns like a son of a you know what. Last night was my first time taking it, and I'm already over it.

I'll continue on with this regimen at least until Thursday. I go in Thursday morning for another ultrasound and blood draw. I'm then back on Saturday and again on Monday. We will hopefully see quite a few follicles growing. If they're growing too fast, too slow, or if my Estrogen levels are off, they will tweak the med dosages.

Right now we are tentatively looking at retrieval on Friday the 17th and transfer on Wednesday the 22nd. That can definitely change depending on how I respond to the meds, but I think last cycle we were pretty spot on with the calendar. We had 20 eggs retrieved, 19 that fertilized, and 5 that made it to blastocyst transfer or freeze. Similar results this time around would be fantastic!

I have been continuing with weekly acupuncture appointments and will continue with those at least through transfer. If you did acupuncture to accompany IVF, how often did you do it while you were stimming, and did you keep going after transfer? I need to ask about it on Thursday, but I'm curious as to how often others did it.

I probably won't do another IVF blog post until we for sure know when retrieval will be. I will however be overgramming, as per usual. You can follow me on Instagram (@jennpargeon) for the daily play by play.