my Self

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Fort St John, BC, Canada
My husband, David, and I had been trying to have a baby since November of 2007. After 'letting things happen', we got the amazing news that we were pregnant in June of 2008. Sadly, that pregnancy ended at 9 weeks with a natural miscarriage. After two more chemical pregnancies, we turned to fertility treatments in 2009. That decision was a disaster, with lousy medical care and poor monitoring. In December of 2009, we made the huge decision to move onto IVF. Things fell into place like magic and we began treatment on January 15, 2010. After a blighted ovum in March, we did a successful FET in June, only to endure another blighted ovum in July. We kept up and underwent another IVF in September/October of 2010 with the arrival of our son, Brogan in July of 2011! After our lovely success (finally) we decided to undertake yet another IVF treatment and hope for a sibling for our little red headed boy. Well... so far it's worked. Our story continues below!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Jan 19th & 20th - "I-R-Turtle"

Hey friendly faces... thanks for stopping by once again to curiously check out my progress on the surreal journey to maybe-baby-land.  

I'm in the hotel room.  It's a friendly little hotel room.  Clean, plenty of space, in a quiet area with a comfy bed and charming (okay teeny) little kitchen area that I've been somewhat successfully cooking in.  The people running the place are very friendly and patient with me checking in and checking out to try and spend time with my sis.  I'll be heading over to see her on the Island first thing again Friday morning.

So Monday morning I went in for a pretty routine bloodwork test and found out my E2 (estrodiol) was a nice 560.  The rest of the day was pretty boring and I mainly rested in between bouts of exploring the city, which really was trying to find my way to do a simple errand and lead to a three hour drive trying to get back.  Tuesday was pretty much more of the same, although I must say I am getting better at becoming un-lost.

This morning (20th) I went in for my second ultrasound to find out how many follicles we were growing.  I was nervous!  The doctor was extremely happy with my results...
Rt. Ovary - 4 follicles between 7.3 and 12 mm and 'more than ten'  smaller follicles
Lft.  Ovary - 4 follicles between 8.9 and 10.9 mm and 'more than ten' smaller follicles
Lining - 6.7 mm

That means we have 8 dominant follicles and more than twenty following up!  The doctor said it was 'excellent' progress and is keeping me on the same dose of meds, adding one more to the cocktail to prevent me from early ovulation.

Retrieval of the eggs is still scheduled for early next week, Tuesday or Wednesday, which is just PERFECT as David arrives on Monday. 

I came back to the room and called David, who was astonished at hearing I was growing 30 eggs.  You're not my wife, he said, you're a turtle.  Will you dig a hole in the sand and lay the eggs?  Do we need to keep you away from the beach?  LOL  I love that he still makes me giggle through all this.

 I am starting to feel the physical effects of the follicles.  A woman's ovaries are about the size of small plums.  Now I have at least four follicles measuring around 1cm on each ovary, along with 10+ smaller (I'm guessing .5mm or so) follicles.  So it's like having 15 large peas on a small plum.  Do you just love, love, love my food references?  Okay.. veggies and fruit are not usually good combinations, lets go with 15 small blueberries on a small plum.  Really, stop grinning and imagine that.  Now imagine those 15 small blueberries being 15 large blueberries.  A follicle is considered mature when it's 1.8cm big.   So what we're dealing with is a seriously pimpled, swollen, tender ovary times two.  Somehow bringing all my favorite snug jeans seems like a really stupid idea now.  Me thinks I will browse the malls for some more forgiving lower half clothing choices.

Update ***  Seems my E2 was not rising as quickly as he expected.  So I got my Bravelle dose upped to 225 IU and another ultrasound and blood draw tomorrow morning.  I'm kind of excited to see how the follies are doing, but a little nervous about the issue of low E2.  It's super early so hopefully we can bring things in line soon.

5 comments:

  1. HOORAY!! What an amazing response!! You are definitely going to have some beautiful eggs. I pray that at least one of them makes you a beautiful baby! =)

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  2. CONGRATULATIONS! Your response is amazing and so very promising! The turtle comment is hilarious. I just happen to love sea turtles and wear a sea turtle pendant daily that I bought in Hawaii several years ago. The symbolism of the turtle is fertility. Forgive me if you know tis. Anyway, I just held my little turtle and said a prayer with you in mind! Wishing you all the best!!!!!

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  3. Funny you should say that... .notice the pendants that my DH and I are wearing in the photo... also bought in Hawaii! LOL

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  4. haha Sonya you crack me up! I love your DH's references to being a turtle and I never had thought about the stimulated ovaries as fruit :) It's great, let's keep the humor coming along. GL! Best wishes that you get all those eggies :)

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  5. A turtle! Hehe David made me giggle too. I love it! Glad you are doing well.

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