Well, the estrogen level was 61.7, which is under 70, so we get to continue with the cycle. Whew. However, we almost got cancelled for a different reason. I am going to Vegas this weekend to see Sir Elton John and his Red Piano at Caesars Palace. Well, I start my stim shots Thursday. That means my first follicular ultrasound and blood work should have been Monday. It was scheduled for Monday at 0915. My flight doesn't get in until 1645 (4:45p cst). I emailed the clinic to let them know this is what was going on. Apparently if you don't let the clinic know of any scheduled travel plans before the cycle you will be canceled out of the cycle. Oops. However, I had told the RE I was going to see Sir Elton John before the cycle started, because we talked about how cool it was I had 3rd row seats. It was just in passing, but I didn't think anything about it. The clinic made an exception and we were allowed to continue with the cycle. You know, it kind of annoys me they don't bother to let you know these things. If it is so important they need to know about travel plans BEFORE the cycle starts that they will cancel you out of the cycle, maybe they should tell you these things before you pay for the cycle. That's pretty important need to know information. Of all the cycles I have done with this clinic, they have never once told me anything like this..... Oh well. I guess had they canceled me out of the cycle, I may have considered going somewhere else.
So: I start stimming Thursday with a morning dose of 250 and an evening dose of 225. I also start the dexamethasone as well. I go in Tuesday at 0845 for the ultrasound and labs.
Monday, February 19, 2018
Friday, February 16, 2018
Baseline Ultrasound
Just left the clinic for my baseline ultrasound. Seems that pesky cyst from the last cycle has decided to stick around, except it has also decided it has wanted to grow. So here is the deal. Once again, we will wait for the estrogen levels to come back in the blood work. If it is below 70, the cyst is suppressed and we will continue with the cycle as normal. If it is above 70, I will go back tomorrow and have more blood drawn to see if the estrogen is rising or falling. If the estrogen is rising, we will be cancelled. If it is falling, we can continue with the cycle as planned. The cyst was measuring about 24-30mm. It has not completely taken over the ovary yet, but if we are cancelled out of this cycle, I will have to have surgery to have the cyst completely removed; since it is hindering our ability to harvest eggs. If we are able to continue with the cycle and are able to actually harvest eggs, the cyst will be drained at the time of harvest.
So I am experiencing something new with this cycle that I have never experienced. I am having a full on period while on the BCPs. It really concerned me. I started having all my normal pre period symptoms last week; scours, pain in the right side (the side with the cyst), bloating, spotting, and just feeling like I was going to start my period any day. Of course iPeriod said I was due to start on Sunday night. I emailed the clinic on Friday to let them know what was happening, and should I be concerned. Well, sure enough on Sat (Feb 10th) I started my full on period. I texted my RE (we are friends as well), and she alleviated my fears. My concern was that how is the BCP going to keep me from ovulating if it can't even keep me from starting my period? In all my cycles with the clinic in all these years, I have NEVER had a period on BCPs. She stated at this dose, they are only concerned with suppressing the ovaries and they don't really care what the lining of the uterus is doing because we are doing an FET anyway and to not worry about it. I said ok and we went about our weekend. I get a response back from the MA on Monday and she says that it is normal to have breakthrough bleeding on BCPs. I had to inform her that this is NOT breakthrough bleeding, this is full on period. So when I went into the clinic and saw the RE today, she laughed and said welcome to old age and the club of how BCPs don't control your periods anymore honey! I said that's not funny!! I thought something was wrong! She laughed at me some more.....
One thing that is also different about this cycle and these BCPs, I has a pre period migraine. I haven't had one of those since I started back on my Trokendi XR at the full dose of 200mg. So something about the extra dose of hormones over throws the migraine drugs. Miserable. That's what it is.
So here's what's now going to happen. We wait. We wait for the estrogen levels to come back. If we get canceled out of this cycle because of this stupid cyst, I have to have surgery to have it removed. I have to schedule that surgery as quickly as possible 1: because my AMH can't take much more of a hit, and 2: because this cyst can't get much larger. If it does it will over take the ovary and removing it will destroy the ovary. No, we can not just drain the cyst, it has to be removed. Draining the cyst will only allow it to come back. Since it is still relatively small, it can be removed safely, without destroying the ovary. So here's hoping it is suppressed and we can continue. Fingers crossed.
So I am experiencing something new with this cycle that I have never experienced. I am having a full on period while on the BCPs. It really concerned me. I started having all my normal pre period symptoms last week; scours, pain in the right side (the side with the cyst), bloating, spotting, and just feeling like I was going to start my period any day. Of course iPeriod said I was due to start on Sunday night. I emailed the clinic on Friday to let them know what was happening, and should I be concerned. Well, sure enough on Sat (Feb 10th) I started my full on period. I texted my RE (we are friends as well), and she alleviated my fears. My concern was that how is the BCP going to keep me from ovulating if it can't even keep me from starting my period? In all my cycles with the clinic in all these years, I have NEVER had a period on BCPs. She stated at this dose, they are only concerned with suppressing the ovaries and they don't really care what the lining of the uterus is doing because we are doing an FET anyway and to not worry about it. I said ok and we went about our weekend. I get a response back from the MA on Monday and she says that it is normal to have breakthrough bleeding on BCPs. I had to inform her that this is NOT breakthrough bleeding, this is full on period. So when I went into the clinic and saw the RE today, she laughed and said welcome to old age and the club of how BCPs don't control your periods anymore honey! I said that's not funny!! I thought something was wrong! She laughed at me some more.....
One thing that is also different about this cycle and these BCPs, I has a pre period migraine. I haven't had one of those since I started back on my Trokendi XR at the full dose of 200mg. So something about the extra dose of hormones over throws the migraine drugs. Miserable. That's what it is.
So here's what's now going to happen. We wait. We wait for the estrogen levels to come back. If we get canceled out of this cycle because of this stupid cyst, I have to have surgery to have it removed. I have to schedule that surgery as quickly as possible 1: because my AMH can't take much more of a hit, and 2: because this cyst can't get much larger. If it does it will over take the ovary and removing it will destroy the ovary. No, we can not just drain the cyst, it has to be removed. Draining the cyst will only allow it to come back. Since it is still relatively small, it can be removed safely, without destroying the ovary. So here's hoping it is suppressed and we can continue. Fingers crossed.
Friday, February 2, 2018
New Cycle
We got cancelled out of the Nov cycle because my 4 spiked to over 12. When your P4 spikes to 3 or higher it is protocol to cancel out of the harvest cycle. So here is what happened.
Everything was plugging along just fine. We were on microdose Lupron, which had to be compounded at the specialty pharmacy.... no big deal. It is exactly what it sounds like; just a micro, or smaller dose of Lupron. We had issues right from the get go. They put me on a different BCP than what I was accustomed to; this one was called Enskyce and I had breakthrough bleeding from the moment I started taking it. Well, when I went in for my baseline ultrasound and bloodworm, I had a giant cyst on my right ovary. This means the BCP didn't keep me from ovulating, or at least from creating the corpus luteum cyst anyway. We had to wait and see what the blood work showed. If the estrogen was above 70, then I was going to be cancelled out of the cycle right then and there. If it was below 70, then we had to see if it was rising or falling. If it was rising, then the cyst was still growing and I would be cancelled; if it was falling, then the cyst was collapsing and all was good and we could continue with the cycle as planned. Progesterone (P4) is irrelevant at this point, but they pull it anyway for a baseline number. The numbers came back and the estrogen was 50, so we were ok to continue. The cyst was nothing. I started taking the stimming shots and I went back for another US in 3 days. Everything looked good and the ovaries were growing. I continued to stim and went in for US every 2-3 days. On the day of the 4th US and blood work, I got a call from the IVF coordinator telling us we were being canceled out of the cycle and to stop all medications. I was completely confused. When I finally got a hold of her, she informed it it was because my P4 had spiked to 8 and anything over 3 it was protocol for the clinic to cancel out of the cycles. She said it somehow affected the eggs but she didn't know how it affected the eggs. We made an appointment with the RE for the next day to discuss what was going on. I did not stop any of my shots because I couldn't find anything on the internet explaining how P4 affected the eggs, only that it helps prepare the lining for implantation. So the next morning we head to the clinic for our conference with the RE.
Well, come to find out high P4 cooks the eggs. The RE gave us the option of being a case study and continuing with the cycle or going a head and cancelling out. No one had ever gone ahead and harvested on a microdose Lupron cycle with a P4 over 3. They have on a ganarellex cycle, but with ganarellex, it gets the P4 back down below 4; that's how that medication works....it shuts P4 down. For some reason the microdose Lupron didn't do what it was suppose to do and keep the P4 controlled. So I came home and asked God for some kind of sign on whether to proceed with the cycle or stop. Came back to the clinic the next day for US and blood work. Well, I got my sign. The follicles that had been growing nicely had stopped growing completely. That told me the P4 had indeed caused issues with the eggs and we needed to stop and regroup.
So, since we had such issues with all these medications, we decided to go a different route if my AMH allowed us to try again. Blood work came back and my P4 had jumped even higher to 12. There was no way the eggs would have survived.
Fast forward to January period. We pull another OAR test. Those results came back interesting. The AMH was lower as expected. It came back at 0.52. Still above the 0.4 so we can try again. Whew. However, the anticipated egg retrieval score increased. What? Yes. They now anticipate to get more eggs with this harvest than they did with the last harvest. Huh? Yeah. No idea how that works, but something in the numbers. Oh well.
We are now in the Feb/ Mar harvest cycle with PGS Testing and FET.
So we have decided to go a completely different route with the medications. I am back on the original BCP that I was on with Chance. The Desogen; and I am having zero breakthrough bleeding whatsoever. I am on my third week of active pills now. I go in for my baseline US and blood work Feb 16th at 0830 am. We are doing Ganarellex with Gonal-F to stim. Gonal-F is just a different brand of stim drug than Follastim. I still have a vial and a half of Follastim left from the last cycle, so I will use it first. One is made from sheep and one is made from human. Can't remember which is which. Ended up using a different pharmacy this time because this one has a rebate program with the Gonal-F and is a little bit cheaper. We obviously make too much money to qualify for any of the financial hardship programs, so we don't get much of a cash discount. I pharmacy shop for sure. Insurance only pays for the antibiotic and steroid; it doesn't pay for anything fertility related.
So: here we are, in the middle of another cycle, trying to get Sir Chance a little. He is now officially 8 months old. He is sitting up from tummy time, has two teeth, just got over the flu, pulls up in his crib, scoots around backwards, and eats like a champ. He is no longer on boobie juices, and just barely takes any formula he eats so much food. He loves tooling around in his Ferrari and jumping in his jumper. He takes 3 naps a day and sleeps through the night, until he has to fart. He weighs 19.6 pounds and is wearing 12-18 months clothes. Growing way too fast. He giggles when you bark at him, and he loves to bzzzz/blow bubbles; especially when eating.
That is all for now. Enjoy this too cute picture of Sir Chance.
Everything was plugging along just fine. We were on microdose Lupron, which had to be compounded at the specialty pharmacy.... no big deal. It is exactly what it sounds like; just a micro, or smaller dose of Lupron. We had issues right from the get go. They put me on a different BCP than what I was accustomed to; this one was called Enskyce and I had breakthrough bleeding from the moment I started taking it. Well, when I went in for my baseline ultrasound and bloodworm, I had a giant cyst on my right ovary. This means the BCP didn't keep me from ovulating, or at least from creating the corpus luteum cyst anyway. We had to wait and see what the blood work showed. If the estrogen was above 70, then I was going to be cancelled out of the cycle right then and there. If it was below 70, then we had to see if it was rising or falling. If it was rising, then the cyst was still growing and I would be cancelled; if it was falling, then the cyst was collapsing and all was good and we could continue with the cycle as planned. Progesterone (P4) is irrelevant at this point, but they pull it anyway for a baseline number. The numbers came back and the estrogen was 50, so we were ok to continue. The cyst was nothing. I started taking the stimming shots and I went back for another US in 3 days. Everything looked good and the ovaries were growing. I continued to stim and went in for US every 2-3 days. On the day of the 4th US and blood work, I got a call from the IVF coordinator telling us we were being canceled out of the cycle and to stop all medications. I was completely confused. When I finally got a hold of her, she informed it it was because my P4 had spiked to 8 and anything over 3 it was protocol for the clinic to cancel out of the cycles. She said it somehow affected the eggs but she didn't know how it affected the eggs. We made an appointment with the RE for the next day to discuss what was going on. I did not stop any of my shots because I couldn't find anything on the internet explaining how P4 affected the eggs, only that it helps prepare the lining for implantation. So the next morning we head to the clinic for our conference with the RE.
Well, come to find out high P4 cooks the eggs. The RE gave us the option of being a case study and continuing with the cycle or going a head and cancelling out. No one had ever gone ahead and harvested on a microdose Lupron cycle with a P4 over 3. They have on a ganarellex cycle, but with ganarellex, it gets the P4 back down below 4; that's how that medication works....it shuts P4 down. For some reason the microdose Lupron didn't do what it was suppose to do and keep the P4 controlled. So I came home and asked God for some kind of sign on whether to proceed with the cycle or stop. Came back to the clinic the next day for US and blood work. Well, I got my sign. The follicles that had been growing nicely had stopped growing completely. That told me the P4 had indeed caused issues with the eggs and we needed to stop and regroup.
So, since we had such issues with all these medications, we decided to go a different route if my AMH allowed us to try again. Blood work came back and my P4 had jumped even higher to 12. There was no way the eggs would have survived.
Fast forward to January period. We pull another OAR test. Those results came back interesting. The AMH was lower as expected. It came back at 0.52. Still above the 0.4 so we can try again. Whew. However, the anticipated egg retrieval score increased. What? Yes. They now anticipate to get more eggs with this harvest than they did with the last harvest. Huh? Yeah. No idea how that works, but something in the numbers. Oh well.
We are now in the Feb/ Mar harvest cycle with PGS Testing and FET.
So we have decided to go a completely different route with the medications. I am back on the original BCP that I was on with Chance. The Desogen; and I am having zero breakthrough bleeding whatsoever. I am on my third week of active pills now. I go in for my baseline US and blood work Feb 16th at 0830 am. We are doing Ganarellex with Gonal-F to stim. Gonal-F is just a different brand of stim drug than Follastim. I still have a vial and a half of Follastim left from the last cycle, so I will use it first. One is made from sheep and one is made from human. Can't remember which is which. Ended up using a different pharmacy this time because this one has a rebate program with the Gonal-F and is a little bit cheaper. We obviously make too much money to qualify for any of the financial hardship programs, so we don't get much of a cash discount. I pharmacy shop for sure. Insurance only pays for the antibiotic and steroid; it doesn't pay for anything fertility related.
So: here we are, in the middle of another cycle, trying to get Sir Chance a little. He is now officially 8 months old. He is sitting up from tummy time, has two teeth, just got over the flu, pulls up in his crib, scoots around backwards, and eats like a champ. He is no longer on boobie juices, and just barely takes any formula he eats so much food. He loves tooling around in his Ferrari and jumping in his jumper. He takes 3 naps a day and sleeps through the night, until he has to fart. He weighs 19.6 pounds and is wearing 12-18 months clothes. Growing way too fast. He giggles when you bark at him, and he loves to bzzzz/blow bubbles; especially when eating.
That is all for now. Enjoy this too cute picture of Sir Chance.
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