IVF #3

Well I have been a huge blog slacker. Sorry to anyone who has been waiting for an update. I really do want to journal this process, for my own records and so I can easily share our journey with friends and family. I was in a pretty long funk though for awhile leading up to this cycle. I found it hard to get excited about doing it all again. I am so thankful to have another shot at this and to even have the opportunity to do IVF. The whole process is very draining though. I was excited that try #2 went so much better than try #1, so I thought I would be more hopeful going in to this cycle.

Anyway, I started stimming on 9/7. After 4 days of stims I already had a lead follicle at 14mm and then a 12mm and a 10mm so they started me on Ganirelix on stim day 5, which seemed pretty early to me. That meant ordering more Ganirelix and paying out of pocket because my insurance will only cover 4 vials in a 30 day period. I used 3 before the cycle even started as part of my suppression with estrogen priming. Luckily my nurse was also able to give me a couple of samples, so it wasn't too outrageous. Oh, and if I haven't mentioned here before, I absolutely hate Aetna and especially Aetna specialty pharmacy. I won't go it to the whole long story, but know that if I had any other choice, I would not use them. They have caused me a lot of added stress this cycle with messing up my medication order.

With having a lead follicle so early, there was talk I might trigger as early as stim day 9, which seemed too early for me. Luckily things slowed down a bit after starting the Ganirelix. My sister Rachel came for a long weekend visit and I would have been super sad to miss out on some time with her if I would have had to have my retrieval while she was here. It all worked out though and we had a fun weekend enjoying Boston, Plymouth, and Martha's Vineyard. I had a couple of monitoring appointments while she was here, but those were early enough that she was still sleeping when I got back.

So I ended up stimming for 11 days and triggered last night. I have 6 follicles between 14-23mm so hopefully we will end up with 6 eggs. There were a couple of small ones too (less than 12mm) so it's possible one or more could catch up. It's also possible that one or more of my follicles are cysts and don't have an egg at all. My estradiol level was low and slow to rise again, but it finally started doubling every 24 hours, so hopefully all is good there. I've really been trying not to stress or obsess about the numbers, but of course that is hard.

Egg retrieval is tomorrow morning. This is the first time it will be on a weekday morning, so we are scheduled early and will arrive at 7:00 for a 8:00am ER. Traffic is crazy headed north on weekday mornings, but we will leave at 6:00 and hope for the best. I will take it easy all weekend and we will either have the transfer Monday or Wednesday, but we are hoping for a 5-day transfer again.

I can't say that I am as excited as I should be, but I am feeling better than I was a couple of weeks ago. Having Rachel here was a much needed distraction and has helped lift my spirits. Maybe I will be more excited when we get lots of eggs tomorrow and hear a great fertilization report on Saturday. Each step of this process is stressful though, so please send all your positive thoughts and vibes our way that the next few days will bring lots of good news.

Rachel and me dipping our toes in the ocean at Martha's Vineyard at sunset

Me and Rachel in Boston at the Harbor