10/28/09 blood work results

Are you ready for this? Today's beta results: 105. Woohoo!!! I'm going for my first pregnancy ultrasound a week from Friday, and J is going to go with me. I can't wait!!

Thank you to all of you for your good thoughts and well-wishes!!

10/26/09 blood work results

Today's results: beta 49.5. I'm pregnant. Now we just need to hope that everything goes well and my next beta (which will be on Wednesday morning) is at least twice that.

Please cross your fingers and toes and say little prayer that everything from here on out goes the way it's supposed to.

So far, no news

All of my home tests so far have been negative. I keep telling myself that it's still early yet, and that I have two more days until I go for the "official" blood test on Monday, and that the home tests are less sensitive than the blood test, so even if the home tests are all negative, theoretically my blood test could come back positive. I'm not sure that me telling myself that is working, though.

Even so, I'm still hopeful. I'm still hoping that this cycle will work out, if for no other reason than so I don't have to figure out how to fit in another cycle between now and Thanksgiving or two more between now and Christmas/New Year's. My breasts are still sore and I still keep feeling slight cramps that I'm telling myself are due to a nice little embryo settling itself in for a nine-month stay. Hopefully I don't get disappointed on Monday.

False alarm

Apparently I went through a dead zone somewhere between work and home this afternoon, because I missed the call from my doctor's office. I did get the voicemail, though. The nurse very apologetically told me that they had requested the wrong test be done, so OF COURSE it came back showing screwy results. My progesterone was well above the minimum that they like to see 7 days past ovulation. In other words, I'm still on for the blood test next Monday to determine if the IUI and/or intercourse regimen that we were on last week worked. And not that this is really any indication, but my breasts still hurt and I've had a few cramps off and on today. It could be impending PMS, but it could also mean that everything worked. I guess I'll find out for sure on Monday.

God, I hope it worked.

Possible ovulation FAIL

Remember how I had an LH surge that was HUGE? As in, it's supposed to be >20 and mine was >60? As in, everyone who I've talked to about it has described it as huge?

Apparently that HUGE LH surge didn't mean crap, because my 7 dpo progesterone level was so low it was undetectable. It should be greater than 15. They're having the lab re-check today's sample (thank goodness, because I can't go in tomorrow morning to give another sample) and having them check my estrogen level, too, this time. Hopefully it was just a lab error, and everything is fine. Otherwise, as the nurse said, "We may have just learned a hard lesson with you this cycle, and we need to give you the trigger shot even if you have an LH surge."

I'm not happy. I've had all of these symptoms (acne, sore nipples, and now aching breasts) that I've been chalking up to the fact that I ovulated and so OBVIOUSLY I'm pregnant now. Now I don't know what to think. My breasts and nipples really do hurt, and I really do have the skin of a 14 year old boy at the moment. Now I'm not sure what it all means.

I guess I'm going to go drown my sorrows in homemade macaroni and cheese (my husband is making it tonight, since I'm no longer in the mood to cook after this news) since I can't drown them with a glass bottle of wine.

I know. I suck as a blogger.

Apparently I'm not so good at regular updates. But when there's nothing going on, there's nothing much for me to say.

Here's the rundown of what happened on Tuesday.

J went in around 9:30 and did his business. I think the quote of the day was, "I wasn't in the mood to masturbate in a hospital room." That cracked me up. After he left, they analyzed his sample, and then spun it to remove the sperm from the semen. Then they took the sperm and mixed them with some sort of medium which allows them to swim well, and re-analyzed the sample. I showed up at the doctor's office around 10:30 and sat there for about half an hour until they were ready for me. The nurse called me back and then had my sign some consent forms (because that had somehow been forgotten before...whoops!). Then she took me to an exam room and left while I stripped from the waist down. When she came back she went over what was going to happen, and then she got started. She put the speculum in, which wasn't exactly comfortable, and then she started looking for my cervix. Apparently it was really high up there, because she had to readjust the speculum a couple of times so she could get a clear view of what she was doing. Then she sucked the mixture of J's sperm and the medium they were mixed with into a syringe with a long, curved catheter. She explained that sometimes it would take a couple of tries to get the catheter placed well, just because different women's cervixes are shaped slightly differently. Apparently mine was shaped well, because she got it placed without any problems. She injected the sperm, and then propped up the end of the exam table so that my hips were slightly elevated. I laid there for 15 minutes, and then got dressed and left. I made appointments for next Monday to get my progesterone level checked to ensure that I'm producing enough to be able to sustain a pregnancy, and for the next Monday for a pregnancy test.

Now, I'm just waiting. It's been four days, so it's way too soon for me to have any symptoms or for it to even register if this was successful. I keep telling myself that it's too soon, but I also am having a hard time not taking tests already. I had a plan in place for if I'd had to do the trigger shot; I was going to give it a week, and then I was going to start testing to see if the level dropped enough that I had a negative test, which would indicate that the trigger shot had cleared my system, and then went up again enough that I had a positive test, which would indicate that I was pregnant. Now I don't know what to do. I think I'm probably going to start my pee-stick parties next Friday morning, since that will be the 10 day point, and will be the start of when it might show up if it's going to be positive. I just have to not go crazy before then, thinking the fact that my nipples are sore is a symptom and reading pregnancy symptoms into everything I feel between now and then.

I'll let you know how the progesterone test goes on Monday.

10/12/09 ultrasound and bloodwork results

The gist of today's results is that apparently my body didn't want to wait for the trigger shot to ovulate. My LH went from 15.4 last Monday, to 15.1 on Thursday, to 8.6 on Saturday, to 62.2 today. Yes, you read that right. So...yeah. So much for a controlled ovulation. Instead, we are doing the insemination tomorrow. EEK!!! Cross your fingers that everything goes as planned!!

10/10/09 ultrasound and blood work results

Yesterday's results were both promising and disheartening. My estradiol more than doubled between Thursday and yesterday, and my LH was about half of what it was on Thursday. My largest follicle grew from 12.7 mm to 17.9 mm. Unfortunately, that wasn't quite large enough for them to have me do the trigger shot. I'm going in again tomorrow morning for another round of monitoring. Hopefully I won't ovulate on my own before then, although I was instructed to "have intercourse" with my hubby either last night or today so we can cover our bases just in case it does happen on its own. I'm guessing that the trigger will be tomorrow night with the procedure on Wednesday. Hopefully everything will work out the way we want it to. Think non-ovulatory thoughts for me!!

10/8/09 ultrasound and blood work results

My Estradiol level is going up, which is good. My LH has remained steady since before I started taking Clomid, which is also good. I have two follicles on the left and three on the right that they took measurements on. They asked me to go in again on Saturday morning for another round of monitoring. Keep your fingers crossed for me that my follicles continue to grow and I don't ovulate before then!!

Twinges

I don't know if it's real or my imagination, but I keep feeling twinges that I'm choosing to blame on my ovaries growing follicles. I'm hoping that they're growing several good ones. I'm curious to see what I find out on Thursday, and when the doctor's office is going to want me to take my trigger shot. And I'm so so so nervous about stabbing myself in the abdomen for this.

And holy cow...how did it get to be 10:15? I need to get off the computer and get to bed so I can get to work at a decent hour tomorrow for another busy day. Good night!

10/5/09 ultrasound and bloodwork results

According to my doctor's office, my bloodwork today was fine. I also have two potentially promising follicles on my left ovary (7.9 and 9.9 mm) and one on my right (10.8). Hopefully they will continue to grow. I'll go back on Thursday for another ultrasound and more bloodwork. I'll also get a lesson on how to mix my hCG trigger shot and how to give myself an injection. I guess that means that I'll be getting the go-ahead for that trigger shot sometime in the next week or so (which makes sense, because, according to different websites that I've seen, ovulation usually occurs 5-9 days after the last dose of Clomid, which was last night for me), which will be followed by the IUI about 36 hours later. EEK!!!!

Keep your fingers crossed for me that my three little follies keep growing and that everything works out as we hope it will...

Withdrawal

I think I'm going through withdrawal. I made the executive decision to stop charting when I started this cycle. I kinda figure that since I'm going to have my monitoring done in the doctor's office, they'll be able to pinpoint my ovulation a lot better than I would so there wasn't much of a point any more. It was definitely something that I needed to do for my sanity. The problem is that I'm not actively doing anything any more, and it is driving me crazy.

I'm going in tomorrow for my post-Clomid ultrasound and blood work. I don't know what to expect. I'm just hoping that everything looks good so we can progress with the rest of the cycle.

Oh, and I haven't had the Crazy show up yet. One of my friends said that it really didn't affect her until her second cycle on it. Hopefully, if we need to do another cycle after this, it still won't happen.

That's all I've got tonight. I just wanted to share that I'm going crazy doing nothing, that I didn't go crazy on Clomid, and that I'm going in tomorrow for monitoring. I'll share an update when I have one.