First...I'm utterly blown away by what Sandy has wrought. It hits very close to home because had I still been in back in the US, I would have been at the epicenter of this clusterf*uck- lets just say the building I lived and worked in has featured prominently in the news and a lot of my colleagues and friends have lost years of work. I was also reading about many, many women who had retrievals scheduled early this week--I really hope to god their clinics managed to make it happen.
I'm thinking about all the people who lived in NYC/NJ area--I hope you all stayed safe, with your homes intact, and hopefully, managed to keep power.
At my end of things, its looking slightly better, but definitely getting harder and harder to predict. On day 12, I had my 3rd follie scan and first E2 check. My estradiol levels were 2200 pg/ml, but since we are not testing regularly, it does not tell us much. maybe another version of me would have wanted more information and regular testing but right now, I'm content to wait till retrieval to see what will happen.
I had around 6 follicles so huge my RE did not know what to make of them---in the 18-25 mm range and a bunch of smaller follicles around 10-15 mm range. I have asynchronous follicle growth, with 2 groups, in other words, and my doc was not happy about that. I'm going to be kept on my meds till day 14, with a trigger on day 15, with a hope of making some of the little guys grow.
I'm refusing to make a call of whether we should do the biopsy and CGH microarray untill I have some inclination of many Day 3 embryos I will end up with.
But right now, I'm in pain. I've responded a little better (big maybe) to the menagon, which I restarted on day 9, but its turning my body into one big ache, whether given IM or SC. I have to be reacting to a component in its preparation- the pain begins around 5 hours after the injection and settles into a deep sore ache which has not gone away yet, even from my injections over 3 days ago. My respect for the people who take shots, from time of IVF and continue taking them for months, with the PIO and the heparin, is now immense. It takes giant balls--I take my hat off to y'all!
I'm thinking about all the people who lived in NYC/NJ area--I hope you all stayed safe, with your homes intact, and hopefully, managed to keep power.
At my end of things, its looking slightly better, but definitely getting harder and harder to predict. On day 12, I had my 3rd follie scan and first E2 check. My estradiol levels were 2200 pg/ml, but since we are not testing regularly, it does not tell us much. maybe another version of me would have wanted more information and regular testing but right now, I'm content to wait till retrieval to see what will happen.
I had around 6 follicles so huge my RE did not know what to make of them---in the 18-25 mm range and a bunch of smaller follicles around 10-15 mm range. I have asynchronous follicle growth, with 2 groups, in other words, and my doc was not happy about that. I'm going to be kept on my meds till day 14, with a trigger on day 15, with a hope of making some of the little guys grow.
I'm refusing to make a call of whether we should do the biopsy and CGH microarray untill I have some inclination of many Day 3 embryos I will end up with.
But right now, I'm in pain. I've responded a little better (big maybe) to the menagon, which I restarted on day 9, but its turning my body into one big ache, whether given IM or SC. I have to be reacting to a component in its preparation- the pain begins around 5 hours after the injection and settles into a deep sore ache which has not gone away yet, even from my injections over 3 days ago. My respect for the people who take shots, from time of IVF and continue taking them for months, with the PIO and the heparin, is now immense. It takes giant balls--I take my hat off to y'all!
Jay, I would guess you will end up with atleast 10-12 mature eggs based on your e2 levels. Roughly 200 pg/ml of e2 per mature egg and this calculation was correct for me most of the time. Still you have couple of days befor HCG so hopefully you might end with a few more eggs. Can't cetrizine or any other anti-histamines help in dealing with the allergic reaction? Good Luck ! : )
ReplyDeleteJay, I would say 200 pg/ml of e2 per mature follicle (not egg), assuming each mature follicle yields one mature egg.
ReplyDeleteSending positive thoughts for good strong egg growth
ReplyDeleteInteresting how different docs do different things. My RE would have had me trigger with 6 follicles in mature range (because, she said, you risk losing the big ones if you try to play catch up with the small ones)...but if you've got anything over 14 in the smaller group it could be mature. During my one IVF that led to retrieval, my E2 capped out at around 2100, I think (and that was 7 follicles on ultrasound that yielded 2 mature eggs). I hope you have a better result.
ReplyDeleteI haven't followed the beginning of your cycle...did you use anything (long lupron, BCP, ganirelix, etc) to suppress pre-cycle? If not, that could account for the asynchronous growth. But any new growth sounds promising...I hope you get the best crop of follicles from the two groups! Good luck!
Thanks, wow, 2100 pg/ml and 2 mature eggs? So unfair! Yeah, REs sure follow different routes. Mine did mention that a lot of people trigger with 3 follies over 21 mm, but he said that waiting does not make the mature ones with eggs in them lose the eggs, because as long as you are suppressed, you cant ovulate anyway, and nothing happens to the egg while it is sitting in there, and the extra time may give some of the others time to actually grow something. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteNo BCPS or any other drugs for me, and I did micro-dose (0.2 mg lupron) CD1-CD3 before I started stims, so yeah, if I ever have to do this again (shuddering at the thought), will maybe be put on long lupron or BCPs or something..
Thanks for the input! With my IUIs, I'd have one mature (18-19) mm follicle and around 240 pg/ml E2, so we'll see how this goes. I'm refusing to do any mental counts or run any suppositions...I'll know when I wake up from anaesthesia I guess. Scary thought, that.
ReplyDeleteWow! Having never done the first part of IVF, I am just listening in confusion. I'm sorry that you are having such a bad reaction to the medicine. I hope you get lots of nice mature eggs.
ReplyDelete