Blood Draws

I had to give blood both Saturday and Sunday which meant my favorite phlebotomist wasn't there, so I got to be poked around by about 4 different people. And they ran out of heat packs so the gave me a glove filled with hot water. I love my veins...Fifth time's the charm right?

My "I'm getting sick of this" look

Egg retrival is set for tomorrow morning at 9!

IVF - This is happening!

On Monday I had a phone appointment with my Reproductive Endocrinologist. We went over my past treatments and made a plan for IVF. Since I've been on birth control the past 3 weeks it shortened the treatment plan by three weeks and I get to start medications today. I had a 2 hour appointment yesterday for another ultrasound, blood work (6 vials this time, yuck), urine sample, and to sign a ton of paperwork which also included paper work for freezing the embryos. Unfortunately insurance doesn't cover freezing so I had to write a huge check in advance. I will be going to the doctor numerous times this coming week. I already have more blood work for Friday and Chris is having blood work and a Kruger test to have a closer look at his sperm morphology on Saturday. The test looks at the shape of his sperm to see if they're developing properly. If a man has a decreased number of normally shaped sperm on the Kruger analysis, he is at risk of fertilization failure or lower rates of fertilization. Then I have more blood work and an ultrasound on Sunday. That appointment will determine next weeks appointments and how many more ultrasounds I will have. It sounds like they will be every other day since it's extremely important to monitor the growth of the follicles. 

If a man has a decreased number of normally shaped sperm on the Krueger strict morphology analysis, he is at risk of fertilization failure or at least low rates of fertilization. - See more at: http://www.babymed.com/male-infertility/sperm-morphology-kruger-sperm-function-test#sthash.ovotEWTi.dpuf

If a man has a decreased number of normally shaped sperm on the Krueger strict morphology analysis, he is at risk of fertilization failure or at least low rates of fertilization. - See more at: http://www.babymed.com/male-infertility/sperm-morphology-kruger-sperm-function-test#sthash.ovotEWTi.dpuf

I'm actually not nervous at all. Even though I will be starting multiple medications, injections, and going to numerous appointments, I am SO excited. I really feel like we are being guided right now and that Heavenly Father is watching out for us. I've been feeling his calming love so much. I literally feel like I am being carried. My heart is full.

Weekend Rollar Coaster

Well, I'm back at it again! I started Femara last Thursday and had a baseline ultrasound on Friday. My doctor wanted to check my cyst to see if it's causing any problems, as well as lay out the plan for this month and get some blood work. Thankfully the cyst is just chilling there, so it shouldn't be a problem. I'm doing the same thing again this month but they're increasing the dosage for my FSH injections to 150 units and will monitor my progesterone after my IUI. They think the increased dosage of FSH will also increase my progesterone after ovulation. So my doctor appointment went well and we have a plan for January.

On Saturday I called Freedom Fertility Pharmacy to refill my injectables that I needed to start taking on Monday. They have overnight shipping so I thought it would be fine. We met up with some friends from school at the nickle arcade where the boys played and the girls talked. Of course having kids was brought up and I acted like I've hardly thought about it. That's always my response. It's sort of my defense mechanism. Only a couple people know what we're going through and I want it to stay that way. But while we were chatting I noticed I had a voicemail from the pharmacy. I went out to the car and called them back. Unfortunately they didn't have good news. My insurance is no longer covering my FSH injections and I would need to pay hundreds of dollars for them. Also, because of this, they were unable to send my injections which meant I wouldn't get them in time. The poor guy on the phone had to listen to me cry and beg him to help me. I had no notification of insurance changes and I felt doomed. All I could do was wait until Monday to talked to my insurance because the pharmacy was closing. 

Chris came and found me while I bawled all over him. He's the best. He always knows what to do. Needless to say, I cried for a long time. I felt hopeless.

Sunday I cried even more. I don't know if it was because I will still upset about my insurance or if it was because we were prayerfully fasting again that we could be blessed with a child. We felt the spirit strongly with us and it gave me new hope. 

Monday I was ready for battle. I checked with my insurance to see if there were any other brands that they covered for FSH and thankfully they covered two others. All day I was stepping out of the office to take phone calls and get everything sorted out. After about a dozen calls, my doctor wrote a new prescription for my FSH and I set up delivery for my new Gonal-f injections. I wouldn't receive an injection in time for that night, so my clinic generously donated some Bravelle to me so that I would have some. That's worth some big $$$ they donated. I love my clinic. I was surely being watched over. 

Want to know the best thing I learned from all this? I changed my perspective. Instead of getting angry and asking WHY did this happen? I said to myself, hey maybe this is God's way of getting involved because he knows I will respond better to this new kind of injection than the one I had before. 

I'm feeling good. I know I'm being watched over. Round three of injections: commence!

Progesterone: The Grinch Who Stole My Christmas

When I got my IUI I asked my doctor about progesterone supplements. I had done some research and noticed many women that had an IUI were prescribed progesterone supplements after. My doctor said she wanted me to do some blood work first do see if it was really necessary, so a blood draw was scheduled for a week later. 

Progesterone comes from the corpus luteum. Basically what happens is after you ovulate, the ruptured follicle turns into the corpus luteum which is responsible for the production of progesterone. Progesterone is an extremely important sex hormone in early pregnancy because it builds a strong uterine lining and helps maintain the lining of the uterus to help nurture a fertilized egg until the placenta takes over around the second trimester. An inadequate amount of progesterone often results in miscarriage or if there isn't a fertilized egg, your period begins. 

Hormones involved in the initiation of pregnancy and the development egg cell (ovum) from follicle to embryo.

Progesterone levels rise after ovulation, and the rise can usually be detected about a week after ovulation. According to BabyMed, progesterone levels about a week after ovulation in a nonpregnant patient are generally at least 8-10 ng/ml. Much lower levels usually mean you did not ovulate. Doctors like to see progesterone levels around 16-18 ng/ml or more in pregnant women.

Want to guess what my progesterone result came back as? 8? 6? 5? Let's try 0.46 ng/ml. This tells me two things: 
1. I didn't even ovulate, which my doctor said makes no sense because of the trigger shot I took which forces you to ovulate and my ultrasound right before my IUI appeared as if the egg had already been released.
2. I have a severe progesterone deficiency or what's also known as luteal phase defect. Super.

Looks like I have the latter and I fit right in with the symptoms, which include:
Irregular periods
Not ovulating
Fibrocystic Breasts 
Low Thyroid (Hypothyroidism -ding ding ding! Why didn't they make this connection before?)
Ovarian Cysts
Reduced oxygen levels in all cells (Perhaps this is why I feel like I'm dying when I run?) 
Anxiety
Indigestion
Headaches and more. 

Everything is interconnected. Also because I have progesterone deficiency, I have a 1000% greater chance of dying from cancer.  According to the American Journal of Epidemiology, "researchers found that infertile women who demonstrated a progesterone deficiency had a premenopausal breast cancer risk that was 540% greater than that of women whose infertility was due to non-hormonal causes. Furthermore, the women with a progesterone deficiency had a 1,000% greater chance of death from all types of cancer." Happy New Year to me. Chris hugged me all night when I told him that. I'm not worried though. I know God has a plan for me.

To finish my story, I found out about all of this the Monday before Christmas. That is why progesterone is the Grinch who stole my Christmas. My family still has no idea I'm going through all this. We were all staying at my mom's house and I locked myself in the bathroom and cried and cried and cried. The Doctor called in some progesterone supplements to the nearest pharmacy just in case of the extremely rare chance I did get pregnant. I know it wasn't going to happen though. It was all I could do to bring myself to taking a pregnancy test the following Friday since I already knew it was going to be negative. And it was. 

What kills me the most is knowing that there very well could have been a fertilized egg, but it didn't have the enough progesterone to nurture it to implantation. Every month my heart shatters into more pieces than the previous. This is hard, really hard.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got to feel the spirit of Christ in their hearts.

Progesterone levels after ovulation (midluteal, middle of the second half of the cycle) in a nonpregnant patient are generally at least 8-10 ng/ml. Much lower levels usually mean you did not ovulate. - See more at: http://www.babymed.com/fertility-tests/progesterone-levels#sthash.ikBCoH97.dpuf

Progesterone levels rise after ovulation, and the rise can usually be detected about a week after ovulation. - See more at: http://www.babymed.com/fertility-tests/progesterone-levels#sthash.ikBCoH97.dpuf

Progesterone levels rise after ovulation, and the rise can usually be detected about a week after ovulation. - See more at: http://www.babymed.com/fertility-tests/progesterone-levels#sthash.ikBCoH97.dpuf

Progesterone levels rise after ovulation, and the rise can usually be detected about a week after ovulation. - See more at: http://www.babymed.com/fertility-tests/progesterone-levels#sthash.ikBCoH97.dpuf

Timeline Update

A lot has happened since first meeting our doctor. I've been trying to play catch up since we started treatment over a month ago, but this blog is only a week old! Here's a timeline update: 

September 19th: First appointment with our fertility doctor. 

September 20th: My blood work came back and I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I started taking Prometrium to induce a period.

September 25th: Had further blood tests, thyroid exam (found nothing wrong) and was prescribed 50mcg of Synthroid a day. I will probably be taking it for the rest of my life. 

September 26th: Met with my gynecologist and got her up to date. Free Prenatal vitamins, yay!

October 3rd: After taking the Prometrium for 10 days my period started just three days later. 

October 5th: Went to the doctor for blood work and a follicular ultrasound. Everything looked great! Except my bladder was so full in preparation for the blood work that he couldn't see anything until I emptied it. I came back and my bladder was in the shape of a heart so he gave me an ultrasound picture for kicks and giggles. I got blood work done for an OAR, Anti-Mullerian Hormone, and TSH for my thyroid. My thyroid went down quite a bit which is great! Also my Ovarian Assessment Report came back and it was like I got straight A's! We're in the clear there. I also started taking 5mg of Femara today.

October 9th: Finished taking Femara. I didn't experience any side effects thankfully.

October 11th: The dreaded HSG! My next post will have all the details.

That's a wrap! Just keeping it positive :)