My IUI is TOMORROW!

Today was u/s monitoring day! It went well, very well in fact. My mom came with in case I needed to be drove home because I knew if it was bad news I wouldn't be able to drive. I also though given her background in since she would find it rather cool to see my insides, I know I find it cool.

We arrive on time and I am trying to stay calm. I was nervous because I didn't surge on my own today like they wanted me too, but I NEVER get + opks so this didn't surprise me. Normally if buy cd 14 you don't get a +opk then you come in the next day. However I wanted to come in early. My GUT said come in on cd 14, R and I knew that this could mean we would need extra monitoring on Saturday but we decided it was worth that chance.

Well my gut was right! I was very thankful to have come in early, because while tomorrow would have been fine, today was perfect timing according to the u/s tech. My lining today was wonderful. I had been praying for anything between 8 and 9 and honestly anything above 7 would be fine but I really wanted my body to give this the most shot at working, so we really wanted an 8 AND we got it! 8.2 to be exact. She said if she had taken more measurements i could have been as high as 8.5 so I feel great about it! I did a little happy dance on the table and told my uterus "Good job".

As for why this cycle my lining has looked this good. I give 100% credit to my new diet. Honestly all that spinach and high green diet has shown to improve linings and I am a full believe after today! Who knew the South Beach diet would help this much?

Now to my follicles, this made me nervous. On my last u/s at the beginning of seeing this Dr she said one ovary only had four unmature follicles that she could see. Given my age 25 (at least of another month) and my FSH (normal) she should have seen 7 or even 8. She said sometimes that just happens and other times it tells us something. However she said what mattered most was how I responded. Well I have been having 'pain' and a fullness sensation for three days now. I have 2 mature follicles a 21.9 and a 17.6 then trailing behind I have a 15.2, a 14.9 and lastly a 14.2. The last two won't mature in time and the 15.2 has a 50% chance of being mature by ovulation. Either way R decided two days ago that he was okay with triggering with 3 follicles and so I said "LETs DO THIS!"

We turned off the u/s and I was given a print out of my response for my records. Igot dressed and my nurse came in to give me the trigger shot. As soon as she came in I freaked. Have I mentioned I am scared of needles? Oh yes, that is right I have. I didn't want to see the shot and I didn't but when she told me it went into my belly I freaked out.

How in the hell did I miss the fact that a trigger shot is given in the abdomen??? Seriously!?! How did I miss that?

I did let her give it to me and I wasn't too much of a baby. My mom said I did fine but I have to admit I wanted to cry. It pinched going in and out but didn't burn like she said it might. Over all it was fine, physically it was easy, emotionally it was hard but I think that is normal given my extreme fear of those things.

Now I wait. Tomorrow I have my IUI at 9:30 am. R has to go in early at 7 am to give his 'deposit'. I am a little bummed. Our normal office is booked so we have to go to the one further away. It's only 20minutes further but in the am that 20 minutes extra is really 35 wich means R will have to produce his 'deposit' at the office rather than at home. I have yet to tell him this. I know it isn't a HUGE deal but I am afraid for R it is a big deal. He would much rather do it at home than in the lab. It will be okay though.

I have done a TON of research about this whole proccess and things that increase your chances. I don't want to mess with my life too much but I have read a study I want to share with all of you. It has to do with hot vs cold food in the 2ww. The results from the study aren't conclusive but preliminary results showed that IVF patients who ate warm foods in the 2ww, such as soups, tea, and such had higher success rates than those who preferred to drink cold or cool things in the 2ww.

So on top of my pineapple that I will eat starting tomorrow, and all the green foods I will also be eating more warm foods. I have already taken out of the fridge my caffeine free cola and also went and bought some tea to have because I don't like warm water. I am hoping this all helps, time will tell.


PS Mom did like being there and thought the whole thing was very cool. It was good bonding time for us and I am very glad she came with.

It is CD 12 ALREADY!

It is CD 12 and still no positive OPK and no temp spike so those are good things. I do feel my ovaries at different times in the day. My left one ached mid day and then tonight my right one ached. I haven't ever felt 'pain' like that before. It was new, exciting and worrisome all at the same time. Worrisome because I do worry about missing ovulation. HOWEVER that seems doubtful to my nurse and I trust my clinic. Really I do. Stop laughing I DO trust them, I just like confirmation from the t-ttc board that I should trust them! ;O

If no positive OPK then my u/s will be Thursday. My mom wanted to know if since Ryon has to work she could come. I am sure that is weird to many of you but we are insanely close and I have NO modesty so I said yes. After all, nothing I have she doesn't have! It will be nice to not have to go alone since I am such a worrier.

On Friday about 24 hours after my last Femara dose something happened that at first I wasn't sure I wanted to share in an open forum but if this is going to be an honest place for me I am going to need to share. Friday, I got sloppy, pass out drunk from ONE drink. I am an easy buzz, and I get drunk rather fast too but NOT from one drink. I am sure it has to do with the meds. So please take this as a warning if you are doing or going to do Femara. DON'T drink on it!

This brings my s/e count for Femara to two: headaches and.... well what should we call it?...... easy drunkenness.

What a weekend!

This weekend was filled with ups downs and driving all around!

Short Story:
AF arrived and their was tons of drama and a large mix up about money and prescriptions and for a short time I thought my clinic hated me and was ignoring my calls. But in the end everything is fine and I took my first Femara dose tonight. Pictures to prove it at the end.

Long Story:
Friday AF arrived and so the RE called my Femara script into the drug store. I didn't think K.aiser would cover it so we sent it elsewhere. Well that was a BAD idea! Femara costs 10-15 dollars a pill! According to the Dr it costs 2-3 dollars a pill but the CHEAPEST place I could find it at (costco) was 10 dollars a pill. But before I picked it up a nestie K told me K.aiser WILL pay for it because it is a cancer drug not a fertility drug (things like this is one more reason I LOVE thenes.t). It was too late to call the clinic back so I waited till Saturday morning to call.

Saturday we had three things to do: 1 get a written script from the RE to take to Kaiser and have filled there 2) get my blood work done at the recommended lab and 3) Get new tires for the car. I started calling the RE (different office than my regular one) at 7:29 one minute before they opened and left a message on the call line that said I would receive a call back in no more than 30 minutes. R and I decided to head off to the lab first and wait for a call back. At the lab there were LOTS of people and so we waited and waited and I called the clinic 2 more times each at 40 minute intervals. Still no word from the RE office. It is finally my turn for a blood draw and when I get up there she says " that will be one THOUSAND two HUNDRED and twenty two dollars". My eyes popped out of my face, my skin cringed and I nearly passed out. I told her my lab had "contract prices with them and they told me it would be 120" I even handed her the sheet that said so. The lab girl said "Nope it's.... 1,222 dollars". I told her we can't afford that and walked out.

Now if you know me you will know that I am the kind of person who will put up a fight to get what she wants but that day I had no fight. My clinic wasn't returning my calls and the lab work was going to be 10 times what they said and they miss quoted my drug price. I had had enough. I called the RE office one last time in the car on the way to the office and again got the answering service.

When we arrived I had already decided that I had had enough, and to sit a cycle out because obviously something wasn't going right.We walk in and I tell the front desk who I am and that I have called 5 times left 3 messages in 3.5 hours and have YET to receive a call back and they say "we haven't got any messages" I told them "YES YOU DO! I am NOT lying!" and sure enough they realize that their 'main' line is going to the OLD voice mail service not the new one and that is the reason they haven't received my calls.

The panic, frustration and anger melt and I become a sobbing mess, in their front room. A very nice nurse escorts us back and helps R calm me down. She promises me that whatever is going wrong she is going to fix. Of course she has to say this because I am sobbing to R "I change my mind I don't want to do this, it is too hard. Lets just try on our own". Upon hearing that she is going to help and after a few minutes of R holding me and telling me it will be fine I compose myself enough to talk to her. I tell her EVERYTHING and quickly she realizes the blood work slips I have been given are wrong and that the lab had the wrong info down for me. She begins to take care of it and in the end everything is fine. I get my blood work done (at the clinic so I don't have to drive back) and it costs me EXACTLY what the paper says, and I get a written script that K.aiser filled for the cost of my normal prescriptions.

We don't get the car tires change though because R decides he should just take me home feed me and let me nap, which I happily do.

Sunday: We get our new tires on the car and run errands, clean the house, have my niece and nephew over for dinner and tonight I took my first dose of Femara. Here are the pics to prove it!

Femara here we come!

!*~*~*!*~*~*!*~*~*!*~*~*!*~*~*~ Haaaaappppy dance~*~*~*!*~*~*!*~*~*!*~*~*!


Yes today I am doing the happy dance! It looks like we are getting an IUI this cycle! K.aiser has been a pain in my royal ass today, hello where are they not?, but despite them I am going to have an IUI this cycle. We are re doing my cd 3 blood work (again) but this way it is valid for 6 months so if we need more treatment we won't need to repeat them for a while.

AF is here. I am immensely relieved! I have to go in and get my blood drawn and so does R tomorrow am and then on Sunday I start Femara! I am very excited about doing Femara instead of Clomid, and was surprised that my RE didn't fight me about it. I feel like I would rather have quality and control (even if it isn't FDA approved) over the known s/e of Clomid (that is FDA approved) any day. And if I don't like it well there is Clomid next month!

A part of me is trying not to get to excited about this but I am trying to ignore that side of me. I will deal with the what if's about this not working when I get my beta back. Till then I am thinking positively!

I don't know how to feel

I am going to try to be as honest as I can bear today and the truth is I am torn and don't know how I feel or how I should feel about last night.

First of all she said with only 9 ovulatory cycles she said we could wait 3 more cycles to be deemed Infertile and then try or we should get the show on the road and try. Which isn't what she said at the meet and greet.

Second she said success for clomid/femara IUI is 12% and that clomid/femara + TI is 9% for their clinic. This seems low to me. She made sure to express that our clinic doesn't do "individualized success rates" so it goes by EVERYONE (no matter age or Dx) and that obviously given our age and Dx we would have a higher success rate.

Thirdly my ovaries and uterus look BEAUTIFUL! Even my lining was great! She did a follicle count (didn't realize this could be done at this point in my cycle but she did) and we found out my right is an under producer! Hmmmm. But my left looks good. She isn't worried because of my age and blood results.

So now we decide:
a) spend 1,000 dollars on an IUI with only 12% chance of working.
b) try on our own MORE
c) do what I have been told not to by all my nestie friends and take the clomid unmonitored and do TI (9% chance of working).

R and I didn't get a chance to really talk last night because I went out with friends and got drunk and played board games, and tonight we have my niece and nephew for the evening but sometime soon we will talk and decide. AF isn't here yet and she shows no sign of coming so that means we can take our time deciding what to do.

Tonight's Meet and Greet at theRE office

Tonight was the ‘meet and greet’ with our fertility clinic. We arrived early after R took me to dinner at In and Out. There is very little fast food I LOVE but I LOVE In and Out. Something about their ‘double double’ makes me melt. It was a cheat from a diet stand point but it felt very good. So we arrive and of course are the first people/couple there. I got to ask the nurse a bunch of questions about protocol and then couple number 2 arrived. Well what do you know I KNOW couple number 2! She is a NESTIE!!!!!

We chatted for a while, while our husbands looked horrified as if they had just been outed. (It was rather funny, IMO.) More couples arrived and finally we started. The Dr was very nice and she went over mostly IVF stuff. We toured the facility and it was nice. At the end of the slide show everyone asked questions, I left my Selective Reduction and IUI questions till the end, knowing they weren’t applicable to most and that the SR ones would be offensive to some.

The Dr answered all my questions and then R’s and told us she would be happy to answer any more at our consult. We left feeling really good about everything.

She talked a lot about different studies including the study that showed jumping to IVF and skipping injectable IUIs showed higher number of pg and less cost to couples in the no IUI group. I was happy to hear her thoughts on that study and the others. She also mentioned they have the lowest % of HOM (triplets or higher) for our area, while maintaining above average success. Others ohhed and awed but I asked he about their canceled rate which is only average for the area. She had no thoughts on this but I did get a sense that she was a good DR. Her personality also fit mine and R’s so I think we have our RE! R liked her a lot and he seems confidant in the clinic. She practices at the clinic nearest us so it all works out well.

Moving Forward

I had yet another appt with an OB today! Ya I am a regular there. This time with Dr. D. I had forgotten how much I loved Dr D, I love how willing he is to go above and beyond the call of duty. Today I am 13dpo and am hopeful of a BFP this cycle, I also know it is a long shot. I went in to ask for 2 things. One that he refer me to the HSG, since if he refers me and not a RE it might actually get covered by my insurance. Number 2 was for P4 tests for the next few months. I want to see the quality of my ovulation. He agreed to BOTH! WOOOOHOOOOO!

He also did an u/s not to look for a baby because it is WAY to early to see that but to see if my linning was thick and to check for polops and other things that can impeade implantaion. I looked good. My cirvix looked good too, which is great since I no one has ever talked to me about it. He told me that if I wanted I could come in for a saline histo-sonogram, or something like that, that he would do it in a regular office visit. This is great news since it means I will only have to pay my co-pay 30$ for it rather than 529$ which is what the Kaiser RE office charges plus a exspanded visit charge of 207$.

The only sad thing about this visit was that insurance wont cover the HSG and that will ALL be OOP. :( I don't have an exact price but somewhere around 800 is what the nurse said. There goes my BugaBoo stroller. Believe me I am happy to have been able to slide so much under the table but I constantly feel reminded that if insurance would just cover this I wouldn't be having a money issue. Hear is our list of what we have been able to slide under the table.

So far we haven't had to pay the full price for:

SA
CD 3 b/w
P4 test
2 ultrasounds (to look at my linning)
and now the SGH

but a little part of me is still really shocked at how much this is all going to cost us. After all this was supposed to be easy.

After my OB visit I went next door, yup at Kaiser the RE office is right next door to the OB/GYN (thankfully thay don't share a waiting room!) and asked about my intake forms. They hadn't processed them yet. Right now they are completly back loged. However since I was there and no one was waiting she went ahead and processed them! Wooohoooo! She gave me a folder and a price sheet, which scared the CRAP out of me and then....

she made me my first appt. MARCH 4th at 11 am

By then I need to have the HSG and SHG done and she told me that if I didn't I sould call in and rescedual the appt.

I have a feeling that when I talk to R tonight things will be moving to fast for him and he will want to wait. I am okay by that, infact I kinda feel like this is moving really fast. I mean I knew it might be like this but I also thought it might take months. I have to admit I am scared but also excited. So R and I have a LOT to talk about!