.ivf report.

unfortunately i didn't have the computer in cali so i've had to wait til now to update my blogs. first off i wanted to write down everything that happened in california regarding our ivf cycle.

thursday nov 12 i had my first ultrasound at dr. marrs office in LA. i had about 10-12 follicles, but some were pretty small. they were predicting that i'd be ready sat for trigger, and that we should have about 10 eggs to retrieve. i was happy about that. they did lower my fsh and upped my lh to help the smaller eggs "catch up." my e2 this day was 1158

saturday nov 14 i had my second ultrasound and it looked about the same. about 12 mature follicles, and my e2 was 2710, getting a little too high. i was given the go ahead to trigger that night at 1030 pm.

monday nov 16 we arrived for our egg retrieval. this time was WAY different. it was an actual OR, not some scary 1930's exam room. i got my WONDERFUL anesthesia and woke up to the news that they had retrieved 14 eggs. i was thrilled. cam gave his "sample" and we went back to the hotel to relax..our work was over.

tueday nov 17 got a call from dr. bronte stone, the embryonologist, and gave us the report that only 9 of my eggs were mature and of those only 6 fertilized with icsi. we were kinda crushed..but happy that we at least had that many.

wednesday nov 18 took a break from worrying about it and went to disneyland!

thursday nov 19 went back in to get knocked up. they gave us an update of the little embies. we had 2 that had stopped growing, but the 4 remaining were going strong. finally, they brought the little embryos in, in their little incubator and we got to look at them in the microscope. we got to see our little babies first photo shoot, as seen below. anyway, i have two perfect, 8 cell embryos inside my little uterus. the remaining 2 will be frozen tomorrow if they make it to blastocyst stage. we're praying for them too, in case this doesn't work, we could have a frozen embryo transfer in a few months.

.our babies.

i'm feeling so much more hopeful this time around and i feel like it's our turn. we've been patient. it would be an added reason to celebrate this holiday season.

.off we go.

we're off to los angeles today. my mom and i are driving out, with a small stop in st. george and then cameron and my dad will be flying out friday after work. i'm super excited to go to disneyland and price is right and hopefully all the ivf stuff will go as planned.

as for my appt yesterday with lindsey (who i absolutely love).. everything looks a lot better this time, than at this point in the game last cycle. i have 15 follicles and about 12 are the same size.. so we can hope to expect about 10-12 follicles. my e2 was 261, at this time last cycle it was only 123. so i'm happy.

i just want to tell cameron i'll miss him til friday. can't wait to make some babies this weekend.

.all clear.

well bloodwork and ultrascan both indicated that we're all clear to start stimulation injections tomorrow night. it's great news. you can never predict whether your body will respond appropriately to all the "over-riding" that ivf protocols do to you. i'm grateful that my little ovaries are perfect and so is my little old uterus. last cycle i had 9 antral follicles and we retrieved 9 mature eggs. this time i had 11 antral follicles, so we're hoping for 10 or more mature eggs in LA. as for the protocol we're using this time...it's the same as last cycle.. 75 menopur, 225 bravelle, and 5 units lupron. it's so exciting and a little nerve racking. so far, so good. hopefully icsi will work and we'll get good fert rates.

.phase I.

i think that i am lucky. i'm sure most girls that try ivf go on mad horomone mood swings. i'm blessed, i really don't have much of that (well, i guess you could ask cameron if that's true). i think the worst part is the birth control. so i'm happy to report that i finished that on thursday. i should be expecting a wonderful red flow here tomorrow. it should be right on time. if so, i'll be having my baseline scan (love the wand) and bloodwork. i'm getting really anxious to see how this cycle will pan out. i think i'm definately more hopeful and more calm about this one. it feels good. so maybe in 3 weeks we can have some of these:

and an update on what i think is wrong with us: this has not been diagnosed, but from my research i believe that cameron's swimmers have anti-sperm antibodies on them (mostly on the heads), thus preventing the sperm from binding to an egg. when the dr explained that we have a "receptor" problem, i think he meant this. i'm not going to push for an actual diagnosis, because at least we know that whatever the problem is, we have found it and have a way around it. thank goodness.