April 30- 1st baseline appointment. Estrogen level was 36 and ultrasound showed around 16 follicles. Everything seems right on track!
Here are all the medications for one IVF cycle....talk about overwhelming!
May 2- Started Lupron injections twice a day. Lupron keeps your body from ovulating on it's on.
May 3- Along with lupron twice a day, today I added a gonal-f injection to my pm routine. Gonal-F stimulates the ovaries to produce more follicles (which contain the eggs) than normal. Normally your body only produces one follicle per cycle. This medication causes the ovaries to work overtime and produce lots and lots of eggs, therefore increasing the chances and fertilization and pregnancy. All of these injections are sub-q and are given in the abdomen.
May 7- First monotioring appointment. Estrogen level increasing normally and ultrasound showed lots of follicles!
May 10- Second monitoring appointment. Still progressing wonderfully. Only a couple more days of stims!
May 12- Third and final monitoring appointment (Day 10 of stims). Estrogen level was 3200 and ultrsound showed 15-16 mature follicles. By the way, by this point I could barely walk. My ovaries were so swollen, they were smashed against each other. Today, I did my morning injections. Tonight, at 11pm, I did the ovidrel injection. This is to make me ovulate in the next 36 hours. Egg retrieval will be in exactly 36 hours.
May 13- No injections today! Nothing to eat or drink after midnight.....egg retrieval is tomorrow!
May 14- We arrive at Dr. Hayslips office around 10:30am. With the ovidrel injection, egg retrieval has to be timed perfectly to avoid 'missing' the eggs. The nurse anesthetist starts my IV and I drift off......for only about 20 minutes. Well, that's how long I was gone from my husband, the procedure didn't even take that long. We got 16 eggs! Woo hoo! I started my progesterone injections today and headed home to rest.
May 15- Dr Hayslip calls with our fertility report. Out of 16 eggs, 14 were mature and 10 fertilized normally. Transfer in 3 days!
May 17- We transfer 2 beautiful 8-cell embryos (3day). One had minor fragmentation. I rest for about 30 minutes in the office then go home and prop my feet for the rest of the day! Today was also hubby's 32nd birthday! Happy Birthday hubby!
These are our two embies....
Embies after transfer.....the white blip in the center :)
May 25- 8 days after transfer I do a hpt and it's negative. Not to mention I've been cramping all week. I have pretty much little to no hope. We leave for our beach vaction today.
**I would like to give a shout out to my best friend, Jamie, who is also a nurse. I was texting her several times a day, everyday during this time with medical related questions. She was always more than willing to help and give her expert advice while also being a friend and support system. I'm not sure I would have made it through and still be a sane person without her. Thank you, J! I love you!
May 28- 11 days after transfer I do another hpt that evening. I set the timer and wait for it to turn positive. It doesn't.
May 29- I take out the test from the night before and OMG, there is a second line. I contain my excitement because I know there is a possibility that it is just an evap line but never ever in the past almost 2 years have I seen a second line at all. I was seriously starting to think I was being punked and two lines on those things didn't really exist.
Here it is!! (okay it's faint, but it's there!)
June 1- Day of first beta. We go in and they initially do a urine test. It comes back positive!! We are officially pregnant! We have to wait a couple of hours for the blood results. We were told anything between 100-500 is normal. Our nurse calls and it's 122! I immediately start to worry because it's on the lower end of normal. A few minutes later, the phone rings again and my heart sinks. They want me to come back on Monday (this was all happening on a Friday) for a repeat beta. I was told not to worry (yeah right!) that it's just a precaution so I don't worry myself sick until my first scheduled ultrasound to see the heartbeat on June 18th.
This is my gallery of positive tests....yes I was way excited and a little proud. :)
June 4- I go in for repeat beta. I leave with a HORRIBLE bruise and go home to wait.....I wait for two hours longer than the normal wait time and I have this horrible feeling it's not going to be good. For a viable pregnancy, HCG levels should double every 48-72 hours. I get the call....my HCG has dropped to 77 and Dr. Hayslip tells me to stop all medications (progesterone and estrogen). He said that the pregnancy loss was most likely due to chromosomal abnormalities and there was nothing he or I could do. I am devastated and heart broken. He tells me to call and schedule my follow up appointment when I'm ready. I stay in bed for the next couple of days.
June 7- Still sad but feeling ready to move forward, I call to make my appointment to follow up with Dr. Hayslip. I can wait a month or keep my appointment that was originally scheduled for my first ultrasound to see the baby and the heartbeat. I think, I can do this.....I'm ready to get this show on the road again!
