No infusion needed!

I have been stressing out about not receiving my immune numbers yet but the AEB Center called me back this morning and told me that my numbers looked excellent! She didn't say what they were and said the doctor hadn't actually reviewed them yet but told me I definitely won't need a pre-conception infusion this time. And it's a good thing I don't need one because I am almost ready to trigger (possibly tonight) and I couldn't get an appointment at Coram for the infusion until Tuesday. God is so good! I have just been thanking Him and praising Him all day for saving us lots of money and possibly from another miscarriage should I get pregnant. Now I am asking Him to please let this be our cycle for our take-home baby(ies). Our follicles look good (possibly 4 mature in all), my NK cells and cytokines are low, I'm on Lovenox for my clotting disorders and APAs so it just has to work, right? I am asking you to pray this same prayer with me. Thanks girls!!!You all are always in my prayers as well.

I spoke too soon!

And the drama returns! I got blood work done yesterday for my Nk cells and cytokines. The lab in CA called today and told me the tubes were labeled with the wrong name so they couldn't run the tests on them. I don't even know how this could've happened??? The girl drew my blood, asked me what needed to be written on them, I watched her write it all on them, then she handed them to me. I never imagined she didn't know my name. Oops!

Soooo long story short after several phones calls to the place where they drew my blood and the lab (all while trying to teach Pre-K students), we got it all worked out. The girl had to fax a paper stating that it was indeed my blood which she is sure of since she drew 50cc out of me. The bad news is now this puts me behind and I may not be able to get my results before Thanksgiving. They said to call them tomorrow to see if they have them done. Please pray that I get them back tomorrow and they say my immune system is still suppressed! I'm not sure if I will have time to schedule an infusion before the IUI which could be very soon.

On a good note, I think I responded pretty well to the Follistim. Here are my follicles:
R-10x16
R-13x7
L-15x12
L-13x15
L-16x15
L-11x12
L-9x11

So the nurse who was measuring said I should have 5 hopefully. I am staying on 150 and then having a repeat ultrasound on Thanksgiving Day. Should this work out, I certainly will be the most thankful mommy ever.

Back on the Saddle!

It's CD7 and I've been stimming for 5 days now. I had a clearing ultrasound and E2 draw on CD3 so they started me at 150IU of Follistim. I went back yesterday (on a Sunday) for another E2 draw and that was easier said than done.

The RE's office was supposed to fax my orders over to the hospital on Friday but when I got to registration, they had no order. There was another couple next to me that is going to the same RE that had no orders either. The ladies checked everywhere at registration and then sent someone over to the regular registration desk which is closed on Sunday. Nothing. I didn't know what to do because I had to get it drawn so they could see whether or not to adjust my medication. I decided to call the on-call physician. It was an RE that I went to years ago and left. Yeah. That'll be great.

I call him and he agrees to call the hospital with the orders. (Maybe he didn't remember me or maybe he was just being nice!) So I wait for a while and nothing. I decide to call him back because the lady at registration said they can't accept called-in orders on the weekends, only faxed orders. He wasn't happy about this and demanded to speak to her supervisor. Ouch! Apparently he was at church and did not want to leave to get to a fax machine. Can't blame the guy there.

The head RN called him back and got it all worked out. He said he could take a phone order while the registration girls could not. He hangs up with the RE and then asks me what the diagnosis code is. Huh? I don't know. That's why there are orders. They wrote the same order for the girl that was next to me and we all head to the lab.

We get there and they ask our names. Guess what they have? OUR ORDERS from our own RE! What? I guess no one thought to check the actual lab. Our office did fax them over. I was a little upset but now we can go back to the registration desk to get the correct diagnosis code.

So 2 and 1/2 hours later, my blood was drawn. The funny thing is the RE's office called me about 30 minutes later to say it was 211 and that was good so stay on 150. I got my immune stuff (NK and cytokines) drawn today to see if I'll need another IVIG or not and I go back to the RE tomorrow for another E2 and my first ultrasound on Follistim. Let's hope the rest of this cycle is stress free. So glad tomorrow isn't SUNDAY!!!

BFN

It didn't work. I had all these plans to document every step of this cycle but when I got to the first follicle scan and I only had 2 on the right, none on the left, I got very discouraged. By the second ultrasound one was measuring 25mm and the other 13mm so neither one was very good. I got a positive OPK the day of that last scan so I had to go in for the IUI the next morning. Now that I am looking back, I should've said no thanks and went with TI but we went ahead with it.

My breasts started to feel very sore on Friday morning three days before the scheduled beta. When I got home from school, I took a test-negative. Maybe it's still too early? Took another on Saturday, then Sunday-negative. At this point I'm starting to believe it didn't work but my boobs start to hurt worse so you start to think maybe all those FRERs are wrong. Well they weren't. I started on Tuesday.

The good news is that I was able to go for an ultrasound today and start my Follistim for our next cycle. I want to put that last one behind me and focus on making descent follicles this time. This will probably be our last attempt. If this doesn't work we may try a FET next.

IVIG and follicle tracking

It has been a busy week both in the infertility world and teaching world! On Wednesday I went for my first IVIG infusion in Nashville. I still haven't heard if I will get any insurance coverage or not so it was cheaper to go to the facility instead of having a home health care nurse come to me to administer it. My mom went with me since Brad was out of town. Everything went great! The people at Coram are awesome and I couldn't have asked for a better nurse.

My appointment was at 10:00 in Nashville. We only got lost a little! It's not that it was hard to find, it's that my mom and I have no sense of direction whatsoever. 

It's time! I was getting nervous that it was going to start to make me sick soon but it never did. So blessed!

All done with the IVIG. Now for the water solution. 

My nurse, Mary. She was so awesome and made this experience a pleasant one.

So the infusion was on Wednesday, October 30. Halloween was the next day and since I'm a teacher taking the following day off isn't an option. Luckily I never did feel bad from the infusion. I felt a little sick at lunch on Thursday but I think it's because I didn't hydrate or eat enough the day after. Just so you can see why I needed to go to school, here's a pic!

My assistant and me, the chicken and the egg! Notice how I even incorporate eggs in my costumes!

I went to my RE on Friday afternoon for a follicle tracking ultrasound. I was a little disappointed when I only had 2 on the right and several on the left that were too small to even measure. I usually do much better on Clomid than that but it is what it is. They told me to take OPKs this weekend to make sure we didn't miss ovulation. Luckily they were negative so we are going back for another scan tomorrow. Hopefully the two on the right will be ready soon and I can trigger. I will keep you updated!

My stupid left side is always a slacker.