Hellobee Boards

@lazypanda: Yeah! Thank you. Yes, the scanning through threads and different windows is challenging, especially on my wee laptop window.

@mrs. bird: wow. That's a lot of info to process! It's good they can tell you what's a challenge and what can be fixed. The waiting game is so hard with infertility, especially when you wanted to be pregnant yesterday.

@Mrs. Tal: what is making you feel you're ready to move to IVF? The cost, or just wanting to move on to the next step? My RE is ready to be as aggressive or as conservative as you want to be--I hope your doctor will be willing to do the same!

RE nurse just called. My estrogen is at 527, and she said at this point, that number doubles every day. Since they want me to wait 3-4 more days until I trigger so my follicles can mature, this puts me at a high estrogen number.

I'm to stop all meds and will be checked every morning.

What's the risk with really high estrogen? OHSS? Ovulating before the follicles are mature? Having a major melt down b/c my husband yawns too loudly?

Tagging @spaniellove:, my IF sage guru.

@Happygal: Ugh, I'm sorry I don't know what the worry is with high estrogen. I think we want to move to IVF because it increases our chances and the money is a huge factor. Spending $2000 on IUIs when it only increases our chances 3-5% is just so hard. If insurance covered it or it was only a couple hundred for the whole IUI cycle I could see us trying it but I just feel so desperate to give us our best shot with our limited funds.

@Happygal: FX for no OHSS! Hang in there...

@MrsTal: Are you planning to stay with your current RE for IVF? What's your projected time frame?

@lazypanda: Your follicles sound great! I bet your HCG trigger will be fine in spite of the time spent out of refrigeration!

@mrs. bird: I can't imagine why they're giving you a hard time about keeping your appt. Good luck to your husband! FX that you wind up with great coverage...and if that nurse's comments are any indication of the overall orientation of the clinic, with any luck, you'll get to transfer your care!

@LindsayInNY: Glad you're feeling well with the Clomid! Definitely drink lots of fluid after your trigger injections (I got pretty bad headaches otherwise)!

@mrs. bird: I'm so sorry the consult leaded to more waiting but I'm so happy you have answers and a strong plan! Still keeping you guys and Mr Bird's interviews in my thoughts!

@Happygal: I'm sorry--I have no idea what the result of having high estrogen is. Good luck!! I hope everything works out perfectly!

@septca: Thank you! It (selfishly) makes me feel better to hear other people with similar stories. It encourages me!

Update: I'm in the "TWW." We had a natural, stress-free fertile period and did pretty good I think. Maybe we'll luck out & I would have O'd on the left but I won't be upset if AF shows. Spoke to my RE today and he FINALLY prescribed me Clomid! Cue the hallelujah chorus haha. Lord willing, DH will be here for our IUI next cycle before deploying. I've been looking into freezing sperm and it seems very do-able locally. I have some more phone calls to make this week!

@Kelli_Deluxe: FX for you! It feels great to have a plan on place!

@Happygal: Sorry you're feeling lousy... Glad you have a follow-up tomorrow! I loved acupuncture...but I'm not sure it helped and it sure was expensive. But I really did enjoy it when I was doing my IUIs. I'll ask my RE what she thinks! Thankfully, DH was VERY understanding about said meltdown...

@Kelli_Deluxe: I hope you won't need the clomid! FX!

@FliegepilzHut: DH mixed the new batch of meds. I had to throw away last cycle's meds per RE's instructions. I am extremely thankful for my insurance, otherwise I would be even more sad if I had to pay OOP for the trigger shots. I haven't had acupuncture, but it is something I have thought about.

@Happygal: FX that tomorrow's exam goes well.

@LindsayInNY: I'm glad to hear clomid is treating you ok!
It is kind of exciting and scary to go through it, but at the end of the IUI process, it seems easy
P.S. when you get your trigger shot in the mail, there is a HUGE needle....don't worry that is to mix the meds not to go into you. .....lol. first time I saw that needle I was ready to throw in the towel

So we got the SA results in but they wouldn't give us the exact numbers. I'm so pissed right now. They need DH to sign a records release, and guess who's headed out of town on a flight right now? Why does this have to be so damn hard? DH pressed them a bit for numbers and got 31 million out of the nurse but that's it. She said the morphology was "miles above" the IUI numbers but still below average so my best guess is somewhere around 3%, since 4% is "average" and his was 1% for the IUI. We are going to send the records release in and hope that we can get it by this weekend.

@MrsTal: how frustrating! i'm so sorry you couldn't get his SA results from her remarks it's sounds like there was a positive change though!

@Happygal: how did it go this morning?

@FliegepilzHut: i'm sorry you're having a rough time i did acupuncture prior to working with the RE, but not in conjunction with IUI or IVF. the studies i've read have shown a great increase in success rates for those that add acupuncture to their treatments! do they offer if at your clinic? mine doesn't have it at the little satellite office i go to, but at the main center they do it.

@doxielove: hellooooo friend!

@mrstal: why are they so difficult?! Have they always been that way?

This morning was okay, I think . . . not sure. My estrogen went up, but didn't double, so that's a good thing. My ovaries are aching. I can't imagine how my IVF friends feel!

My office is just switching to putting up results online. Can someone help me with these results? There are two columns listing follicle size measurements, and a third column provides the mean. How am I supposed to interpret this? For example, it says one follicle on the left was 13, then 19, so the mean is 16. I guess I'm not understanding the purpose of providing the mean.

I may be triggering tomorrow. I go back AGAIN (whine whine) tomorrow morning and should know by tomorrow afternoon.

@Happygal: If the chart is the same as mine, I always watch her make the markers and they measure 'vertical' and 'horizontal' and then give the mean. I guess the follicles are perfectly round which is why they'd do that.

@PurplePumps: thank you! This makes sense now.

@Happygal: the only instructions I got were no ibubrofen after retrieval. But Tylenol is safe throughout, so I'd go with that. And yes, imagine 19 mature eggs just hanging out on your ovaries you feel veeeeeery full and heavy.

@Shutterbug: can't stop with the questions, and I feel pretty silly about this one, but . . . are heating pads okay? I feel like at some point, someone said to limit hot baths. Not sure what point of the cycle they were talking about, or if that's even true. But if it's true that you should avoid hot baths, would that go for heating pads, too?

@Happygal: Sorry, the @ didn't ping me! I think the other ladies are right that higher estrogen levels would put you at risk for OHSS. Although I'm not sure if your E2 would really double every day. Looking back at my first IUI (w/ injectibles), 4 days before trigger my E2 was 431 and I ended up at 2400 the day after trigger.

@spaniellove: no worries! Hmm. Maybe my nurse meant that at the rate I was going, I was doubling each day on my current dose. I was bumped down to 75, then skipped a night, and will only take 25 of Follistim and no low-dose hCG tonight. My last 3 cycles, I kept at the same dose for the entire time. I just assumed this cycle would be easy like that, but it's taken a lot of tinkering and a lot of monitoring.

@Happygal: i'm not on them yet because I've only just finished the diagnostic phase but I just booked an appointment today for the 13th May where I will go through my diagnosis with the specialist and get prescription in time for my next cycle. I've given up on a BFP before then after seeing my results!

@Happygal: it sounds like they are being very thorough with you. Wishing you lots of luck for this cycle, hope it's all worth it

@LindsayInNY: Totally agree about needing to know everything, it's your body! I'm always trying to educate my patients on what we are doing and why, it's important!