E2 = A Crazy Number, You Wouldn't Believe It If I Typed It

So, my E2 today is 3,514. That's a lot of estradiol. It must be because of my THIRTY-FOUR measurable follicles! I have 16 on the right ovary and 18 on the left. I can stim like NOBODY'S BUSINESS!

After the follie scan this morning, Katie, Forest and I went to breakfast and then to Best Buy so Katie could pick out a camera for Christmas. Incidentally, she picked this one:

That's where I got the call to tell me about my estradiol level. Said call also contained the news that we will be doing the Ovidrel at 10:30 tonight and the egg retreival on Monday morning at 10:30 am. So, I will need to tell my new boss at work that I am taking Monday off (they switched my group to a new boss a week and a half ago, which is actually a very good thing, but I hadn't planned on telling him about my reproductive plans so soon!).

Then we went to get me some comfy pants (since my jeans were barely fitting over my giant ovaries) at Target and then to see the new James Bond movie, which we all loved. Now we are home and I am sharing my follicle excitement with you guys.

So that was my day - I am supposed to take it easy tomorrow (which means I'll probably keep wearing these comfy pants) and call them if I start vomiting or if I gain 5 pounds in 24 hours. So I'll be on the lookout for those symptoms!

35 Follicles? Pish Tosh

I had an ultrasound and bloodwork this morning. E2 is at 1890 and I have A.LOT.OF.FOLLICLES. I have 12 measurable on my right ovary with the largest being 15 mm and 10 more less than 10 mm. I have 15 measurable on my left ovary (largest also 15 mm) and 5 more less than 10 mm. For a grand total of 42 follicles, 27 of which are possible candidates. Wow-za.

I drop my Follistim dose to 100 units (Lupron still at 10) and go tomorrow for another ultrasound and more bloodwork. So, things are moving right along!

An update on Katie's art class injury. Apparently the culprit was not a "linoleum knife" but a "linoleum cutter", such as this:

Not quite as scary (thank goodness - I was seriously questioning the wisdom of her art teacher).

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was fabulous! Ours was good, despite a bit of drama over a Grandfather Clock we got my parents for their 50th Anniversary/Christmas. It's a long and not that interesting story (if you're not a Carter).

Stay tuned for more reports from Follicle Central!

E2 = 891!

So, as the title of this post suggests, my estradiol level this morning was 891! That seems like quite a jump in two days, so I am really excited. I drop my Follistim dose to 125 units tonight and tomorrow then I get a follicle scan and more bloodwork Friday morning. In other news, Katie had a run-in with a "linoleum knife" in art class at school yesterday and had to get 3 stitches in her thumb! I didn't know what one looked like, so I googled it and this is what I found: Holy crap! So she missed a performance of her dance team last night because she couldn't grip her pom pon with no opposable thumb! Poor baby!!! Well, that's it for me, I think. We get out of work at 2 pm today for the Holiday, so I better get a wee bit of work done before I go. Ciao!

E2 = 362

So, in an effort to keep everyone posted... ....after three days of stimulation at 225 units, my estradiol level is 362! That sounds fabulous to me (what do I know?). So I will be dropping down to 150 units tonight and Tuesday night and I get more bloodwork on Wednesday. Depending on Wedensday's estradiol level they will adjust my dosage and/or schedule an ultrasound to take a look at the follicles. I'm starting to get excited! In other news, one of my message board buddies, Jenn, welcomed a bundle of joy to the world yesterday! Welcome Aubrey Jane!!!!! Hugs and Kisses from your Cyber-Aunt Amy!

I'm Stimming!

So...last night I started the Follistim injections! I'm doing 225 units through Sunday and then I get blood drawn Monday morning to see what my dosage should be from there. The baseline ultrasound and blood draw on Tuesday went well, but, it turns out that I really do have PCOS. I always thought it was dumb that they diagnosed me with that when I didn't have PC's on my O's, but the u/s tech showed me on Tuesday that, actually, I do. I had 15 follicles under 10 mm on my left ovary and 20 on my right! So, at least I have lots of eggs - that's the good news. Let's just see how many we can get to grow over the next few days! I promise to keep you all posted, I know I haven't been doing too well at that (must be because I'm a GIANT SLACKER!).

Why do I slack?

So...I am crazy swamped at work. Like, super freaky waaaaay behind/don't know how to get caught up/more and more and more work piled on each day. I came into work today (Saturday). I got here at around noon. It is now 5 pm. I have been here for 5 hours and I have done NOTHING. Literally nothing. Well, I've read a lot of blogs and boards, but NO work. Why do I do this? What is up with my self-desctructive choices? Why did I put 100 miles on my car today and spend hours away from my husband and laundry and bills to come in here and get nothing done? Am I afraid of success? Do I secretly thrive on drama, misery, and stress? If my husband reads this, he will go through the roof! I need someone to kick my a$$ and tell me to GET TO WORK! Anyone want to send some tough love my way?

Finally!!!

So.....tonight we finally get this IVF cycle underway! I start with the Lupron today and take that through the 19th. That's when I get the baseline ultrasound to check my lining & make sure there are no cysts or anything. Then we will start the stims. I picked it all up from the pharmacy today and it's just not photogenic enough to show you. It was just a plain white bag. Maybe I'll take a picture of Forest injecting me. There! Neat, huh? Today I also met with a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist to talk about some concerns my RE has:

1. In April of 2004 and in March of 2006 I had brief, TIA-like episodes (aphasia/speech confusion). The first one was accompanied by a visual field disturbance and the second by a weird numbness on top of my head. They diagnosed "atypical migraine" (atypical because there's no headache).
2. During my infertility work-up at George's office they did genetic testing and found that I am a homozygous: (Science-y bit ahead) this means that I cannot make functional copies of the enzyme MethyleneTetraHydroFolate Reductase (although I prefer to think that MTHFR is an abbreviation for Mother F*cker) - this enzyme is needed to convert the unhelpful compound homocysteine into the amino acid methionine. Elevated homocysteine levels are associated with thrombosis (blood clots) and cardiovascular disease and also with restricted placental blood flow during pregnancy and repeated miscarriage (not good!). The treatment for elevated homocysteine levels is pretty simple: extra folic acid and B vitamins - which George's office already put me on. They also recommended daily Lovenox (heparin) injections from the point I ovulate until delivery.
3. I have a family history of early stroke - my mom's sister had her first stroke at age 26 while she was pregnant with my cousin (yikes!) - and my dad has had a couple of TIA's himself.

So, I had the consult with the MFM specialist (who, incidentally, is pretty cute - I mean, he's no George, but check him out: not bad, huh?) to talk about how I should be followed once I'm pregnant. It was an awesome visit and he agreed with me about everything (namely that my homocysteine levels should be checked before treating the MTHFR mutation, since there is another enzyme that can perform the same conversion as MTHFR, and that Lovenox is overkill). He wants to follow me as high risk once I get knocked up, so I will be having early and frequent ultrasounds to monitor fetal development, which I am very, very happy about. So now all I have to do is get pregnant (preaching to the choir, I know). Other than the procreation fun, life has been relatively boring: swamped (read: miserable) at work, trying to make better food choices (eating fewer carbs and fried stuff), fulfilling my civic duty (voting), driving my teenager and all her friends all over the city (daily). Not much to report.

Next step: baseline ultrasound on 11/19!