Good luck on Friday the 13th!

That's right. I said good luck. My appointment today was great! After being back on the pill since May 19th, both of my ovaries are quiet. Yeah! (Amazing what leaving the antibiotic out of the protocol will do.)

After seeing quiet ovaries, I was still so scared that something was going to come back wonky with my blood work. Nope! I was wrong. That was good too.

I think I have these numbers right; my Progesterone was 0.54 and my Estradiol was 23. When I had gotten my blood work back last time just before my cycle was cancelled, my Estradiol was 379 and my Progesterone was 11. So, obviously my numbers are looking much better this time.

Out of curiosity, I asked what my FSH was last time it was tested. In May, on or about cycle day 3, it was 8.3. Ideally they want to see it under 10, so I'm still good there.

So, the good news in all of this is I get to move ahead as planned and will start Lupron next Sunday. I don't go back until July 1st, which is 10 days into the Lupron. Being we already took a peek today, things really "should" be good at that point. It will almost be more of a typical baseline ultrasound.

Finally, some good news and forward movement. Now that's a good feeling.

Welcome to June!

It's June and we are that much closer to our actual IVF procedure.

I start my Lupron shots in June, but not before my one and only scheduled June appointment. This time my doctor is going to see me before I start my Lupron instead of waiting until I've been on it for ten days to see what's happening.

The last couple of weeks have gone by really fast. We've managed to keep ourselves super busy, so that has helped a lot.

It's nice to have a lot of little milestones to look forward to. It makes each thing seem more important and significant in the grand scheme of things.

Now, I just have to make it to next Friday for my first appointment. I think I can handle that!

Let's try this again.

Yesterday was my consultation with the IVF nurse. Basically it was just a quick run down of our new calendar and to actually get dates solidified. Nothing really changed from what I had already posted, just the addition of the first u/s.

• May 19 - Start BCPs
• June 13 - Ultrasound, Estradiol and Progestrone check (hope for quiet conditions)
• June 22 - Start Lupron
• June 25 - Last day of BCPs
• July 4 - Start stims
• July 6 - July 11 - appointments almost daily for U/S and blood work
• Week of July 15 - Estimated Egg Retrieval

Knowing that June is just around the corner is making me feel better about this timeline. Looking two months out was really hard when we were cancelled, but now we're already a couple of weeks past that.

Hopefully our weather will finally take on more of a summer-like feel and I can get out and enjoy as much of the month of June as possible before July arrives with all of those appointments.

Revelation - Confirmed!

This week I saw a friend of ours who is a pharmacist. I ran my little scenario past her and she agrees that it certainly could have been due to starting the Z-pak with my BCPs that caused me to ovulate through the pill.

She even mentioned the warnings that come out with an antibiotic saying if you are using an oral contraceptive to make sure you are using back-up protection.

I feel so much better, but still want to talk to my doctor about it. It just seems odd that they try to peg me as the rare 1% that the pill doesn't work for when they are the ones giving me antibiotics at the beginning of my cycle. Really, can I be the only one this has happened to? That just seems a little too unlikely.

At least this time I'm not taking a Z-pak, so hopefully things will stay nice and quiet as they should have. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks.

Tuesday is my nurse consultation, I'll be sure to mention my concerns then.

Had a revelation today....

You know how they say antibiotics can cause birth control pills to be less effective? What if that's what happened to me?

Granted, I've ovulated through the pill before, but being on one of the highest dosage meds on the market, doesn't it seem possible that by taking 4 days worth of antibiotics at the beginning with the BCPs that it could cause them to be less effective?

It just seems that there have always been warnings along with antibiotics that if taken with oral contraceptives to make sure you are using back-up protection.

What if that's what it was? Maybe I'm not as much of a freak as they'd like to make me believe I am. This is probably just me grasping at straws, but I can't stop my mind from thinking about this.

Starting right away does not equal instant gratification!

I feel the need to clarify now that I've actually gotten my new tentative calendar from the IVF nurse. In my last post, I said, "We should be able to start the whole process all over again as soon as AF shows. I automatically get put into the next possible cycle and won't have to wait for an opening, so that's good."

Lucky for me, AF arrived over the weekend. So, while we truly are starting the process again right away, it's just that. We have to start all over again.

• Today, will be day 1 of BCPs.
• Lupron will start June 22nd.
• Last BCP will be June 25th.
• Stims start July 4th.
• Retrieval week of July 13th.

Because my period came so quickly, I probably could have pushed to get things moved ahead one week because that would have still given me 31 days on BCPs. They just wanted me on a minimum of 28 days. So, if 28 was desired, will 38 be better? These dates were given to me on Friday before we knew when AF would arrive and they were guessing it would be later in the week, not the next day. At this point, really, what's one more week?!

Somehow seeing retrieval nearly 2 months out does not make me feel any better. We should be less than 10 days from retrieval, not nearly 2 months!

First we had to plan around Memorial Day weekend, now we have to look ahead and plan around July 4th weekend and make sure we are home.

In a way this gives me back a little of my summer, but I hate having to live or plan my life around doctor's appointments, blood draws and ultrasounds.

Is anyone else tired of bad news?

It's over. IVF#1 was cancelled before we even really got started.

Dr Campbell just called me himself to tell me he'd recommend I stop everything and come back in after my period starts and we'll try again. At least we only used up 2 $40 copays worth of meds (Lupron and Ganirelix) and $10 worth of Z-pak and $10 in BCPs so far and I hadn't started any of the stim meds yet.

Even though the follicle was smaller and my lining was thinner, my Estradiol level only went down to 232 from 379 on Tuesday. Like they said, it should be under 20.

I can't help but think there isn't going to be anything they can do to make my body stop ovulating. Apparently I'm like the freak 1% of the population. Yeah me!

We should be able to start the whole process all over again as soon as AF shows. I automatically get put into the next possible cycle and won't have to wait for an opening, so that's good.

Why is this happening?