Inching closer

Time for an update.

After two and a half days on stims, 75iu Menopur and 150iu Follistim I had a blood draw yesterday. My E2 was at a lowly 20. Eeeks! It was actually down from 28 earlier in the week. Huh?

Doctor upped my Follistim to 225iu and wanted to see me back first thing this morning. Today my E2 was up to 39. Yeah, making progress!

My first follicle check will be Wednesday. I'm anxious to see how things look by then. That'll be after five and half days of meds.

Come on Follies! You can do it. Grow grow grow.

No news = Good news?

Yesterday was my suppression check ultrasound and blood draw. I'm assuming since I didn't hear anything from the clinic that it's all good and we are clear to go!

My ultrasound showed 17 total antral follicles. Last time I had 23. I guess this is a sign that things were shut down a little better going into this round.

Friday I start both Menopur and Follistim. It's going to be weird doing morning and evening injections. I can hardly believe my last medicated cycle was in January! That feels like so long ago. That was so long ago. Hopefully my body will remember what it's supposed to do with these medicines and produce a good number of excellent quality eggs that mature nicely.

I am more than ready to get this long awaited show on the road. I'm sure there will be lots of updates through next week as I have appointments scheduled for almost every day.

Here we go!

Cooperation

For the first time in a really long time, I feel like my body is actually doing what it's supposed to do, when it's supposed to do it.

Wednesday was my last BCP, and within about a day and a half, AF had arrived. This is progress from last time when the silly lady never showed until after my cycle was cancelled. At least a week later than expected.

Tomorrow is my final suppression check before we kick things into high gear on Friday. I hope the blood work and ultrasound also indicate that my body has decided to cooperate.

*Fingers crossed all goes well tomorrow*

Feeling productive

Back in May when our IVF was cancelled, we kicked it into high gear and started on our fence project.

Why not? I'd actually be able to help with a majority of it.

Memorial Day weekend, we started digging post holes. 43 of them. Thanks to the help of some friends, and a rented power auger, all the holes got dug in one day.

Over the course of the next few weekends and many evenings, the posts were all set and many cross pieces attached.

Last weekend, we finally started on some of the vertical slats and now we actually have the beginnings of a very fine looking fence.

We only have about a week's worth of work left in me before I start on lifting restrictions again. Hopefully we can knock out a lot more this weekend and next week and still find some relaxing time in between.

These pictures were taken on Tuesday. One month from starting. It's a big project and hard to put it into perspective. Way bigger than I can squeeze into one frame.

Is this what I really meant when I said I was excited to get some of my summer back?

And Ben, thanks for all the help you've given us on this project.

Keeping "Hope" close to my heart

As I have mentioned before, Hope is what is pulling us through all of these hard times. I recently received this necklace from my best friend who wanted to give me a way to keep our Hope close to my heart.

Thank you. I needed that.

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!