I’m sorry I left you all hanging and in suspense, it has been really busy for me lately and I haven’t had time to update. I had my appointment on Saturday October 1st, and that cyst is GONE. Thank you to everyone who kept me in their thoughts while we waited to hear. This cycle is going to proceed as normal! I have an appointment to check my lining on October 12th, and they will teach me how to give my PIO (progesterone in oil) injections. These are intramuscular injections, instead of subcutaneous. If you’re wondering what that means, it...
Like getting your period! It’s exciting because you can start a new cycle, begin your cycle meds, another chance at pregnancy, etc. But…real talk? It goes more like this: Thank you, Homer. During treatment, I really only have enough space for one feeling at a time, but every unique feeling decides it wants to push its way to the front, and ruin my day. Having a great day? Why not cry about IVF for 45 minutes? Feeling angry? Here’s some grateful feelings for how wonderful your friends and family can be! It’s really confusing to articulate, but it really is messy and...
Today was my Day 21 baseline appointment. This is generally a pretty routine appointment, you get an ultrasound, they count your AFC (Antral Follicle Count), and then you get your protocol that you will begin as soon as your period starts. …..Except, for when they discover a functional cyst. Some of you may remember this post, where I thought I had received my period but I had not. What I had was a functional cyst, as a direct result of stress in my body (stress, illness, professional, etc). This cyst is a direct cause of me not releasing an egg as I should. The...
No, this is not an album title…though now I feel like I should use it (so dont steal it!). This is something that has been on my mind to share for a few days, but it seems appropriate now because well… I had a little bit of a meltdown yesterday. Okay, okay…maybe it was a big, ugly crying breakdown. I have received a lot of compliments about how ‘strong’ I am, or remarks about how much courage it takes to write down our experiences like this. Truthfully, because I am terrible with compliments, I laugh or minimize these comments because...
Hi everyone, As I mentioned in our previous blog, the infertility world refers to the appointment after a failed cycle as the “WTF” appointment. You discuss what happened in the cycle, how you would like to proceed, what your options are, how you are feeling etc. Let’s go in order, shall we? What happened this cycle?: We implanted our best 6AA blastocyst, my lining was 11mm, and everything looked textbook perfect. How would you like to proceed?: We are going to start another FET cycle with my next period, which should be towards the end of September or early October. My...
The title speaks for itself. There really is no concrete explanation of why this happened, other than what we all already know – IVF is never a sure thing. I began testing around 7 days after our transfer, and each home test was starkly negative. For a 6 day blast transfer, I should have received a positive around that time, or before. I generally prefer testing at home instead of waiting two weeks and going in for the beta and having my hopes come crashing down all at once. This way, when I test at home I prepare myself for the negative tests of...
We had our FET this morning and everything went great! Our highest quality blastocyst made it through the thaw and looked great, so that is what we transferred today. We opted to do the transfer at our IVF clinic itself instead of their surgical center in Redondo Beach, purely out of convenience. One of the things that I loved about this was that the nurses who prepped me were nurses that I see all the time. Patti (who taught us how to do our injections and has assisted on several ultrasounds) assisted Dr. Yee via ultrasound during the transfer. You know, there...
Hi everyone, Sorry for the radio silence, but I haven’t actually had much to update you on until now. And WHY is that, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. Ever since we began treatment – my cycle has decided to be ENTIRELY uncooperative. Go figure, right? Many years of tracking and constant reliability and as soon as we start treatment, my body goes, “Haha, NOPE.” This past cycle, my period was 13 days late. THIRTEEN. That’s almost a fortnight. I kept waiting and waiting for it to show up, and finally after about a week I broke down and took...
I keep playing this particular scene from Hamilton over and over in my head. It’s in “Stay Alive (Reprise)”. [Philip] I did exactly as you said, Pa I held my head up high [Hamilton] I know, I know. Shh I know, I know, shh I know you did everything just right. The brutal reality of infertility is that you can do exactly as you are told, do everything just right – and still not succeed. There is no magic wand that you can wave, and no amount of positive energy or hope can bring you the outcome that you desire....
I needed some space before I posted this update. I’m sure everyone understands. As I mentioned we were waiting and hoping for a Day 5 Blastocyst, and we were waiting to hear from the Embryologist. Well, I heard from them at 9AM on Thursday morning, and the embryologist told me that based on the results they were seeing, that they wanted me to come in that afternoon for a Day 3 Transfer, at 2:30PM. This meant our embryos were not on track to be considered good enough quality to be frozen as blastocysts. Of course, my heart just sank. Of the...
