ChezPerky

I don’t normally blog about every single monitoring appointment during a treatment cycle. But I also usually have one or two real-life friends who are in on the fact that i’m cycling who I talk through these things with. I’ve been very closed about this cycle with anyone I know personally. People know I’ve had appointments at Shady Hell but they don’t know why or really even when. And anyway, it’s MY blog, so I can blog all the gory details I want. So here are today’s details:

Right Ovary (always the overachiever): 16.1mm and 14.4mm (up from 14.6 and 13.6)
Left Ovary (with a surprise comeback!): 13.8mm
Endometrium: 11.16 (I’ve never had an endometrium this thick at this point in my cycle, so yay, I think)

Today’s sonographer (my beloved Margaret) suggested that the two follicles on the right were just waiting for the Left to catch up a little bit so I could have THREE follicles come trigger time. Um. Triplets? I hope not! (I do realize that there is absolutely no possibility that I’m going to end up pregnant at all this cycle, let alone with triplets. But still…) Margaret also pointed out that on Friday it was the doctor who did the measuring and sometimes doctors aren’t quite as skilled at using the equipment, since they don’t do it all the time. So three different people doing my ultrasound in three different visits yielded three very different results. Not terribly shocking.

The doctor didn’t know quite what to think about me, but said we’d wait to see where my estrogen was today before making any judgments. This particular doctor is usually pretty decisive, but he sure doesn’t seem thrilled with the way this cycle is developing. Frankly, I don’t blame him. Because although each individual visit seems to have good news, the overall trend is a little odd. It happens that I’m anal, so I keep a simple spreadsheet of every cycle and this is by far the weirdest. Thanks to the joys of Google Docs, I now have it accessible online: IUI Cycle #5.

All I can do at this point is wait and see. I’m still pretty early in the cycle, so I’m not worried. I make sure to remember that my second IUI cycle lasted over 30 days (triggered on day 31, IUI on day 33, CD1 on day 45 or so). It’s just been a very weird cycle, because on Wednesday I was told I’d probably trigger Friday or Saturday, on Friday I was told I’d probably trigger Saturday, but was later called back and told to come back Sunday. On Sunday I was told I’d probably come in on Tuesday and trigger Tuesday or Wednesday, but I was called and told to come in today. Today the doctor didn’t even try to take a guess on either when I’d trigger or even when I should schedule my next monitoring appointment. He just said to wait for the estrogen level to come back and we’d figure it out from there.

I probably wouldn’t even be tense about it, except my husband has to staff in the Shock Trauma unit on Thursday, which would be really hard for him to get out of if I end up triggering tomorrow and needing an IUI on Thursday. We’ll obviously work it out one way or another, but it’s still making me tense. I’ll update later when I get my status call from my nurse.

UPDATE: E2: 121 LH: 1.89. No one seems to know why my E2 is plateauing. This is a new wrinkle that I was not prepared to deal with, and I am beginning to believe this cycle is a complete waste of time. Why is this suddenly not working? I’ve been known to have slow cycles, but even those had predictable/appropriate rise in hormone levels. Phooey.

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I don't normally blog about every single monitoring appointment during a treatment cycle. But I also usually have one or two real-life friends who are in on the fact that i'm cycling who I talk through these things with. I've been very closed about this cycle with anyone I know personally. People know I've had appointments at Shady Hell but they don't know why or really even when. And anyway, it's MY blog, so I can blog all the gory details I want. So here are today's details:

Right Ovary (always the overachiever): 16.1mm and 14.4mm (up from 14.6 and 13.6)
Left Ovary (with a surprise comeback!): 13.8mm
Endometrium: 11.16 (I've never had an endometrium this thick at this point in my cycle, so yay, I think)

Today's sonographer (my beloved Margaret) suggested that the two follicles on the right were just waiting for the Left to catch up a little bit so I could have THREE follicles come trigger time. Um. Triplets? I hope not! (I do realize that there is absolutely no possibility that I'm going to end up pregnant at all this cycle, let alone with triplets. But still…) Margaret also pointed out that on Friday it was the doctor who did the measuring and sometimes doctors aren't quite as skilled at using the equipment, since they don't do it all the time. So three different people doing my ultrasound in three different visits yielded three very different results. Not terribly shocking.

The doctor didn't know quite what to think about me, but said we'd wait to see where my estrogen was today before making any judgments. This particular doctor is usually pretty decisive, but he sure doesn't seem thrilled with the way this cycle is developing. Frankly, I don't blame him. Because although each individual visit seems to have good news, the overall trend is a little odd. It happens that I'm anal, so I keep a simple spreadsheet of every cycle and this is by far the weirdest. Thanks to the joys of Google Docs, I now have it accessible online: IUI Cycle #5.

All I can do at this point is wait and see. I'm still pretty early in the cycle, so I'm not worried. I make sure to remember that my second IUI cycle lasted over 30 days (triggered on day 31, IUI on day 33, CD1 on day 45 or so). It's just been a very weird cycle, because on Wednesday I was told I'd probably trigger Friday or Saturday, on Friday I was told I'd probably trigger Saturday, but was later called back and told to come back Sunday. On Sunday I was told I'd probably come in on Tuesday and trigger Tuesday or Wednesday, but I was called and told to come in today. Today the doctor didn't even try to take a guess on either when I'd trigger or even when I should schedule my next monitoring appointment. He just said to wait for the estrogen level to come back and we'd figure it out from there.

I probably wouldn't even be tense about it, except my husband has to staff in the Shock Trauma unit on Thursday, which would be really hard for him to get out of if I end up triggering tomorrow and needing an IUI on Thursday. We'll obviously work it out one way or another, but it's still making me tense. I'll update later when I get my status call from my nurse.

UPDATE: E2: 121 LH: 1.89. No one seems to know why my E2 is plateauing. This is a new wrinkle that I was not prepared to deal with, and I am beginning to believe this cycle is a complete waste of time. Why is this suddenly not working? I've been known to have slow cycles, but even those had predictable/appropriate rise in hormone levels. Phooey.

Read Full Post »

I don't normally blog about every single monitoring appointment during a treatment cycle. But I also usually have one or two real-life friends who are in on the fact that i'm cycling who I talk through these things with. I've been very closed about this cycle with anyone I know personally. People know I've had appointments at Shady Hell but they don't know why or really even when. And anyway, it's MY blog, so I can blog all the gory details I want. So here are today's details:

Right Ovary (always the overachiever): 16.1mm and 14.4mm (up from 14.6 and 13.6)
Left Ovary (with a surprise comeback!): 13.8mm
Endometrium: 11.16 (I've never had an endometrium this thick at this point in my cycle, so yay, I think)

Today's sonographer (my beloved Margaret) suggested that the two follicles on the right were just waiting for the Left to catch up a little bit so I could have THREE follicles come trigger time. Um. Triplets? I hope not! (I do realize that there is absolutely no possibility that I'm going to end up pregnant at all this cycle, let alone with triplets. But still…) Margaret also pointed out that on Friday it was the doctor who did the measuring and sometimes doctors aren't quite as skilled at using the equipment, since they don't do it all the time. So three different people doing my ultrasound in three different visits yielded three very different results. Not terribly shocking.

The doctor didn't know quite what to think about me, but said we'd wait to see where my estrogen was today before making any judgments. This particular doctor is usually pretty decisive, but he sure doesn't seem thrilled with the way this cycle is developing. Frankly, I don't blame him. Because although each individual visit seems to have good news, the overall trend is a little odd. It happens that I'm anal, so I keep a simple spreadsheet of every cycle and this is by far the weirdest. Thanks to the joys of Google Docs, I now have it accessible online: IUI Cycle #5.

All I can do at this point is wait and see. I'm still pretty early in the cycle, so I'm not worried. I make sure to remember that my second IUI cycle lasted over 30 days (triggered on day 31, IUI on day 33, CD1 on day 45 or so). It's just been a very weird cycle, because on Wednesday I was told I'd probably trigger Friday or Saturday, on Friday I was told I'd probably trigger Saturday, but was later called back and told to come back Sunday. On Sunday I was told I'd probably come in on Tuesday and trigger Tuesday or Wednesday, but I was called and told to come in today. Today the doctor didn't even try to take a guess on either when I'd trigger or even when I should schedule my next monitoring appointment. He just said to wait for the estrogen level to come back and we'd figure it out from there.

I probably wouldn't even be tense about it, except my husband has to staff in the Shock Trauma unit on Thursday, which would be really hard for him to get out of if I end up triggering tomorrow and needing an IUI on Thursday. We'll obviously work it out one way or another, but it's still making me tense. I'll update later when I get my status call from my nurse.

UPDATE: E2: 121 LH: 1.89. No one seems to know why my E2 is plateauing. This is a new wrinkle that I was not prepared to deal with, and I am beginning to believe this cycle is a complete waste of time. Why is this suddenly not working? I've been known to have slow cycles, but even those had predictable/appropriate rise in hormone levels. Phooey.

Read Full Post »

I’m just Posty McPostyson today!

Just got a call from Shady Hell. My estradiol is 118 (this is not amusing me, since last Wednesday it was 103, and had apparently gone down a little bit on Friday, though I don’t know Friday’s number).

My estrogen NEVER gets as high as the nurses seem to think it should, but I’ve asked my doctor about it before and she said it’s not surprising in PCOS patients, and that she really doesn’t care as much about the raw number as she does about the comparative levels from visit to visit. My preliminary web research suggests that my doctor was being diplomatic, as it appears to be specifically excess weight that can result in lower estradiol numbers (which is weird, since fat cells produce estrogen, so you’d think it would be elevated, but I suppose there are different kinds of estrogen, so maybe that’s why).

My LH is 1.6 which doesn’t make any sense to me. Everything I’ve found suggested that the LH surge should show >20 mIU/ml, so I’m thinking they’re using a different scale (so maybe this is really a 16 on that scale?). I also find this completely unamusing. But I’ll just sit, smile, and nod and do anything they tell me.

In this case, anything they tell me includes going in tomorrow instead of Tuesday (as I’d originally been told). Since I’m making the appointment at the last possible second, the only appointment they have for me is 8:15, a full hour than I usually like to be there. I much prefer the 6:45 or 7am appointment, but 7:15 is usually my last resort. 8:15 is all manner of inconvenient, but at least I’m still working fairly close to the Rockville office. I’ll likely be changing jobs at the end of the month and THEN it will be much harder to manage with an 8:15 appointment.

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I went in for bloodwork and ultrasound (again) this morning before the crack of dawn (no kidding… the sun wasn’t up when I arrived at the office), and the mystery is solved. My hormone levels had sort of leveled out and weren’t where they expected them to be given a 16mm follicle on Friday. This explains bringing me back for more monitoring today instead of triggering last night.

Now I have 2 follicles on the Right: 13.6mm and 14.6mm instead of one 16mm follicle. How could this be? The sonographer thinks that there were probably two follicles developing so close together that the septum was difficult to visualize. And, she said, the bonus is that I now have two good looking follicles, which is great.

So that’s where I am.

Read Full Post »

I'm just Posty McPostyson today!

Just got a call from Shady Hell. My estradiol is 118 (this is not amusing me, since last Wednesday it was 103, and had apparently gone down a little bit on Friday, though I don't know Friday's number).

My estrogen NEVER gets as high as the nurses seem to think it should, but I've asked my doctor about it before and she said it's not surprising in PCOS patients, and that she really doesn't care as much about the raw number as she does about the comparative levels from visit to visit. My preliminary web research suggests that my doctor was being diplomatic, as it appears to be specifically excess weight that can result in lower estradiol numbers (which is weird, since fat cells produce estrogen, so you'd think it would be elevated, but I suppose there are different kinds of estrogen, so maybe that's why).

My LH is 1.6 which doesn't make any sense to me. Everything I've found suggested that the LH surge should show >20 mIU/ml, so I'm thinking they're using a different scale (so maybe this is really a 16 on that scale?). I also find this completely unamusing. But I'll just sit, smile, and nod and do anything they tell me.

In this case, anything they tell me includes going in tomorrow instead of Tuesday (as I'd originally been told). Since I'm making the appointment at the last possible second, the only appointment they have for me is 8:15, a full hour than I usually like to be there. I much prefer the 6:45 or 7am appointment, but 7:15 is usually my last resort. 8:15 is all manner of inconvenient, but at least I'm still working fairly close to the Rockville office. I'll likely be changing jobs at the end of the month and THEN it will be much harder to manage with an 8:15 appointment.

Read Full Post »

I went in for bloodwork and ultrasound (again) this morning before the crack of dawn (no kidding… the sun wasn't up when I arrived at the office), and the mystery is solved. My hormone levels had sort of leveled out and weren't where they expected them to be given a 16mm follicle on Friday. This explains bringing me back for more monitoring today instead of triggering last night.

Now I have 2 follicles on the Right: 13.6mm and 14.6mm instead of one 16mm follicle. How could this be? The sonographer thinks that there were probably two follicles developing so close together that the septum was difficult to visualize. And, she said, the bonus is that I now have two good looking follicles, which is great.

So that's where I am.

Read Full Post »

I went in for bloodwork and ultrasound (again) this morning before the crack of dawn (no kidding… the sun wasn't up when I arrived at the office), and the mystery is solved. My hormone levels had sort of leveled out and weren't where they expected them to be given a 16mm follicle on Friday. This explains bringing me back for more monitoring today instead of triggering last night.

Now I have 2 follicles on the Right: 13.6mm and 14.6mm instead of one 16mm follicle. How could this be? The sonographer thinks that there were probably two follicles developing so close together that the septum was difficult to visualize. And, she said, the bonus is that I now have two good looking follicles, which is great.

So that's where I am.

Read Full Post »

Weird. I’m told to increase my dosage by 18 IUs tonight and tomorrow and return for monitoring Sunday. How weird is that? I’m not sure what to make of it, but I couldn’t get any more specifics because my nurse called while J was throwing a bit of a hissy fit. So I didn’t hear any useful information, but I can only assume my estradiol or LH wasn’t where they wanted it to be yet.

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