Sunday, May 23, 2010

An IUI & the flu

Since my last entry we found out that the higher dose of follistim didn't really work. We ended up with one big follie, but to quote my RE (he's back from vacay, YAY!) "it's a good one!". haha. So, Friday night was my last night of my regular injections, followed by a trigger shot at midnight.

Even though my lining wasn't so hot and we only have the one mature follie, we decided to give the IUI a shot, and scheduled it for Sunday (today).

Fast forward to Saturday. We had a wedding to go to and Dan decided to stay home since he was still getting over the flu. I went to the wedding solo & once I got there I paired up with my gay guy friend and claimed him as "my date". :) All was going well until I started feeling queasy during cocktail hour. Aaaand then I puked. At the wedding. In the bathroom. Right before dinner was served. So, I slipped out, drove home, and continued the puking in the comfort of my own bathroom.

Now on to the IUI, and there's nothing like an IUI when you have the flu. I got through it though and besides the cramping, it was a piece of cake. The one downside was Dan's sperm count compared to last months. Sperm count post wash for IUI#1: 82 million. Sperm count post wash for IUI#2: 9 million. WTF?? My RE thinks it must have something to do with the flu Dan had. sigh.

I know it only takes one egg, and it only takes one sperm, but I just can't help but feel like this cycle was not meant to be. Although we had the "perfect cycle" for IUI#1 and we all know how that ended. Maybe an un-perfect cycle is just what we needed. So, will the comedy of errors cycle end up being the one?

Now back to my saltines and ginger ale..

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Burst my Bubble

So, I was all excited assuming that the IUI would be this Friday. Until yesterday. I went in for my regular u/s and then went back to talk about the u/s results with the RE (not my RE, the one I was seeing this week while my RE was out on vacation).

He looks everything over and then tells me I had some good follies on Monday that have now just dissapeared. I have one lonely follie measuring at about a 14, and some smaller ones that weren't worth talking about. My lining isn't what it should be at this point, and neither is my estrogen level. To quote him "it doesn't look to be a productive cycle". Queue teary eyes (me, not the RE).

We got two options:
1) Scrap this cycle completely. Stop the injections, get my period in a couple weeks and start all over.
2) Up my follistim dose from 75iu to 225iu for two nights and come back on Friday for another u/s & b/w, to see where we're at.

He offered me a 300iu follistim sample which would get us through this cycle, and that definitely helped with our decision to give it a chance. Of course there's still a chance the u/s and b/w will show that the higher dose of follistim didn't work, but we'll keep our fingers crossed and cross that bridge if we have to. The whole thing is frustrating and disheartening, but we just have to keep plugging away & focus on the end result.

On a much brighter note, yesterday Dan and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary! We went to a fancy dinner at Mr.A's in San Diego (a restaurant with INCREDIBLE views) and had a great time. A wedding related post (hopefully with a few pics) to follow. :)

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Rocky's Crown Pub

I've been slacking on my 101 things to do in 1,001 days, so I was more than happy to take a co-worker up on her offer to take me to Rocky's for a burger. I was even happier when I was there & partaking in all of this:



I can't take credit for this picture because I didn't bring a camera with me and I didn't want to be that person. But I can vouch for that picture and that is in fact a picture of a Rocky's famous burger. You're drooling now, right?

If you live in San Diego and tell a fellow San Diegan that you've never tried a Rocky's burger, the response you get will always be "Whaaaat???" So, clearly I knew I was missing out & that's how it earned a spot on my list.

We went on a Friday and got there at 10:55, five minutes before they opened. There were already people outside lining up! We were lucky enough to snag one of only a handful of tables and within a few minutes each table and each barstool was taken. At 11:10 anyone who came in had to wait around for others to finish. Yeah, it's that good.

They only sell burgers & fries, and of course alcohol. The burgers are SO incredibly juicy that you can't put it back down in your basket, or your bun will get soaked in all that juicy burger goodness & get soggy. SO good. Can you believe I used to be a vegetarian for about 8 years? HA.

Happy to cross that off my list, but definitely not that last time I'll enjoy that burger from Rocky's.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Here we go again!

Today was my cd3 u/s, b/w & talk with the doc. I asked him if there's any reason why the IUI wouldn't have worked & he said no.. but I still only have about a 20% chance with it. So, unexplained. I'm used to that by now.

Anyways, our plan for this next IUI is basically the same as the last. I started my follistim injection tonight and most likely I'll be adding the other two injections this weekend. Believe it or not, the IUI is NEXT WEEK. Most likely the end of the week.. Thursday or Friday. But still, it's next week. Funny how the time leading up to the IUI flies by, and then the time between the IUI and finding out if it worked draaaags.

Fingers crossed that the IUI is next Friday, and not Thursday though. My RE is going out of town and won't get back until Thursday. He has a partner that can do the IUI if need be, but I'm SO comfortable with him and I really don't want the added stress of having someone else do it.

Lastly, he asked me if my meds are OOP and when I said yes he pulled out a sample 600iu of Follistim! That should be all I need and saves me $500! Yep, my RE seriously rocks. So our trip to the pharmacy for everything else was $350, instead of the expected $850.

Of course Dan and I had dentist appointments this afternoon and Dan needed a deep cleaning plus a night guard. Grand total is somewhere around $600. Oh world, you're just so hilarious, aren't you?

The good news is they were FINALLY able to numb my tooth and get my dental work done. YAY! And in about 2 weeks Dan and I will be sporting matching night guards to bed at night. Geek chic!

Friday, May 7, 2010

IUI#1 = FAIL

Sigh.

I really thought THIS was it. I thought to myself, "how can I have multiple eggs, 82 million sperm, and NOT be pregnant?". But I was wrong.

I took a test at 13dpiui and there was that one lone line I'm so used to seeing. Except this time was different. It hurt more than any other negative test I've seen before because I was SO hopeful. I shrugged it off like it was no big deal. Then I got in the shower and I cried. I got out of the shower, put my robe on, flopped back in bed and cried. I cried and cried and cried.

And as if things didn't suck enough already, per doctor's orders I'm to test again tomorrow morning, and if it's still negative I can stop taking my progesterone. Which means AF will most likely show on Sunday.. Mother's Day. Yippee.

I let myself have a good cry. I felt sorry for myself. I felt angry, sad, and broken. But as a good friend always says.. onwards! I'm moving on and I'm ready to give this another try.