Thursday, April 17, 2014

An Update to the Plan...

Yesterday I went to see the ladies at CRM (my fertility doctor) for my ovary check and, as I mentioned, everything was good to go. Today I went back for a visit with Dr. Jaffe. We discussed my current plan and then talked about where to go from here.

After her review, and listening to us me talk about our concerns, this is what we came up with:
 - This month I will do the Letrozole (I am right now) for days 3-7
 - Begining day 7 Mike will be giving me an injection every other night of a drug called Bravelle.
 - Day 10 - I will go in for an ultrasound and bloodwork. Depending on those results, I will continue  to take the Bravelle every other night until we are told to stop.
 - Once we stop, we will do the HCG (aka trigger) shot, followed by IUI 36 hours later.

THAT is a lot of shots. I can do this. I got this.

In regards to my new plan, here's what I learned today: Estrogen is like the fertilizer of hormones. It is credited with nourishing the egg pre-ovulation, so idealy estrogen levels should be high to insure good egg quality. {Think the scene from Willy Wonka were the goose eggs roll down the shoot to the machine that determines if they are good or bad.} Obviously, we dont have a machine that tells us that, so often times a woman might not get pregnant because her egg wasn't the golden egg. What makes that egg golden? ESTROGEN. Last month (and in months past) my estrogen has been a little low. This isn't abnormal for women on Letrozole, but it can cause issues. Guess what Bravelle does... it boosts estrogen. The nurse told me that some women just need that boost of estrogen, so I am praying thats what it is.
Another super-nifty bit of information... if you read my previous posts, or  this one, you know that I whined about the burn of the medicine. Wellll... that is caused by a protein in the drug, and if you mix the medicine and let it sit for about 20-30 minutes that should go away. How cool is that? Now I know, because that burn every other night for a week, yikes.

Aside from that, we also discussed IVF with Dr. Jaffe today. She agrees that if this cycle doesn't take, that it is time to start moving forward. Our doctor requires us to take a class on IVF prior to begining a cycle and the next class is May 14th. Coincidently, right about the same time I would be finding out if I am pregnant or not. So that is our plan, schedule the class, then be more than happy to call and cancel it when I find out I'm pregnant! Ha! Oddly enough, the nurse and the doctor both told me that I wouldn't believe how many people get pregnant right after scheduling the class...

With the jinx of the class,  and the free flowin' estrogen, I am really thinking this might just be the month. I've said before that each month feels closer, and I still feel that way. Unfortunately, feeling closer means higher expectations so the crash has gotten a little more brutal, but for now I'll keep on keeping on. Remaining faithful and patient is all I can do, the rest is in His hands!

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