What a beautiful Calendar

First, I wanted to thank two of my blog angels who offered their left over medications for my cycle and saved us thousands of dollars. And a friend who will collect them in the States for me. You know who you are, and you know how much this means...thank you ever so much.

I have been waiting for this day since I left my one day work up at CCRM in December. I went home with a binder and homework that most of you have had to witness all through January. Today my nurse was faxed my last test - a physical exam - and rewarded me with my calendar for March. This calendar was music to my eyes, since I've been itching to know what my last march towards pregnancy will look like. Oh look - a pregnancy march in March. Cute eh? I will be flying there around March 30th. (hopefully no more conflicts with work...might have one right at that time...won't know until next week for sure...fingers crossed) My protocol looks completely different than in Calgary - no nasal spray that puts me into menapause - MAN! how backwards that was compared to Colorado - I will be on more meds but for a shorter period of time. As my doctor said this morning when she looked at all the prescriptions: "Boy...you're going to be an emotional roller coaster". I didn't do too bad last time but she said this time will be different because there is more of them at once and at higher doses. That is why I am turning to yoga again. As I say on the left - I have joined a yoga class - Ashtanga. It's alarmingly hard - I almost cried in the last class and it took me a week to recover from the first class. Soooo...will be trying a different form of it....need the meditative/mental health/stretching/ying yang componet of yoga more so than  the 'when will this be over' kind. I am also looking forward to and excited to be going to Rome with my husband in May. I will be meeting his family for the first time, including his 90 year old Nona. We wanted to go before we had kids so the timing worked out. I know that the " where is the babino " thing will come up, or "perque non vogliamo il bambino" (I'm doing different homework now)  "Proviamo" will be my response. It means "we're trying". That we are.

Needles and cents

A girl always loves to shop. Don't we? How about shopping for $4500 worth of meds you'll have to inject in yourself. How about shopping for meds to inject in yourself and then driving across the border to the States to get them. Thank goodness my friend Brenda lives 5 minutes across the border and is helping me and that my job takes me to that region of the province anyways. We save $400 in the end so it all worked out well. For you CCRMers, Gonal-f is a steal at Freedom, while Menopur and Pregnyl is a steal at Alexanders. I will be getting the pill, antibiotics and copious syringes and needles at my local pharmacy. I talked to my nurse today and we're on track for the end of March (remember, I only leave my eggs and go home in March. Possible pregnancy will not be until summer when I return for the good embryos) I have two tests left: my physical exam and TSH (thyroid). Once those two things are done, I pick up my egg-growing meds in the States and I'm locked and loaded!....never a dull moment in the journey to find little Diiorios.

What's Up Doc?

We were excited to talk to our doctor, Dr. Minjarez, on the phone today. The point of the conversation was for her to look at all the results of all the the tests in the pasts month. She was very happy with all the results and said we were great candidates not only for IVF, but to push our embryos to day 5 - which I'm nervous about but hopeful and excited too. Pushing the embryos to day 5 is the ticket - not only because they can only be genetically tested at day 5, but it means they lived that long outside the body and therefore are strong and have a chance. In Calgary, we had to do a day 3 transfer because only 1 of 8 embryos lived to day 3 properly. So it's scary to think of pushing our luck to day 5, but we have much more confidence in this clinic. Oh! did I mention I will be on FOUR injections?! Yes, not always at the same time, but it will be a needle fest for sure. In the month of February, we'll be focusing on getting my medications from the States and getting ready to go to Denver. I will be there the last week of March (possibly April instead) and going home after the egg retrieval. Please don't add 9 months to March in your head. This is IMPORTANT - unlike Calgary, I will NOT be coming home possibly pregnant. I leave my eggs behind and get on a plane. I will have a frozen embryo transfer at a later date - sometime in the summer. Thanks for following and till next time....!!

Montreal and Denver don't mix

Thanks for your comments! LisainSK asked what my AMH came in at. AMH, or anti-mullein hormone measures egg reserve. CCRM likes to see it at 1.1, and mine came in at 1.1. So right on the border! Also, I talked to my nurse today - she truly this wonderful, young, sweet, pretty lady that I am so fornunate to have at my beck and call during all of this. Anyways, she let me know that based on all of my results, Dr. Minjarez has chosen a protocol for me (the drugs I will take and the time line) so we went through what February will potentially look like. It turns out that the day I would have to have an ultrasound for my injections falls on a day that I will be at a National Meeting in Montreal. So, we're set to go in March instead. To be honest, I'm relieved. I want to go as soon as possible, but also feel that I need a break after this crazy month. And my eggs need a rest - after all, they're about to be put in one basket!

Day 10 results are in!!

First of all, thanks to all od you who felt my pain at the thought of my post clomid serum melting in Memphis. I really appreciate all your good vibes and support. So, thank goodness I was tracking the serum on FedEx. I called them as soon as I saw that it was stuck - sure enough - they would have let it sit there and melt all weekend if I hadn't called. I cant't even imagine it. FedEx was actually good about it all and so was CCRM, setting it all up to get it there for Saturday morning. FedEx also put it in a cold storage until it was on the move again! IT GOT THERE SAFE AND FROZEN on Saturday morning. Yey! It got tested today and the result is: FSH:7.5! My day 3 was 6.5! What all this means is that even after the clomid "stressed" my reproductive hormones to uncover a disguised high FSH, it was proven that my beautiful 6.5 FSH is the true one, which at the end of the day means that I have descent egg reserve and quality. Once the FSH is close to 10, you are not a good candidate for IVF. So this good news. And, as usual, here's the BUT. My estrogen and Leutinizing Hormone was through the roof. That is expected after a clomid challenge, but mine was through the roof of the building next door. We are talking about my estrogen level having multiplied by a factor of 11. That may not have an impact on anything. I'll be talking to my nurse about that tomorrow morning. For now, let's celebrate me passing the clomid test, having good egg reserve and quality and that we are still on schedule to cycle in February! Now, to keep my egg quality up, let me go to bed early and to swallow my fist full of herbs. Royal jelly, wheat grass and CoQ Enzyme, here I come!

Cause and Effect

Just when I thought I could relax, that all the stress of the tests is over.....the bomb went off. I was tracking my Day 10 and Stef's serum by FedEx on line and noticed it not moving after it cleared customs. I called them and was told that the plane that was supposed to deliver it today has mechanical difficulties and it won't get there till Monday. I totally freaked on the phone.....very politely. If that's even possible. I explained how imparitive it is to either keep it frozen or get it there for Saturday morning. I got a call a couple hours later saying that they have it in cold storage and are trying to get it on a flight for the next day. I still haven't seen it move but at least it's in cold storage. The serum better stay frozen. So let's keep our fingers crossed. This could jeapordize my chances to cycle next month, with possibly having to repeat the clomid challenge. Yikes

Speaking of my Clomid challenge......some good news!! My Day 3 and Day 10 FSH is the SAME!!! at least on the Canadian side. What they find in Colorado should be same, even if the actuall value is a bit higher - it went right back down on day 10 - VERY good news. This means that my normal FSH is the true FSH, which means my egg quantity and quality are descent. Again, a big BUT. My estrogen was off the chart - it multiplied by a factor of 10. They expect it to have increased - not by that much. So we'll see what they say about that. The thing that really upset me about today, was that when I had my Day 10 blood drawn, I had to get my T4 (thyroid hormone) drawn as well, because it was missed during the last course of tests I had taken. My Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) was tested back then and it was normal. When my T4 was tested along with my Day 10, my doctor needlessly ticked off TSH again as well. So when my TSH came back for the second time, along with my Day 10s, it was through the roof. My nurse in Colorado called me about it. She said that I have to get it retested because if it's even close to this last value I'm going to have to go on thyroid medication. I can't believe this. Clomid affects the pituitary gland and increases all hormones, including TSH. I suggested it was becasue of the Clomid, but they needed rested anyways. So now I am going for my THIRD thyroid test, because someone missed checking off a box.

My message to the masses this evening is.....ALWAYS check on other people's work....and don't care if it insults them or not. It's your ass, your blood, your time, your God knows what on the line and everyone is prone to making a mistake every minute of the day. Especially busy people in the medical profession. Thanks for keeping me company as I decompress from a very stressful day.....and oh did I mention I whipped up a Tiramisu cake for family we had over for dinner? don't ask how much of it I ate.....

Enough Already!!

OK, I've had it. The testing is done (let's hope it all gets to the states the way it should) and just in time. We went for the last (knock on wood) of our blood tests yesterday to a lab who knew what was up and was willing to assemble and ship the kits to Colorado. The nurse did a great job of a complicated task with one exception. She didn't read the instructions on how much blood she was supposed to take from Stef for one of the tests, and ended up taking more than twice the amount she was supposed to - in oversized tubes. Oh, and two full ones were already on the table. Stef turned green even before the plug was pulled. It wasn't pretty - he didn't recover until I dug out a biscotti I had gotten him a month ago out of my purse. Now I know why I kept forgetting to give it to him. He spent that morning at work replenishing his red blood cell count. As for me, the blood tests were a breeze but then there's the mammogram. I was warned about how painful it would be...so I went in pretty psyched. It was my first time, so me and my girls were pretty weirded out by the tech grabbing me all over my chest and shoulders to align my body into this machine that squeezeed the crap out of them. I actually didn't find it painfull at all......so you can imagine my suprise when a fainting spell hit me....by the last picture I was barely hanging onto consciousness and had to focus through the stars to not fall when the vice let me go. Was that bizzare.

So now just waiting to hear that it all got to the states. Then we're scott free. Good....cause green is not Stef's color.