Day 1?

I'm waiting for my period to start so I can start birth control pills on day 3 in preparation for IVF. Just when it's important to get the Day 1 correct, my body plays a trick on me. Not only did my period started later yesterday afternoon but it was very little. Then it came full force late last night. I didn't know whether to consider July 26th as day 1 or July 27th as day 1.

I called the patient co-ordinator and she confirmed that July 27th is day 1 since the full flow was much later in the day.

Hysteroscopy

To prepare for the procedure, I had to take birth control pills for at least 3 weeks. I started on Aviane-21 100/20MCG (generic version of Alesse) on April 30th. The birth control pill is to keep the uterus lining thin. On the night before surgery, I couldn't eat past midnight and just to be safe, I stopped drinking around the same time. I took two doses of Apo-Misoprostol 200MCG at bedtime (12:00am) and in the morning of surgery (7:30am). Apo-Misoprostol is to help dilate the cervix. Cramping caused by Apo-Misoprostol started during the night and woke me up around 3:45am. I had trouble finding a comfortable position. My back hurt so I couldn't sleep on my back and the cramps bothered me when I slept on my sides. I finally fell back to sleep an hour later. The position that finally worked for me was on my back with my legs bent and my arms above my head. Weird but I can't complain since it worked. I wonder if this is what being in labour feels like?

I had my hysteroscopy today between 9:50am to 10:15am by Dr. V. Before the surgery, he said that he will fix me. I didn't know what to expect but I knew that I was in good hands. I slowly fell asleep from the anaesthesia. I woke up with the tube still in my throat. Very uncomfortable. The nurse removed it and I just laid in bed with my eyes closed. Then I felt a light pinch on my nose. I thought it was my husband. When I opened my eyes, I was surprise that it was Dr. V. He told me that he did a resection of a small uterine septum. I was glad that he came and told me the results of the hysteroscopy. Could this be the cause of my miscarriages?

Tomorrow, I will start antibiotics (Apo-Cephalex) to prevent infection and estrogen (C.E.S.) to prevent possible scarring inside the uterus. From days 16 to 25, I will add progesterone (Apo-Medroxy). Estrogen and progesterone will be taken for two 25 day cycles with a seven day break in between.

IUI # 14 - Another Failure

Needless to say, IUI #14 did not work.

I guess I'll have to do more testing. More will be known when I see the doctor on April 6th.

Day 15 - Insemination day

My husband and I have identical phones and we charge them in the same area. Before leaving for my bloodwork and ultrasound, I took "my" phone from the charger. Usually I know if I accidentally grabbed my husband's phone because when I removed the phone from the charger, it turned on and the picture on his phone is different from mine. However, this morning, I didn't pay attention when I checked the time on the phone. It still didn't hit me when I turned on my hands free in my car and the light on the hands free was blinking (indicated that my phone was out of range). I just thought it was odd and brushed it off.

When I got to the clinic, it was surprisingly not as busy as usual. I went to the sign up sheets. When I got to the call back book, I don't know what got into me, I decided to ask the co-ordinator if I needed to sign the call back book. My rationale was I shouldn't have to since I was coming back for insemination. Then it dawned on me that what if the clinic needed to call me for a second insemination since the blood test results may not be available when I have the IUI? Duh! But the co-ordinator was nice and asked me which number she can reach me at in case she needed to.

The wait for the ultrasound was very good today. Usually it takes approximately 1 hour. Today it only took 20 minutes. Nice! As I was getting dressed after my ultrasound, I tried to peek to see my uterus lining and follicle size but wasn't successful. I just saw the sonographer write some words down for the left follicle (lead follicle is on the left side in this cycle). My intuition was she didn't see the follicle anymore; thus, I had ovulated. This might explain the back pain I felt last night and slightly this morning. I went home.

My husband and I arrived at the clinic at 10:00am for insemination. I was called into the room at 10:20am. As usual, my doctor did her thing and I did my thing to get ready for the procedure. My doctor told me that I ovulated this morning and I will only have one IUI. When it came time to insert the catheter, my doctor was having difficulty inserting it. This did not happen before. Considering that I've had 13 IUIs, I thought it would go without a hitch. Eventually, my doctor was able to insert the catheter. She told me that I would have a bit of spotting, which I did. My doctor told me to come with a full bladder next time because it helps to straighten my uterus. Also, she can also use an ultrasound to help with inserting the catheter. Good to know.

My husband and I went home. I laid on the couch for half an hour. To my surprise, I fell asleep for 10 minutes. Then I woke up and went to work.

That was my morning.

It's been a while...an update is in order

When was my last post? Ah yes, fall of 2009. Well, the three to four months off of fertility treatment went faster than I thought it would be. During the time "off", I took DHEA. My side effects from the drug? Pimples! Lots and lots of pimples! They pop up everywhere! Oh yeah, my scalp feels more oily. By the afternoon, it's like I didn't wash my hair.

Since I have taken DHEA for over three months, I'm good to go (ie., start trying again). Now I'm on day 12 of my cycle and I have a left follicle that is already approximately 2.0 cm. Oh, before I forget, I took Femera on cycle days 3 to 7 and the dose was 5.0mg (double my previous doses). My FSH on cycle day 3 was 4.8 (normal).

I have also registered at the Alan E. Beer Center to have some tests done. The registration at the center required a lot of information about my past treatments. Luckily I documented my treatments over the three years. It's not easy to remember the 13 IUI's and the dates of each one. About two weeks ago, I finally got a recommendation from the center of what tests they would like me to do. Aside from lots of blood tests, they also require me to do an endometrial biopsy. Since I'm on my fertility treatment, I will not do the tests yet.

Okay, update complete.

IUI #13 - Beta

On the way to work this morning, my husband said there is still a chance that I’m pregnant because I might have messed up the hpt test yesterday. It’s good to hear him be on the positive side. It gave me a little hope that yesterday was a false negative.

While waiting for the call from the clinic on the results of my test, I debated whether I wanted to answer the phone or let it go to voicemail. A part of me just didn’t want to hear those dreaded three words “I am sorry…” Another part of me wanted to answer the phone and ask the coordinator for her opinion of whether I should try IUI again. The hours went by and there was no call. I knew that the later the call, it’s basically bad news.

Finally at 2:40 pm, the phone rang. I recognized the number on the call display and picked up the phone. After the polite greetings, the coordinator said “I am sorry blah blah blah.” Basically, all I heard were those three words. One would think that a person having heard those words over and over again would make a person less disappointed. Not so. It hurt less the first few times because I had more patience and I was younger. Now that I’ve heard it ten times already, and I’m in my third year of trying, it’s heartbreaking news. I’m glad that the coordinator was nice in her approach to delivering the bad news. At times like this, it probably sucks to be in her shoes.
Anyways, I’m supposed to call the secretary next week to see where I’m at on the hysteroscopy waiting list. If the wait is still long then we will decide on what to do in the interim. I hope to get a different drug if I am going to do another IUI. I have gotten pregnant once without drugs, once with Clomid and once with Femera. My body doesn’t seem to want to give me another baby with Femera. What a stubborn little bitch!

On the way to work

It feels gloomy today with the grey clouds. On our way to work, my husband saw a faint rainbow in the clouds. When I got into the office, I looked out my window and the same rainbow was right in front of me. It reminded me of a saying about silver lining (don’t quite remember it now). Is this a sign that the end of my infertility will be a rainbow? Well, I can’t see any right now (a sad trombone plays on).