day 8, question 6

it was back out to the far away location today, but instead of going alone i was accompanied by lovedove and sofia, which im so happy about. i tend not to hear things clearly/misinterpret things often when im nervous about stuff, so lovedove was able to have the doctor clarify what he was saying because she saw on my face i had misunderstood. he looked at the many many follicles and when he was done with the sono he basically did the good doctor thing and expressed his concerns about ohss. he broke it down into numbers for me and said that they begin to get concerned when your estrogen level reaches 4,000, and as of yesterday my level was about 1,000. after my blood results came back today, they had only gone up to 1,633, when it could potentially double each day that you do stimulation medication. so he broke it down and said that if my estrogen starts to spike too quickly and all of the follicles aren't mature enough to do the retrieval yet, we would have to cancel the cycle. and with all of these numbers flying around he had said something about 50/50, and i thought that meant only a 50% chance of getting gaining any kind of ground with this cycle, ie getting mature eggs/follies out creating embryos and freezing them, or going through with the full ivf cycle. when he clarified, he says that he thinks with about 80-90% certainty that we should be able to wind up with one of those two desired outcomes. the 50/50 was about which kind of trigger i'm doing, lup.ron or hcg. so when we left the appointment i was kind of concerned that he even addressed ohss, because i really dont even want to think about it as something that could happen, but after i got my estrogen level from the lady who called from the office, i kind of felt better. ohss isnt a major concern at this point in time, at least not at this exact moment. i'm hoping it stays that way.

dr. b also said that i might only need another day or two of the meds if we wind up avoiding the ohss issue. my hopes are resting on just one or two more days of the meds so that lovedove can take a day off of work and be there with me for the retrieval. that.would.be.amazing. its really odd when life throws you these crazy curveballs. she has never been offered to go on a business trip, ever, in 7 years of teaching and her opportunity comes now? its very odd. life is crazy.

qotd
How did you pick your RE?
we didn't really pick him, our gynecologist referred us to two RE's. we looked online at the two, one seemed like a small independent dr and we weren't sure what insurances she would take, and Long Island IVF seemed like a well established, well oiled baby making location(i know that makes it sound like a factory, but they really take their time with you, its much more personal than my description would infer), where they took our insurance and boasted great stats. we loved dr. b from the first visit. he's got the greatest demeanor and is a pretty straight shooter when he's concerned about something. i was just so glad that we clicked with him as much as we did. he was very welcoming to us as a same sex couple and he made us feel comfortable from the start. truly, how could we not love him, he got lovedove pregnant in her first cycle. that was pure magic.