It was so cold this day! No big news on the IVF front, just trucking along
Nov. 19 - Wednesday
Went in to Dr. for Baseline. This is when they do a follicle count and blood work. I have 35 follicles which is a lot! That's awesome news:) The nurse called me later this day and told me that I would need to start my menopur and follistem (these are both stimulation drugs) Friday, and reduce my Lupron (anti-stimulation) to 5 units vs. 10. Menopur is a morning shot, and follistem and lupron are evening. I wasn't so super jazzed about the shot increase, but know it'll be fine. Also, when the nurse called she said Dr. Ke asked if we were good with doing ICSI ( i was like ICS-what?). Turns out ICSI is for male factor infertility (meaning low sperm count, not mobile, etc). Matt's semen analysis was above average, so this didn't make sense. She said she'd have Dr Ke call me to discuss. In the meantime, i was researching like crazy. ICSI is the process of actually drawing up a single sperm in a tiny needle and inserting it into the egg. The risk of genetic diseases is increased slightly, but they say this may be skewed by the fact that males with fertility issues are the primary candidates in this treatment and that already carries a higher risk of passing along a genetic issue. It just seemed odd that we would participate in this procedure.....
Anyway, more to come.
I got a lot of extra syringes this day at the dr because I was running out! At least they came in a cute lavender bag. #druggie
I got home from work, gave myself a quick shot and then we went to Church for Thanksgiving potluck. It was yummy.
Nov. 20 - Thursday
Dr Ke called me this day. He explained ICSI further. So, Matt and I didn't want to irresponsibly create more embryos than we could likely have. We had stated at the beginning of this process that we wanted to freeze eggs in excess of 15. Statistically 15 eggs results in about 2-3 potential kids after all the process is complete. 15 eggs is about 7 embryos is about 3 babies hopefully. He said that when you freeze eggs you have to do ICSI because (bare with me here goes the medical piece over my head) when they extract the eggs from the ovary follicle they come encased in a cell...turns out all cells they extract don't necessarily contain an egg. To know the egg count prior to fertilization (to freeze excess over 15) they have to remove the cell and when you remove the cell, natural fertilization no longer is possible.
So, long story short, freezing eggs = ICSI. I wanted to talk to Matt of course, and Dr Ke said call the nurse tomorrow to ask any additional questions. He needed to know our answer by Monday when the Dr's meet again for their upcoming IVF patients.
Also, this night I studied my new shot video tutorials like it was a test. I made notes and everything.
ALSO, we had some housework done, including painting. Unfortunately it was oil based paint which isn't good for IVF patients (male or female), and definitely not good for a baby. So, we decided to stay with my parents for a few nights until all fumes (smell or not) had cleared.
So, I was nervous doing my new shot in a new place. I had gotten used to my station at home:)
To be continued in new blog entry...
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