Showing posts with label results. Show all posts
Showing posts with label results. Show all posts

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Update: Fat Babies, My Cat Passing, Best Friend Moving, and Father's Day

We went to the OB/GYN and the perinatologist on 06/17. The later meaning ultrasound time! Babies are looking good and each are fatter than a singleton counterpart would be at the same gestation period. At least according to the nurse. Really, what I think she was saying was "not to worry -their size is pretty great."

We were just 1 day shy of the 23 week mark at 1lb 6oz for the girl and 1lb 5oz for the boy. According to fetus growth measurement calculators  that puts them right about at the 55-60 percentile that a singleton would be. For now, I'm calling them my fat ass babies and it makes me happy. Is it wrong for me to think of the girl as a little more bossy than the boy already? Nah - I imagine all different ways they will be - this is just the flavor of the week.

Girl Bean is already behaving naughty and flipped into breech position. She also seems to be hyper and dancy-dancy whenever the cameras come round (ie, ultrasound). Doc says this is ok for now and either one may flip several times before they settle in. Since boy is closer to the cervix, I think it is most important that he not be in breech when the time comes. If SIL is able to have a vaginal delivery, then they can flip the girl if needed and if the doctors think it is ok.

In sadder news, my beloved calico passed away last Thursday. Won't go into the whole sad story, because it's still too hard, but suffice to say she was 18 years old and it was her time. Realized afterwards that I have lived with my beloved girl (17+ years) longer than I have lived with any other living thing; including my parents and my son.

She was a crotchety cat from the day I got her (probably part feral) and I loved every bone in her body. The only living things she liked in this world were occasionally me and often my other cat. Both friendships took years to cultivate. (Conversely, my boy cat loves almost everyone except the un-neutered male that accidentally roamed into our house one day.)

Even with a house full of animals (2 cats and 3 dogs) we would mange to have alone time when I would take my baths in the evening. She would sneak up into our room on the top floor of our house (where animals aren't really allowed according to Daddy) and I would give her the special bowl of bath water she requested for consumption. She always had a thing for bathwater and I never quite knew why. She even "showed" our other cat one night and snuck him in to the forbidden area. He sniffed it and seemed unimpressed, so it remained our personal ritual. Between laps of water she would peek her head over the bathtub for some scratches, a rarity for her as she normally didn't like more than a few touches at one time.

She will be missed.

In other sad news, my BFF moved on Friday. She's the most awesome girl in the world. Both my husband and I adored her and her husband- and really - how often does that happen? She had a baby last year and has been my rock through all of my infertility (and before!). Seeing her baby never made me sad once. He was awesome and I loved spending time with all of them. We've all promised to visit each other often, and I think we will, but I know that sometimes changes when babies come. At least I will see her in August. She coming to throw me a baby shower. YES SHE IS THAT AWESOME.

Last but not least - Happy Father's Day out there to all you new dads, all you dad hopefuls, and all those wonderful Dads of past and present that have guided each and every one of us. My father died when I was very young (3 years old), but my mom married my Step Dad when I was 19/20 and I think he super rocks. Even when he is grumpy which is frequent and funny to me. Kinda like my cat was. 

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Drum Roll Please

What I failed to mention the other day is some pretty exciting news. During our amnio, the nurse asked if we wanted to know the sex of the babies. While I realize it's a bit early, she seemed fairly confident in her assessment.

http://cakesdecor.com/cakes/11833


Drum Roll Please.
..................
................
............

One boy and one girl. 
Hooray!!!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Cupid's Gift


Purchase here


Today could have been the best or worst Valentine's: this morning we had our ultrasound. Originally it was supposed to be on Saturday, but we realized that there was a miscommunication and that they don't do non-required-cycle ultrasounds on Saturday. That's a story in itself that at this point bores even me, so I will spare you the details.

I think I may have held my breath as the ultrasound began. My husband has never seen an ultrasound, which seems incredulous now that I think about it, so it was a completely new experience for him. (I've lost count on how many I've had in the last year alone!) After what seemed like forever (really just a few seconds), the big black circle came into focus. With a little white circle (yolk sack) inside. And a blinky heartbeat that measured at 129 beats per second. The doctor said it was perfect.

And then she showed us #2... Equally perfect.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Don't Bring It.

We received our 3rd beta test result today. For those of you keeping score:

January 27th: 130
January 29th: 365
February 2nd: 2268!

I have no idea what that means except that our nurse says our numbers are fantastic. On Tuesday we asked about singleton versus twins - the nurse I spoke with said right now they are considering it a singleton, but we won't know until the ultrasound. So what did we do? What any reasonable hopeful-parents-to-be would do: pestered our favorite nurse. 

"It is very, very difficult to know whether there could be more than one from bloodwork alone - and I have been wrong enough times to wait until the ultrasound rather than guess."

Fair enough. I guess I can stop obsessing with Dr. Google.

http://veterinarynewshub.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Dr.Google.jpg

Oh who am I kidding? Just a few more peeks. Apparently we've reached a small milestone with our hCG of 2268. Between 1000-2000 you can see a gestational sac on an ultrasound. 

According to this IVF calculator, we are 4 weeks and 6 days pregnant with a due date of October 6th. 

If this was a normal milestone or challenge in my life, I'd be all 
"WOOOOOOOO HOOOOOO! We've made it this far - BRING IT <insert challenge here>!"
I think this time I will be all "woooo hooo. Don't bring it. Unless by "IT" you mean baby in 9 months. Or 10 months. Or whatever weird counting system they have going on these days that will result in a crying, pooping, bundle of joy"

Wonder what my 14 year old self would have thought of that statement from my 40 year old self? Probably just happy I'm still all weird. 

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Sunny with a Chance of Rain

Amazing photography by zznzz
http://zznzz.deviantart.com/art/sunny-rain-259517795


130!!!

That's the hCG test results at day 12. Our GC's progesterone is 20 and estrogen is 830. That's a good solid number for 1 baby with a possibility of twins. (Could we even dare to hope?) Everything is looking great.

Well, almost everything. Shortly after the blood test this morning, our GC started spotting. I know that it's not uncommon, and it may mean nothing, but it's still scary. Add to the fact that my age group has something like a 35% miscarriage rate. Doctor's recommendation is for GC to drink plenty of fluids and rest.

I'm not going to dwell on any of that today. Today I am going to be happy. Cautiously happy - but happy happy happy.

Hoping for an uneventful 2 days followed by correct growth rate in 2 days. Stay tuned and wish us lots of baby dust. You know - the good stuff; not the cheap, crappy stuff. We need all the help we can get.

Monday, January 21, 2013

60 Second Update

Embie we didn't transfer didn't make it. They left a message on my phone and I didn't feel the need to call back. It didn't upset me - not one bit - totally expected.

Tomorrow I go in for my check up appointment. I've been a little worried because I am still cramping, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I'm prone to infection AND I didn't take my doxycycline the night before my transfer like I was supposed to. Told the nurse on the day of transfer (when she asked about it). Completely slipped my mind to take it even though I told myself probably 20 times (and my husband at least 5)! Had to take it after dinner and dinner was after the reminder alarm went off. Damn you ADD. Oh well. I guess if I had to forget one medication -that was the one to forget.

G.C. says she is doing great except for a sore bum. LOL. I feel so bad for her. She told me that the night of the first shot that she kept procrastinating when her husband tried to give it to her. Made him keep practicing on the orange an hour past the time she was planning on taking it. Then when she finally got the shot she couldn't believe that she had been so worried over it that whole time. That it was nothing compared to what she had built up in her mind. Still, too many shots will give anyone sore spots. There wasn't an unbruised spot in my prime belly-shooting area by the time I was done. Hurt to wear pants. Sans pants (or skirt) probably isn't good for the office. Now that I think about it - why didn't I wear a dress???

That's it for now. Tomorrow is checkup for me and Sunday is prego test for G.C. Some moments I don't think of it at all and other times I wonder how wise it is troll craigslist for my dream crib. Well "troll" as in window shop, not as in act all douche-y. Why am I explaining myself? You all knew what I meant. I starting to ramble which means I need to hurry up and get to bed. Still a ton to do.

Night all!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

In Today's Surrogate News...

image from: here


The long awaited surrogate news is here! 

Our surrogate and her husband are still gung-ho - YAY!!!! Ms L went for her hysteroscopy and HSG testing Thursday and Friday. We haven't heard the official news from the clinic yet, but she is under the impression that everything came back great. Double yay! I'll let myself have that little bit for now.

On the flip side, my surrogate and her husband, both whom are very close to us, are having trouble quitting smoking. If she doesn't quit soon, then it will be a no-go. Quitting smoking is super-tough and she feels awful that she hasn't been able to quit yet. Was there myself once-upon-a-time and it sucks.

We went ahead and asked them if they wanted to try Chantix (we'd pay for it) and made sure with our clinic that it would be ok for them to take. They both wanted to give it a shot and we were happy when our RE said it was ok. We were about to go meet them on Saturday when our water heater expansion tank sprang a leak. Fortunately showered just minutes before the leak was discovered... 

Anytime you find a large puddle of water on your floor you should probably be concerned, but honestly I was more concerned about meeting with Ms.+ Mr. L. We called a friend and my dad to ask some questions, turned a faucet valve that was connected, let hot water run out in the sink, placed a bucket under the leak, and left to go meet them. 

Meeting went great - picked up Chantix Rx and then grabbed dinner with both of them and their little one. Afterwards we had a get-together at a friend's house where it was pretty paramount that we show our face. It's a close friend (he introduced us!!!) and we think we weren't invited to his wedding a month ago because we have been soooooo MIA - we hadn't even met his now-wife until last night. They had been dating for a little over a year. When we returned home much later we found the leak still going strong. A little digging around outside and in the garage led to the discovery of another valve to turn off ALL water. The first one turned out to be just for hot water. 

I hope the Chantix works. It helped me quit smoking years ago, but I know some people report serious side effects and can't take the medication. Chantix is not covered under their insurance either, but Mr. L's doctor gave him a $75 coupon. Oddly enough, Ms L's only have her a $40 one. Weird huh? We were able to use the $75 one. 

Now we go full speed for the other things. On the schedule of phone calls tomorrow is lawyer (required by our clinic), blood work for all, and psych tests for all. Wait what was that last part??? Yea, our third party coordinator said that we would have to ALL have a psych eval. Having a psych eval doesn't bother me (it probably should!), but after 2 failed surro cycles in India I really don't understand why it is necessary. I sent an email to our third party coordinator asking about the necessity (ie. requirement), of this for my husband and I. If it isn't required then I really don't see the need to spend additional monies on it. We didn't have it in India and I don't feel like we need it now. (The surrogate did have one in India and I understand why it is required here.) 

And I'm not sure how we haven't really talked with the financial coordinator at our clinic thus far, but I guess we need to schedule that as well. Sigh. At least then we will know better what to expect. Our original information from the clinic did not include costs for surrogacy. That becomes an entire new list of line items. 

I don't know how I'm going to take off all this time from work. All day psych evals? Appointments at an attorney office? More medical stuff? I don't know how our surrogate is going to be able to take the time off either - though of course we will give her money for any missed work. She starts a new job next week and while we are both super-duper tight with her boss, I think it's still awkward to take time off when you first start at a company. Even if the boss is totally ok with it. 

Sigh. So that's the update. Prior, I steeled myself to expect the worst with her hysteroscopy/HSG tests and now I feel unexpectedly elated. Even after feeling all doom-and-gloom about the cigarette stuff for the last week and a half. I'm still going to be cautious about getting too excited with regards to that, but I've let myself be hopeful for the weekend.

Course not having water it beginning to suck. Guess I should put "plumber" on my list of phone calls for tomorrow. Wouldn't that be funny if that was the phone call I forgot to make tomorrow? (I refused to pay Sunday plumber rates.) My BFF called earlier and said we could take a shower at her house if necessary. Since she could smell me all the way from there... She's a keeper. :-) 

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Congratulations - you MIGHT be pregnant. Maybe. Kinda sorta.

GAH!!!!!!!!!!

GAH!!!!!!!!!!

GAH!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I feel  a little better now.

This morning's email:

Dear Kristina,

Hello,

Beta hcg is 27.44 which is low. Report attached. We will repeat it on 8th October.

Which immediately sent me to google of course. In my bed no less. On my iPhone.

The first website that caught my eye was this one: Beta HCG levels - and how to interpret them. Good title right? That's what I thought too. Don't bother reading it. 7 paragraphs to basically communicate this: Beta HCG levels vary according to the gestational age. In a non-pregnant woman, they are less than 10 mIU/ml. They are typically about 100 mIU/ml 14 days after ovulation in a healthy singleton pregnancy. Well that was helpful said NO ONE EVER who had a low Beta hcg.

After perusing a few other websites, I get slightly more helpful information (LMP stands for last menstrual period):

weeks since LMPmIU/mL
35 – 50
45 – 426
518 – 7,340
61,080 – 56,500
7 – 87,650 – 229,000
9 – 1225,700 – 288,000
13 – 1613,300 – 254,000
17 – 244,060 – 165,400
25 – 403,640 – 117,000
Non-pregnant females<5.0
Postmenopausal females<9.5
Another website says anything over 25 is considered a pregnancy. Others saying that low count could be a result of the embryo implanting a day later. 

Lots of websites say that it could be fine, but then I start googling low beta hcg level. Not a good idea. See a lot mentioned about ectopic pregnancy and other non-viable pregnancies. See anecdotal cases where everything is doubling as it should, but it takes weeks and weeks to basically conclude it's not going to happen. 

So basically we're in limbo. And it sounds like if it is a viable pregnancy, then we may be in limbo for another month. 

2ww extended. 

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

BFN

I'm oddly ok. Setting my expectations realistically helped a lot. I think it was harder for my husband, but he seems to be holding up ok right now. He woke up at 6:45am wanting to call the doctor. Before we did that I checked my email and the sad news was waiting in my inbox. I can tell I'm going to cry, but I don't feel absolutely horrible.

We've already contacted the doctor about returning; now I just need my PIO card to come in stat.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Some news is good news

Yesterday I began to prepare myself for the worst. My husband was affected especially hard by our news of no fertilization (and by the evasiveness of the embryologist to my specific question) and I knew I had to be tough. There was no way he could take the news and deal with an emotional wreck of a wife. We barely spoke the rest of the day and only ate what was around our hotel room (i.e. snacks). I didn't even want to discuss next steps yet.

Today we were able to talk more on our walk to the clinic. Misc things revolving around IVF. Typical things that I think most couples go through including questioning some of the way things were handled. Think most couples go through that when faced with bad news; stages of loss and what-not.

Once we arrived in the clinic, rather then wait for Dr. Patel (which we knew would take awhile - yesterday's doctor strike caused double duty today), my husband asked if we could go straight up to the embryologist's office. The lady in the office told us to wait and after a few minutes went into the lab. She returned shortly and I assumed she informed the embryologist that we were here.

We waited. And waited. The seconds felt like minutes. After awhile, I knew the news would be bad. If she had good news, wouldn't she rush to tell us? I tell myself that maybe she is in the middle of an ICSI procedure and can't, but the other lady looked pretty forlorn. I suspect she already knows the bad news we are waiting for.

Finally the embryologist comes out. Her expression is not one of good news. She sits and starts speaking to my husband in Hindi.

All of a sudden I hear the Hindi word for "1" twice. I perk up. Then I hear "4-6 cells"! The conversation goes on and on and I don't want to interrupt for fear something might be missed, but I'm dying to know if I am right, and if so, the quality of the embryo. (It's amazing how much information you can get with only knowing a VERY limited amount of Hindi.)

Finally there is a pause in the conversation. I'm right! My husband asks if I want to see images. We are given surgical hair covers and face masks as we head into the lab. On the computer monitor I see the one egg unfertilized and next to it one booming with smooth edged cells. No fragmentation. It's 6-7 cells now; transfer is planned for this afternoon.

Holy crap.

I'm still not going to get overly excited, there are still many hurdles, but I will allow myself to be happy for today.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Test results - Phase 1

When I first started investigating infertility, I noticed ALLLLL these tests that people were either posting about or asking about. In the interest of other OCD peeps that likes to compare everything under the sun, I've listed mine below.

Estradiol: 30.3
FSH: 12.4
LH: 4.7
Progesterone: 3.84
Prolactin: 1st test - 12.0; 2nd test - 14.8
X-Prolactine?: 6.9
TSH: 1st test - 3.77; 2nd test - 2.38
X-TSH:2.1
AMH: 1.7

The first prolactin and tsh actually has an E before it, but the X ones were on the same day. Not sure what that is about...

From what I understand, my FSH is troublesome. :-( We have to use surrogacy because I had surgery a few years ago that removed most of my uterine lining. It has grown back in many areas (causing me problems), but still tons of damage and the doctors do not believe I can carry a pregnancy. 

I really hope we can use my eggs, but only time will tell. Don't get me wrong, I would love any child equally, but I would really love to see a child that is a mesh between my husband's genetics and my own. My father died when I was young (accident), but both he and my mother come from an intelligent, attractive bloodline. 
Course some of us are a bit loopy, so if we can't use my eggs then I can focus on the fact that the child won't get that. 

Ahhhhhh - the ups and downs.