Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Prepare for ovary blast off

So, I spoke to the RE. Half an hour late - what IS it with docs and their inability to stick to a schedule?

We went over the cycle, and we were both actually happy with how the cycle had gone. Apart from the end result, obviously. Stimulation was nice and even, I got a reasonable number of eggs, the embryos looked good and did well getting to blastocyst, blah blah blah. They just sucked, chromosomally speaking. He thinks it's totally possible I could get a normal one, though, so he thinks all hope is not lost. He said one woman on the cycle got pregnant from one embryo, so he only needs one good one to work with. So when he suggested not changing much, I wasn't surprised. And unlike on previous occasions when docs have suggested not changing things, I wasn't unhappy at that.

We are, however, going to change very minor things. For one, I am switching back from gonal-f to follistim. He said he has a marginal preference for follistim. I didn't tell him that I actually did half-and-half because I had some leftover follistim, but whatevs. Then I am going to be on their highest stim dose. And when I say highest stim dose, I mean a truly, phenomally giant amount of stims. Oh yes, your average RE may say that the absolute maximum dose of stims is 600 iu, usually formed of a maxium dose of follistim or gonal-f of 450 iu plus some menopur or repronex. They may say that you can't possibly go higher than this. But I shall. I shall be on 750 iu of follistim per day. If that doesn't blast my ovaries into submission, I don't know what will. And we'll add lh in increasing amounts as we get closer to trigger. I said "so, clearly you don't subscribe to the theory that increasing stim dosage is actually bad for egg quality then?" and he said "no, I think the body just wastes what it doesn't use". Okee-dokee.

And that's it. He said we may push trigger for an extra day. We may try to do two vials of lh on the last day of stims.

We briefly discussed doing CGH again, and I said to sign me up. I think I'd rather know in advance than go through the 2ww praying and hoping and dealing with progesterone issues.

All in all, it was pretty much what I expected. And that's fine by me.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

750 iu...wow. I'm already thinking about what a fabulous bloat you will get!

It sounds like the call was good. And the fact that he is all for you going again is great. I trust the guy with the medical degree.

So are you still looking to start in June? What is your timeline now?

Seriously- just having the plan (& it is nice and moderately tweaked) is exciting.

xo

Anonymous said...

S,
That sounds like a good plan. 750iu? Wow, I agree with Cali. Here comes the bloat, but I do think it's a good idea. Especially with this being potentially your last cycle, give it all you got!
I'm also glad you're doing CGH again. I'd want to know also, and not endure another endless 2WW.
It sounds like a really good plan. And it also sounds like you're dealing with everything very well. I admire you so much.
XO
-Margie

katty said...

I salute your courage and I hope/pray/really really wish that this time it is properly rewarded with your hearts desire.
lots of luck, Sarah
Kx

Anonymous said...

With 750iu on board, you could sell your BLOOD as a fertility drug!!!

8-O

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I am a faithful lurker. I am glad to see you are doing the testing again. I had 6 embryoes tested by PGD. I was amazed at how screwed up my results were. I had 4 bad and 2 good. But the bad were really bad with at least 3-4 things wrong and one even was an X0 (my clinic does not tell you gender just that it was or wasn't normal). So the point I am making is that the number of things wrong with your embryoes doesn't say that you still can't get a good one. Our situations are so different but I really hope that the next round brings you the same kind of results I had (my only two normal ones are now healthy little boys).