The Highs and Lows

I learned yesterday that a woman’s estrogen level during a normal cycle peaks somewhere in the 300’s.  As of yesterday my estrogen level was at 1,079 and climbing.  Fucking with me right now could cause decapitation or dismemberment.  I’m a tad fussy.  Did I mention I also resemble the Goodyear blimp?  Well I do.  I've decided its no-longer necessary to wear pants.  Also, an entire pizza is an acceptable sized meal.  What?  You don’t agree with me?  Clearly you did not read the earlier part of this paragraph close enough.

We are on day eleven of our stims and I’m pretty miserable.  On the bright side though, my body is actually cooperating with my treatment plan and everything is looking good!  I had an appointment yesterday and along with my high estrogen, I also had a low progesterone level and a low LH level.  Basically all of my hormones are where you want them to be.  This whole IVF business is a hormonal juggling act.  At any given time during my cycle certain ones are supposed to high and others are supposed to be low.  It can get overwhelming quickly.

 

Another thing that was nice and high like my estrogen was my follicle count.  I had 12 follies in one ovary and 7 in the other.  Captain said we should have enough embryos for this cycle and some to freeze!  I’m trying my best not to count chicken before they hatch though.  We won’t know how many of those follies hold a mature pretty looking egg until they are retrieved.  And we won’t know how many will fertilize until the day after that.  And we won’t know how many of those will be viable embryos until four days after that.  So I’m cautiously optimistic.  I was told to stay on the same dose of folistim and to start the ganirelix tomorrow.  Ganirelix is the drug that suppresses my LH level to keep me from ovulating.  My LH level is fine as of yesterday but in the past it has tried to creep up early so we are being cautious.  I go back to the doctor on Thursday.  Captain estimates that my retrieval will be on Saturday.  I won’t even have to take off work!

Wednesday we go to the Acupuncturist.  I talked to J about my second thoughts and since he is the best husband ever, he said if it would make me feel better than we should just do it.  At this point I figure if it doesn't give us any extra baby mojo maybe it will at least help with my headaches!  I’m nervous but mostly excited.  OK, maybe 50/50.  Well it’s probably 60% nervous, 40% excited….thank god J is going with me.  Have I mentioned I say really inappropriate things when I get nervous?  I’m guaranteed to make a complete ass out of myself at least twice.  I’ll be sure to share.

Also this week, we have our annual Halloween party!!  We've been throwing a party on Halloween for a few years now.  Our families come over and MB’s Mom and her kids and some of her family.  We have dinner and spooky snacks and then go trick or treating!  J and his buddies put together a haunted house in the garage for all the neighborhood kids and the other adults fight over who gets to stay back and hand out candy.  It’s a lot of fun.  Halloween is a pretty big deal in our house.  It’s probably our favorite holiday.  MB and I usually start decorating around the middle of September.  I’ll take lots of picture and post them.  We get pretty creative.  Now I just have to figure out how to host a party without wearing pants….