The Last Shot

I went to the doctor yesterday morning, and he said everything looks great! My egg retrieval will be Tuesday morning. So that means that I will take one last shot tonight of hCG at 10pm, and then no more needles!.. until the retrieval on Tuesday morning, at least. Almost done! Yay! :D

It's Too Early for a Rerun

What is the deal with Desperate Housewives?? Didn't the new season just start? And they are already showing a re-run... What is up with that? At least Grey's Anatomy is a new episode or I would really be mad. I am happy tonight though because I realized that I now get SoapNet on my Dish Network. Yay! :) Now I don't have to record Days of Our Lives everyday. And on Sunday nights they have "Sunday Nights in Salem" where they show the whole previous week's episodes of Days. How wonderful!

1,576 and a Boatload

It's no wonder that my abdomen is feeling so bloated and full... Today my E2 level was 1,576, and my ultrasound revealed ovaries that look like honeycombs. Dr. Isaacs measured 19 follicles, but there were more that he didn't measure because they were smaller. I go back again Saturday for another ultrasound and E2, and my retrieval should fall sometime early next week. :)

Sex Ed Review

The menstrual cycle is a complicated process involving many different hormones, women's sex organs and the brain. The activity of a woman's sexual organs, including their development is under the control of a small gland at the base of the brain, called the pituitary gland. Two of the most important hormones of the pituitary gland are Follicle Stimulating Hormone (F.S.H.) and Luteinising Hormone (L.H.). This is where the Lupron comes into play. It basically blocks the communication between the pituitary gland and the ovaries so that the body does not do its natural cycle and secrete FSH and LH. The Follistim (manufactured FSH) and Repronex (manufactured FSH and LH) are used to simulate the cycle but in much larger quantities.

A woman has 2 ovaries in her reproductive system, each one stores thousands of follicles, within these follicles are the immature eggs. More than one follicle may start to develop at a time, but usually (naturally) only one reaches maturity each month. With the stimulation drugs, multiple follicles will develop and contain eggs that will reach maturity.

At the start of each menstrual cycle the pituitary gland releases F.S.H. which makes the follicles (containing the immature eggs) grow (this is why F.S.H. gets it name). While the follicle is developing, the cells around the egg produce the female hormone - estrogen. This is why the doctor monitors my estradiol (a form of estrogen) level. The higher it is, the more follicles I should have or the bigger my follicles should be. Along with the blood test, ultrasounds are done to follow the number and growth of the follicles. The follicles look like fluid filled blisters on the ovary.

Once the follicle has reached a certain size and development, the rising level of estrogen in the blood, signal to the pituitary gland that the ovary is ready to release the egg. The pituitary gland then sends out a high level of the hormone L.H. (this is commonly known as ‘the L.H. surge’) and this signals the ovary to release the egg (ovulation). The follicle bursts and the egg leaves the ovary and travels through one of the fallopian tubes to the uterus. This is where IVF really intervenes in the natural cycle. When the doctor decides my follicles look like they are at the right size and development, I will be ready to have my egg retrieval. Since I'm taking the Lupron, the estrogen won't signal the pituitary to release the egg. So 36 hours before my egg retrieval I will take one last shot of Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG). This will push the eggs to their final state of maturity so that they will be ready to be put with sperm when they are retrieved. At the egg retrieval, a vaginal ultrasound probe with a guided needle attached to a vacuum tube system is used to aspirate the fluid from the follicles into test tubes, one by one, until they are all gone. These test tubes are passed to the laboratory where the embryologists look through the fluid under microscopes to find the eggs. Technically, there should be one egg per follicle, but a lot of times not every follicle will contain an egg.

The cluster of cells, which formed the follicle, now called a corpus luteum remains in the ovary and starts to produce the female hormone - progesterone.

If a woman has sexual intercourse with a man at this time and his sperm fertilizes the egg, the woman becomes pregnant. The fertilized egg attaches to the uterus and the corpus luteum keeps producing all the progesterone needed, to keep the egg implanted and growing (click here to read more about fertilization). Progesterone also blocks the release of more hormones (L.H. and F.S.H.) from the pituitary gland so that further ovulation does not occur during pregnancy.

If after a few days, no egg is implanted the corpus luteum stops producing hormones and gets reabsorbed in the ovary. The levels of progesterone and oestrogen fall and the lining of the uterus starts to break up. The unfertilized egg and the lining of the uterus are released through the vagina as your "Period." The cycle then starts all over again.

767

This was my first Estradiol (a.k.a. E2) level today, on day 5 of my stimulation meds. I know it doesn't mean much to anybody, but I am proud of it because it means that I should have a boatload of follicles growing on my ovaries! Just to give you an idea, we generally like the first E2 (always taken on day 5 of stimulation) to be at least 100. Anything less than 100 is not good, and a lot of times, those cases are cancelled. 767 is really on the high side of what they like to see, because there is a concern of hyperstimulation, but they may later decide to decrease my dosage to help prevent me being hyperstimulated. Thursday, I will have my blood E2 level tested again and they will do an ultrasound to get an estimate of how many follicles I have and how they are progressing. The E2 should be more on Thursday because it rises as the follicles grow. When they reach a certain size, they will be ready to have my egg retrieval. So maybe this will all be over with early next week. :) It's getting a little tiresome giving myself all these shots.

Other news... I FINALLY got a rental car today... HALLELUJAH!!! I'm hoping to find out in the next day or 2 the liability decision of the other person's insurance company. They should find themselves to be 100% liable... if not (which is my biggest fear right now) then something is wrong because in no way was this accident my fault.

Well, Will He or Will Ne Not??

I knew they were going to make us wait yet another week to find out if Dr. McDreamy will decide to sign the divorce papers or not. I don't think he has the balls to sign them. He's a jackass (like most men), and that gorgeous red-headed bitch will get to have her way. So I feel sorry for Meredith. What does everyone else think will happen on Grey's Anatomy?

Hormonal and Without a Ride

Say "bye bye" to the Xterra... Although this is not a great picture, this is what my Xterra looked like earlier this afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me this evening to take an "after" picture, but just imagine the whole front end all crunched up, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it looks like now. I was on my way to pick up my pizza from Papa John's when some crazy woman pulled right out in front of me to cross my lanes of traffic. I hit her dead on in her passenger side. She swore up and down that she looked and she didn't see anything coming, but I didn't just pop up out of nowhere, and I'm no magic trick, so I'm still baffled at how she failed to see me. She was so close to me when she pulled out in front of me that I think if she had waited a split second more then she would've hit the side of my car. I mean I had no time to react at all and nowhere to go but into the side of her car. But anyway, no one was injured, although both of my airbags deployed and hit me in the face so that hurt a little. I think my neck and shoulders will be sore tomorrow because I'm already starting to feel it in my shoulders, but that could also be from stress. I was on the phone with my dad when it happened, so I just imagine his horror when he heard me screaming in the phone and then the call was dropped. But he called me right back and found out I was okay, so he didn't have a heart attack or anything. I'm just so mad at that stupid woman!!! It was all her fault, and how on Earth could she not have seen me?! I'm just really glad that I wasn't driving a brand new car, or I would really be IRATE. The whole reason that I hadn't bought a new car was because I really liked my car and there was nothing wrong with it... but the key word is "was." Now it will sit in a shop for 2 or 3 weeks while it is fixed to be like new. I just don't know if it will really be the same, but I hope so. However, one good (?) thing came out of all this.... I can't go to work tomorrow. It will be nice to have a day at home to relax and maybe get some stuff done around here. The bad thing is that I don't have a way to go anywhere... :(

On another note, I did start my stimulation drugs yesterday like I was supposed to. Now I'm having to do 4 shots a day... 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening: Follistim twice a day, Lupron still once in the morning, and Repronex once in the evening. It's all going good, and the shots aren't bad except for the Repronex. They are all subcutaneous injections (short needle, given in the tummy or the thigh), but apparently I have a reaction to the Repronex so I'm probably going to have to start giving it IM (intramuscular) in my hip (LONG needle... YUCK!). Other than that, it's no big deal. I feel like my abdomen is already bloated and poking out, but I don't feel my ovaries yet, so maybe I'm really just retaining water right now.

Anyway, that's all I've got to talk about tonight, and I'm so exhausted right now that I'm about to pass out, so I'm gonna go hit the sack. See y'all later...

It's Like Coming Home

Stupid blogger wouldn't let me do all the pics I wanted to so here's continued...


Another day we went driving to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park just outside of Cherokee, NC. This area that we went to is called Round Bottom along the Big Cove Road. And yes, that is me in the pic with my Mom... I'm just fat, not pregnant.

We got to get some good "real ass" for only $10... What a deal! (By the way, I'm just kidding, but the sign is funny whatever it means!)

Other updates...
After not driving my Xterra for 5 days and having some good time to think about the aspect of buying a new car, I've decided to wait about it. As much as I love the new 2006 Honda Accord and would love to have one, I also still really love my truck, plus I have no reason to need a new car yet anyway... my Xterra is only 3 years old with only 42,000 miles. So I feel like the best decision for me right now is just to wait about all that.
Tomorrow, as long as my suppression check comes out okay, I will start my stimulation meds. Wow, here it is.. This is it. Then it'll only be about a week and a half until the egg retrieval! I can't believe this is it! By the way, I haven't really noticed much of a difference being on the Lupron, but I was told that it takes about 2 weeks to really take effect (which it has now been 2 weeks). Starting the stimulation meds should help counteract the menopause symtpoms is what I've heard, so I shouldn't really feel the side effects too bad.

P.S. Congrats to the Astros!

It's Like Coming Home

Welcome to 332 Mason Road, Bryson City, NC. To us, it's like coming home.

We took a short (too short) trip over this past weekend up to the mountains, and it was just so nice to get away! It sure was hard to come back to Mississippi, though. The weather was absolutely perfect... 70 during the day and 40 at night with gorgeous October blue skies. The colors were just beginning to change, but up higher in the mountains, there were more colors.

One day we drove up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and took an easy hike around Graveyard Fields around the Yellowstone Creek. Ben and Daddy did some fly fishing while Mama and I just took it easy soaking up the beautiful surroundings. Ben caught his first trout (pictured above). :)

By the way, it is still just a thought... Although it doesn't seem to want to go away, because it's been all I've been able to think about for the past 2 days! I had to go and test drive one (well, actually I drove two) today, and let me tell you... I loved it!!

My New Fantasy

Down Regulation

Well, this is it... my last pre-menopausal day for the next 2 weeks. In the morning, I'll give myself my first injection of Lupron, and I'll start feeling like I'm in menopause. What the Lupron does is keep my pituitary gland from communicating with my ovaries so that they basically are shut down. Then, 2 weeks from tomorrow, I'll go back to the doctor and they'll check to make sure that my ovaries are suppressed, and then I'll start the stimulation. So, anyway, I'm really excited about doing this whole thing, but I'm also a little nervous at the same time. I just hope I do good!

The Pink Palace

This is the new pad at 2103 Washington Avenue. My mom nicknamed it the "Pink Palace" because just about everything about it is pink. Although it is not pink on the outside, all of the decor inside is pink... and not just any pink, but that lovely shade of mauve (with hints of country blue). Isn't it lovely? It is a nice, old (old is the key word) "fifth wheel" that was donated to the American Family Association and then somehow made its way to my parents. But nevertheless, it is better than nothing, and it really wouldn't be all that bad if only the refrigerator worked. It would be a pretty nice thing to actually "camp" in, but to live in it, it gets a little cramped. But anyway, a church member has offered a rental house for them to live in. It only got about a foot of water in it, and a church group from Daphne, Alabama has made it their project to work on the house to get it fixed and ready for them to move in. But it will still be a little while before it will be ready. So as if you couldn't already tell, I went to Ground Zero (Pascagoula) over the weekend... I took off on Friday, and although I was excited about having 3 days off (Friday + the weekend) to spend around my house, I really felt like I needed to go visit my parents. I think they needed it, too. So I was glad to have an extra day to spend the time with them. They were really glad that I came, and I was, too.

I really wanted to post to my blog last week, but I just never found the time, and then I was without internet all weekend. So I'm sorry to my readers!

Here's an update from last week... It was a very uneventful and for the most part boring week at work, but Thursday was pretty exciting. First, I got to take a field trip from work to go see Dr. Isaacs and get ready to be an egg donor. That was interesting... I got to practice giving myself a shot, and then I got to take a tour of my reproductive organs via ultrasound. I saw my uterus and my ovaries, and it was neat-O! And then I got to eat lunch with my good friend, Bridget, while I was there. :) Then, Thursday night after I got out of class, Anna Leigh and I went out to try to meet us some doctors and lawyers. ;) Actually, we had already been planning on going out Thursday night, and then my friend, Jay, called while I was in class and invited us to go to this "Ambulance Chaser" hurricane benefit party at Hal and Mal's. It was a joint effort between the Mississippi College School of Law and University of MS Medical Center students. We had a pretty good time, although we didn't really meet any doctors or lawyers. But it was definitely fun to go out! :)