#175 Follicles Update (02/13/13)

The results are in.  My egg has grown to 1.8.  Not quite enough for the HCG shot tonight, but tomorrow night at midnight, my darling lovely Sherpa (Deb) will be giving me the shot.  It will be a lovely Valentine’s day thing to do, the start of our official attempt of trying to make a baby.  That’s a lot of maybe, and it is hard not to get to over excited, but we both realize that this is just that, an attempt.  No guarantees.  It is still nice to feel like a puddle of goo because we are so smooshy about finally getting to this point. 

This also means, after about one year of getting everything ready to try, we have finally scheduled our first IUI for Saturday afternoon.  It is great that it is Saturday because then I don’t have to go to work after the fact.  We can make it a lovely day, maybe go to the zoo, and just have a relaxing day for us.  This does mean our trip to the states will be postponed.  We could go on Sunday/Monday instead, if the packages we are shipping to the boarder have arrived, or just next weekend.  

#173 Follicles (02/11/13)

This morning was my first follicle measure for this month.  They are still small, but that is to be expected on day 10, as I usually ovulate around day 15 or 16.  The one to keep an eye on is 1.5 cm and on the right side, it needs to be about 2 before they will do the hCG shot.  That is just one good size egg, which takes some stress of twins off the plate, the rest of my eggs were under 1.  The additional plus is that it is on the right side, which is the opposite side of my rubber nub (polyp) in my fallopian tube on the left side.  All is well with my eggs thus far. 

Deb came with me, but they wouldn’t let her in for the ultrasound, and the follow up appointment was just to say my eggs were too small, and give me the measurement of the eggs and say keep my ultrasound appointment for Wednesday.  It was nice to have Deb there to wait with for the appointments though.  She is coming to the next one as well, because that is when they will be giving instructions on giving the hCG shot and she sort of needs to be there for that as there is no hope on this green earth that I will be able to give myself a shot.    Deb has this vision of her running from the other end of the room with the warrior holler as she runs towards me, then stops right before injection and says “I can’t do it.”  I have faith in her she will be able to do it. 

Acupuncture has been going well, and I love chiro.  I had a double appointment on Saturday.  Chiro helps keep my stomach/digestion in check, as well as my hips.  I don’t know how I did before chiro, it is great.  The meditation during acupuncture is great, and I’m getting good vibes that it helps from the fertility clinic.  I don’t think they can officially say people should do it, but they have responded positively that I am doing it and have been for a few months.  The day of the IUI I will be going in for a pre and post acupuncture appointment; which if my IUI is on Saturday might delay the road trip to the states, but all for a good reason.  I do miss the massages, but I’m saving my coverage money for when I’m pregnant and need them for my back or feet or to pamper my pregnant belly/body.

On a side note, my crohn’s ultrasound went well.  I didn’t even need the contrast ultrasound because nothing is flared right now.  With nothing being flared there is nothing to contrast, so no IV and a fairly quick, normal belly ultrasound.  

#169 hCG? (01/23/13)

Well, yesterday I went for more blood work.  From Friday to Tuesday my levels went from LH 10 > 4 and Progesterone 5.6 < 30.  So timing something didn’t quite work for catching the positive OPK’s properly.  The clinic recommends next month I do follicle monitoring ultrasounds and use the hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) Trigger Shot when the time is right. 

This does increase the possibility of twins I think. This is does make for me being a bit more nervous on this, but I think it is worth it.  The amount of stress I’ve had peeing on three sticks at a time to see which ones work for me, and to try and pinpoint my ovulation has been hair raising.  HCG doesn’t guarantee twins, nor does it guarantee pregnancy.  Just helps things be a bit more relaxed about the process I think. 

One thing is for sure, Deb will have to give me the shot (if I don’t get it at the clinic), as I will not be able to give myself the shot.  I’m too nervous about needles.  So next month is hopefully the first go at this, which is the next step to this long process of getting the TTC journey started. 

From what I have read though, it does mean I can’t take a home pregnancy test early because it will give false positives.  I will have to truly wait the two weeks, or until AF shows up.   

Does anyone have experience with hCG shots?