For Christmas, Santa brought me my period.
Well, not exactly, but being off the hormones did cause the spotting to return. I spotted for several days before Day 1, including on Christmas. :( It's strange... Day 1 is always right on schedule; it's the spotting before Day 1 that frustrates me.
When my period finally came last Tuesday, I called the doctor's office and made an appointment for my base ultrasound later that morning. Ryan and I were both on vacation, so he was able to come along. Nurse H did the ultrasound and asked how my "month off" was. I told her the break was nice, but I was very excited to get back and try again. She laughed and said that was obvious, and they all thought it was cute that I called the morning of Day 1, ready to come in right away. Hey, what can I say, I am anxious to be a mom!
The ultrasound went well. No cysts to be found. I got my doctor's orders and found they are switching it up a bit.
They actually decreased my Follistim dosage. I guess the *7* medium to large eggs I had last time scared them off a bit. This time I am doing 100iu for 1 day, 75iu for 5 days. Mid-cycle ultrasound is next Wednesday.
We are also ditching the Prometrium and turning to Endometrium for Progesterone. Now that medicine costs a pretty penny. At $5 a pill, 3 pills a day... you can do the math. This is in addition to the cost of Follistim, Ovidril, ultrasounds and the IUI. But there has been break-thru spotting during the last 2 cycles on the Prometrium, so what else can we do? I don't want to look back and wonder if this was the missing piece.
Well, not exactly, but being off the hormones did cause the spotting to return. I spotted for several days before Day 1, including on Christmas. :( It's strange... Day 1 is always right on schedule; it's the spotting before Day 1 that frustrates me.
When my period finally came last Tuesday, I called the doctor's office and made an appointment for my base ultrasound later that morning. Ryan and I were both on vacation, so he was able to come along. Nurse H did the ultrasound and asked how my "month off" was. I told her the break was nice, but I was very excited to get back and try again. She laughed and said that was obvious, and they all thought it was cute that I called the morning of Day 1, ready to come in right away. Hey, what can I say, I am anxious to be a mom!
The ultrasound went well. No cysts to be found. I got my doctor's orders and found they are switching it up a bit.
They actually decreased my Follistim dosage. I guess the *7* medium to large eggs I had last time scared them off a bit. This time I am doing 100iu for 1 day, 75iu for 5 days. Mid-cycle ultrasound is next Wednesday.
We are also ditching the Prometrium and turning to Endometrium for Progesterone. Now that medicine costs a pretty penny. At $5 a pill, 3 pills a day... you can do the math. This is in addition to the cost of Follistim, Ovidril, ultrasounds and the IUI. But there has been break-thru spotting during the last 2 cycles on the Prometrium, so what else can we do? I don't want to look back and wonder if this was the missing piece.
We have also been thinking a lot about our next step, should this cycle not work. Do we try a 6th time with Follistim or move on to IVF? No final decisions have been made, but we are leaning toward stopping the Follistim treatments. It is not an easy decision, especially because I got pregnant on this treatment. So who's to say that can't happen again? Even so, from the very beginning we agreed on 5 Follistim cycles, so it seems natural to stop after this one.
Of course, I am hoping I won't have to make that decision...
Ryan is not feeling very hopeful about this cycle at all. I have to admit, deep down in the pit of my stomach I am having doubts too. But I am trying to push those away and think positively.
Tonight, we began our fast. Fasting is very difficult for me to do while on the Follistim. I have to do a water-only fast, as the medicine requires I drink an insane amount of water or the side effects can be debilitating. I am fasting from food however. I know there are close family and a few friends fasting with us and I am so grateful for that. Beyond grateful. We are so blessed.
We began our fast with a prayer, pouring out to God our deepest desire but asking for comfort to accept His will, whatever that may be. It's in His hands now.
