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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Round 3: Step 4 (Choices Pt. 2)

Yesterday was CD21 and I had yet another ultrasound. I am beginning to think we should have bought a place next to the hospital at this rate! Anyhow, I was able to see my doctor for the consultation afterwards so that was good. Usually you get the doctor on call but because of the situation I am in he said to see him after the last visit for a follow-up.

Once again there were no real changes No dominant follicle, lots of mediu, sized ones, etc... and once again he gave me choices but there were three this time.

1) Stop treatment and try again. I asked him if he would recommend this. Did he still think there was hope? He said yes. He said that some people do not respond for a month on their first round with Gonal-F because they do not know what dose works best for you. So, based on this I decided not to stop.

2) We could try In-Vitro Maturation (IVM). What this means is that immature eggs are collected (like the ones that I have now) and are matured in the lab for 24-48 hours. Once these eggs are mature they would be fertilized and transferred back into the uterus similar to IVF. You can read more about this and even see some pictures here. While this sounds great because it would mean I could stop the injections and speed things up it is not possible at the moment. This process alone costs about 4500$ not including the necessary medications. I realize we are already spending a lot of money but it is still far less than this. Even the doctor agreed that I am a bit to early in treatment to be considering this. But, it is an option if regular treatment fails for sure!

3) Last but not least, and the option I chose, was to up my dose yet again and see what happens. I am now taking 150 IU until Monday. If something happens (anything at all) I will either continue this dose or increase again for another few days. If nothing happens... we have some decisions to make I guess... I don't really know at this point.

I took my first 150 IU injection last night and that went well in itself. However, about 12 hours later to the minute I was hit with yet another splitting headache. This seems to be a pattern and the headaches are worse and worse with each increase in dose. It is for this reason that I have finally given in and I am now taking Advil as well. For the last month I have avoided any and all medications other than those for treatment but I couldn't do it anymore. The doctor said it was fine in moderation so I only take one each time but it has been working wonders so that's good! Also, I was given a syringe to extract the remaining drops out of each pen in order not to throw money away and on one hand I am happy that we can do this (I should be able to extract about 300 IU at the moment) but tonight I used that syringe for my injection and it hurts! It looks like the same needle as the pen but it is probably three times thicker. Now, I know that still isn't thick but when you are used to a "mosquito bite" it's a shocker! Unfortunately, I will probably have 2 more of those ones to come... Oh well... "no pain no gain" yet again.

Fingers and toes crossed everyone!