IUI complete

Ok IUI is complete. RE said the "sample" was great and that everything looked good.
I wished I would have gotten another ultrasound or something but didn't- just the IUI.

I need to start Prog. and Estrace tomorrow.

Don't know about follow up- I think I will need a prog test in about a week, but my RE wasn't there, it was the on-call Dr. I will call on Wednesday to find out what the next step is.

Jason and I are going to the hockey game tonight to ring in the New Year. Should be alot of fun. The city of Dallas is putting on a big party at Victory Park, which is where the Stars play, complete with fireworks and everything. Driving home scares me a bit- but I am the designated driver so it should be fine.

Happy New Year!! Hopefully 2008 will bring a BABY!

We've TRIGGERED!!!

So I went for a follie check yesterday. It was good!!

Lefty had 19.5mm, 18mm and 15mm
Righty had 17mm, 17mm, 15mm and 14mm
Lining was 9.3

RE said he would have liked to see a follicle at 20 BUT since I had so many that were pretty close if we did the stims one more night he would have to cancel. Each follie 17 or bigger has the chance of maturing with the trigger shot.

We did the trigger shot last night at around 8pm
I go in tomorrow morning (New Year's Eve) for the IUI.

I am so excited! Maybe I have a chance this cycle! Supposedly you have a better chance post-lap and this is my first cycle post lap.
Also I have 4 nice follies that could mature- So the fimbria will have more than one chance to pick one up.

My old friend, "HOPE", is here. Jason thinks this is our lucky cycle. He says there have been signs pointing to that-I hope he is right!

Tomorrow begins the "two week wait"-- UGH!!!

CD 13 ultrasound

Woo-Hoo, they have grown!!!

Lefty has 16.5mm, 15mm & 11mm
Right has 14mm,13mm, 12mm and 11.5mm
Lining is 7.7 (needs to be 8)

So two more nights of shots, another ultrasound on the 29- then probably trigger that night and do IUI on the 31st! So a New Year's baby is possible

Wow- this has been a rollercoaster- I can't imagine how it feels to be doing IVF and all of the money to be coming out of your pocket.
There is no way we could be doing this!!!

I am very pleased with the results at this point! Hopefully this will be the one and only time we have to do this!!!

CD 10 ultrasound

I had this ultrasound on Christmas Eve. It was kind of a bummer-- I had quite a few follies but none over 8mm. I had 4 on righty around 8mm and then a bunch of smaller ones. Can't remember the exact measurements of lefty but I think close to the same as righty. My lining was also a bit thin-- I think 6mm- but the ultrasound tech said that is normal considering how small the follies are. As the follies grow, the lining should grow as well.

It is still early but I looked at my last monitored cycle with Clomid and at this point they were 18mm, 16mm and some smaller ones. So I am a bit discouraged.

I suppose is a good thing there aren't a ton of big ones which would run the risk of having to cancel or convert to IVF, since the chance of multiples would be higher.
BUT I was expecting to see at least one or two big ones considering I have been doing the injections.

The Dr. bumped up my dose of the injections to 150 units for 3 nights.
I go back tomorrow to see if they have grown--

Grow follies Grow!!

Divine Intervention?

I believe in Divine Intervention. My Mom calls them "little God things". You know things that happen that seem to be much more than coincidence. I believe that my IF insurance coverage is just that... a little God thing.

Let me explain...
My company switched insurance in October. I researched all of the options and of course none of them covered IF- or so I thought. I called the HMO option once more to inquire about surgery for my DH. I thought to ask about IF one more time. Lo and behold, the person said this plan does have coverage-6 IUI cycles and 6 IVF he thought. But I would need to call the IF line and find out for sure. Of course at this point they were closed for the day.

I called back the next day and they wouldn't be able to tell me specifics until I actually got my group number but yes it did look like I had the "comprehensive IF coverage" which covers 6 IUI cycles.

So I wait and wait to get the group number- finally get it and they tell me it does cover the 6 IUI cycles, but not IVF. Fine-great, that is way more than most women get so I am happy--no, ECSTATIC!

A few weeks later, something inside made me want to dig a little deeper-just to make sure. I printed out the plan description from the insurance website and it had an IVF rider attached that had certain criteria to meet and upon meeting the criteria IVF was covered. The only criteria I might meet was endometriosis. Didn't know for sure if I had it or not but had a lap scheduled to find out. So I call the insurance company to ask about it and they have no idea what I am talking about or where I got the rider. I told them I had printed it out from THEIR website...

They researched it for a MONTH- managers reviewed it, account rep reviewed it and finally the legal team reviewed it. A month later they finally called and told me even though it was a mistake and not supposed to be part of my plan that they would honor it since it was their mistake--OMG!! I don't know how many cycles it covers, probably one, but that is so much more than most women get. I am very grateful.

Obviously someone was looking out for me to guide me to the website and make the inquiries that I did. I have since looked at the website and the whole plan description has been taken off. They are covering up their mistake and don't want to have to make any more "exceptions" as they are doing for me.

Divine Intervention?? I think so. My Mom said that some little angel is up there and is ready to come down to us- and that it guided me to find this wonderful IF coverage.

So we begin...

AF came on Saturday. Went in today for 3 day bloodwork...

FSH--8.8 Anything under 10 is good.
Estridol--15 Anything under 50 is good.

We have decided to do the injectibles with the Letrozole. We have the money to do it now, so why not...

Injections start tomorrow night. YIKES. I am excited but so nervous. Not nervous about the shots, but nervous about it not working...

Tonight I am drinking some wine- hopefully I won't be able to drink for 10 months so I need one last hurrah!!!

We have a plan

Met with RE today- Here is the plan-- I am so excited...
Start Letrozole this month. Today or tomorrow is likely CD1 so will start meds early part of next week. Do a monitored cycle with trigger shot and IUI.
Do one more of the same if that doesn't work.
Then in Feb move to IVF.
We decided to not do the injectibles this cycle (or next) because although insurance covers the IVF procedure. It does not cover the injectibles... whatever.
So the injectibles were going to be $1000 for IUI cycle or $3000 for IVF cycle.
Financially it make sense to go the cheaper route with the IUI cycle in hopes that it will work and then if not we have saved up money for the IVF.

I am excited! It is just like I said in the previous post-- I now have a new sense of HOPE. I feel like I am on cycle 1 again

Christmas party BS.

So DH works for an oil and gas company. He started with this company last year in October. December rolls around and he is at the office one day and discovers that everyone in the office is invited to the Christmas party dinner except him. I think that is pretty shitty, but we chalk it up to him being new and not really part of the crew yet.

He quits this company in June and goes to (what we thought) would be a better deal for us. Turns out not to be a better deal so he eats crow and goes back to his old company to ask for his job back. They agree.

He has been back since October. He is doing a great job and evenheard 3 of the head guys talking about what a great job he is doing. So we think great- things are good and we don't need to worry about cuts in January.

He goes to work today and finds out that the party is tonight- and once again he is not invited. To make things worse some guys that are newly hired and don't know what is going on as far as work goes have been invited but he and two other guys aren't.

Shitty if you ask me!!! To me it should be all or none- I can't believe that grown MEN would behave this way. I understand that he did quit and come back, so maybe they are still pissed about that- but then why didn't he get invited last year when he was a new hire? New hires got invited this year...

New hope

I am just sitting here thinking back when we first started TTC. The first time and the second time. I was so full of hope, thinking I would be pregnant in no time.
"I will be one of the ones that gets pg right away" I thought- Boy was I wrong.
It took 15 cycles of trying for Garrett- That is a long time. We did not have insurance at that time so no testing or anything was done. We scheduled a trip to Mexico and two weeks later I found out I was pregnant.

We decided to start trying again in Dec. 2005. Once again I thought- "oh I have gotten pregnant before so it should be easy this time"- WRONG. Here we are two years later. At least this time I have some answers to why I can't get pg and a plan to get pg.

That leads me to where I am now- again I am thinking "oh I am going to start treatment soon, hopefully this month or January, so I will get pg right away"
I know from past experiences I shouldn't think this way, but it is so hard not to. Especially when trying something new. I feel as hopeful as I did way back in June 2002 when I quit taking the pill for the first time.

Tonight I take my last pill. I was on the pill for the lap and even though I could stop taking it at any point after the surgery, I decided to finish out the pack so Friday (when I have my post-op appt) will hopefully be CD 1 or 2 and maybe we can get started with treatment right away.

Here's to hope...

Results of Lap

Well I had the lap done on Friday. I was pretty nervous going into it but DH and my Mom were there to support me. The nurse that prepped me was hilarious. She and I shared the same birthday. The anesthesiologist was great too. Once he put the "margarita" in my IV on the way to the OR I don't remember a thing. I woke up in the recovery room thinking I was Christmas shopping. Waking up was the strangest sensation!! My Mom and DH were able to come in pretty soon after I woke up- I was able to eat, drink and pee and was on my way home.

Now to what the lap revealed...
I do have endo- DH said that the Dr. said it was a pretty good case of it even though I don't have the usual symptoms. Dr was able to remove it.
There were some stringy things attached to various parts, he removed that as well
One ovary had a cyst and he removed that. He said this ovary is small and looks older than I am-- great.
The other ovary was attached to my pelvis due to the endo-so he fixed that.
What he seemed most concerned about was the finger-like things that are supposed to grab the egg from the ovary were damaged by the endo. They are supposed to be long and wispy, mine are short and stubby.
I have an appt next week to discuss options but Dr. told DH and Mom that he thinks we should generate alot of eggs to give the "fingers" more opportunity to pick one up. So I guess that means injectibles. Insurance will pay for IUI so I am sure we will do that as well.

After 2-3 months of that move on to IVF (if insurance covers---more on that later)
I guess if insurance doesn't cover it that will be the end of our journey.

Now about the insurance- they have "told" me on the phone all along that the DO NOT cover IVF. But I printed the benefits off the internet and there was a rider attached to the plan that covered IVF if the couple met certain criteria--- one being endometriosis. Seems pretty cut and dry to me right? Well they have been "researching" it for 3 weeks now. First they had to speak with the supervisor, then to the acct rep., now they are speaking with the legal dept. I guess I really threw them through the loop when I actually read the book and didn't just rely on what they "told" me. I am sure the legal dept is trying to figure a way out- hopefully they won't. I am going to call tomorrow and try to (nicely) demand an answer. I mean if they will cover IVF screw the IUI's--let's move straight to that!

Anyway I am recovering nicely from the surgery-- the gas is finally gone, hopefully the bloating will follow soon. The incisions are only slightly tender. Mentally I am both relieved and sad. On one hand at least I know what is causing the problems and I realize that in order for insurance to cover IVF I need this diagnosis. On the other hand I am sad-- what if this prevents me from having another baby. I mean I am VERY thankful for Garrett, but I don't feel my family is complete...

Lap on Friday-pre op tomorrow

Well the big day has come-- the lap is on for Friday. I have to go in tomorrow morning for pre-op stuff. I am excited to get it over with-- Nervous though...
I have never had surgery.
Hopefully he will find some endo bc if so I am pretty sure insurance will cover IVF-woo hoo!
More tomorrow!

Starting BCP today

What a weird feeling to be starting birth control pills after 2 YEARS!! We have decided to do the laparoscopy instead of starting with the injectibles because if I do have endo. then it would be a waste of money to do the injects. and IUI. So now the plan is to have the lap on Dec. 7 and then move forward with the inject. IUI (hopefully)-I guess depending on what they find during th lap. So that means there is NO chance of us getting KU in November and I guess December too--weird!
Oh well Jason keeps reminding me this is bringing us one step closer--I guess, feels more like 2 steps back.

On a lighter note, Garrett had the MOST fun EVER trick or treating last night. We went with two other 3 yr old boys and I have never seen them have so much fun. They were running from house to house, yelling and jumping. It was so cute! Of course this morning he wanted to do it all over again--
Now we are looking forward to Santa-- what a fun time of year for a kid!

On hold...

Well looks like we are on hold for a few months, probably until at least January. DH changed jobs and does not get paid for 45 DAYS, so all of our money is going to go to pay bills etc...
That being said I ~may~ go ahead and do the laproscopy to check for endo. Insurance will cover this and at least this way I feel like I am being proactive.
Of course we are going to try au natural these next few months~who knows, stranger things have happened.

Next week is going to be very un-stressful and I am supposed to be Oing sometime next week- so maybe we will get lucky and it will happen on a TAB month. On Tuesday I am flying to New Orleans with my Mom-she sees a Dr. there and my Dad can't go with her, so, of course, I volunteered. We will only be there for the day, but we will get to eat some of that yummy Cajun food.

Then we leave early on Wednesday morning to go to Galveston with the Inlaws. We go to the beach with them every year in October and it is always a very welcome get-away. I am not taking my thermometer or anything. Feels very liberating!
I have decided I am not going to worry about TTC until January when (hopefully) we will start injects. and IUI's.

Dr appt.

Well I met with a new RE. I liked him. We went over our whole history and he gave us some choices of what we can do:

1. Injectibles with IUI
2. Some injectibles and some Femara with IUI
3. Laproscopy to check for endometriosis

We chose to go with number 2 for two months and if nothing has happened by then we will do the surgery. Our plan is to do nothing for this month (maybe it will happen naturally?!?). Then call when AF comes, they will show me how to do the injects. I will alternate with a pill (Femara) and the injects. Then do a trigger shot, to trigger the egg to release and then do IUI. This choice is a little less aggressive than doing it all injectibles, but it is also about half the cost, since insurance doesn't cover the injects.
Good plan, liked the doctor-- hopefully we will be PG soon!!

AF is here

Well--not pregnant. AF reared her ugly head on the 2nd. But I was expecting it because I had started spotting a couple of days before. BOO!
Anyway I have an appointment with the RE on Monday so I am looking forward to that.
I found out what my insurance actually covers. It covers 6 cycles of IUI and monitoring, which is less than what they initially told me but way better than what I had so I am pretty pleased. The downside is that they don't cover injectibles. But maybe the Dr. can prescribe a low dosage of them and they won't be too expensive. Or maybe he will go the Clomid/Femara route. I don't care, I just want to be as agressive as possible since we have almost been trying for 2 YEARS.

Garrett is great-says the funniest stuff! I just love him so much! He had pictures at his school yesterday so I am anxious to find out how they turned out.

On a sad note, we are going to have to put our cat, Lucas, to sleep tomorrow. He hasn't been eating for a month or so. I took him to the vet yesterday and found out he has Feline Aids and his liver is failing. So we have come to the decision to go ahead and put him to sleep, instead of watching him slowly starve to death. He has been a good cat, I am sure he will be the only one I will ever have that uses the toilet.

Hook em horns (UT vs OU is this weekend)

No spotting-- yet

Well today is CD 25 (10dpo) and I have not had one bit of spotting yet!! Hopefully that is a GOOD sign. I did take an HPT this morning and it was BFN, but I am still holding onto hope that it was just too early. Very possible.

I will test again in the morning and then every morning until spot or AF shows up.
AF typically shows up around CD 30-31, so I should know something before too long.
Spot usually shows up 5-6 days before-- typically around CD 25-26. So of course I am excited that nothing is here--YET.

Other news:

We had a great time in Austin, saw alot of old friends. I miss Austin, but I love being here near my parents. I think it is such a great experience for Garrett to grow up near his grandparents. I just wish they were in Austin instead of Dallas. Glad we have friends to go and visit there! Hook em Horns!!!

Predictions

I have received various predictions as to when I will get pregnant over the years. I thought it would be fun to list them to see if any of them prove to be correct.

Shayna--6 and girl
(Due date for this cycle would be June)

Jessie--spring (lots of green) and boy

Angel--April and boy

Mommy Hopes--July/Aug. and boy

Cheri-Feb and girl

One in Austin--5 yrs from July 2002 and girl.
She predicted 2 years from July 2002 a boy and look what happened in July 2004: ~GARRETT~. So maybe she was on to something, since 5 years is 2007 this would be the year.

The months/numbers that they predicted didn't necessiarly mean due date~it could mean conception, find out, due date or LMP. So that leaves alot of possibilites.

Austin (trigs)

Jason and I just decided that we are going to go to Austin this weekend to visit our friend, Cheryl. Cheryl always has fun parties to watch the UT game, so we will get to see alot of our old friends! We are taking Garrett with us this time as well and they have not seen him for over a year. Won't they be surprised at how big he is and how much he talks (non-stop).
I will post pictures of the weekend!

Hello

Hello
I have just decided to keep a blog of my quest for child # 2. We are on our 20 cycle of trying for #2. I was just about ready to throw in the towel BUT I got some wonderful news. My company has decided to switch insurance. I thought maybe, just maybe, the new insurance would have some kind of infertility coverage. The first phone call I made inquiring about it resulted in a "no, none of our plans carry any IF coverage". That really bummed me out because I was really hoping it would cover something-- anything to give me hope.
For some reason I decided to call back and speak to someone else. Lo-and behold, the HMO plan does cover IF-- up to 6 cycles of ovulation induction, 6 cycles of IUI with injectibles and 6 cycles of IVF. HOLY SHIT!! I was in tears. Poor Jason thought something was wrong.

So now I wait until October 11 to meet with the new RE.

In the mean time I have taken Clomid this month and am waiting to see if by some chance I might get pregnant this month. Now that the stress is somewhat relieved. Wouldn't that be ironic!