We met with the RE yesterday to get a sense of next-steps and looking ahead to IVF when insurance "kicks in." * The ideal timing for IVF would be October, unfortunately we would still need one more IUI and W needs to be 35 (end of Nov) -- with the pathetic-ness of her coverage and the generosity of fellow bloggers, we had been trying to decide if we should just go for it anyways.
But what we learned from the RE has given us renewed hope for our last IUI and hopefully an even more successful IVF. While she felt IVF is totally not "over-kill" given W's age and our (lack) of insurance coverage, she noticed something a bit off in W's estrogen numbers and suspects that the issue all along has been that she has ovulated too early - ie her body is surging with an immature egg. This would explain the "no egg" ultrasound (there were eggs, just not big ones) and the fact that her "peak" day has crept up to CD 11. While these issues alone wouldn't necessarily raise red flags, her low estrogen numbers near the surge during our monitored cycles indicate that there really isnt a mature egg, despite the fact that her LH is surging. SO, she suggested we try a cycle with clomid to see how that effects things. I had really been resiting medicated cycles because I feel like it complicates things and it was alwasys a disaster when I tried it (cyst, etc), but the RE feels like we have a shot with the drugs and it will be useful to monitor (the hell out of) this cycle to see if we can pinpoint any issues that will inform our IVF protocol. So clomid and trigger it is..at least for Oct. In all honesty, we have so much going on these days the thought of starting the 6-week IVF protocol in less than two weeks is not only overwhelming, it feels nearly impossible. The RE walked us through the process, W's likely protocol and the timing. Wow -- the drugs, the money, IVF is no joke, yo!
So the planners that we are are, looked ahead and found that we dont have 6 "sane" weeks until January....meaning, while we are on the IVF train, it just may take a few more stops to get there. We are going to try 1 or 2 clomid cycles, possibly 1 or two live insems and then, assuming we dont get "lucky" -- IVF here we come! Phew, it feels good to have a plan! And one that feels so concrete.
Least you think we spend all day-every, day obsessing about TTC (although sometimes it feels like that), Fall is in full swing and we have been doing a ton of fun things. I did an AIDS bike ride to Ptown last weekend. It felt great to have a day to myself -- well me and 101 spandex-clad gays! W is in full Fall Semester mode, teaching, TFing and applying for jobs. And Izzy started her new "school" after Labor Day. While the first few days met with tearful good-byes, she is now *almost* excited to be dropped off. We think the transition was doubly hard because she is in an immersion Spanish school, and until the day she started, her Spanish vocabulary consisted of only the cognates. Her teachers are amazing and helped smooth the transition, but I think it was pretty disorienting to be surrounded by people who you dont understand after making so much progress over the past months to understand and express your thoughts in English. But the flip-side is that she has picked up so much in just a few days...She is going through a social explosion so once she had learned the name of everyone in her class she seemed much more conformable being able to at least refer to them by name when she says "adios or hola" or any number of other commands in English :)
The other major event is that we are thinking of doing full-blown Potty-Time. Izzy has been obsessed with the potty for the past few months, but now that her school has a kid-bathroom and designated potty-time (its more of a preschool/pre-k), we think she might be ready to take the plunge and give up diapers (yeah!). We are on the fence as she is still pretty young (19 months) but when we asked the Pedi she said to give it a whirl. So...probably the second weekend in October will be set aside for Potty-Time. Any and all advice welcome! And since I havent posted a video in a while, here is a goofy one from last night. Whenever W or I go to the bathroom, Izzy runs in after us insisting she go too...DEFINITELY BEST VIEWED ON MUTE
* ha - refer to last post for more bitterness
But what we learned from the RE has given us renewed hope for our last IUI and hopefully an even more successful IVF. While she felt IVF is totally not "over-kill" given W's age and our (lack) of insurance coverage, she noticed something a bit off in W's estrogen numbers and suspects that the issue all along has been that she has ovulated too early - ie her body is surging with an immature egg. This would explain the "no egg" ultrasound (there were eggs, just not big ones) and the fact that her "peak" day has crept up to CD 11. While these issues alone wouldn't necessarily raise red flags, her low estrogen numbers near the surge during our monitored cycles indicate that there really isnt a mature egg, despite the fact that her LH is surging. SO, she suggested we try a cycle with clomid to see how that effects things. I had really been resiting medicated cycles because I feel like it complicates things and it was alwasys a disaster when I tried it (cyst, etc), but the RE feels like we have a shot with the drugs and it will be useful to monitor (the hell out of) this cycle to see if we can pinpoint any issues that will inform our IVF protocol. So clomid and trigger it is..at least for Oct. In all honesty, we have so much going on these days the thought of starting the 6-week IVF protocol in less than two weeks is not only overwhelming, it feels nearly impossible. The RE walked us through the process, W's likely protocol and the timing. Wow -- the drugs, the money, IVF is no joke, yo!
So the planners that we are are, looked ahead and found that we dont have 6 "sane" weeks until January....meaning, while we are on the IVF train, it just may take a few more stops to get there. We are going to try 1 or 2 clomid cycles, possibly 1 or two live insems and then, assuming we dont get "lucky" -- IVF here we come! Phew, it feels good to have a plan! And one that feels so concrete.
Least you think we spend all day-every, day obsessing about TTC (although sometimes it feels like that), Fall is in full swing and we have been doing a ton of fun things. I did an AIDS bike ride to Ptown last weekend. It felt great to have a day to myself -- well me and 101 spandex-clad gays! W is in full Fall Semester mode, teaching, TFing and applying for jobs. And Izzy started her new "school" after Labor Day. While the first few days met with tearful good-byes, she is now *almost* excited to be dropped off. We think the transition was doubly hard because she is in an immersion Spanish school, and until the day she started, her Spanish vocabulary consisted of only the cognates. Her teachers are amazing and helped smooth the transition, but I think it was pretty disorienting to be surrounded by people who you dont understand after making so much progress over the past months to understand and express your thoughts in English. But the flip-side is that she has picked up so much in just a few days...She is going through a social explosion so once she had learned the name of everyone in her class she seemed much more conformable being able to at least refer to them by name when she says "adios or hola" or any number of other commands in English :)
The other major event is that we are thinking of doing full-blown Potty-Time. Izzy has been obsessed with the potty for the past few months, but now that her school has a kid-bathroom and designated potty-time (its more of a preschool/pre-k), we think she might be ready to take the plunge and give up diapers (yeah!). We are on the fence as she is still pretty young (19 months) but when we asked the Pedi she said to give it a whirl. So...probably the second weekend in October will be set aside for Potty-Time. Any and all advice welcome! And since I havent posted a video in a while, here is a goofy one from last night. Whenever W or I go to the bathroom, Izzy runs in after us insisting she go too...DEFINITELY BEST VIEWED ON MUTE
* ha - refer to last post for more bitterness
I LOVE having a plan- and your plan seems like such a good one! I hope you learn lots from monitoring the hell out of those ovaries. We're starting clomid in November, if no luck by then- I'm glad we'll be going through everything together still!
ReplyDeletea plan is good. fingers crossed clomid does the trick!
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't need all of the plan, but it totally makes sense that it would be helpful to know what the next steps will be.
ReplyDeleteGlad Izzy is settling into school--it sounds like a neat place.
yeah, a plan is definitely a good thing. i also love having a plan! helps keep all that chaos at bay. ah, ttc-induced chaos. fingers crossed for clomid and this cycle.
ReplyDeletealso, best of luck with potty training! we have gone down that road, but we're not 100% committed. we waffle. it's been good so far, however. the low-key thing has worked.