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| Faint but positive! |
Just a single gal who decided to become a single mom, this is my story...
Showing posts with label pregnancy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pregnancy. Show all posts
Friday, July 27, 2012
SQUEEEEE
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Mother Nature FAIL
Now while the title of this post may sound negative, it's not quite all that bad. I'll explain...
I have been keeping quiet over the past week or so while anxiously awaiting the results of my first IUI. Something in my head went the route of "don't tell anyone cause it could jinx the results!" Well that is just idiotic! Nothing of the sort will jinx the outcome of an IUI. There is only about a 10% chance that a natural IUI (one without meds) will be successful in the first place. That's 10% less chance than doing it the old-fashioned way, if you know what I mean. Both those percentages are based on success rates when no fertility issues are involved...having those can drastically change that number (and of course age is a mass factor, too). Needless to say, my first IUI was not a success story. Here is how it all went down...
On May 28th I got my LH surge. For those unfamiliar with the acronym, LH stands for Luteinizing hormone. Basically it is a hormone release by the anterior pituitary gland. In females, the release of this hormone triggers ovulation. Usually ovulation will occur within 24-48 hours of the LH surge. The LH surge is detected through ovulation predictor kits (OPKs). They are sort of like a pregnancy test...you pee on a stick and it tells you whether you are surging or not; pretty simple and straightforward. Once the LH surge is detected, you call the doctor and then go in the following day for the IUI. The IUI is a very simple procedure that takes less than a couple of minutes. Basically the doc takes the thawed, washed sperm and uses a catheter to directly inject it into the uterus.
After the procedure you have to lay down for 15 minutes, and then you're off to live life as you normally would...with the exception of cavorting around bars and living it up like you were in Vegas!!
Remember, at this point you should already be thinking like a pregnant woman! Once you're done at the doc's, the only thing to do is wait the 2 weeks it takes for fertilization, implantation, and a hopefully a positive pregnancy test.
Well, that's not exactly how it went for me. My LH surge occurred on the 28th. On the morning of the 29th I had my IUI. I took the rest of the day off just for good measure. I ate healthy, relaxed, didn't drink booze...I was a model patient! But that doesn't always guarantee a successful outcome. Unfortunately my hormones and Mother Nature decided to do their own thing. Six days after the IUI on the 3rd, bam, my cycle went nuts! To make TMI less TMI, I started my period 10 days premature. Now this never happens so I was highly disappointed in my hormones for acting like uncontrollable morons! But what can you do? Mother Nature will do as she pleases and usually at completely inappropriate times! And this was obviously the time she had chosen. Oh well, now what?
I called my doc first thing Monday morning (June 4th) and let him know that Mother Nature failed me (please review title of post now). Today (June 5th) he had me come in for another vaginal ultrasound to check out the goods and make sure there was nothing to be overly concerned with...basically making sure it was just a wonky month and all systems were still go. Lucky for me, all systems are still go! But the doc did decide to go ahead and put me on 50mg of Clomid for this next cycle. Clomid is used to treat ovulation issues in some women, but for me it's basically being used to increase my progesterone and lengthen my cycle. I have no issues with ovulation, so once again we're going to wait on the LH surge and proceed as normal. With Clomid my chances for conceiving with IUI jump from 10% to 20%, so that is a bonus!
So on to more good news!!! Since I was 10 days early this month, now I get to go back in for my next IUI within the next 11 days or so. This is good news because I don't have to wait all those additional days this month. When you're trying to conceive, any extra waiting is just torment (especially at my age)! The only concern I really have right now is the increased chance for multiple births that comes along with Clomid. There is a 5-12% chance of twins (depending on your source, with 8-10% being the norm), a 1% chance of triplets (highly unlikely for women over 35), and .1% for quads (yeah, that's not happening!). Since I ovulate like a champ, I am concerned that any drug which excites my ovaries to produce more than one viable follicle at a time may be risky. But I'd rather have twins than no children at all, so we'll just have to wait and see.
I think that about catches everything up to date. This evening I start my Clomid, take it for the next five days, wait until day 12 of my cycle to start testing with the OPKs, and hopefully by day 14 or 15 will get my surge and be in for the next IUI by day 15 or 16 (June 17 or 18). This time I will not keep it a secret that I've gone in. No more of the paranoia regarding jinxing the whole thing. If it's meant to be it will happen when the time is right...everything is about timing! Hopefully this time around I will come back with a positive result and a successful procedure story. If not, well then it's off for one more round before other methods are discussed with my doc. So here's to the rest of this month!
Want to learn more about IUI and Clomid? Try this link: http://www.raising-twins.com/clomid.html
Please drop me a vote at Top Baby Blogs by clicking the button below. Also, feel free to join me on my other Social Media sites by clicking on the additional buttons below that!
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| Cat pictures always make bad news good! |
On May 28th I got my LH surge. For those unfamiliar with the acronym, LH stands for Luteinizing hormone. Basically it is a hormone release by the anterior pituitary gland. In females, the release of this hormone triggers ovulation. Usually ovulation will occur within 24-48 hours of the LH surge. The LH surge is detected through ovulation predictor kits (OPKs). They are sort of like a pregnancy test...you pee on a stick and it tells you whether you are surging or not; pretty simple and straightforward. Once the LH surge is detected, you call the doctor and then go in the following day for the IUI. The IUI is a very simple procedure that takes less than a couple of minutes. Basically the doc takes the thawed, washed sperm and uses a catheter to directly inject it into the uterus.
 |
| See, very simple! |
After the procedure you have to lay down for 15 minutes, and then you're off to live life as you normally would...with the exception of cavorting around bars and living it up like you were in Vegas!!
 |
| How NOT to handle the wait! |
Remember, at this point you should already be thinking like a pregnant woman! Once you're done at the doc's, the only thing to do is wait the 2 weeks it takes for fertilization, implantation, and a hopefully a positive pregnancy test.
Well, that's not exactly how it went for me. My LH surge occurred on the 28th. On the morning of the 29th I had my IUI. I took the rest of the day off just for good measure. I ate healthy, relaxed, didn't drink booze...I was a model patient! But that doesn't always guarantee a successful outcome. Unfortunately my hormones and Mother Nature decided to do their own thing. Six days after the IUI on the 3rd, bam, my cycle went nuts! To make TMI less TMI, I started my period 10 days premature. Now this never happens so I was highly disappointed in my hormones for acting like uncontrollable morons! But what can you do? Mother Nature will do as she pleases and usually at completely inappropriate times! And this was obviously the time she had chosen. Oh well, now what?
I called my doc first thing Monday morning (June 4th) and let him know that Mother Nature failed me (please review title of post now). Today (June 5th) he had me come in for another vaginal ultrasound to check out the goods and make sure there was nothing to be overly concerned with...basically making sure it was just a wonky month and all systems were still go. Lucky for me, all systems are still go! But the doc did decide to go ahead and put me on 50mg of Clomid for this next cycle. Clomid is used to treat ovulation issues in some women, but for me it's basically being used to increase my progesterone and lengthen my cycle. I have no issues with ovulation, so once again we're going to wait on the LH surge and proceed as normal. With Clomid my chances for conceiving with IUI jump from 10% to 20%, so that is a bonus!
So on to more good news!!! Since I was 10 days early this month, now I get to go back in for my next IUI within the next 11 days or so. This is good news because I don't have to wait all those additional days this month. When you're trying to conceive, any extra waiting is just torment (especially at my age)! The only concern I really have right now is the increased chance for multiple births that comes along with Clomid. There is a 5-12% chance of twins (depending on your source, with 8-10% being the norm), a 1% chance of triplets (highly unlikely for women over 35), and .1% for quads (yeah, that's not happening!). Since I ovulate like a champ, I am concerned that any drug which excites my ovaries to produce more than one viable follicle at a time may be risky. But I'd rather have twins than no children at all, so we'll just have to wait and see.
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| Aren't they just so damn cute! |
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| Be careful what you wish for! |
I think that about catches everything up to date. This evening I start my Clomid, take it for the next five days, wait until day 12 of my cycle to start testing with the OPKs, and hopefully by day 14 or 15 will get my surge and be in for the next IUI by day 15 or 16 (June 17 or 18). This time I will not keep it a secret that I've gone in. No more of the paranoia regarding jinxing the whole thing. If it's meant to be it will happen when the time is right...everything is about timing! Hopefully this time around I will come back with a positive result and a successful procedure story. If not, well then it's off for one more round before other methods are discussed with my doc. So here's to the rest of this month!
Want to learn more about IUI and Clomid? Try this link: http://www.raising-twins.com/clomid.html
Please drop me a vote at Top Baby Blogs by clicking the button below. Also, feel free to join me on my other Social Media sites by clicking on the additional buttons below that!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
I am Ashley's Discarded Eggs
First a little bit of background knowledge... A woman is born with all her eggs. Actually by 20 weeks old, way before actual birth, is when all eggs are fully formed and at their maximum count. How many eggs? Depending on which source you scour, which I am a scourer of knowledge, you may get a differing answer. But usually the numbers are up there in the low millions, roughly around 2 million. The count varies by individual, and like I said, different sources claim different counts...which just means science isn't perfect and we're still learning. Regardless of the actual factual number, from the moment when all of our eggs are gathered in the proverbial basket, we start uncontrollably killing off our offspring. (I know a few parents out there to whom this may sound like a pretty damned good idea since they are dealing with those massively horrible teenage years at the moment. Yay! Something to which I can look forward!). By the time we are actually born, our egg count has dropped drastically to approximately 600,000...once again this varies by individual and the number of eggs one actually produces as a fetus. By puberty we're down another 200,000. Whoa!
And after puberty? Well every month we develop multiple eggs, although only one is normally released to travel along that wondrous path of creation with the higher-than-actually-getting-born-chance of entering into the world and becoming a little teenage shit! Hahahaha! Didn't see that coming did you? Btw, both my brothers are dealing with newbie teenagers right now so that's where the teenage cracks are coming from. I'm learning invaluable information regarding the horrors of this stage of parenting...the type I never realized whilst I was a teenager, of course, cause I was a freakin' angel! O:-) <-------notice my BIG halo! The other eggs developing every month? Well they just shrivel up and die! Which is exactly what will happen to the oh-so-special released egg if the elusive one sperm in a gajillion doesn't reach it's goal!
Okay, at this point some of you may be asking where this is leading and wondering why I find this amusing. It's not the science behind the process that got me going this morning, it was the imagery that popped into my head while I regarded the science. Has anyone here seen or read the Hunger Games? Has anyone here been living under a rock for several months? If you answered yes to question 2, then you probably answered no to question 1. I seriously doubt anyone answered no to question 1, and if so I apologize as this may be a bit confusing. But for those who answered yes...I woke up this morning with the imagery that what is left of my eggs, which is approaching an alarmingly smaller and smaller number every month, are "tributes" in a Hunger Game style reaping. Each one is marked and has the potential for death every month, but only so many are chosen to compete in the arena. At this point, the "chosen" ones go into the death-match arena and there can only be one survivor! But in the end, if the sole survivor of the death match doesn't satisfy the masses (aka gajillion sperm), it is also exterminated! Unfortunately unlike the book/movie, this reaping occurs monthly instead of yearly. I know this isn't a perfect metaphor, but I'm sure you get where I'm coming from.
The other image I had this morning in regards to the same pondering, was one where all of my eggs were shoving this one poor little sacrificial egg towards the fallopian tubes. This image consisted of the poor little fella holding on to the edges of the tube entrance and pleading not to be pushed to certain death! "Not me, Not yet!" "Just one more month!" "You ought not done that, he's just a boy!" *All other eggs sneering and pushing like big-egged bullies* While this may not seem amusing, and I'd draw you a picture to relate the visual if I had any artistic talent besides dancing...(maybe an interpretive dance video?)...anyway, the thought just cracked me up! Like I said before, everyone may not get my inner humor! I suppose the thought was driven my contemplation and realization that this was the first month in all my years in which I purposefully decided to doom this month's egg and that next month's egg had full potential of actual survival beyond my uterus.
On the flip side of my amusement, I also for the first time harbored a since of guilt about this natural monthly sacrifice. Even though I've been doing this involuntarily since inside the womb, this month just felt different. This month seemed more like a choice, whereas all the other months it was simply mother nature doing what she does. And next month will also be a choice...the conscious choice to actually try and fertilize the "tribute" rather than kill it off in the death-match arena before it even stands a chance! It is highly likely my self-amusing imagery was some sort of defense mechanism against the realization of all the possibilities lost throughout my life...of all the eggs discarded that were each, at 20 weeks, possibly a wonderful little bundle of cuddly, amazing, unique joy. Then again, things happen the way they're supposed to in the end. Next month, if everything goes as planned, one of those possible bundles of cuddly, amazing, unique joy will no longer be hanging on the precipice of extinction and actually be on it's way to becoming that teenage horror which I may at some crazed moment wish back into the arena because it has displeased the masses!
So there you go...my random thought of the day. :)
I found this particular site very informative for those who are interested. http://www.infertile.com/brochures/biological_clock04.htm There is a lot of information out there, and a lot of it conflicting even between scientists and doctors. The basics remain the same, so this was a good middle-of-the-road site.
Not sure what the rules are for using other people's images in blogs (I'm new at this), but must give credit on the second pic to the creative genius of Gary Larson's The Far Side®
Please drop me a vote at Top Baby Blogs by clicking the button below. Also, feel free to join me on my other Social Media sites by clicking on the additional buttons below that!
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