1st ultrasound

One thing I wanted to address before talking about my appointment was the sweet compliments I got from some of you on the new header for my blog. I do, indeed, make the headers myself, though all I do is compile the art -- the illustrations themselves I shamelessly pilfer from Google image searches. One day some artist will stumble upon my infertility blog and wonder how the heck their artwork got on a site about egg harvesting and progesterone discharge. And then I'll probably go to jail, hopefully the one where Martha Stewart was housed so that I can get me a poncho.

OK, and drumroll please...here are the details from yesterday's 1st ultrasound:

As per usual, my body wouldn't provide a simple answer, so there is either ONE or TWO beans in there! We had one that looked great-- it measured at 5w6d, which is one day short of the 6w0d calculation from ER, but totally fine. Good yolk sac, fetal pole and heartbeat, though my clinic doesn't measure heart rate below 6.5 weeks, but any cardiac activity is a very good sign at this young age. There definitely was a second implantation and second sac, but they couldn't see alot more than that right now. My RE said it's 50/50 whether the second bean will be viable, he wouldn't be surprised to see it "catch up" at the next u/s but also wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't develop any more. So, NoodleGuy and I are celebrating one strong bean and assuming we're having a singleton. If the other gives us good news at the next u/s, we'll be thrilled, but are prepared to hear that it didn't develop further. If you recall my embie photo from ET, we're assuming it was little John Lennon that took and possibly little Paul McCartney that's lagging behind. No way to tell, but makes it easier to come up with nicknames! ;)

Once again, I'm reminded how much I love my RE as we chatted after the exam. He wants to monitor me (u/s and exam) every week through 10 weeks because of my history of m/c. I had just assumed that we'd do another u/s at 8 weeks and if that looked good, I'd be released to the OB -- I had even made an appt for my OB at 9 weeks. But he said because he knows and cares about me, he wants to see me every week (yay, a sneak peek at little Johnny every week!) through week 10 because at that point, he'd feel pretty confident that the vast majority of chromosomal issues would have resolved themselves (he actually said they usually do by 7 weeks, though I've disproved that with a chromosomal loss at 9.5 weeks). If I still look good at week 10, he feels very confident that he won't be seeing me again. I am so, so happy to have this close monitoring with him, and God forbid, if any bad news happened, to be able to be with him when I got it. With my 2nd loss over the summer, I found out the bad news with an OB I had never met before who then sent me over to a cold, clinical u/s facility to confirm where this mean male doctor delivered the news and then unceremoniously booted me from the exam room because other patients were waiting. So, obviously, you can imagine my happiness to be with my beloved RE and nurses for a while longer.

Also, I quizzed him about why he thought this cycle was so much more successful for me (6 eggs, great E2 compared to 1 follie, abominable E2 in the past). He partially credited high doses of Menopur, but mostly credited my own ovaries and the fact that clearly I just need more time, due to DOR, than other ladies. He confirmed, as I knew, that basically any other RE in the practice (of which there are 12) would have cancelled me, even if was their own patient. He is the only RE within the practice that insists on doing all of his own monitoring, even while on vacation, and because he knows me, he wasn't willing to give up yet even though by Stim Day 11 I had almost nothing going on follicularly and very low E2 still. It wasn't until Day 12 that I finally took off and ended with 6 follies and a 1,334 E2 level in those final 6 days of stimming.

He told me an anecdote that just this past weekend, he had another patient who was on Day 10 and had only 3 follies less than 12mm. The weekend nurse missed the fact that my RE's name was on the record, since they know to always call him directly about his patients and instead called the doctor on call. And the on-call RE, who happened to be my old RE, cancelled the woman on the spot. My RE was checking on his patients later that day, saw that this woman had been cancelled and immediately reversed the order and she continued stimming. As of Monday, her 3 follies had grown and there was a 4th and as of this morning, things looked even better. This story made me want to hug my RE but also scream on behalf of all the women whose REs treat them in a cookie cutter manner. I know 99% of other REs would have cancelled me and this bean(s) would not be growing inside of me right now and that is just so unbelievable to me. There's still so much they can't tell about how a given woman will stim and often, it seems, they just give up too soon especially with older women and/or those with DOR. I'm hoping that my success so far might inspire other slow/low stimmers to press their REs to be more aggressive with them and break the mold a little bit.

My awaiting-cartwheel list, which had previously been 8 bullets, is now expanded to 10 thanks to the additional blessed ultrasounds:

1. Beta #1 (12/29 - 13dpo): 242 - check!
2. Beta #2 (1/2 - 17dpo): 1,206 - check!
3. Beta #3 (1/7 - 22dpo): 8,848 - check!
4. Ultrasound #1 (1/13): 5w6d - check!
5. Ultrasound #2 (1/20) - 6w6d
6. Ultrasound #3 (1/29) - 8w1d
7. First appt with OBGYN (2/3)
8. Ultrasound #4 (2/4) - 9 weeks
9. Ultrasound #5 (@ 2/11) - 10 weeks
10. CVS test (2/17)

So far so good, though I still feel something akin to terror as each week goes by. I've made it to 7 weeks and made it to 9 weeks before. As we approach 9+ weeks, I'm going to be practically catatonic. Trying to take it one day at a time and focus on the happy, though! :)