IVF #3, third appointment

Well, it’s not over, yet. I had a different nurse today; she remembers working with me before, maybe in 2009. I mean, she looks familiar and is very nice, but I don’t remember her doing my scans or bloods. This morning she did the ultrasound and sort of quietly made observations, which started to worry me. She asked about the med dose, cycle day, etc. She was also aware that Dr. Fabulous (doctor in charge of finding missing right ovaries) had previously done all of my ultrasounds for IVF #2, and had been called in to finish the ultrasound a few days ago. The nurse said she was going to have a look first, then, might get Dr. Fabulous. You know how this will end….

More probing around, then she had to change the paper on the printer. When I mentioned that happened on Saturday as well (printer was out of paper) she told me that I must be unlucky because that only happens every few months. I thought, “unlucky? yeah, you don’t know the half of it.” More probing, not offering much hope, and off she went to get Dr. Fabulous. Commence the tears.

Dr. Fabulous walked in a few minutes later to find a teary-eyed patient in the stirrups. Lovely. She had a look and it seems that all hope is not lost, for now. The right ovary is still a complete, worthless loser (two small follicles today). The left side is showing a bit of promise with six, okayish follicles. She tried to comfort me, but the fact is, I have DOR, I’m old (in the world of reproductive medicine, mid-upper 30s is old), and even at a crazy high dose of stims, my body is not responding all that well. With every IVF cycle, there are fewer follicles and therefore, fewer eggs and therefore, fewer embryos.

The plan is to stay on the high dose of Gonal F through the weekend, and see Dr. Fabulous on Monday. She said just to book with her and she’ll do the scan on their new machine. That way we’ll know exactly what’s happening. I have an appointment for intralipids on Monday, too.

The day now looks like this…

AM: thyroid meds, Prednisone x 5, Centrotide injection, Heparin injection

noon: prenatal vitamin, calcium x 3, baby aspirin, folic acid x 2, B Complex

PM: Heparin injection, Gonal F injection, Luveris injection

In other news, the clinic has a shiny new photo album in the waiting area. I suspected it was full of the “success” pictures, and I was correct. Imagine my delight when I opened it up to see Kate’s pictures on the front page. Of all the clinics I’ve been in, all of the bulletin boards of pictures, you sit and wonder, will I ever have a baby on that wall, or a picture to put in that book? Even though I gave Kate’s pictures to the clinic, it was really something to see them on display. Wow, we really did it. I so hope we can do it again.