March 2005

We went back to Dr. Lucas in March and we went back to the Pregesterone to start my period, continue taking the Prednisone and we were going to start doing fertility shots. I thought this was so exciting! Every month it was getting closer and closer to getting pregnant and this just had to be the month. Month 3!

Day 3 of your period you are to go into the office and have an internal ultrasound and bloodwork. They do an ultrasound to take a picture of your ovaries and to make sure you do not have any cysts before you start the treatment.

Monday morning at 7am I was at the Dr.'s office waiting to have my ultrasound and bloodwork done. I had to be their first thing in the morning because I had to be at work by 8am and didn't want anyone there to know what I was going through. This was my first ultrasound and as soon as they saw my ovaries it confirmed that I was in fact a perfect PCOS patient. My ovaries looked like big chocolate chip cookies. All of the chocolate chips were little cysts on my ovaries waiting to be stimulated.

Seeing the results of my ultrasound and bloodwork Dr. Lucas started me on the Low and Slow schedule. Low dosage of medicine given slowly so we do not stimulate 40 follicles from both my left and right ovaries increasing the chances of multiple births and increasing the chances of overstimulating my ovaries which in turn could cancel this cycle of treatments.

Each cycle has a management fee of $250. This cost covers what the insurance does not pay of the ultrasounds and bloodwork and the Dr.'s reviewing my results and ultrasounds every two to three days.

Results from each day I went for my ultrasound and bloodwork:

Cycle Day 3
Monday 3-7-05
Left ovary- no follicles seen
Right ovary-
1- 0.4
2- 0.35
8 total follicles counted on right
Endometrium- 0.3
75iu's of Gonal F for 3 nights

I started my shots that night. I took 75iu's of Gonal F Pen for the next three nights. You take the medicine every night as instructed between 7-9pm. It was fairly easy to prepare the Pen to take the shot. You clean the end of the Pen with a cotton swab and then twist the needle onto the end. Then you "dial" up the dosage. After cleaning your skin with the cotton swab then you are to insert the needle and inject the medicine. We had planned on Phillip giving me the shot because I was so scared it would hurt. I prepared the Pen for him and handed it over. He wrapped his fingers around the pen and started laughing and joking around saying, "I am Dr. Martin here to give you your shot." This followed silly gestures which weren't very funny to me. I told him "thanks but no thanks. I can do this myself." I then sat on my bed for about 10 minutes trying to get up enough courage to inflict myself with pain. Once I did it it really wasn't that bad. I just had to do this for two more weeks. I can handle it.

Cycle Day 6
Thursday 3-10-07
Returned to the office at 7am for ultrasound and bloodwork.
Left ovary-
1. 0.5
2. 0.45
3. 0.45
4. 0.3
10 total follicles on the left side.

Right ovary-
1. 0.5
2. 0.3
10 total follicles on the right side.

Estrogen level- 60
Endometrium- 0.5
75iu's of Gonal F for 2 more nights

Cycle Day 8
Saturday 3-12-05
Return to office at 7am for ultrasound and bloodwork.
Left ovary-
1. 0.5
2. 0.6
16 total follicles on left side.

Right ovary-
1. 0.56
2. 0.59
20 total follicles on right side.

Estrogen- 84
Endometrium- .84
100iu's of Gonal F for 3 more nights.

Cycle Day 11
Tuesday 3-15-05
Return to office at 7am for ultrasound and bloodwork.
Left ovary-
1. 0.55
2. 0.35
20 total follicles on left side.

Right ovary-
1. 1.0
2. 0.6
10 total follicles on right side.

Estrogen- 93
Endometrium- .75
150iu's of Gonal F for 2 more nights.

Cycle Day 13
Thursday 3-17-05
Return to office at 7am for ultrasound and bloodwork.
Left ovary-
1. 0.55
2. 0.45
20 total follicles on left side.

Right ovary-
1. 1.45
2. 0.45
20 total follicles on right side.

Estrogen- 133
Endometrium- .8

150iu's of Gonal F for 2 more nights.

Cycle Day 15
Saturday 3-19-05
Return to office at 7am for ultrasound and bloodwork.
Left ovary-
1. 0.7
2.
20 total follicles on left side.

Right ovary-
1. 1.45
2. 1.25
3. 0.95
4. 0.85
20+ total follicles on right side.

Estrogen- 478
Endometrium- 1.0

112iu's of Gonal F for 2 more nights.

Cycle Day 17
Saturday 3-21-05
Return to office at 7am for ultrasound and bloodwork.
Left ovary-
1. 0.9
2. 0.95
3. 0.7
4. 0.6
20 total follicles on left side.

Right ovary-
1. 1.7
2. 0.95
3. 0.8
4. 0.75
20 total follicles on right side.

Estrogen- 514
Endometrium- .95

HCG shot!

The HCG shot is the last shot given in the cycle. This is to trigger ovulation. Now starts the two week waiting period to take a pregnancy test.