Easiest Appointment Yet!

This morning Ryan and I went in for my screening ultrasound to make sure my body is ready to go ahead with embryo transfer number two. This cycle has been much easier than the fresh transfer cycle already for several reasons:

1. No Follicle Stimulating Hormones (FSH): These are the shots that were painful and left bruises everyday (not just when I hit a bad spot like I have done this week to get the 2 lovely purple spots I have on my tummy now!) The FSH injections were also responsible for most of the yucky side effects I had last time, which brings me to:
2. No uncomfortable side effects! My ovaries were swollen from the overproduction caused by the hormones, which not only made my bladder feel full more often than normal, but also made me feel extremely bloated and uncomfortable all of the time. I felt fat and was not allowed to exercise or do anything about it, so I sat at home and tried to eat healthy (until I gave in and gave up-on the healthy part, not the eating part.)
3. No elevated estrogen levels: no risk of Ovarian Hyper Stimulation Syndrome (OHSS). This was the main reason I was not supposed to do much of anything (which made life boring) and also the reason I had to drink a ton of Gatorade every day which ended up giving me terrible stomachaches. I felt fragile and sick for almost a week! (And hopefully without elevated estrogen levels I will not experience the night sweats I did when the levels dropped last time.)
4. No hCG; this was only an issue for a few days, but it was a glimpse into pregnancy: I felt nauseous pretty much all the time. When I was hungry I would get nauseous then I would eat and feel better for a few minutes until whatever I ate started making me feel nauseous and smells would make it even worse! I remember talking to someone with bad breath and thinking I was going to lose it right there on the floor!
5. Fewer injections: this time around I have been on Lupron since the end of April, then Estrace (estrogen supplement) a week later. So far that is it! Last time I had 3 different injections every morning as well as the hCG injection 36 hours before egg retrieval then antibiotics for a week and progesterone injections for two.

Today's appointment made it even more evident that a Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) cycle is a piece of cake compared to a fresh cycle. We walked in, went to a room, I stripped from the waist down, the doctor came in and we started the ultrasound. She checked to see if my uterine lining was "good and fluffy" which would mean it was ready for implantation and measured my ovaries. My uterus looked great and ovaries looked small (normal sized) and calm which is exactly the way things should be. Five minutes after undressing I was redressing-it was THAT FAST! I think it might have been the fastest ultrasound I have ever had, plus it did not hurt at all (like it did last time) which is always a bonus.

After the ultrasound we talked to two nurses: one was the one who was so sweet and called us from home with our pregnancy test results the first time and the other was new to us. They went over our calendar for the next few weeks: in two days I will stop the Lupron injections, reduce the estrogen from three pills a day to one and start progesterone injections (twice the dose I had before because this time it is a replacement rather than just a supplement...it's amazing the extra hormones your ovaries produce when overstimulated). At Ryan's request I had them draw new circles on my back so he would know where to aim when giving me the progesterone shots. This time we requested they draw with a Sharpie so they will not wash off as easily. The new circles are quite a bit lower than last time...I think my tattoo threw the nurse off last time.

We found out that the embryo only takes about two hours to thaw, so they will thaw one and if it doesn't work then they thaw another until they get a viable embryo. Usually embryos will make it through the thawing process just fine, but if not they will just keep thawing one at a time until it works (hopefully it works on the first try!) Most importantly, and the news everyone has been waiting for: our embryo transfer will be next Tuesday! Someone will call us with an exact time on Monday, but it will likely be mid-morning.

I am very excited, but I feel a lot more normal this time around. I feel fine physically, which is probably a huge reason. Last time was hard because I already had some of the physical symptoms of pregnancy just because of the hormones (of course we will see how the progesterone changes things) so once the embryo was inside me I was sure I was pregnant. This time around also seems easier because I have already been through it all once. It is less expensive this time and we have enough embryos to try five more times after this if we need to. In a week I am sure I will be back to Googling every little symptom and spasm, but for now I just feel happy and hopeful!