Relaxation only lasts so long

We're back from a lovely week in Hawaii. It was very low-key. I snorkeled one morning, but otherwise read by the beach or pool while my husband snorkeled, body surfed, and scuba dived. I'm certified for scuba, but am nervous about ocean dives, so I decided to skip it.

The weather was great, which is one of the predictable things about Hawaii. We didn't even get any rain during our week. At home in California it was rainy and cold. And is still really cold, but not raining until the weekend. (Really cold = highs in the low 50s -- you snow-bound folks can now laugh at me.)

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For those of you who have been following along, I expected to have a monitoring appointment on Sunday and start stims on Monday. Well, that was based on AF coming before/during my vacation. Which it didn't.

I'm annoyed, because I told my clinic that I was very uncertain about when my last period was, and they said it really didn't matter. I now suspect that the bleeding that finally ended at the beginning of February was probably the end of AF. Which means starting estrace on February 7 was probably pre-ovulation, as was the Ganirelix.

No idea what that means for priming my follies, but I rather suspect it isn't good. I emailed my RE on Thursday night (from Hawaii) and my clinic relayed that he said to keep taking the Estrace.

I'm mildly annoyed at my body for not being easier to read, and more annoyed with the clinic for not listening to me. A blood test could have indicated where in my cycle I was.

Now I have no way to estimate when retrieval and transfer will be. If the estrogen priming cycle was wasted, that would push us back an entire month. If it wasn't wasted, then it'll depend on when AF shows. Today would have been counted as CD2 if I'd started stims.

Grr.

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I'm having some trouble reading new baby blogs and tweets right now. Please don't take it personally if I stop reading/commenting, it's just not where my head is at, and I'm trying to avoid the negative feelings that sometimes/often arise. I'm thrilled for those of you that made it to the finish line.

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amiracle4us asked about my immune treatment in the comments of my last post...

For IVF #1, we did two shots of Humira, two weeks apart, pre-stims, and then did Intralipids starting with a positive pregnancy test (so roughly 4 weeks and 7 weeks). Before the treatment, my RE rated my NK levels as a 4/5 (where 5/5 is worst, and 0/5 is normal). After the Humira I was down to a 1/5.

For IVF #2, we did Intralipids -- one pre retrieval during stims, and then none after because of the cancelled cycle.

For IVF #3, we did two shots of Humira, two weeks apart, pre-stims (bloodwork a week after the shots got me to a 0/5 -- completely normal NK and TH1:TH2 levels), an Intralipid with retrieval , another after the positive pregnancy test, and had another scheduled for 3 weeks later. When I had the first ultrasound with my ob/gyn, it was a day or two before the scheduled Intralipid. Because the heartbeat was low, he did an unplanned Intralipid right after the ultrasound in case immunological factors were involved in killing off the embryo. (Which turned out not to be the case - it was a chromosonal abnormality.)

I asked my RE why he wanted to do an Intralipid with retrieval even though I was showing completely normal NK and TH1:TH2 levels, and he said it's easier to stay ahead of things instead of being reactive to increasing levels.

IVF #4 has involved the 2 shots of Humira during what's hopefully my estrogen priming cycle, and I'll repeat the bloodwork after AF to see if my levels are normal or not.

Hope that helps!