Thursday, November 30, 2006

QUESTIONS, ALWAYS MORE QUESTIONS...

I'm not quite sure how to word this... I need you help, knowledge and expertise. Yes, people, of course I am also looking for advice. Or assivice. I will take any and everything.

Yesterday afternoon I ambled into the clinic for my u/s monitoration. After sitting with my pants off for 20 minutes in a room with a heater blasting (I guess it's kind of them to assume I will be cold with my ass flapping in the wind,) my larangitic doctor came in. The man is still not speaking! It is so weird to have a doctor feel around in my vagina, yet I cannot converse with him. But anyways.

What I love about my clinic is how I can see everything that is going on. All my charts are computersized, and no matter what room I am in (u/s, office) I can see everything either on a massive plasma TV, or computer monitors turned towards me. So as TWBD was wanding me, he was measuring and noting everthing on screen where I could see it. (This is very helpful seeing as his vocal cords are currently disfunctional.) It was really amazing to see my follicles up on the screen ion black and white! I don't think I can adequately express how much I like this. Maybe all clinics are like this, though. Do you guys all get to see what's going on like I do?

Anyhoodle. After 4 days of Fem.ara and 2 shots of 20IU Pur.egon I had 5 follicles ranging from 8mm to 11mm.

Now I have to ask: IS THIS NORMAL? (Really, who is to say what's normal? But still I expect an answer to my question.) Is this the quantity and size of foolicles I should be expecting on CD8?

I took my last Fem.ara last night, and another injection of 20IU. Tonight, just another injection at 20IU, and tomorrow: u/s.

I know that everyone is different, and we all respond differently, and have different causes of IF. It just seems to me that my Pur.egon dose is REALLY LOW. It's just 2 clicks of the pen! I also know that with my PCO we have a greater danger of OHSS. And I know that TWBD is using this cycle as a benchmark becasue I haven't done any any other monitored cycles with him. I know, I know, I know...

Tell me people... what should I be ecpecting from my ovaries at this point? WHAT? Please help.


Oh and Lut: I have also read about the archaicness of post-coital tests. Like I wrote above, I think my doctor is using this cycle as a benchmark, just to see how everything "functions". Given this, I think he wants to see how The C's sperm reacts naturally before we move on to IUI. I'm alright with this one trial, as I am interested if I have a "hostile envoronment" down there. Trust me, if it doesn't work this time around (even if we score well on the post-coital), I will insist on IUI next time 'round.

7 comments:

Gil said...

Hi there! I just went through my first cycle of Clomid (CD3-7) and 50 IU of Puregon (CD8-12) and I can tell you my details for comparison's sake.

On CD8, I had 5 follies in the right ovary and 4 in the left that were visible. At that time, my biggest follie was 5.8 mm.

On CD10, I still had 9 follies, and the biggest was 13 mm (1.3 cm).

On CD12, lots of follies with two mature ones; the biggest was 21.5 mm.

My doctor once commented to me that "I grow 'em big and fast!"

I don't know if this helps you at all, but your follie sizes look great to me! Bigger than mine, and I know that it's tough to manage follie size with PCOS, which is why my doc doesn't want me to have too much Puregon and/or wait too long for the HCG trigger injection.

Peek at my blog for more details. And I'm sending HUGS your way!

Anonymous said...

I wish I could remember more details of my own cycle. I know that for my first wanding (I'm guessing it was around Day 8)after starting the Puregon (along with Clomid) I had 6 follicles that looked half decent. I cannot for the life of me remember the range though. I think that it was probably close to the range you have.

Because of the risk of multiple births they cut my Puregon in half. My clinic won't do IUI if you have more than 5 mature follicles on D-day so they didn't want me to have to many.

I hope this helped rather than added to your confusion.

Nico said...

I think you're right on target. You'll know a lot more after your u/s tomorrow. You can't typically be sure that they're growing until they're 12mm+, after that they grow on average 2mm/day. And with injectible cycles you'll typically trigger once the biggest follicle is around 18mm. Sending good egg-growing thoughts your way!

Mary Ellen and Steve said...

I hope that your follies keep growing. It sounds to me like everything is going just fine. Thinking of you.

BigP's Heather said...

At my clinic every doc is different. My doc and one of the others will turn the screen so you can see it with him. The other doc does not.

One doctor has a second computer monitor that faces you so you can see your records. My doc doesn't have that and I haven't seen the 3rd doc's office...

I wish they had big screens - that would be so cool.

Anonymous said...

okay, so now i'm feeling really competitive...and old!!! lol! sounds pretty good to me! i'm on puregon (75 iu for maybe 3 days and 100 iu for 5 days)...i have TWO follicles that are now (day 10) 18.5...and, until now, i was QUITE PROUD of them!!!! sigh...i guess that's still pretty good for my age...there are obviously women with loads more experience around puregon and stuff, but sounds pretty damn good to me, girl!
i'm very excited for you!!
peace
shlomit

Lut C. said...

My doctor always turns the screen to me during wandings. Very considerate.

Back when I was doing Clomid cycles, my doctor said they aimed for one mature follicle every cycle. Just one.
Two was ok for them, more than 4 or 5 and the cycle would be cancelled.

I'd call your ovaries enthousiastic at this point.


About the IUIs, Silber is not a great fan of those either. He writes that it is certainly worth trying, but not to stick with it too long.
I've read other doctor's suggesting the same thing.

Of course, you could very well be one of the lucky ladies that is helped with IUI. The sooner the better!

Good luck!