Our meeting with the RE and the Hysteroscopy.

Well our meeting with the RE went well. He had ordered a ton of test to check all sorts of things in my blood to see how well my body was at. My Cholestoral was good (it had gone up last time I was on the IR diet) and my veins don’t show hardening. My insulin levels were also good. He actually gave me the choice of going on Avandia (the insulin drug I was on when I got pregnant with the triplets) or not going on it. After some discussion I said I would take it. The thought being that it is a safety net should I go way off my diet, and it may help me gain weight. I don’t recall it doing the latter for me the last time but hey you never know!

I asked him all sorts of questions reguarding the IVF. I will post them here so I don’t have to worry about keeping the paper with them on it. More for a record for me then anything. Hopefully you will enjoy it also. Answers are in itallics.

1) Should I use a heating pad after my Egg Retrivial (I have seen many schools of thought on this)? You can if you want to. He doesn’t care at that point. I should take Tylenol for pain. Nothing else.

2) How many days of bed rest after the Embryo Transfer do I need? Do I need to lay down on the way home? No bed rest per say but I should “take it easy.” They will not fall out with movement.

3) What is the grading system for the Embryo’s? He said this is very subjective. I think to be on the safe side I am going to get all the systems I can find and print them out so I have them on hand.

4) If the eggs are too small to be seen on the ultrasound, how do you know you “got them”? They don’t. It is critical that I take my HCG injection on time so that the eggs are waiting for the doctor to take them. I guess what happens is when I am going through this the eggs will grow and grow. Then when it is time to take the HCG I need to take it at the precice time they say. Because this cuts the eggs off so they are still in their sacks but have not been released yet. It involves percise timeing. Take the HCG too late and the eggs may not be cut off. Take it too early and the eggs could be elsewhere in the body.

5) Will we get a picture of the embryo’s prior to the transfer? Yes we will.

6) Will I need to take Steroids during IVF? Yes To which Tony and I having gone through all the months of Emily and having doctor’s and nurses tell us about the risk of steroids were confused! He said that I will be on them during the time after my ER and before my ET. So there will be little to no effects on the child.

7) How many days transfer is he shooting for? It could be anywhere from 1 (rare) to 6 (rare also). Normal is either 3 or 5 day. He is shooting for 5 day transfer.

8) Is there an injectable prenatal? Not that he is aware of. I asked this because of the horriable Morning Sickness I had with the triplets. I am worried about that happening again and want to be prepared. He said we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

That was all my questions. I was told I should get a pedometer so I can try to achieve 10,000 steps a day. I will be getting one soon for that. That is about all that came out of that consult.

The next day, Wednesday, I had a Hysteroscopy. I had had this procedure before but I was knocked out for it. This time I wasn’t. So I took (after talking to the RE about the day before) one of the pills that I had left over from the C-section for pain. 600 mg of Advil. I don’t know if it was the advil or I just didn’t feel any pain but it wasn’t that bad. It was wierd seeing the inside of my uterus on TV. Tony was with me and afterwords I told him, after the c-section and this procedure it puts knowing me in a biblical way in a whole new meaning! ha ha! Anyway everything looked good. He did find a blood clot and didn’t know if it was a polyp or not so he got out his tools and by the time he got them the clot had resolved itself. All told it was a quick and relatively pain free procedure. And I passed with flying colors!

Now I am waiting for the rest of this cycle. I have my Mock transfer on the 11th as well as some more testing for Tony, and a blood test for me (to check the Avandia and make sure it is doing what it is suppose to do.) Then we are also having a refresher coarse in injectables. Tony thought it would be a good idea. I also have more monitoring this cycle. Bloodwork and ultrasound on the 3rd and if they don’t like what they see then, then I will have it again on the 5th. I will also have another blood work and ultrasound the week after that too.

I am shooting for an ER of somewhere around June 11 or 12. That would put me at the all important 30 weeks (assuming it works) at Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. This could change though depending on what my body wants.

That is all the news I have for now!
Jennifer