3DPO - Last cycle of the year update!!!

Hey yall!
I know it's been a while, but I put most of my day to day updates on FB now, having the new TTC profile.

Here's what's been going on. On the last U/S I took, which was on CD 13 it was filled with great news. Had a pretty big follicle, measuring 17.4mm and a great size endometrium, 10.9mm thick. The doc told me I should probably O in a couple of days and to start OPKs the next day.

The next day, I obviously forgot my OPK at home and couldn't test during the day, but it turned out for the best, as I tested that night at about 8pm and it was the strongest positive I've ever seen on a OPK, so I'm guessing I caught the spike. This means that I probably O on CD16, which on the BBT chart has a tremendous drop in temps, followed by rising temps the next couple of days. The rise is temps is no surprise as my doc put me on progesterone supplements starting CD15.

My hubby and I haven't been BDing as much as I would've wanted to, just because it was a crazy week, but I hope it was enough to catch the egg.

The new dilemma of the day is that I've come down with a cold in my weekend at the mountains and I've been running a fever ever since last night. This morning my temp was 37.7 C, which is about 99.8 F I think. This is pretty high for me as I have a fairly low core body temp. What I am curious to know is that if this fever can harm the development of a blastocyst in case of successful conception and if it can prevent implantation in any way. I've been really good about not taking any harmful medicine, just relying on teas, and a little bit of tylenol, which is pregnancy safe.... just to not jinx it.

I would appreciate any input or if you have similar experiences, no matter what the results were.
Thanks and have a great week!!!

Cycle 3 after loss UPDATE

I am so sorry for not updating in a while, but I've been posting a lot of my updates on FB.

We are now on CD10 of the 3rd cycle after the loss. I already had 2 U/S done with one saying I will be ovulating from the left ovary and the other saying that i won't O at all this cycle. Who knows what to believe anymore. Temps are much more stable this cycle with an average temp of 36.20 celcius.

I have one more U/S on Tuesday and I guess I will just see how that goes and then maybe take some OPK's starting on CD14.

TTC Update

I've had my gyno appointment today and it went pretty well even it was a little bitter-sweet.

My Progesterone was a little low as expected already, but it was smack in the middle of the Luteal Phase interval, so not too bad, and just for the heck of it we compared it to the one before starting Metformin (back in February), and it was a shock to us both... went from 0.464 to 9.5... so I went from 2 ovaries that weren't ovulating at all, but instead producing cysts, to one if not even both that are ovulating and have been ovulating since August, and that I find amazing. She put me again on a Progesterone supplement starting next cycle because for this one it's already too late. And she said that we'll start the Clomid only if we see that the follicles aren't getting big enough.

For the next cycle I have 3 transvaginal Ultrasounds planned for CD 8, 10 and 14, in order to monitor follicle growth and another Progesterone test on CD21. In addition to that I decided to switch to another endocrinologist, not because I don't like the one I was seeing, but because I've called and messaged ever since the miscarriage and I never got an answer or a call back to set an appointment and I find that a little rude. In addition my gyno recommended this new RE and I made an appointment with her for December 12th.

I have to say that even though this cycle is probably a bust, I am very excited for the progress I've made and looking in retrospect to where I started from... these are very exciting times!!! So... off to the future with new found hope and faith!!!

Blessings to everyone!!!

5DPO Progesterone test

Went in for the Progesterone test today... initially I wasn't supposed to get the results until the 17th, but after calling I found out I can get it online, so I did....

But unfortunately the result was disappointing... only a 9.5 ng/ml... I was hoping for at least a 10.... :-(

crosshairs...yey

Finally some crosshairs on my chart and O marked on the exact day it's supposed to happen according to the OPK. I was losing hope there for a sec, but now I got a little bit of faith back... who knows...

Next steps:

5DPO - Progesterone test
7DPO - Doc appointment

And then just playing the waiting game...

2WW has begun...

So.... I need to stop starting my post with SO.... it's so weird...

Officially the 2WW has started...according to my calculations I should be on 2DPO today, but my chart seems to think otherwise... I started charting on FertilityFriend.com and it still says no ovulation detected and my temperature seems to have risen but not significantly at all... I've had higher highs before ovulation. I did have a positive OPK on CD16, but who knows....

Has this happened to any of you... can it be that ovulation was stopped in evolution somehow after the OPK? I'm wondering cause also I had very little EW CM, and that was the day before the positive OPK... I just don't get it... and since this is the first cycle (even if we've been at it for about 18 cycles now) I monitored accurately, I don't know what to think!

Any feedback is welcome!!!

OPK on CD 16

 First of all I have to apologize if this blog is TMI all the time, but it's a TTC blog and they tend to be that way.

So.... I just took another OPK, it's CD 16 and it looks like it's a positive... even though the line is thinner it's much darker than the control line. I am putting the CD 15 photo below as well for comparison. Please let me know what you think, I appreciate any input as I am new to the whole OPK use.... it's my first cycle using them.

                                           CD16

                                          CD15

OPK on CD15

Below you have a picture of the OPK result from just a few minutes ago. From the looks of it, it's negative, but I have a feeling tomorrow may be the day, because this afternoon my CM became Fertile quality. Today is CD 15. Wish me luck. I ovulated last month, but wasn't allowed to take advantage of it.

BBT issues...

So... question of the day.... does anyone have issues with charting BBT? This is the first cycle ever that I've tried charting and I don't know if this is right, but my chart looks a little like the one below (whish is found on Google, not actually mine).

Is this what it's supposed to look like? I'm only on day 8th of the cycle, but my temperature varies quite a bit, and it's also pretty low I would say for a normal human being. On day 3 of the cycle, I registered an all time low of 35,6 celcius, which would be about 96.08 Farenheit  (I used a conversion calculator). This temp isn't even listed on the chart I have. The lowest one is 36,15, which would be about 97.07 Farenheit.

I'm kinda freeked out. The high of the temp so far has been a wopping 36,30 (was being sarcastic), about 97.34 Farenheit.

I'd appreciate any input. I'm going to keep charting and, at the end of the month, I'll put up my own chart for review.

Thank you all and have a beautiful week!!!

First cycle after miscarriage...

Today is Monday and a brand new day indeed. This marks the first day of the first cycle after the miscarriage. We were getting a little panicky that it wasn't coming soon enough, but it came quite perfectly, exactly 28 days after the last beta test, which was the same day the bleeding stopped. So..... to me this is a big step and somewhat reassuring that my body isn't as out-of-whack as I would've thought, and I will start back on the vitamins, supplements, good diet, and of course the trying... which is the most fun part.... not to say that we were benched for a month, but we avoided the time I was ovulating, which I was, and that's exciting as well.

So full of brand new hope for the near future and ready to get on a new roller-coaster of emotions.... we're TTC again!!!

One more week done... and questions still remain unanswered....

Hey yall!

I woke up this morning and couldn't believe it was already Friday! I just don't even know when this week went by! I got my beta results on Tuesday and they weren't as low as they should've been. They were at 25.07, when it should've been closer to ZERO. Although the bleeding stopped altogether, a couple of days ago I had a few spots, don't know where they came from.... but there they were, and the nothing again....

So I called the doc and he just told me to repeat the beta in another couple of weeks. It's just annoying to be frank about it! I feel fine, but it just worries me that he's missing something. I don't know....I'm just going to try to relax this weekend, probably do a lot of cleaning around the house and some gardening work too, I have to move 2 pine trees and I haven't gotten around to it yet!


Hope everyone will have a great weekend!!!

Happy Monday... with interesting facts about PCOS, ttc, and misscarriage

Hey yall!

I must say I'm not a fan of Mondays or early mornings, but today it was both. After a fairly quiet weekend, although I worked on Saturday, I had to go in this morning for the last beta test I'll see in a while. I had to get up bright and early, when it was still dark outside (somehow that's just not natural...lol), and had to go get blood drawn before going into work this morning. I'll have the result tomorrow at about noon, and they should be back to that non-pregnant value :(

I am somewhat relieved because the bleeding did stop altogether and it seems I won't need a D&C, whew!!!
But I have been reading up on things and I'm starting to wonder why in God's name would the doctors that we've seen let us conceive on our own, when there are so many complications with PCOS and undocumented ovulation. I'm still excited that we were able to get pregnant, but it's stupid that I had to go through a misscarriage just for the heck of it.

I've learned 2 very important things this weekend, by reading a great book, and they are:

1. Ovulation that happens after day 20 of the cycle (which is likely for me, since I have a 32-day cycle) produces eggs that are not viable and that lead to misscarriage.
2. Conception that occurs later than 12 hours after ovulation is at risk for misscarriage, because the egg begins to desintegrate. So sex should happen before, but definetely not after, because it would just be pointless.

So now I go back to the issue of doctors..... what kind of stupid cruel joke is this to subject us to such disappointment, and a possible D&C just for kicks? Isn't it simpler to just tell us to be patient and not try while we're only on Metformin, before we had a chance to document ovulation, and just start trying when we start the Clomid treatment? Now we're put back a few months, but I decided to take some important steps during this time in educating myself more and making sure we go about this proccess the right way. I'm starting a BBT chart, and getting an ovulation monitor and when it's time to start trying again, we'll be sure to do this right.

Don't get me wrong, I know there's millions of other reasons things could've went south for, but why not try to eliminate the reasons that are in our power to control, rather that trusting everything to faith?

Hope everyone is having a brilliant week and Happy Monday!!!

Busy working week filled with worries of what's to come...

Yesterday I found myself in a crazy work day, as today was as well. One of our client has an expo stand and I had to go on-site to monitor the set-up team. As I was on my feet all day, I got these horrible cramps and pains, I could feel the blood pouring out, which is gross, I know, I'm sorry, I'm hoping it'll be done soon too so I can talk about something more cheerful.

I'm half way into the vial treatment, and it doesn't seem to be doing much, although work may have something to do with that as well. In the mornings the bleeding is really light, today almost stopped, but after 6 hours on my feet it was right back where I started. Either way, I can avoid work, so tomorrow night we'll know what's next.

I got home last night after 10pm, so all I had strenght to do was shower and go to bed, so I didn't have a chance to take a photo of the HPT, but I'll add that in later into the post. For now I'm putting up the last u/s I took. This was at 6w4d, and you can see the bleeding starting to happen, the whitish part/mass around the gestational sac (black round thing...which is obviously empty...lol...but not really).

Hope everyone is having a better week than I am!!!

And he're the HPT as well...

Worries....worries....worries....

Hey yall

Today is weird for me. I drank the first vial of Ergometrin today, and so far no change, I wasn't expecting anything this soon, as the treatment is for 3 days, but I am worried because the flow was pretty heavy today, compared to the weekend, and I'm still passing tissue. (Sorry if anyone is grossed out)

So even though I am supposed to get a D&C done if the bleeding doesn't stop, I'm freaking out that the bleeding will stop and I will have not passed all the tissue and I'll end up having to do a D&C regardless to eliminate the rest of the tissue. I'm super scared, I'm trying to avoid hospitals at all costs!!!

Tomorrow I promise to put up a picture of the HPT and u/s of the baby that wasn't meant to be, just in memory, and to have something to remember this time by. I'll probably put them in a scrapbook too at home.

Best regards and blessing to all!

Background info - Then and Now

Hey eveyone! I don't know yet who will read this blog, but I hope, whoever finds it will discover an interesting read, a useful resource and a trusted TTC buddy.

I have created this blog, after reading many TTC blogs from women around the world and especially watching some great vlogs on youtube. I cannot do a vlog, because we try to keep our stuggle private, as far as family goes, because after a year and a half  of trying we're already tired of everyone asking us what is happening, why we don't have a kid yet and stuff like this. It turns out even family can be so insensitive and can talk without thinking first and hurt our feelings quite often. So I will start this first blog with a short summary of our TTC journey.

I've come off the pill in May 2010. We weren't trying expressly for a baby, because we knew there would be some time after going off the pill when we might not succeed. Come September, my period was about 11 days late, so our hope started to built, but when taking a HPT it was negative and my period arrived 2 days later. When returning from vacation we decided it's time to do something about it and we sought professional help. We went to a fertility specialist and he told us that my ovaries have a micro-polycystic aspect, which is a big name for the popular PCOS. After reading up on the diagnosis I realized I had about 80% of the symptoms listed. I was then referred to a endocrynologist, who put me on Metformin.

I had some differences with that doctor and misunderstandings so I switched to one who was more patient and explained to me everything that was going on. After many test and 8 months of metformin, we were supposed to start Clomid (Clomiphene) treatment on the September cycle. However, while on vacation we took a HPT because I had severe pregnancy symptoms and it was a faint positive. I called my Ob-gyn, and he told me to go in for  Beta HCG testing when I got back from vacation and then to go see him for a u/s.

At 5w2d beta was 439.3, which is low supposedly, and at the u/s he could only see a gestational sack of about 2.5mm, which is also low. He said it may be that I just ovulated late and that I should repeat both procedures in a week. So at 6w2d beta was 1026, which is not good, as you can tell, it wasn't doubling, and at the u/s the sac was only 4.5mm. I double checked with a 2nd doctor and a 2nd u/s and the verdict was the same. The pregnancy was stopped in evolution. By this time I started spotting for about a week and my symptoms went down dramatically. On the last u/s the doc showed me the bleeding, it was obvious. A couple of days after the u/s I started bleeding more heavily and having really bad cramps, similar to a period but continuous. This was 4 days ago.

I've been trying to call my OB-GYN all weekend, but he's hard to reach. I finally wrote him a SMS and he responded just minutes ago as I was writing the blog entry. He told be to take 2 vials of Ergometrine Maleate per day for 3 days. It's supposed to stop the bleeding. If it doesn't stop I'll need to go in for a D&C, which to me is very scary. I'm allergic to many things, so I'm scared of anesthesia, and I'm horribly scared of hospitals and doctors too, I was never is any surgeries and the only intervention was for polyps and I ended up with a stupid doctor that operated after the anesthetic wore of... so it hurt like hell, and that's when my paranoia of doctors started.


So this is NOW, mixed feelings, scared but trying to stay hopeful. I'll make an update tomorrow after starting on the vials.