This morning, Jerry gave me the 1 amp Menopur shot and then we headed to CCRM for my 3rd stim appointment. I am on day 7 of stims. There are still around 20 follicles, around 8 - 12mm in size, but she said that some may be hidden so I may have more. She predicts that I may have a similar response as last time... about 30 eggs. Today, the ultrasound showed that my follicles have grown a little bit from the day before. My E2 is 147, LH is 1.35, and P4 is 0.2. My E2 level is a bit low, so Dr. Schoolcraft is increasing my meds significantly tonight, so that the other little follicles can catch up. So tonight, I am to take 300 iu Follistim. I'm also to start Cetrotide as well, to keep me from ovulating. The nurse also told me that Cetrotide will counteract some of the high dosage of Follistim. The nurse also said that I can take the Follistim and Cetrotide at the same time, so I get pricked three times a day from now on. And for those who know me well, I absolutely hate needles!! But ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right? Yes, I'm desperate here. Anyway...
Thursday, I will take 2 amps Menopur in the morning. I will not need to go in for ultrasound/blood work, so we have a "free" day. I think we'll probably just hang around the hotel. I've been feeling kind of tired, and Jerry has work to do anyway. In the evening, I will still take 300 iu Follistim and Cetrotide.
Friday morning, I will continue the 2 amps Menopur and then go in for my physical and ultrasound/blood work appointments.
After today's ultrasound appointment, we had an appointment with our genetics counselor. She is absolutely one of the nicest person ever. We talked about Jerry's Robertsonian Translocation again (chromosomes 13 & 15). She explained that there might be more chromosomes that are affected due to the translocation. As the sperm cells are maturing, the translocated chromosomes may disrupt the pairing up and dividing due to the bulkiness of the translocation. Because of this, there is a higher percentage of abnormal sperm than what was thought before. So instead of 64% of the sperm being abnormal, she thinks there is a higher percentage but couldn't tell us exactly how much higher. There haven't been any studies on that just yet. All this time I thought that when the egg gets fertilized, the resulting embryo's chromosomes might get messed up. But she said that the chromosomes would have already been messed up in the sperm...BEFORE it ever fertilizes the eggs. So that just puts a damper on things. She said that with the FISH testing last time, we had roughly 30% normals. But with CGH, she said for us to not be disappointed with a lower percentage of normals simply because they would be testing all 46 chromosomes. It is even more important now that I produce a lot of eggs. I'm hoping for 40 eggs now. I don't know if that's realistic or not, but I'm feeling a lot of pressure to produce lots and lots of eggs.
She also explained how CGH worked. The embryologist will biopsy blast embryos (day 5) and send the clump of cells (placental cells) to a lab in NJ (Reprogenetics). The lab would then compare our embryos' DNA to the standard 23 pairs of chromosomes. Any deviation in the ratio of chromosomes would be deemed as abnormal. The test is about 90% accurate. Because the holidays are coming up, Mary said that it may take 8 weeks to get the results. And depending on my natural menstrual cycle, it may take up to 6 weeks to prepare my uterus for the embryo transfer. So we're looking at maybe a February transfer. She also said that the success rate after CGH is around 80%. That's amazing.
1 comment:
Wow, that is a LOT of information to digest. I hope hope hope you get a TON of eggs to work with. Glad you're getting more meds to help push some of them along!
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