Maybe baby: remedial ovaries

This is the continuation of Makala Pollard’s series documenting a journey through the ups and downs of infertility and trying to conceive. Follow her story through journal entries beginning last year and leading up to today. To see previous entries click here. 
 
Thursday, March 31, 2011

I would just like all of you to know that the hormone injections have caused no homicidal tendencies thus far and my husband is very thankful for that.

All kidding aside, the first shot I had to take was Lupron. This was supposed to just be for 14 days, however my levels were not where they wanted after two weeks so I got to do an additional seven days of those. The only side effect I had from that shot was hot flashes. Therefore, all of the sudden 65 degrees was the ideal temperature to sleep in at night. I would wake up and my poor husband would be buried under a pile of covers and blankets! He has been amazing though -- or maybe he has just been trying to dodge any hormonal flare ups?

We took a quick trip to Oklahoma City and I had a hot flash when we walked into one of the restaurants. I just looked at him and said “I need a t-shirt!.” He said, okay, we’ll get one when we leave, to which I replied, “no, I need one RIGHT NOW.” He just smiled and handed me his wallet. I bought a cute t-shirt and changed in the bathroom. 

After three weeks of the Lupron I finally got to move the good stuff: the follicle stimulating hormones. Here we go! Now we are going to kick up my ovaries into high gear so there will be some eggs to retrieve. I’m down for 10 days of these drugs and they monitor me with blood tests and sonograms. The first blood test showed my E2 level was at 47.5. Not really racing up the charts considering they like to see that blood draw closer to 100. I had my second blood test today along with a sonogram. They did see three follicles, which is progress. Blood tests came back at 64. Hmmm. I’m told as long as I am responding that is a good sign. It is worse when there is no movement in the number and some women just take longer than others. Obviously, that’s me. Remedial ovaries. Awesome. On the bright side, I have had no bad side effects from these meds.  No more hot flashes, I am sleeping great and my skin is baby soft (no pun intended).

Monday, April 4, 2011

Well, today stinks. That’s about all I can say. I went in for what was my last blood test/sonogram before egg retrieval and there is just no progress. There won’t be any egg retrieval because the ovaries just aren’t responding to the meds. My doctor spoke with me afterwards about the options. She would like to start a new cycle with a different drug other than the Lupron in the beginning. And of course, that means more money and we didn’t budget for this. I feel cheated. Robbed. We went into this thinking we would give it a really good shot and feel like we got to give half a shot. So, we have some thinking to do. Not sure where we will go from here. No more shots for now so that’s a good thing. 

Makala Pollard is a Senior Marketing Specialist for Texas Health Resources and Stepmom to two boys.