Baseline Appointment: The purpose of the baseline blood test and ultrasound is to make sure everything is good for the cycle to continue. I went to the LabCorp office that's just a few doors down from ORM for my blood draw at 9am. There was no line, so I went straight to the room. They were super-quick and very nice - I got my blood drawn in no time. Then I headed back down to ORM for the ultrasound. As you can see from the picture I posted yesterday, the rooms at ORM just look like normal gyno rooms (stirrups and all) - with an ultrasound machine. When the nurse took me into the room, I expected her to just tell me to undress form the waist down - which is the normal protocol. (Because of that, I always wear a longer shirt - so that there's no crack showing while I'm waiting for Dr. Williams.) So I was a little surprised when she told me to get completely undressed and to put on a blue gown with the sheet over my lap. I knew Dr. Williams would have to check under my hood - but wasn't sure why my top half had to be accessible. I asked, "Completely undressed - like everything?" to be sure - and the nurse responded with "Yes, everything." I didn't ask any more question and just went with it. Part of me thought that maybe they changed their policy or something. At this point, I'm really not that self-conscious around doctors - so I wasn't really that concerned, just curious as to why the change. When Dr. Williams came in, he smiled, shook my hand, and said his usual greeting, "Ann? Dr. Williams..." He quickly explained that in addition to the ultrasound, he needed to do some other FDA required tests since we're using my sister. One of the tests was just a quick visual scan of my front and back to make sure there weren't any signs of drug use or rashes. Lovely! ;) Then he said "No" to a bunch of questions he was reading off the sheet, asked me to stick out my tongue real quick, then responded with "No" to a bunch more questions. So I'm guessing I passed the test. He also had to do a culture (pap smear) to send in to the lab to make sure I didn't have any crazy STDs. Geez.... so much work to let someone else try to have your baby! ;)
After that, we could get down to the actual baseline part of it all - the ultrasound! Since there's no baby - the ultrasound has to be done inside and not on the belly. So the lovely wand that you can see in the photo from yesterday's post is what is used for the internal ultrasound. Dr. Williams showed me my uterus up on the screen and said it looked good. He did say that there was a 3cm fibroid on it - but that it was nothing to be concerned about. I know when I had my surgery back in June 2010, he found the fibroid but said it was a non-issue. But I don't really remember him ever pointing it out on the ultrasound screen to us before. So kinda weird - but if he said it's nothing to worry about, we won't worry about it. He also located both of my ovaries up on the screen. After that, the examination was done! Dr. Williams wrote down a few notes on my chart, shook my hand again, and told me that Nancy would be waiting for me.
I Heart Nancy: By the time I got dressed, Nancy was waiting for me outside. She told me how cute my hair is again - she's so sweet. We went to her office because she had a verbal questionnaire that we had to do - more steps because of our gestational carrier. For those of you that have donated blood, the questions were very similar to the types of questions that the Red Cross asks you before you donate. Nancy's reactions to some of the questions were quite funny - so I don't think she's a regular blood donor. ;) We breezed through the questions - she was marking them "no" even before I responded. There was a question about whether I had done acupuncture in the last 12 months. Since I did try it once - I said, "I have done it...." then paused to think about whether it was in the last year or not. As I was thinking, Nancy whispered - "Your sister won't care - we'll just put no." LOL - she was cracking me up and so right. The good news is that my acupuncture nightmare (I mean, experience) was in Dec 2011 - so it wasn't within the last 12 months.... whew. ;) When we got done with the questionnaire, she looked at me very sincerely and said, "I really hope it works this time for you guys." I thanked her and said that we're hoping that is the case. She told me that Teri would give me a call tomorrow and let me know about the estrogen results and next steps. Later in the day, I asked Joby if it would be weird if I invited Nancy to one of my baby showers - he said he wouldn't be surprised.
Phone Tag with Teri: During one of my morning meetings this morning, my cell phone was blowing up from Dr. Williams office. But I was leading a weekly status meeting, so couldn't really take the call. Teri left me a voicemail saying that my estrogen levels came back fine - so we're good to continue with the cycle! And that on Saturday I should reduce my Lupron to 5 units and start taking my Gonal-F shots twice a day. She also said that she would be calling my sister to tell her to start her estrogen shots tomorrow. Another step in the right direction - yay!! :) At the end of the message she asked me to call back
to confirm that I received the message. During lunch, I gave her a call back - but ended up having to leave her a message. I told her that I got the message and just asked what the timing was for the Gonal-F shots. I wasn't sure if it needed to be 12 hours apart or not. She called me back during another one of my meetings and left me another voicemail with the answer to my question. Teri said that we just need to make sure the Gonal-F shots are 10-12 hours apart - which shouldn't be a problem. I'm thinking we should do them at 6:30AM and 6:30PM - but my husband is thinking we should do 7AM and 7PM. We'll see where we land! ;)
Whammy Sisters: Since we both took our last birth control pills on Saturday, we were both expected to get our periods at some point this week. Mine showed up yesterday and hers did today - so I guess the birth control pils did their job to get our cycles all synched up! Let's hope that after these periods, we don't see any whammies for awhile. Our one friend offered to order "No Whammy" t-shirts for us all to wear.... too cute. We appreciate all of the prayers, love, and support from each and every one of you out there!
Daily Regimen for Me:
- 10 units of Lupron in the AM (since 1/19)
Daily Regimen for My Sister:
- 10 units of Lupron in the AM (since 1/19)