Lucky 13

We are getting dumped with snow this weekend and of course I am to go into the clinic for a lining check. Because I was given the choice of Saturday or Sunday, and the bulk of the snow was to fall Saturday afternoon, I thought it made most sense to head down to the clinic Saturday morning, especially if we were going to be able to transfer on Sunday.

So, we make our way downtown. We got about 10cm of snow overnight so it was nothing too terrible, except that the snow had started up again shortly after 8:45 when we left the house. We made it downtown by 10am which was pretty good considering we had to stop for gas and the bank. Plus the clinic's monitoring hours are 8-10 on the weekend. The clinic was pretty busy but I think people wanted to come today instead of tomorrow with the expected 20-25cm on the ground, plus they were later getting down today due to road conditions. (I'll post some pictures tomorrow after the snow ends.)

Anyway, while I was getting poked and prodded V. went and sat down at one of the computers to wait. The person doing blood was a guy today and was very quick but for some reason it hurt. Oh well. I have no issues with needles or getting blood taken, I just don't watch when the put it in. Anyway, I then had to wait about 10 minutes for the ultrasound. I was talking with the tech and she said that my lining was excellent - it was measuring at 13 and was already transforming from the triple stripe stage to the next stage. After that I went out to V. to tie up my shoes because I thought we were going to have a long wait. I think it was 5 minutes when we were called in. We ended up waiting for our doctor at that point for about 10 minutes. He came in all jovial and joking. Looked at the ultrasound results and said "let's get you pregnant". He gave us a choice of Tuesday through Friday. We opted for Tuesday, March 11th. Afterwards I thought about changing it to Thursday as 13 has always been our lucky number (see lining measurement) but decided to go with our first gut choice. The doctor commented on maybe twins (we have two embryos) and V. just got on the bandwagon talking triplets and quads. Needless to say I told him to bite his tongue as two would be just fine, as would one. (For those wondering, they don't do transfers on the weekend.)

We met next with the nurse to get the meds I'd need for the next stage.
My daily regimen is now:

1 doxycyclene twice a day, with food, for 3 days (started today.) This is an antibiotic used to decrease the chance of infection from the IVF process. It is not in the penicillin family. It may also treat any infection that one may already have but are not showing symptoms of. Therefore it may increase your chance of becoming pregnant.

2x2mg Estrace, three times a day

1x5mg Prednisone, once a day, with food

1x 81mg low dose baby aspirin, once a day

Folic acid

2ml of Progesterone in castor oil injected each morning (I had a reaction to the sesame oil last time). I gave myself the first shot before we left the clinic. This is much more dense than the sesame oil and is harder to inject. I'll be getting V. to do it for me this cycle as it's an intramuscular injection into my butt. I did it myself the last cycle, but it's awkward as I found out with the first shot, plus it makes him feel more involved.

0.2mL of Fragmin which will start the day of the transfer following transfer. The fragmin is an anticoagulant like Heparin. This one is a subcutaneous injection so it can be either into my stomach or into my thigh.

So, when we're successful I will continue with the Estrace and Prednisone until the 12th week, as well as the Progesterone and the Fragmin. The baby aspirin will continue until the 20th week unless advised otherwise.

So that's where we are. We should be getting a call from the clinic to advise what time on Tuesday for transfer. Then it's the two week wait. I plan on taking Tuesday and Wednesday off - every little bit helps.

Have a great weekend everyone!!