IVF is Cancelled

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to give the latest on IVF #2.  Right here at the end we’re having to cancel the entire cycle.  It’s hard to believe; I had even done my pre-op stuff and thought I’d be ready for retrieval by today at the latest.  However on Wednesday, I had a very drastic drop in estrogen.  It was at 1,000 and cut in half to 500.  Then on Thursday, it dropped again to 300.  Even I knew it was panic time and that cancellation must be looming.  So my doctor drastically increased my dosage for Thursday night and even more for Friday.  Friday I did 4 bottles of Menopur and 300 units of Follistim, in hopes of saving the cycle.  On Friday, estrogen had to increase to at least 600 or else we would have to cancel then.  It had!  I made it to 849!  This was such a positive sign that things were turning around.  Dr. Lu was even shocked and said he didn’t even expect that.  He had only given me a 4 in 10 chance of it increasing enough on Friday so we were all pretty happy.  However, even with that milestone, it still had to increase today, Saturday, to 2,000 to be able to retrieve on Monday.  I went to the Metairie office this morning for the check and we saw so many large, ready-to-go follicles.  21mms, 20s, 19s, 18s, 17s, 16s and below beautiful follicles—18 good ones.  So that was a good sign.  As I’m talking to the nurse, Dr. Lu popped in!  I was so excited to see him.  He said he knew I’d be there this morning so he came and found me.  As we’re talking, he gave me a 5 in 10 chance of the estrogen increasing today to the 2,000 but was glad to see the follicles we had just seen.  Mid-way through the conversation while he’s looking at my chart again, he just stops talking.  At a complete loss for words.  Seriously, I think it lasted 30 minutes?  That’s an exaggeration but it felt like it.  He had just seen the ultrasound tech’s notes that there was 2.5 mm worth of fluid in my endometrium (the lining of the uterus).  And this means a definite cancellation for the cycle.  Apparently this is my endometrium starting to break down into pieces.  A baby would never be able to implant.  Again, he was at a complete loss of words.  He never considered this happening and wasn’t even looking for it right off, since the focus was on the estrogen level.  He could not apologize any more than he did; he felt so terrible.  Because I’ve been hanging out there so long this cycle (I stimmed for 12 days), the endometrium just couldn’t hold on any longer and deteriorated.  So in other words, I really had reached the point of no return.  The estrogen drops and then spike just couldn’t recover it.  So regardless of if my level came back at the 2,000 today, this was enough to cancel.  Nice.  So as always, I have to wait to start my period.  Again, my life revolves around “waiting to start a period” it feels like.  And then next week, it’s back to meet with Dr. Lu to talk about the next IVF.  He’s going to thoroughly study my file and try to determine what went so wrong and come up with answers for the next time.  So I’m ready to hear what he has to say.  Nevertheless, I leave, am driving through LaPlace, and it’s Dr. Lu calling, he himself.  Says the estrogen level came back at 1,600 so that would have caused a cancellation as well.  It does feel better having mulitple things go wrong, instead of just 1 stupid  thing.

Hoping that I’ll be able to start things again in early October.

Thanks for reading,

af