January, 2005- Have Mirena IUD placed
Year of 2008-2009- Painful abdominal pain
May 4, 2009- Remove IUD and begin trying- abdominal pain subsides
November, 2009- Begin ovulation test strips- learn after two months of testing that I am ovulating 10 days late
April, 2010- See Dr. Twede. He runs a panel of bloodtests that all come back fine. Dr. Twede suggests Clomid and states I have a 5% chance of becoming pregnant naturally. Decide to forgo treatment for another year.
July, 2010- Feel helpless and choose to start Clomid but after lots of thinking, decide to continue trying naturally.
August, 2010- Read Taking Charge of Your Fertility- begin tracking and taking my temperature; overwhelming process. Confirm that I do in fact ovulate about 10 days late.
August-December, 2010- Continue tracking, reading and undergo acupuncture. Do not have a period.
December, 2010- Finally decide to begin clomid but since I have not had a period since August, I am prescribed a 10 day progesterone pill to start my cycle. When this doesn’t work I am given a progesterone shot. (Ouch!)
December 6, 2010- Begin this infertility blog to deal with all the emotions and treatments infertility brings.
December 8, 2010- Finally start my period and three days later take my first 50mg round of Clomid.
December 31, 2010- Have blood work done and learn my progesterone has not increased as much as expected. Prescribed 100 mg of clomid.
January 4, 2011- Start going to Dr. Terry who was highly recommended to me. He recommends I continue with 50 mg of Clomid.
January 9, 2011- First negative pregnancy test since beginning treatments
January 13, 2011- Begin 2nd Round of 50mg Clomid
February 4, 2011- Find RESOLVE
February 11, 2011- Learn 2nd round of Clomid didn’t work.
February 18, 2011- Have my HSG test done.(Triple Ouch!) Find what Dr.'s think to be an arcuate uterus. Dr. Terry isn't concerned and we choose to continue the same treatment.
March 1, 2011- Are on ABC news to discuss our infertility. Gained many new friends and blogreaders.
March 10, 2011- Learn 3rd round of Clomid didn’t work.
April 11, 2011- Learn 4th round of Clomid didn’t work. Decide to make an apt at the U and proceed with new treatment options.
April 27, 2011- Can’t get into the U until May so we undergo our first IUI attempt with Dr. Terry.
May 4, 2011- First apt with Dr. Hammoud at the U. Officially into year two of our infertility struggle.
May 11, 2011- Attend my first RESOLVE support group
May 13, 2011- Learn IUI didn’t work.
May 16, 2011- Learn my arcuate uterus that Dr. Terry wasn’t concerned about is most likely a septum and should be removed since it could be causing early miscarriages or implantation issues.
May 17, 2011- Sonohysterogram confirms I have a septum. Schedule surgery and stop taking my 5th round of Clomid.
May 31, 2011- Undergo a hysteroscopy with a septum takedown. Learn I have to wait 45 days before we can try again.
July 3, 2011- Start my 6th round of Clomid. Plan to do IUI this cycle.
July 19, 2011- Start my own RESOLVE infertility group.
July 22, 2011- Go in for a follicle study and learn my follicles have quit growing and IUI is not an option.
End of July, 2011- Learn I am not pregnant via bloodwork and take progesterone to induce a period.
Beginning of August, 2011- Start 7th round of Clomid, 1st round at 100mg.
August 17, 2011- Undergo 2nd round of IUI with a self-given HCG trigger shot.
August 30, 2011- Learn 2nd IUI attempt didn’t work. Make an IVF consultation apt.
September 2, 2011- Have IVF consultation and am placed on birth control as the beginning steps of IVF.
September 7, 2011- Go in for a baseline ultrasound and am given my calendar of dates to take drugs. Choose harvesting week to be October 10 and transfer week to be October 16.
September 18, 2011- Begin 10 units of Lupron
October 3, 2011- Lower Lupron dose to 5 units, add in 150 mg of Follistim and a vile of Repronex
October 10, 2011- Go in for an ultrasound to see how I am progressing. Dr. Johnstone worries I may be in the early stages of OHSS. Does an estrogen bloodtest, which comes out extremely high at 3,500.
October 11, 2011- Go in for another ultrasound. Take another bloodtest to check estrogen. Still really high at 4,870 but Dr. Johnstone decides it's ok for me to continue with a retrieval. Schedule the retrieval for October 13 and take the trigger shot of HCG that evening.
October 13, 2011- Go in for egg retrieval. Procedure goes smoothly and they are able to harvest 12 eggs. I am in severe pain though and become extremely bloated and distended.
October 14, 2011- Still very bloated and sick.
October 15, 2011- Still sick but feeling better. Get a call from the andrology department telling us they actually harvested 14 eggs, 9 of which were mature, 8 fertilize and 8 are growing. Schedule transfer for October 18.
October 17, 2011- Go back to work but begin having chest pains at 2:00 pm. Finally go to the emergency room for severe chest and back pains at 11:00 pm and am admitted. Have a CT scan done to check for blood clots. No blood clots are found and I am discharged at 5:00 am.
October 18, 2011- Go in for my transfer. Learn that I am suffering from a moderate to severe case of OHSS and should not proceed. Also learn that only 2 of our embryos survived until day 5 and are of fair quality. Terminate this round of IVF... I am heartbroken. Sent home on bedrest until October 23.
October 21, 2011- Make the decision to begin IVF again in January, 2012. Begin the incredibly difficult wait all over again for Baby Ricci.
October 24, 2011- Go back to work and learn that my infertility insurance is changing from 3 lifetime IVF cycles to $30,000 as of January 1st, 2012 and everything done prior to that date will not be counted towards that total. Choose to try to get an IVF cycle in before the end of the year.
November 7, 2011- Start birth control to start my antagonistic IVF protocol as well as metformin to help with hyperstimulation.
December 2, 2011- Begin 100 mg of Follistim and Repronex
December 8, 2011- Begin Ganorelix
December 9, 2011- After a blood test to check my estrogen, I learn I am hyperstimulating again and am ordered back to bedrest, although I am given the go ahead to do my trigger with Lupron instead of HCG and schedule retrieval for Sunday.
December 11, 2011- Undergo my second egg retrieval and they extract 16 eggs.
December 13, 2011- Learn that 12 of my eggies are mature and 11 fertilized and are still growing well.
December 16, 2011- Undergo by first transfer, although we learn only two are of good quality. We decide to transfer two and allow the remaining embryos to continue growing. Transfer goes well and I head home for bedrest.
December 17, 2011- Learn all the embryos have died and we do not have any to freeze.
December 25, 2011- Take a home pregnancy test on Christmas morning and learn I am indeed pregnant! We share the news with family and are over the moon.
December 26, 2011- Go to the infertility clinic and confirm I am indeed pregnant due on 9/3/12. Share the news with anyone who will listen.
December 28, 2011- Go in for a second HCG test to make sure my levels are increasing. Levels haven't doubled as they should and Dr.s are concerned about an ectopic pregnancy. I am ordered to have more bloodwork done.
December 30, 2011- Go in for a third HCG test and levels more than triple; confirm it is not an ectopic pregnancy.
January 10, 2012- Go in for 6 week ultrasound to find out how many eggies are growing. Find out I have an anembryotic pregnancy also known as a blighted ovum and that my baby is not growing as it should. Schedule a D&C procedure to terminate the pregnancy.
January 13, 2012- Undergo my D&C procedure and say goodbye to Baby Ricci. We are heartbroken annd choose to wait to start IVF again until October, 2012.
February 9, 2012- Go in to go over the genetic resting results. Learn there were no chromosomal issues and talk about our options. Decide to undergo a hysteroscopy on March 9th to verify that the remaining septum isn't what caused the miscarriage. Also learn that there is most likely a problem in my egg maturation process, which is giving me poor quality embryos.
March 9, 2012- Undergo another hysteroscopy and have more tissue removed.
May 4, 2012- Officially into year three of this infertility journey.
