Thursday, October 16, 2008

Green Light. Red Light. Yellow Light.


Does the drama ever end?

I've gone from getting the green light, to getting the red light, to getting a yellow light -- all in an action packed morning. And once again, the worry begins before we're even out of the gate!

Let's start with the good news...

This morning we had our meeting with Dr. Schoolcraft, and he gave us the green light! He went over our test results and concluded that there isn't any red flags that would indicate IVF can't work for us. Here's a quick recap:

Lisa's E2 -- 48 (Good -- they like to see less than 50)
Lisa's FSH -- 6.54 (Good, they like to see less than 10)
Lisa's LH -- 4.22 (Good, they like to see less than 10)
Lisa's AMH - 3 (Good. Anything less than 1 is low reserve. Anything between 3 and 5 could indicate POCS)
Lisa's Thyroid (Synthroid pills) -- TSH 1.6, T4 1.2 (Good, like to see it below 3)
Lisa's Pap - Normal
Lisa's endometrial Biopsy to test for BETA 3 INTEGRIN -- Positive, I have the integrin that allows for implantation.
Lisa's Chromosome Karyotype -- All 24 Chromosomes Normal
Dave's Chromosome Karyotype -- All 24 Chromosomes Normal
Dave's Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay (dna frag test) - 13.7% (Excellent fertility potential <15%, Good-Fair 15-30%, Poor >30%)

Dr. Schoolcraft concluded that our official diagnosis is male infertility. Dave's sperm morphology is so low that it would likely never penetrate an egg on it's own, complicated by the fact that Lisa has antisperm antibodies that attack sperm. So together, we will never get pregnant without assistance. We basically already knew this, but it still makes me cringe for all the years we tried on our own, all the IUI's, and trying to time everything perfectly. Man, we were naive! Makes me feel like a bit of a fool thinking back to all those times when I hoisted my legs in the air and waited for those two little lines on the evil stick, month after month. But I digress, we're supposed to be talking about good news here! So let's get back on track...

Dr. Schoolcraft said that IVF with ICSI is our only hope. And he is encouraged by fact that once Dave's sperm is injected into the egg, there should be no reason that it can't make a normal embryo since the DNA analysis came back okay. Since we've failed twice before he chalks it up to immature eggs or lab conditions or just bad luck, but he did not find anything that indicates that it can't work for us. So after a little more discussion about our protocol, he gave us the green light to start our Lupron injections tonight!

Meanwhile, our drugs arrived by Fed-ex, and we had to rush to our pre-suppression ultra sound with our local clinic.

This is where the red light comes in...

We requested an ultra sound today, even though the doctor doesn't normally do an ultra sound until 10 days after suppression medications, because we are paranoid about cysts. We've had a cycle cancelled before due to a cyst and we aren't keen on starting the process and taking the injections if we already know a cyst is present. Who wants to go through 2 weeks of injections to find out, when we could find out before we even begin with a simple ultra sound? Needless to say, we wanted the ultrasound. And sure enough, our ultrasound showed a pretty big cyst! 18mm. UGH! So we came home, called one of our nurses -- who put on the brakes -- until she talked to the doctor to see what he wanted us to do.

Which brings us to the yellow light...

Our nurse finally had a chance to talk to the doctor and call us back. He wants to us proceed with our calendar and start the lurpon shots tonight. Hopefully the lupron, then my period will help to suppress and clear up the cyst before I have to start stim meds. But there are no guarantees and if it's not gone, we will either have to stay on lupron another week or so -- MORE SHOTS! -- or cancel the cycle at that time. There is unfortunately no way to tell at this point, so for now, it's proceed with caution and hope for the best.

Now we are feeling deflated before we even begin and are having memories of our cancelled cycle, which was very hard on us. We are hoping we do not have a repeat. And hoping that this cyst is not a sign of bad things to come. I suppose there is nothing to do but try to think positive and take our first shot and pills tonight.

And hope for the best.

6 comments:

Nikki said...

Oh Lisa - I hope the cyst goes away with the Lupron and your next AF. I know how horrible it would feel to get cancelled, so I'm really keeping my fingers crossed for you.

Good luck with your first shot tonight! I'm so excited for you! :-)

Anonymous said...

i had the same thing happen and it was totally fine. i was told that as long as the cyst was not hormonally active (making estrogen) then not to worry. and i didn't and it worked. so good luck!!!!

Anonymous said...

Lisa - I had the exact same thing happen about a week ago - they had hoped being on Lupron would clear things up, but it didn't. My cyst was producing estrogen, so they just asperated that dog (which means they sucked it dry!) Seems to have worked great - my numbers are perfect now and I just had another u/s yesterday and everything looked great.
Hoping it all works out for you!

Polly Gamwich said...

I'm sorry for the temporary red light ... ok, but your numbers are ROCKIN' ... I so wish I could come up with those numbers!! Yay for the green light numbers!!

I'm curious to see how the Lupron works for decreasing the cyst - I've used BCP's and they have worked.

DAVs said...

There was lots of great news in that post--all your numbers look fantastic! Hopefully the lupron will take care of the cyst and you'll be good to go. But even if not...when it does finally go away your numbers still indicate you have a GREAT SHOT at this working! (fellow CCRMer).

Anonymous said...

Thanks ladies!!
I took my first shot last night and was in complete tears. Dreading the worst and reliving memories of one of my canceled cycles. I almost considered not taking it, and canceling this cycle, getting AF, and going back on BCP -- just to be safe. DH and I flip flopped until 5 minutes before I had to take the shot and the dex. But I went through with it in tears. Now after reading all your responses I'm feeling so much better, and starting to think I did the right thing. Thanks so much for your posts!! I'm so glad to know some of you also had cysts and your cycles are fine! It gives me such hope and is really helping to lift my spirits :)