Today was my suppression check. I've been on 11 days of birth control pills and we were hoping that the 15mm cyst would be gone. This is the cyst that has been plaguing me for the past 3 cycles. Well, it wasn't gone and it had grown AND recruited a buddy. 2 cysts at 23mm & 28mm. Crap!
I ended up going back in this afternoon so they could aspirate them both. My husband is out of town as of this morning so I had to scramble a bit to find someone to watch not-so-wee-one and wasn't able to find anyone who could drive me there and back. That meant that I had to do the aspiration WITHOUT ANY SEDATION! Yuck! (and ouch!)
The procedure was in some ways as bad as I had imagined and in others not so bad. The u/s wand had this attachment on it to hold/guide the needle and that was the part that hurt like a MF-er as it scraped along the vaginal wall. I don't know if it was because my body released endorphins from that pain or what, but I didn't even feel the needle at all. The pain lasted for about 15 sec so all in all, it wasn't that bad. Labor will be much longer!! LOL I took 2 extra strength Tylenol before and haven't needed anything afterwards which surprises me.
TMI alert - they got about 1/4 cup of yellow liquid from the 2 cysts, let's hope that takes away their punch. It was funny actually, they put my legs in these cradle things that holds them from the knee down and strapped me in. The Dr asked me when he first came in if I was going to be mad at him and I told him if he's quick I'll only be mad for a few seconds. Later I joked that the straps on my legs were to keep me from kicking him. Deep breathing & visualizing Kaanapaali Beach on Maui got me thru it and luckily it wasn't that long. The embryologist afterwards complimented me on my ability to "cowboy up" to the pain which gave me a good chuckle.
The good news (besides the fact that the cyst twins are now drained) is that they decided to change my protocol from MDL Flare to Antagonist. They are worried that the MDL will get the cysts to fire up again, so I go in on Saturday to see if they are for sure gone and if so, I start stims right off on Sunday. Once a follicle is up to about 14mm, then I'll add Antagon to keep from ovulating before retrieval. I'm very happy about this change as I wanted to do an Antagonist protocol from the beginning, but they wanted to try the MDL first.
Oddly enough, my E2 level from today was 225. Makes me wonder if that 2nd cyst wasn't actually a follie. They didn't measure my LH, so we don't know if I was surging or not. I'm on cd12 which was my old 'normal' O day before starting meds. That would just be the kicker - I'm predicted to be a poor responder due to FSH and they didn't want the bcp to over-suppress me. It's possible that the bcp didn't suppress me at all and I tried to O while taking them. Could I BE anymore messed up? LOL If I was gearing up to O, I don't know if having done what is essentially an egg retrieval today will throw things off for starting stims on Sunday. I'm hoping not, but we'll see. I still have about 5-7 antrals on the left and 3-4 on the right, so I think we'll be in a good place. If/when this IVF works, they'll have to write up a paper on how all these setbacks could translate into a new protocol. Antagonist + bcp + cyst aspiration.
I'm feeling MUCH more positive about things now that the cyst(s) are drained and we are going with the protocol I wanted in the first place. I hope that translates into good results with the rest of the cycle. Goodness knows I'm due for something to go my way.
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2 comments:
YOWSA! A 1/4 cup??? Those were some cysts there, sistah!
And... I know EXACTLY how awful your procedure was... because at the charming IVF clinic I was at here in Canada... they used no sedation for egg retrieval Which meant the ultrasound needle thingy had to be inserted and extracted with each egg they retrieved. ACK!
WHY they didn't sedate for retrieval OR aspiration I just don't understand! You can just BET that if it was a GUY having a needle jabbed up his dick into his testicles... there would be some SERIOUS sedation goin' on!
I have a friend who is in Canada and got like 15-20 eggs at her ER, but they gave her light sedation, but she said it still hurt a lot. I think it's barbaric to do more than one poke w/o it. You're right Manuela, a man wouldn't get a blood draw w/o sedation if they could.
They offered me some sedation, but I'd have to have someone drive me home and with my husband out of town, there wasn't anyone home today to do it. I really was fine afterwards, must have been the endorphins.
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