Well, that was unexpected.

This week I've been busy doing set-up supervision for a big fundraising event that takes place this weekend. While yes, it's a nice distraction, I've been having some serious conflicts w/ my time. Like I need to sleep for 12 hours due to sheer exhaustion, which is just not possible this week! I might take the morning/day off if I wake up feeling like crap again.

It never dawned on me that there could be some conflicts between the FET cycle 2 weeks ago and the fundraiser this weekend. I might as well have a bad case of food poisoning or a bad flu, because that's about how I feel. Highly unexpected, indeed.

Ok, on to the good news. I *finally* have an ultrasound scheduled for next Friday, the 17th. There's another blood draw on Tuesday the 14th (btw, Polly, the P4 is OK at 10 because I'm doing the supps., so the P4 goes to the uterus first, then is diluted by the time it gets to the bloodstream)

I think that's it for now. Time to go to sleep. Zzzzzzzzz.

Holy Guacamole

We have officially entered uncharted territory here. Blood work came back just fine. Progesterone is good at 10 and Estradiol good at 948. They want another check next week before talking about weaning me off the meds. In the mean time everything stays as is.

What? You want a HCG number too? Oh, that was 3800 !!!!!!!!!!! After doing a little research, that's very high for a singleton, and on par for a twin or triplet pregnancy. Now things are getting interesting!

I have a lab slip for a u/s next week, the local Dr here just has to squeeze me in to the schedule. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I can't wait to see what's going on in there.

Coming soon

More blood work tomorrow morning, I'll post the results late afternoon. I also just made my first OB appointment!!!!! With the *infamous* Dr Parker, no less. It's not until 10/20, but fear not fellow internets, there WILL be an ultrasound next week. I just don't have the details on that yet. I'll get that info tomorrow w/ the bloodwork results.

The time in between...

Not a whole lot to update here.
My fat pants still don't fit, and I have to wait until Tuesday for the last blood work check. That's to check progesterone, estrogen and the infamous HCG. When I get that call, they say when I can schedule an ultrasound.
This is also the calm before the storm. I volunteer for my high school and the BIG fundraiser for the year is next weekend. I'm chair of 'facilities', that means set-up, teardown and some logistics. So of course I can't lift a finger, right? Pretty much I have to be there and 'supervise' for like 8 hours a day for the 6 days. Fun.

Just another day

Well, no tests today. Nothing major to report. We're both over the moon about this latest turn of events. I'm strangely optimistic. We transferred PERFECT embryos. My betas are good, even great. I have symptoms. My other 2 pregnancies were nothing like this. This is totally different in almost every way.

I think it might be OK to be happy... but we really should wait until the ultrasound. That should probably be sometime the week of the 14th.

Optimism... who knew?

Beta is in!

Beta #2 is 274 !!! (Beta #1 was 91)

That'd be a doubling time of 30.18 hours. Any doubling time under 48 hours is GOOD.

I kind of thought it would go up, but I didn't think it'd triple! According to the beta base that's in range for both a singleton and twin pregnancy. So that's still up in the air.

Beta details

Ok, here's the deal on the betas. "Beta" as used here is short for "Beta HCG quantitative blood test". HCG stands for Human Chorionic Gonadatropin, and is the pregnancy hormone created by an embryo when it implants in your uterus. This hormone is what is being tested for in the peesticks you've seen below. The blood test is more accurate because it can tell you the exact number of HCG (in whatever units they use, I have no idea on that!) you have in your system. For a 14dpo (days past ovulation) beta, they want the number to be above 50. Mine was 91. The number is then supposed to basically double every 48 hours thereafter. Once it gets above 1000 or so, an ultrasound is scheduled for a week later.

So, after I got the blood drawn yesterday, they ran the test then called CCRM with the results. CCRM then called me. My nurse (Jen) called with the good news around 2:15pm, I imagine it was her lunch break. I've *never* gotten a call from them that early in the day. Before I could even say "hello?" Jen says "CONGRATULATIONS!!!! You're pregnant!!!!!" Obviously very excited. It was cute. I kind of laughed (since I saw the peesticks that morning, it wasn't a complete shocker), and asked if that was the best part of her job. She said it was the absolute BEST part and she loved making these calls. Cute. Once we both calmed down a bit, she went over some more details (aren't there always details?) of how things will proceed...

I have to go for a repeat beta (see above) on Thursday AM and again on next Tuesday (10/7/08) for HCG, estrogen and progesterone checks. It's all (hopefully) just one blood draw.

Later yesterday evening Dr. Surrey called to congratulate us and answer any questions we had. Since I'm still in Shock and Awe, I didn't have any questions. D's out of town on business, so that was that. Of course now I can think of questions. Of course!
I thought it was very nice of Dr. S to call. I think they've been a 100% class act throughout everything. I would still recommend them to anyone and everyone regardless of this outcome.