Guess where I am right now? Yes, I am now in Denver and probably will be for the next 10 days.

I had an appointment for Ultrasound and bloodwork at 8:15 am earlier today. I thought I had plenty of time but guess what greeted me when I opened the curtains:

SNOW!!! Yaix!!!

I wasn’t prepared for it. I knew it was going to get cold that’s why I packed my thick winter jackets and turtle neck shirts.  But not snow!

That explains the brush inside the rental car! I was wondering why they left their “cleaning” stuff inside the car! Now, I’m glad they did. I further gave away my being snow-ignoramus though when I opened the driver seat door and snow went in and deposited on the seat!  (I started to get worried that when I turn on the car heater that my seat would be all wet!) Anyhow, I actually enjoyed brushing off the powdery snow off the car - it was easy-peasy!

When I was done brushing off the snow, I only had 10 minutes till my appointment. So I drove off … and when I made the left turn into the major street… I lost control of my car and made a 180 degree!!! It was a good thing that there was no car right behind me… I guess they stayed away because the rental car had an Oklahoma plate.

There I was in the middle of the road, facing the wrong direction!!! I was shaken but I couldn’t help but grin. I waved at the oncoming traffic and they let me maneuver.  Then I was on my way… I was a bit frazzled but I thought it was more funny than embarassing. I just praise God for protecting me!

I got there on time - ultrasound showed my ovaries were on track. They should call in later today what my Follistim dosages are for the next 2 days.

Here’s my schedule in the next few days:
3/12 Thu - Ultrasound/Bloodwork. IVF Physical
3/13 Fri - Genetic Counseling with Danielle
3/14 Sat - Ultrasound/Bloodwork. Back-up Freeze #1
3/15 Sun - Ultrasound/Bloodwork
3/16 Mon - Ultrasound/Bloodwork. Back-up Freeze #2

Will keep you posted, I promise!

I listed the questions I have for DrH when we meet with her on 9/23.

I prefer to have my answers earlier but they do not have emails. They do not do phone consultations also. So instead, I plan to mail this list to them or drop them off at their clinic next time I am around their area.

Some of the questions are really hypothetical but I want to ask them anyway as it would be indicative of their situational response.

Reframing our case:
1. Which among our previous IF factors are still at play in our case that we are up against?
2. What is your IUI statistics for couples with similar diagnosis? (How many women our diagnosis (my age and condition) have success for multiple IUI cycles (in your clinic)?)
What are your IVF statistics for couples with similar diagnosis?
Is there value in doing another IUI cycle in our case?
3. What can be gleaned from our IUI - possibilities on why it failed and what could be done differently?
4. What was my first Follistim cycle’s high response indicate? (in terms of quantity and quality of eggs? in terms of how I will respond to the planned protocol? is there a cumulative effect of the drug?)

If we are going for an IVF:
5. How much Follistim are you planning to put in my protocol - like the 1st cycle or 2nd cycle or in between or even more the 1st?
6. If I responded similar to my first Follistim cycle (that we needed to cancel because of impeding OHSS) with the pre-IVF stimulation, is this a reason for cancellation?
7. What are typical reasons for IVF cancellation and how can they be avoided?
8. What kind of monitoring is going to be done while on the suppression stage with Lupron?
9. What will be the deciding factor for D3 embryo or d5 blast ET? What are the typical scenarios for cases similar to ours?
10. Is the progesterone going to be a suppository or IM injection?

Egg/embryo freezing:
11. If we have a lot of retrieved eggs, do you have a way of selecting better eggs than others? Is your facility have the ability to freeze eggs?
12. What is the correlation of “better eggs” to fertilization rate? to 8-cell embryo development (at Day 3)?
13. Assuming we have eggs or embryos to freeze, what is the storage rate?
14. If we want to fertilize 3 or 4 eggs only and transfer all fertilized embryos, would you honor that?
15. What do you do with embryo and blasts that are not transferred and you think will not survive freezing?

Others:
16. What is your view on alternative treatments (acupuncture, TCM, vitamins)?
17. If IVF fails to produce a positive, where do you see us moving next?
18. How do all these meds affect my breast cysts?
19. The last cycle (when we had IUI), I had to call the clinic 15 minutes before closing to know my beta results (instead of the clinic calling me). Is it typical to get beta results late in the afternoon?

Are there other things that I should be asking?

Do you have experiences regarding my questions? Would you share your experience and thoughts? Please leave your comments - I appreciate it!

Also, if you have the advanced maternal age factor, can you sound off too? I know a couple of you already. I would like to see real life examples of those who have come out of the trenches, too.