Cheers to Chocolate, Wine & Better Chances

Nothing creeps me out more than needles! Ugh. You would think I'm going in for open heart surgery or something when I give blood. I don't know what comes over me, but I have a hard time breathing and start to tear up, almost every time....before the needle even goes in. Recently, when my husband had surgery, I almost fainted as they struggled to put the IV in his arm. 2 nurses rushed to my aid with a Sprite and took me out of the room. LOL  Something must have happened to me as a child that I don't remember, or perhaps it was just watching my mom suffer through cancer for 7 years and getting stuck to death time and time again. Everything else is wireless these days; Maybe one day in the future, they will test our blood somehow without needles. Until then, guess I just have to suck it up. :s

Looking back over my blood work from last year, I thought it might be smart to redo my CD3 bloodwork. This is bloodwork typically done to test 2 hormones: FSH (follicular stimulating hormone) and Estradiol (estrogen). It's very important that this is done on calendar day 3 of a woman's cycle to be accurate. I had it done last year in July 2011, and results came back "normal". However, it wasn't done on the correct calendar day....at that time there was no calendar day, because I hadn't had a period since December 2008. Calendars didn't pertain to me! So, I figured it was worth re-doing, albeit a little late in the game, since I'm starting a new regimen now with the Femara. I feel almost like I'm starting this game ALL OVER AGAIN, but I want to make sure everything's normal with the baseline bloodwork.

I'm pretty sure my FSH will come back fine. I'm no expert, but FSH is only elevated when the ovarian reserve is low as far as I know. My RE counted 38 follicles (eggs) laying in wait at the last ultrasound I did with her and said my ovaries "looked like an RE's dream." My problem is not how many eggs I have. It seems to be the quality of my actual ovulation (late ovulation and poor progesterone response following ovulation).

However, I'm also interested to see how Estradiol comes back. It was near the top end of the range last time. High might sound good to some people out there, but you don't want your estrogen to be too high in relation to your progesterone. It's usually off balance in menopausal women or those experiencing estrogen dominance. It's a very intricate balance for all these hormones to work the way they're supposed to! Fingers crossed it all comes back normal.

Outside of that, I'm doing really well mentally, despite the fact that another cycle began on Thursday as expected. I normally get really down and sad on CD1, but I have been ok with it this time around. For one, I bought a new Acura RDX this week, which I've wanted for a looooong time. I'm sure a new car is enough to put anyone in a good mood. It will be a great family car once we have a family.

Secondly, the fact that we are doing something different by using Femara this cycle just gives me a renewed sense of hope for a better outcome. I am actually really excited! I just took my first two pills of Femara and will continue for the next 4 days. The last time I took this medication, I had no side effects, so I'm hoping it will be the same this time around. It also helped me produce two nice sized follies much earlier in my cycle than usual last time I took it, but my RE screwed the whole cycle up with another medicine she gave me...that's a whole other story. I'm still a little bitter if you can't tell!

Anyways,  I managed to score the Femara from Costco for only $5.99! Femara costs $150 at Target pharmacy, so nice savings there. By the way, I also bought my car through the Costco Auto Buying program this week, and it saved me $2000. Costco rocks!!! With so many new and exciting things on the horizon I thought it was worth celebrating last night. Hubby is overseas in Amsterdam, so this was my date last night...

Dark chocolate covered cherries with a small glass of pinot noir... Mmmmm. It doesn't get much better than that! Cheers to a bigger and better chance of becoming a mommy this month!