The Summer of IUI’s

It has been the summer of IUI’s. June’s IUI was unsuccessful, and the beginning of July we had our fifth IUI attempt with 5mg of Letrozole and 75iu of Gonal-F. It was like deja vu going through the motions around the Fourth of July again, as that was when we started any kind of medical intervention last year. That was also the last time I was pregnant, which ended in miscarriage really quickly.

My little brother came to town right after the Fourth of July which was a welcome distraction from obsessing over what my body may or may not be doing. We went for a hike, visited two waterfalls, walked out to the beach, went on a fishing trip (I caught my first fish ever) and just had an all around really wonderful visit.

In the middle of his visit was my follicle check which didn’t bring the greatest news. The ultrasound showed that I responded well to the medication, with three decent sized follicles but still under 20mm. However, they were all three on the left side which if you remember, is my blocked side. The right side showed a “complex area” and the nurse said it was not clear if it was a cyst or if I had already ovulated. They took my blood before we left that appointment to see if I had already ovulated but nonetheless cancelled this IUI attempt since all the follicles were on the left, even if I hadn’t ovulated yet.

Yes, we were bummed out however we are having a really wonderful and low key summer so it felt ok that “we will try again next time.” We’re getting really good at being okay with bad news, and also good at not being okay with bad news. It really depends on the day which way this leans.

Next time is here. My medication is still the same since I seem to be responding we just need to sweet talk my right ovary into being the front runner!! Why does my blocked side want all the attention? Take a seat, left side.

Last cycle I never got a positive OPK but my nurse told me not to worry about it. Apparently Gonal-F can cause false results on these. This cycle was no different, I got a positive on CD10 on a digital test but on the line ones, it was consistently super negative (no second line happening at all) all the way through. My nurse again said she doesn’t think it’s actually a positive and to just ride it out until follicle scan on CD13.

My follicle scan revealed a HUMUNGOUS, JUICY follicle, 30mm people! However, it happened to be on my left (blocked side). Come on! Seriously? The good news is that there was also an 18mm follicle on my right side which was really great news. My lining wasn’t as thick as they wanted to see so we waited until the following night to pull the trigger to give it a little extra time to thicken up.

Thursday night, trigger night, landed on date night. We had plans to go to an outdoor movie to watch 10 Things I Hate About You – classic chick flick! (And filmed in Seattle/Tacoma). I was supposed to trigger at 10pm, so I packed my trigger in my lunch box with my movie snacks and headed off to date night. The couple we went with, conveniently, have also been dealing with this crappy infertility journey, so my friend accompanied me to the public women’s bathroom to do my trigger shot for me. Thank goodness for her because I am a total wimp and it would have been really difficult to do out in the open and dark with my husband!

So we pulled the trigger in a public bathroom, with 10 Things I Hate About You on a giant screen in the background and a very annoyed bathroom maintenance man that shouted “If these girls would get out of the bathroom, I could clean it!” Ha!

IUI number 4 (6th try) was Saturday, August 4th. This one took a bit longer than usual and was quite crampy since there was some resistance. (I don’t know why). We were really happy with the numbers and both felt relaxed and excited all day.

My husband wore his lucky pineapple socks and I wore my pineapple shirt. In my husbands words, “Power of the pineapples!”

We are waiting on our IUI update and will update you when we can. Thank you for always being by our side along this journey!