So Far, So Good

That's the short answer of how things went this morning with Shrike's prescreening, which is a huge relief.

Of course, the long answer is more complicated. Of course.

The first big "whew!" is that we found out that, since we signed our consents on Monday and held our spot, they have closed the study and are not taking anyone else, so if we'd not gone when we did, we wouldn't have made it in!

When we got there, Shrike gave them a bunch of pee and blood, and got weighed and measured, and then had the "physical exam" which consisted of a doctor listening to her heart and breathing and then quite perfunctorally poking around downstairs, which I can't imagine could have told him any more than we were about to find out with the ultrasound, but whatever.

Then he left and a sonographer came in to do that. She was much friendlier.

I said something about "We'll feel a lot better after we see the follicle count," and she asked "Why are you worried about the follicles. Oh, you mean you're worried there will be too many?"

What?! We didn't know there could be too many!

Turns out that while, generally, more follicles is better, there is an upper limit for the study, because everyone gets the same dosage of the ovarian stimulation medications, and they don't want to risk hyperstimulation.

She wasn't exactly sure what the cut-off point was, but she was looking at Shrike's right ovary and counting "One, two. . . ten, eleven, damn . . . " and then said that it looked like thirteen.

When she went to the other side, she said she'd have to call that thirteen, too, "And we'll talk to AA and see what she can do."

"Is that too many?!" I asked, and she just said, "We'll have to talk to AA."

Then, as she was measuring, she said, "Wait, I just measured that as if it was the left, and, wait, I think I might have looked at the same one twice."

She looked around a bit and YES! - She had counted the right ovary twice, "So, if you have less on the left, you might be okay."

Then, over to the left side, where we found FIVE.

For a total of eighteen.

Now, between the two of us, we've done this antral follicle count thing quite a few times, and the two sides were 6/9, 4/6, 3/3, 5/6, 14/10 (all me), and 18/13 (Shrike) - This was the biggest left/right discrepancy we've ever seen.

Oh, and when we talked to MG (who, along with AA, works with TN, the study coordinator), she said that the maximum allowed for the study is twenty.

So, huuuuuge whew on that one, too!

It occurred to me later that I guess that, even if everything else looked good on today's labs (won't know for a while) that if we go in next cycle and she has more than twenty follicles, we could get bumped at that point, and I've sent and email to confirm that, but I can't imagine that it wouldn't be the case. So, there's that to worry about.
When we were talking with MG, I also asked her if it would really take a week to ten days to get all the labwork back, or wouldn't they have some of it sooner than that. She said that most of the hormone levels would come back today, and she could email me when they got that.

Well, I was expecting to hear something like "Looked at Shrike's hormones and everything looks okay so far," but instead, she emailed me all the actual numbers, with no interpretation.

So, again, I turned to Dr. Google, and according to FertilityPlus.org, everything does appear to be within the normal range, except for LH, which was just the teeniest smidge elevated (normal is less than 7, hers is 8.14).

Her FSH is smack in the middle of the "good" range, (It was "a bit elevated" in May, and I think it's lower now.) and Estradiol is toward the higher end of the normal range. (Lower values are better for stimulation, and "abnormally high" values indicate diminished ovarian reserve.)

Of course, the specific ranges vary from lab to lab, so that's all sort of conjecture, too.

For those of you who've been down this road and are familiar with these things, here are the actual numbers:

Estradiol= 62.8
FSH= 7.96
LH= 8.18
Progesterone= 0.742
TSH= 1.64
PRL= 8.51

I emailed them back and said that I understand if they aren't allowed to really interpret the numbers, but asked if those numbers seem to be within the parameters of the study.

In the meantime, is there a reproductive endocrinologist in the house?


So, now we wait to get a call "within the next 7 - 10 business days regarding inclusion in the study."

And then, if that goes well, we'll still have to sweat her follicle count at the beginning of the next cycle.

So, to summarize, the correct mojo request is: Good numbers on today's labs, and 16 - 20 antral follicles four weeks from now.

And how am I doing? While talking to MG, we were talking about how stressed out I am about it all, and I said, "Well, I feel like I can't do anything except worry," and she said, "Well, you're doing a really good job of that!"