CD10: Itchy Arms and Follicles
Today's U/S showed 4 follies on the left, 2 on the right. TWO ON THE RIGHT! This means that my formerly dead right ovary has finally gotten a bit of life back in it. The right side has one follie at 15mm...the rest are hovering around 10. I am starting ganirelex tonight because of the larger one (one of it's dimensions was 17mm so it is at a good point). I worry about starting ganirelex too soon as it might keep the other guys from growing enough.
They'll grow about 2mm a day. I need them to be close to 17mm to trigger...so a 10mm today would be 12mm tomorrow (Tuesday), 14mm on Wednesday, and 16mm on Thursday. Dr. Italian said I'd trigger either on Wednesday or Thursday. My bet is for Thursday at this point. This would mean a ER on Saturday and an ET on the following Thursday....which means that my trip to California for Sharks Fantasy Hockey Camp the following week is going to get canceled. Crap! Oh well. At least I can stay home on bedrest for three days and no one will ask me to DO ANYTHING for them. ;-)
I did my LIT yesterday - it was a white knuckle ride because my centrifuge wouldn't spin above 2750RPM. The procedure requires a 3000RPM speed to get the leukocytes to form a pellet in the bottom of the centrifuge tube. Amazingly, 40 minutes of spinning later I got my pellet. A few washes and spins with sterile lactated ringers and we were ready.
I went back to my notes on my first LIT in Mexico looking to see how fast I reacted in the past. I think I was itchy later that night on the plane home. This time nothing really. Even this morning. But by midday, red itchy welts. Good thing I wore long sleeves to work today.
I started to panic a bit at work though. I started to think, "You know, this is really going way out on a limb to be doing LIT like this. What if I get MRSA? What if I get a nasty assed infection and I lose an arm?!?!"
But then I realize that unless you're working in a clean room (which I'm almost sure they aren't in Mexico) you're always going to have a risk of infection. I worked for a number of years processing human pooled serum into antigens that would be injected into animals. Sterile techniques are bred into my brain cells. Every step has to be careful. I even bleached my centrifuge inside and out before starting. New solutions. New vacutainers. Sterile pipettes, centrifuge tubes, solutions. Fresh gloves at every step. Nothing left to chance.
But even doing all of that still doesn't guarantee that I won't wind up with a random infection. Either here, or in Mexico, this is risky shit. I know it. I don't take this lightly. Not one bit.
They'll grow about 2mm a day. I need them to be close to 17mm to trigger...so a 10mm today would be 12mm tomorrow (Tuesday), 14mm on Wednesday, and 16mm on Thursday. Dr. Italian said I'd trigger either on Wednesday or Thursday. My bet is for Thursday at this point. This would mean a ER on Saturday and an ET on the following Thursday....which means that my trip to California for Sharks Fantasy Hockey Camp the following week is going to get canceled. Crap! Oh well. At least I can stay home on bedrest for three days and no one will ask me to DO ANYTHING for them. ;-)
I did my LIT yesterday - it was a white knuckle ride because my centrifuge wouldn't spin above 2750RPM. The procedure requires a 3000RPM speed to get the leukocytes to form a pellet in the bottom of the centrifuge tube. Amazingly, 40 minutes of spinning later I got my pellet. A few washes and spins with sterile lactated ringers and we were ready.
I went back to my notes on my first LIT in Mexico looking to see how fast I reacted in the past. I think I was itchy later that night on the plane home. This time nothing really. Even this morning. But by midday, red itchy welts. Good thing I wore long sleeves to work today.
I started to panic a bit at work though. I started to think, "You know, this is really going way out on a limb to be doing LIT like this. What if I get MRSA? What if I get a nasty assed infection and I lose an arm?!?!"
But then I realize that unless you're working in a clean room (which I'm almost sure they aren't in Mexico) you're always going to have a risk of infection. I worked for a number of years processing human pooled serum into antigens that would be injected into animals. Sterile techniques are bred into my brain cells. Every step has to be careful. I even bleached my centrifuge inside and out before starting. New solutions. New vacutainers. Sterile pipettes, centrifuge tubes, solutions. Fresh gloves at every step. Nothing left to chance.
But even doing all of that still doesn't guarantee that I won't wind up with a random infection. Either here, or in Mexico, this is risky shit. I know it. I don't take this lightly. Not one bit.
posted by linda at 11:01 PM
Comments on "CD10: Itchy Arms and Follicles"
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musicmakermomma said ... (2:05 PM) :
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Julize said ... (5:10 PM) :
post a commentI really hope you don't end up with a random infection - sounds like you did everything you could to avoid it. I know you'll be careful and watch for signs. And hopefully this will be worth it, and you can tell the story of mommy urging the centrifuge on. Take care!
That's interesting that your ovary was twinging too--it must have something to do with the sclero. Apparently not all my tetracycline has absorbed yet, but the endometrioma has gotten smaller. Dr. Italian told me it may not go away completely, but it was 4-5cm to start out with and he thinks we'll ultimately get it down to at least 1cm or so, which I guess is good. What's interesting is he found 6 or 7 antrals on that side, which is the best response I've had from my right ovary since I first started having ultrasounds 2 1/2 years ago. Not sure if I should chalk that up to the sclero, or something else. I recently upped the frequency of my acupuncture to weekly and I've also started on wheatgrass, so maybe that's helped too. Whatever it is, I'm not complaining!
Anyway, the bad news is since the tetracycline hasn't fully absorbed I'm benched until sometime around the last week in April, which will probably be my next trip to NYC. Here's hoping you're well into your first trimester by then!
I wouldn't worry too much about the LIT. It sounds like you have tons of lab experience and you're being super-careful. Have you decided for sure to move forward with a fresh transfer this week?