1st Beta Results

It would be really nice to have a time where a nurse called with test results that were nothing but good news, but we don't seem to have that kind of luck. I knew immediately from her tone of voice that not everything was ideal.

HCG - 147 (With the pg that resulted in Miss A, it was 149, but we transferred 2 that time, and we think that both initially stuck. This time, we only transferred 1.)

E2 - 300-something. Normal.

Progesterone - 14-point-something. This is the issue. I didn't even ask and she didn't say, but I think it's supposed to be above 20. She asked if I was doing the suppositories 3 times a day. (I am.) She confirmed that I am taking the PIO daily instead of every other day like their typical protocol. (I am.) She made sure I'm using a 1.5" needle and not a 1" needle. (It's 1.5".) Then she sounded stumped. So she told me to bump my PIO to 1.5 ml, up from 1 ml. She's not sure the increase will show up within 2 days, so tomorrow's number might still be low.

I'm not overly freaked out about the progesterone level at this point. With Miss A's pg, my level dropped down to 5-point-something. That was back when the clinic's standard protocol was suppositories only, and no PIO, and at that point, they had me add PIO. So from that perspective, 14 isn't horrible. And when I tried to wean from the progesterone with Miss A, my numbers dropped down below 20, and that was when I was at the end of the first trimester. So I figure to be at 14 at this point isn't all that bad, comparatively speaking.

What's worrying me more is that I've continued to do daily FRERs, and the line is not getting darker. Yesterday's line was about as dark as the control line, but this morning's looked slightly lighter than yesterday's line. R was a quick thinker, and managed to be pretty convincing when he said he thought the control line looked lighter than yesterday's, too, so he thought it was just a variation in the test, and not necessarily a reflection of a declining HCG level. (Both were tested with FMU, and both were from the same box.)

On the bright side, there has been no more staining. We'll see what tomorrow's repeat tests show. Even if all the numbers look good, we're certainly not anywhere close to out of the woods. I'm only 4w1d today, and it's usually between 6-8 weeks when things have fallen apart for us in the past.