Monday, February 6, 2012

Sunday and today!

We went in Sunday morning bright and early for the retrieval.  I got into my lovely open-backed hospital gown and the embryologist, Aaron, took Justin to his room to provide his sample.  I waited for a bit and sat and talked with the nurse coordinator, Shawnee and my favorite nurse Jennifer.  I have become very close with both of them, so it was nice to just chat with them and feel relaxed before having my procedure.  The anesthesiologist was also there chatting with us.  I just love the environment.  Justin came back and the anesthesiologist said she was going to start my IV.  I held on hard to Justin's hand and told myself I wasn't going to cry this time.  And guess what!!!  I didn't! We all had a good laugh at my expense because everyone in the office knows by now what a baby I am when it comes to needles.  So IV done, and then the doctor showed up.  He sat down in a chair by the other 2 nurses and we all chatted it up for about 5 minutes about sports and the Super Bowl.  It's so cool to have a staff and doctor who are so down to earth and cool.  Then Shawnee said it was time, so I hopped off the gurney trying not to flash anyone my backside and I shuffled into the procedure room.  Justin waited outside as they closed the door and I laid on the table.  And then I was out.  The procedure I was told took about 20 minutes.

The first thing I said when I woke up was that I had been in a warehouse with Whitney Houston and Paula Abdul!!  Ha ha ha!!  Not sure where that came from, but everyone had a good laugh!  I woke up in quite a bit of pain and the doctor and nurses came over along with the anesthesiologist to ask me what my pain level was at.  I said a 7, so they gave me some morphine for the pain.  It didn't seem to do much, so after about 10 minutes, they gave me a little more, which seemed to do the trick.  The doctor came over and said they had retrieved 3 eggs.  But where was the 4th one we had seen on ultrasound?  Well, he said they worked and worked and flushed it and aspirated it and could not get the egg out of the follicle.  Apparently sometimes that happens if the follicle gets too big.  But he said the 3 they got looked really good and mature!

After that I got dressed and they wheeled me out to the car to head home.  I was told Aaron the embryologist would call me Monday with the egg qualities and to tell us how many had fertilized.  I spent Suberbowl Sunday on the couch, sleeping most of the day.  I was in a little more pain this time around because they had to do so much maneuvering with my ovaries to get the eggs out.  Not fun!!  But by the evening I was doing pretty well and getting up and around.

This morning I woke up to a phone call from the embryologist with the results.  So here we go!!!

We had 3 mature eggs, with a mature quality of M2.  YES!!!!!  Hurray!!!  (Remember we only had M1 quality last time, and M2 is better!)  He said out of those three eggs 2 fertilized!!!!  So we are at double the amount we had last time and a better more mature quality!  I'll take it!

So, we will head back to the office on Wednesday for the transfer of the 2 embryos!!  I am super pumped and excited!  Although, for most people getting 2 embryos out of an IVF cycle is low, it is what we have to work with and it is better than none right!?

I just hope this is our time!

Oh, also I started the dreaded HUGE needle progesterone shots on Sunday directly after my procedure.  These are the oil based ones that go in your butt.  I will do them every morning until we get the results, 2 weeks after the transfer. (Well I say I will do them, but lets be honest, my awesome nurse husband administers them every morning.  Thanks baby!)  Then if we are pregnant, I will continue to do them for like 8-10 weeks or something like that.  I will also continue on the Predisone steroid prescription for about 8-10 weeks if we are pregnant.

If this whole experience has taught me anything it is that, patience is virtue!  Everything is hurry up and wait!  So once again, I will sit here and wait till Wednesday until we do the transfer and then patiently wait the 2 weeks till we find out if it worked.  Ugh, I hate being patient!  But this must be one of my life's big learning lessons.  So in the meantime, please send good thoughts to those 2 little embryos to grow big and strong!  We appreciate all your support, messages, love and prayers!

Patiently waiting.....
Jenny
Injections: 116
Blood Draws: 16 Vials: 40
IV's: 4

Friday, February 3, 2012

Sorry for not updating sooner!

I know I am behind from blogging about our dr visit on Wednesday! So sorry about that. Anyway, we have had really good news both Wednesday and this morning (Friday). Wednesday we had 4 large follicles and possibly 2 tiny ones, and today again we had 4 large ones and maybe a couple tiny ones. I was cut back on my injection doses Wednesday because the doctor didn't want the follicles to grow too big too fast. We learned something new in that the scale for egg maturity is either m1 or m2. M1 is less mature and that is what we had last time because we did so few days of stimulation. So the doctor was shooting for m2 quality eggs this time, so hence the reason for more days of stimulation. M2 quality eggs produce better embryos, which in turn gives the embryos a better quality marks like A or B. So we are shooting for m2 quality eggs, hopefully at least 4 of them and then hopefully 4 high quality embryos.

So here is the plan. Tonight are my last 2 injections at 7pm, and then we will do the trigger shot to induce ovulation at 830pm tonight. Then we will head to the doctor at 8am on Sunday for an egg retrieval at 830am. I will go under anesthesia for the procedure which takes about 20 minutes. I don't know how quick they can judge the quality of the eggs, but I am assuming it is pretty quickly after retrieval.

Oh I think I forgot to mention too that the doctor has decided that we will put the embryos back in this round and not freeze them. (well if there are extras they will be frozen) so it will be a "fresh" cycle. The doctor said we will decide together based on the egg quality and embryo quality how many we will put back in. We have had discussions about 2-3 embryos being transferred based on quality. For instance, if we had 2 good ones and 1 not so good one he might just put all 3 in. A little scary to think about the possible outcome of that, but hey this is our last chance with my eggs, so we have to go for it!! Like I have said before if we don't have to do this again, awesome! And twins would be awesome! Not so sure about triplets, considering i only have 2 arms. The tentative date for the embryo transfer will be next Wednesday the 8th.

So we will be spending Super Bowl Sunday morning at the doctor,and being lazy recovering and relaxing in the afternoon watching my favorite part, the commercials!

I will update again after our harvesting procedure on Sunday afternoon.

Jenny

Monday, January 30, 2012

I like good news!

Who doesn't right? Well we went to the doctor this morning and that's exactly what we got. The doctor did the ultrasound and saw 7 follicles!! Yep that's right, 7!!!!!! 3 on the right ovary, 2 which are decent size and 4 on the left side, 2 which are also decent size. The doctor was very encouraged as were we! He said that my theory with the trigger meds in December might be the key to all this success we are seeing this cycle because it would have taken those meds in December this long to trigger new follicles. So I guess there was a good reason why we were pushed back to this cycle! He said he would call it the Naber theory and was considering using it on 2 other patients who have my same issues. So yay for speaking up and having input on my own health issues!

He said seeing this many follicles at this stage for me could also be attributed to the new meds. It's hard to say what is causing the success so far, but I am just thankful for whatever it is!

So what's the plan? I will continue on the same meds until Wednesday morning when I go back in for another monitoring appt. If things are looking good we will be looking at harvesting the eggs sometime between Friday and Sunday. Then we have a big decision to make.

The doctor discussed with us today the thought of freezing our eggs that we harvest this month and then waiting 2 cycles to put them back in. Why would he want to do this? Well studies have shown that women who have low egg reserves like myself have higher pregnancy rates if all the egg stimulating drugs are out of their system before putting the embryos back in. The issue is this. If we get 3 or fewer good eggs, the freezing and thawing process has the potential to destroy some of these, which would leave us back where we were last round, with the possibility of having 3, 1, or none. So do we take the risk and freeze them and wait till the drugs are out of my system because the drugs could also destroy the few embryos. The other side of the coin is we get 5-7 good eggs and in that case we have more eggs to work with and a better chance of more surviving the freeze, thaw. So this decision will probably be a last minute one based on the number of eggs harvested.

I am feeling a little dizzy and nauseous today. Not sure where that is coming from, but it's a little annoying, so once again I am at home resting. I started taking the prednisone pills yesterday so maybe that's it? Who knows!

On a side note Justin had to get his FDA blood work panel done today, so he got a little torturing of his own with the needles. He he! I had to get blood drawn too, but only 1 vial, but of course I still needed my hand held.

I am just so grateful for the good news because it makes all the needles, dizziness and nausea worth it! I'm sure you pregnant people can relate!

Jenny

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Bruising and crying

Well I have learned each time we do this everything is different and I feel different so I have learned to just go with the flow and the side effects as they come. I feel much more tired this time around almost to the point where I feel like I could fall asleep standing up at certain times. I have also had a stiff neck a couple mornings that I have woken up and a slight headache that lasts most of the day.

My stomach is starting to get pretty knotty and sore, well pretty much bruised. The only shots that still give me some trouble right now are the Menopur ones I do at night that burn when the medicine goes in. Tonight was the second one this round of those and tonight I felt light-headed for a bit after the burning stopped. Last night it made me cry. But if I'm being totally honest, I think I am getting a little better at taking all of them, but my heart still beats a little faster before I get injected and I still can't look at the needle.

Overall I just feel drained and for me that's weird because I am not doing much these days and I hate feeling lazy like I haven't done anything, but when you have no energy there's really no choice in the matter.

Emotionally, I don't feel mean or angry, but I do cry at anything close to a sad or really happy moment in a movie or show. I feel like the crying thing is more prevalent this time, so it must be from the new drug?

My mom sent me a DVD last night of a bunch of old home movies of me as a baby and WOW it was very cool to see. Not to brag, but I was a pretty cute baby and it made me want even more to be able to use my own eggs. It was a bitter sweet thing to watch while going through this process. But it was so cool to be able to see my grandparents (whom are deceased) holding me as a baby in full flesh and blood. Yes, I cried when those images came on the screen. My grandma Rosamond especially got me tearing up because she died quite awhile ago, so it was so cool to see her smiling face again.

The best part of the video was seeing my mom with me as a baby and how happy she was and always smiling, as was I. It was crazy to think that she was right around the same age I am now and how much she looked like I do now. I just hope that I can have that same happy experience she appeared to have in the videos. Ok, great now I am crying again just thinking about the video. Ugh, the joys of hormones!

So we are headed in to the doctor at 8am tomorrow morning for an ultrasound and blood work to see where we are at. Fingers crossed for lots of big follicles!!!

Jenny
Needle pokes: 90
Blood draws: 13 Vials: 37

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Ok yes we have officially begun again!

I was thinking this morning about all my favorite movies and how they all have happy endings. So I have this high expectation that that is the way real life is too. And I am hoping this time around we get our happy ending cause I don't want to be disappointed or disappoint any of you (my friends and family) any more either.

So I went to the doctor this morning for the initial monitoring appt, which as I have mentioned before is the usual ultrasound and blood work. Justin had a board meeting so I was on my own for this one. The doctor was running late and so I ended up sitting in my paper skirt for 30 minutes. Luckily I had my phone and lots of apps to keep me busy. Thanks Pinterest! Anyway, the doctor came in and immediately did the ultrasound. I have 2 follicles on the right and 4 on the left. So a total of 6. I am totally happy with that!! The doctor seemed happy with that too. It's funny because every time I go in to get an ultrasound I always have this crazy thought that the doctor is going to look on the screen and go, "holy shit you have 12 follicles" or some crazy high number like that. But I am starting to realize that probably isn't going to happen so if 6 is my highest number starting out, then I just have to get crazy excited about 6.
I asked the doctor about the change up in medicine to Lupron and he said pretty much what I thought he would say. If something didn't work great with one medicine (ie. we only got 2 mature follicles, 1 embryo last time) then lets try something different. One new thing I found out about my protocol that I am NOT happy about is I have to go back on the steroid Prednisone starting on saturday. That is the one I took for 6 months while doing IUI, and then stopped taking it abruptly last June and my hair started falling out. It is the same small dosage I was taking before too. But what can I do? I can't refuse to take it, so I guess I'll just continue to use my shampoo, rinse and leave in oil hair loss treatment and hope that it counteracts the effects of the steroid. Ok, so got that all covered.

Now on to the sucky part. I found out Justin and I both have to do our FDA blood testing again. Apparently it's required every time you go through a new IVF cycle. Well I decided to get mine out of the way today because it's lots of vials, ugh! It was actually kind of funny though because everyone there goes and gets prepared for me to get a lot of blood drawn. One person gets the snack and juice, one holds my hand, one talks to me and the nurse draws my blood. It's a bit hilarious! But I am grateful for the support. Anyway I survived 6 vials and it's over for now!

So for the next 3 days we will continue on the meds and start the steroid pill and Menopur Saturday. I will be doing the Lupron and Follistim in the morning and Menopur and Follistim in the evening. So that's a minimum 4 shots a day because half the time the cartridges run out so you have to do 2 shots of the Follistim. Not fun!

I will be hibernating for the next week or so, because I am not sure how my hormones and emotions will react to these new drugs and I don't want to frighten anyone besides my husband.

Monday will be our next ultrasound and blood work appt to see how big and how many follicles we have. I am hoping all 6 are there and have grown big. Also Justin will get to get torchered a bit and have his FDA blood work done. Ha ha!

Ok, I am ready to be a pin cushion again. Here we go!

Jenny

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Here we go......I think!

Well, we are somewhat officially on the roller coaster again.  I say that because today is cycle Day 2 and we have started a new drug protocol, which requires me to start taking the new drug, Lupron on Day 2.  So I got on the horse this morning and got my first injection.  It wasn't too bad except for afterwards it stayed hard in the spot where Justin injected it for like 20 minutes which was a new experience and weird feeling.  Anyway, we will head to the doctor tomorrow morning at 9am for our first monitoring appt to see what is going on inside my ovaries, with the hope that there are lots of follicles that we can work with and make them grow bigger.  I will do 2 morning injections tomorrow, one of the new drug, Lupron and one of the drug we have done before, Follistim.  I will also have to do blood work at the doctors office, ugh!

If for some reason he doesn't see any follicles or not enough follicles then we might not continue, so that is why I said we somewhat officially started this round.  But if we get the green light tomorrow and have lots of follicles, I will be so happy!  As I mentioned my doctor decided to switch up one of the drugs in my protocol to Lupron.  Apparently what Lupron does is shut down your LH and FSH hormones, so that they can chemically control them with the other 2 drugs, Follistim and Menopur (which is added into the mix around cycle day 5).  We were using Ganirelix in our last protocol, and I am not sure what the difference is except that the Lupron you start taking very early in the cycle and the Ganirelix you take like starting on cycle Day 8.  I can say I do like the needle much better that we use for the Lupron.  It is much smaller and goes in easier.  The Ganirelix needle was so hard to push in my stomach.  Ok, yuck I just made myself nauseous with the image of that! Sorry!  I also don't know the reason why my doctor changed the protocol, so I will ask tomorrow.  But I am assuming the reason is that well, it didn't work great last time (because we only had 2 follicles, 1 embryo), so why not try something different.  Remember people this is an art form, NOT science!  Ha!

Ok, so I am thinking positive thoughts and lots and lots of follicles!!!  Please do the same!  Much appreciated!

Jenny

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Another delay

Well, sorry again for not writing sooner, but the continuous disappointments and set backs with this process sometimes prove to be more than I can handle and sometimes I just don't want to repeat in writing bad news.  We once again have been pushed back on starting another IVF.  We were scheduled to start again in the January cycle, but my body had other plans.  My cycle started a week early and threw everything off.  We were out of town and also the doctor was on vacation for a week, and I would have been way to early to be included in the the January group, so they pushed us back to February.
The doctor isn't sure why my cycle got so screwed up and came so early.  It could be those 3 days of Follistim injections we did on that cycle threw my body out of whack, but there is no way of really knowing.  So we must move forward.  I will not be doing any sort of injections this cycle (or as I call it testing my theory), because the doctor just wants to try and be as natural as possible, so that I can be included in February and don't get another early surprise and then have to be pushed back again.  So much for my theory, huh!?  We won't know if I was right or not because we were unable to do an ultrasound due to the fact that I couldn't get into the office to see how many follicles I had.  And we don't want to test the theory again this cycle for fear of getting pushed back again.
So again, we wait patiently for February to arrive and my body to cooperate.

In the meantime, we have expanded our family in the furry way.  On Sunday we rescued a 4.5lb teacup chihuahua from some people who were going to put her down for no reason.  The couple was elderly and being put into a nursing home and due to ignorance the couple and their grandchildren thought that was the best solution.  Well we swooped in just in time and got her.  She is about 7 years old and a very happy tiny little girl.  We are calling her Pickles.  She is going to need some work to get her healthy, but I welcome the distraction from the whole IVF process.  Justin and I are so happy to have her as a part of our family and I think she is grateful to be out of that situation.

While we wait "patiently" for our human children to arrive, we will enjoy the love and happiness of our 3 furry girls.

Jenny