Nothing to Freeze

I got the call Wednesday morning that our two embryos that had the potential to be frozen, weren't going to be eligible after all. As it turns out, neither embryo grew enough to be frozen (they both stalled out), so they both were discarded. We have nothing to freeze :( While this is not the end of the world, it is disappointing for the mere fact that we now have no back up in case the two embryos that were transferred don't take. So here's to hoping, praying, and wishing that they do their job and IMPLANT IMPLANT IMPLANT!!!

The 9 Day Wait...

And so it begins! Yesterday was the embryo transfer... I started the day off by going to acupuncture to relax, and then followed that up with two Valium :) I was more nervous about meeting with the Embryologist and getting an update on the embryos than I was about the transfer itself! Once we got to the clinic and met with Cassie, our Embryologist, my nerves immediately settled... it was good news, YAY! We had one "perfect embryo" and then three other good ones. They were considered good quality and not perfect, only because they were a smaller size. They chose the larger one out of the three good ones, and transferred it and the perfect one! The other two are candidates for freezing, but have to grow a little bigger first. We should know by Thursday if they were both able to be frozen. Below is an ultrasound picture from when Dr. Kathy did the transfer... Isn't it amazing? The two bright white dots next to each other are our transferred embryos!

Dr. Kathy repeated a couple of times how extremely pleased she was with how our IVF cycle has turned out so far... even to the point of sharing it with one of the other RE's in the clinic! I LOVED LOVED LOVED hearing her say this! Not only is it super comforting, but she sees all kinds of cases, and for her to be so pleased with ours, that has to mean something, right? Dr. Kathy has done all that she can do. Everything else is up to our Heavenly Father and our two little embryos. If they will just continue to behave and implant like they are suppose to, I will officially be the happiest person on the planet! :)

After leaving the clinic we headed back to acupuncture... then to Buffalo Wild Wings... then home to rest. I finished the night off with the start of the pineapple craze! Pineapple is thought to help implantation so I stocked up on fresh pineapple (I cut it up myself yesterday morning), canned pineapple chunks to eat with cottage cheese (YUM!), dried pineapple chunks, and pineapple juice. Think I'm covered? :) Today and tomorrow I am to take it easy and lay around the house and rest... this will be no problem at all given that my chance to do so is quickly dwindling with the start of school approaching.

Nine days from now will be the big day. I go at 8:00 next Thursday morning for bloodwork to find out if I'm pregnant or not. I'm expecting that day to be the most nerve wracking of all! But until then, I plan to keep myself busy and think only positive and happy thoughts! And to of course continue to pray obsessively :) Until next time...

Home Improvements Round 2

In an post earlier this spring, I mentioned a couple more home improvement projects for the 2011 year... painting two of the upstairs bedrooms. Well, one is complete! One room is/was originally painted a pale yellow. I thought it was boring and wanted to add some color... so, I bought some dark brown paint and painted just the back wall in the room. My plan was to have the one brown accent wall and then paint the other three walls a sagey green color. However, once I got the brown wall painted, it made the pale yellow look a lot creamier... which I liked! So instead of painting the rest of the walls green, I'm leaving them the way they are, which = less work for me :) This bedroom has it's own bathroom, so to tie in the brown accent wall, I painted the bathroom brown too. The pictures don't do it much justice because of the lighting, but I am really pleased with how it all turned out!

 I still have one more upstairs bedroom to paint... but am holding off on painting this room until I know what kind of room it will be :) Until next time...

We've got embryos!!!

So yesterday was one of the three big days (egg retrieval, embryo transfer, and pregnancy test) in IVF... the egg retrieval. We had to be at the clinic at 7:45 to begin all the pre-op procedures and then about 9:00 they wheeled me back so Dr. Kathy could begin. I don't remember anything from the actual procedure, which is totally fine with me considering how it's done! An ultrasound guided needle is inserted through the vaginal wall to drain all of the follicles on each ovary. See what I mean? :)

After the retrieval I was taken to recovery where I stayed for about 30-45 minutes. During this time, one of the nurses gave me a preliminary egg report... 6 eggs. Tears immediately began flowing from my eyes. I wanted so badly for them to have found more... more eggs = better chances. My sweet husband came back and did his best to comfort and console me... bless his heart. I don't know how he puts up with his emotional wreck of a wife. Once the nurse removed my IV we got to go and meet with one of the embryologists to get the official egg count. It turns out they found 10!!! Yay! Other than being able to tell us that the eggs were intact and that they would use the ICSI fertilization process (they inject the sperm into the egg), that's all she knew. We would have to wait until Friday to get any other information.

And that leads us to this morning... out of the 10 eggs they retrieved, 8 were mature. And out of the 8 injected with sperm, 7 of them fertilized. This is definitely good news! Now we just need our 7 little embryos to behave and develop like they are suppose to :) We won't get another update on the development of the embryos until Sunday, so please keep praying and sending good positive thoughts our way! The rule of thumb is that about half of all fertilized eggs actually develop properly and are able to be transferred or frozen, but we of course are going to hope for the very best. Until next time...

Happy Hunting!

Okay, so after the breakdown last week, things seemed to pick up and I started to relax a little... A LITTLE. I went back to the doctor on Saturday for more blood work and another ultrasound. Then again on Monday, and today, and tomorrow, and Thursday! I feel like I should just pack an overnight bag and camp out there for the week. Here are all the stats so far:
Saturday 7/16: E2 was 304!!! Yay, it finally doubled!, Endo lining was 6.2, 6 developing follicles ranging from 16.4mm to 8.2mm with some smaller ones.
Monday 7/18: E2 was 672!!! Yay, it doubled AGAIN!, Endo lining was 6.34, 6 developing follicles ranging from 18.1mm to 9.7mm with some smaller ones.
Tuesday 7/19: E2 was 1068... :( didn't quite double, Endo lining was 8.1, 6 developing follicles ranging from 18.2mm to 9.7mm with some smaller ones.

As you can see, there wasn't much difference from Monday to Tuesday, so that indicates to the doctor that I have hit my peak in responding to the meds :( Therefore, at 9pm tonight I do my trigger injection and then 36 hours from then, Dr. Kathy gets to go egg hunting! Even though today's ultrasound only showed 6 developing follicles (which should contain mature eggs), there is a chance that by the time she retrieves the eggs that there will be more... some of the smaller follicles that they didn't measure could grow. So we are keeping our fingers and toes crossed for that. We want as many eggs as possible! Tomorrow's appointment is just for blood work, so we won't know anymore details on the follicles until after the retrieval Thursday morning. But as soon as we know something, I'll post it :) Until next time...

Needed: Positiveness and Peace

Miracles happen, right? Well, we are in need of one... a BIG one! Earlier today Negative Nancy and her friend Punk-Ass Panic entered our home. My initial reaction was to run like hell, but then their other friend, Devilish Doubt, settled in and after a short while I found myself sitting on the couch in tears and embracing all three :(. This journey for a baby is exhausting... physically, mentally, and emotionally.

To bring you up to date from last week, here are my stats:
Friday 7/8: E2 was 24, Endo lining was 2.5, Ultrasound was clear = green light to start the stimulation meds (Gonal-F and Menopur)
Tuesday 7/12: E2 was 42 = low, no Ultrasound today.
Thursday 7/14: E2 was 71 = low, Endo lining was 3.85, Ultrasound showed 1 follicle at 11mm, 1 follicle at 9.5mm, 2 follicles at 7.5mm, and then a few smaller follicles.
So what does all this mean? It means either low response to the meds, slow response to the meds, or both low and slow response to the meds. Basically, the E2 number should be doubling each time I go in. And as you can see from my results, mine aren't. The nurse said that my low E2 was somewhat expected given my low ovarian reserve. However, they would really like to see my level closer to or greater than 100 at this point. When I left the doctors office this morning I was in positive spirits and somewhat relieved to at least see some response on the ultrasound. But then when I got the phone call about my E2 level this afternoon, my positive spirit crashed and burned... in spite of the nurse telling me that there is still time for things to progress... I have only been stimulating for 5 of the possible 10 to 12 days.

I go back to the doctor on Saturday, so we will see. I am praying that my E2 level, Endo lining, and follicle numbers and size all increase. As long as things continue to increase, our cycle should be okay. But if things stall out, then there is a good chance our cycle will end before it really begins. And thus where positiveness and peace is needed... I want so badly to be hopeful that things will pick up and that come April 2012 we will have a new addition (and not a furry one) to our family. So those of you that are praying for us, please don't stop! I feel like I might need them now more than ever. Until next time...

Infertile Twist

Infertility is such a lonely place... a depressing, make you want to stay in the bed and cry for a couple of days because your temperature dropped and you now have your typical 3 day pre-period headache type of place. Month after month of wasting money on pregnancy tests just to read "NOT PREGNANT" just plain sucks. I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy. I've spent countless hours on the internet researching everything under the sun related to infertility, only for it to make me feel even more isolated from the fertile world. And with all this free summer time on my hands, it hasn't really helped the situation. However, since our treatment has switched to IVF, so have my internet searches. But as of today, I feel as if I have reached the end of all the IVF knowledge that the fabulous world wide web has to offer. Therefore, it's time for something new!... somewhat of an infertile twist :)


Instead of researching facts and statistics related to IVF, I began a search for funny IVF blogs. I need something to help keep me out of the infertile dumps and to help me keep a reality based but yet light-hearted perspective. So far I have stumbled across two blogs that I really like. The first blog is: http://the2weekwait.blogspot.com. This woman is hilarious! While her journey is not exactly like ours, I've definitely shared some of her same thoughts. The other blog is: http://999reasonstolaughcontests.blogspot.com/. It is too funny! Of course though, this blog is designed for those actually experiencing infertility... so some of you lucky fertile mertiles might not fully relate to the sense of humor. Below are just a few of her 999 reasons to laugh at infertility:
#1 You find out your mother's friend's dry cleaner's daughter's Facebook friend's second cousin's once removed is pregnant through IVF, and you are jealous.
#2 You anticipate hearing pregnancy announcements every time you see your friends.
#3 You've tried to increase your basal temperature by urinating while you take your temp.
#4 You feel your breasts, subtly, in public for signs of tenderness.
#5 You won't use the telephone for the entire day knowing the fertility clinic will be calling.
#6 You always look at a stranger's belly to see if she's pregnant, and if she is, you glare at her.


The search is still on for more funny IVF blogs, so if you happen to know of any, please share! Until next time...

It's go time... BABY

As I figured, the past two weeks have gone by in a blur... The Monday before last, I started my yoga membership with Dynamic Power Yoga in Addison. I love it! It's a 90 minute hot yoga class, and I feel so great and so relaxed when it's over. And a few days before that, I started my acupuncture treatments. I go twice a week to see Emily, at the Texas Center for Reproductive Acupuncture. It is also very relaxing. I actually doze off for a bit each time towards the end of the session!

Last weekend Travis and I headed to Crystal Beach to spend the weekend with his family. We saw a huge rainbow on our way there, which instantly brightened my mood!  I would spend every day at the beach if I could. It's so peaceful. We had such a great time visiting his family that I wish we could have stayed longer... We don't get to see his family near as often as I'd like. Below is a picture of the rainbow we saw and some of the Bolivar Bay Blue Crabs that Sam caught Saturday morning!

This past Monday, I had my doctors appointment to do the "mock transfer" (run through of what they will do on the day of the actual embryo transfer), and for the nurse to show me how to administer all my IVF injections. I also got to meet with one of the Embryologists that morning. She did such a great job of answering all my questions about the fertilization of the eggs, as well as the transfer and freezing of the embryos. This entire process really is amazing!

Wednesday night I started the first of my IVF injections. It took me 4 times of counting to 3 before actually sticking myself! And I must admit, like everyone told me, it wasn't nearly as terrifying as I thought it would be. But next weekend when I go to 3 shots a day it might be a different story! I just picture having a little baby, or two, or three :) to hold when it's all said and done, and that makes it a little easier. Unfortunately though, it looks as if I'm having an allergic reaction to the Lupron medication. Yesterday afternoon I noticed bumps on my arms, legs, stomach, back, and chest. UGH! My doctor prescribed me some lotion to put on it, so I'm hoping that in a couple of days it will clear up. Sorry if it's too graphic for some of you, but here are a couple of pictures of it.

The rash is not unbearable, but does itch, and does look gross. With all the different medications that will be flowing through my body over the next few weeks, I can only imagine the side effects I'll have from each one. I just keep reminding myself that it will all be very well worth it! Until next time...