Night Before ER and Update

Woah, so it's been a crazy couple of days. So my last update was as of Saturday. On Sunday I had blood work and ultrasound. Below is the top 5 follicles on each side, growing nicely. On Sunday afternoon Dr Crickard called me to tell me that my E2 was very high at 5,800 and that we would most likely have to freeze the embryos and transfer at a later date. I was heartbroken. The reason is because I'm now at risk of OHSS (Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome) which can become very dangerous and apparently it can sometimes get worse after the embryos are transferred. OHSS doesn't happen until after ER so we'll see how I'm feeling in a couple days, the unexpected definitely makes me nervous. I might or I might not end up with OHSS, who knows how my body will respond to this as I didn't have this issue with Hank. I was told to stop the Follistim & LH and only do the Lupron shot that night, and to come back on Monday morning.

Of course, on Superbowl Sunday night (Woo Patriots!!!) it started snowing like crazy and they were calling for a foot of snow over night. So Casey made the call that he would be driving me up to Buffalo & Hank would be accompanying us. We hit the road for Buffalo at 5:30 am, it was AWFUL. The roads were absolute crap and of course there were tons of idiots on the road. We finally made it at 6:45 am. It normally takes us like 50-55 minutes to get up there, so it was definitely a slow drive. Thankfully my ultrasound showed that I was ready to trigger. Below is a picture of one of my ovaries, the other one looks very similar. As you can see, I have a lot going on. I got a call in the afternoon that my E2 levels have now risen over 7,000 (we were hoping they would go down a little with the decrease of the drugs) but unfortunately not. I did my Ovidrel trigger shot last night at 8 pm.

So egg retrieval is tomorrow morning. We have to be there at 7:30 am, for 8 am retrieval. I took my doxycycline (antibiotic) tonight, and cannot eat/drink after midnight. We're planning to leave right around 6 am because wouldn't you know, we're expecting another 4-8 inches of snow overnight tonight. We got so lucky with our trips up to Buffalo last week with the weather, of course it's hitting us now. Thankfully Casey is a lot more comfortable driving in the bad weather than I am.

I'm very anxious to say the least as I really don't know what to expect. Yes, I've been through ER two other times, but it's still very nerve-wracking and I really have no idea what to expect from my eggs. No idea how many we'll end up getting and how good they'll be, etc. I don't know when I'll know for sure if it's a frozen cycle or not. It makes me so nervous because I've never had any embryos make it to freeze. But they do always transfer the best embryos, so who knows, maybe Hank would have frozen if we didn't transfer him. I know the doctors will do what is in my best interest though, so we'll see what happens! I am praying we can do a fresh transfer this cycle, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Please think good thoughts and for lots of good quality eggs that turn into some awesome embryos!!

The Official Start of my IVF Cycle

Ahhhh the time has come, it's the OFFICIAL start of my upcoming IVF cycle. What starts the cycle, you ask? Birth control pills!! Hahaha, so funny, right? Did you know that a typical IVF cycle is 6 weeks?! Gosh that feels like such a long time haha, I kind of just want to fast forward ahead to February! LOL. No, it's all worth it of course :D So I started my pack of birth control pills tonight and have received my official calendar.

The course of events is as follows:
12/27 -- Start birth control pills
1/1 -- Call insurance to activate IVF coverage
1/2 -- Mock transfer
1/12 -- Start Lupron (1st injectible medicine)
1/16 -- Last active birth control pill
1/19 -- Baseline blood work and ultrasound
1/23 -- Start the injectible medicine to stimulate my ovaries to grow follices (Follistim)
1/26 -- Blood work to check estradiol levels
Week of 1/26 -- more blood work & ultrasounds
Week of 2/2 -- more blood work & ultrasounds; then when my follicles are the appropriate size we will stimulate ovulation (ovidrel) then have the egg retrieval!
5-7 days after egg retrieval is the embryo transfer -- the plan is to transfer 2 embryos
Then we WAIT! AHHHH!!!

I'm really excited but I'm also super nervous as well. We've never had many great embryos in the past so this makes me nervous, all it takes is one though (Hello, Mr Hank <3)!! So hoping for more embryos this time, would even be nice to have some to freeze. IVF is a very emotional process, so I'm not really looking forward to that. And last time I didn't have a toddler running around keeping me busy too so I'm sure I'm going to be extra tired. I always make sure to schedule the earliest appointments so I can get back to work so I don't have to use any time. So that means leaving my house around 6 am (yuck!). So that'll be hectic with daycare and what not too. Normally I take Hank to daycare at 8 am, but Casey will have to take him before he goes to work on days that I have monitoring up in Buffalo, so he'll have to go at probably 7:15 am to give Casey time to get to work. So I think we'll all be tired for that couple of weeks there! Keeping the end goal in sight will definitely help us all! I am so excited to hopefully give Hank a little brother or sister!! :D Keep us in your thoughts & prayers please over the next 2 months, we will really appreciate it!!

Egg Retrieval to Embryo Transfer

So Friday was the egg retrieval and we collected...drum roll please...11 eggs!! This is 4 more than last time, so definitely much better!! On Friday, I was very sore and rested all day. On Saturday morning just before 9 am, I got the phone call that 7 of the eggs fertilized, and 4 were normal and growing strong! Yayyy! Doctor was very pleased as we only had 1 viable embryo last time. Even with 1 embryo, it did turn into a pregnancy, so we're hoping this time is successful as well and the baby stays put for 9 months! On Monday morning, we transferred 2 top grade, beautiful embryos! One had 10 cells and the other had 8 cells! We still have 2 more embryos that are growing and hopefully will be able to freeze. We will know more about these ones and if they make it to freezing within the next few days. Yesterday after transfer, I rested all day! I'm back to work today and now we enter the dreaded wait where I'll analyze every little thing over the next couple weeks to see if this works! So we're keeping our fingers crossed that this works for us! Please be thinking and praying for us. Below are pictures of our beautiful embryos!

 Here is the 10-cell embryo

Here is the 8-cell embryo

Egg Retrieval Day

Below are some pictures from today! Baby shirt for good luck, my IV, me after the procedure looking gorgeous lol, & Amber's comment when I told her the good news (that's why she's one of my bff's! Haha). PS we got 11 eggs!! Yayyy I'm so excited! Can't wait to hear how many fertilize!! :)

Twas the Night Before Egg Retrieval

Twas the Night Before Egg Retrieval...

Tomorrow is my egg retrieval and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. I'm just as nervous this time, if not more nervous, than I was last time. I also never imagined I'd be doing this again so soon as in my mind, I should be 6 months pregnant right. However, I'm not, so here I am going through all this to TRY to get my baby. 

Last night at 8:30 pm, I triggered ovulation with Ovidrel. I bled a little, no big deal. After the shot, it instantly became real and I started worrying...did I do that shot right?! Of course I did, it's really the only shot you CANNOT mess up! It's a pre-filled syringe, you stick it in and inject the solution. That's it, nothing you can mess up. Okay, so ovulation will now occur 36 hours later...how does it know to ovulate me 36 hours later? I've always wondered that, what if it ovulates sooner? This is what starts running through my head and this is just the beginning. 

Today I've been pretty nervous about tomorrow. The unexpectedness of last cycle started coming into my head which leads to the unexpected of this cycle. Last time, we expected to get 12 eggs, only got 7, only 3 fertilized, only 1 was viable which led to a 2 day transfer. It did lead to a pregnancy, so I know it only takes one, but that was the scariest thing to go through all the drugs, all the ultrasounds, all the injections and wondering if I would even make it to embryo transfer. I know where the nerves come from, I'm sure it happens to everyone but knowing what can happen, some don't even make it to embryo transfer, that's what makes me so nervous.

It's the "unknown," I wish I could some how know exactly what was going to happen. So here I am, figured I'd write a quick post before I relax for the rest of the night. Casey and I went to Bob Evans (haha we act like we're 60 years old at times) and it was damn good! I took my doxycyline and so far it hasn't made me feel like shit, and I've used the (TMI!!) medicated douche my doctor told me to use (EWW I feel so violated right now haha), but I'll do whatever I need to do. 

Here's what this cycle has consisted of: 

• 1 Mock Embryo Transfer
• 21 days of birth control pills
• 23 days of the Lupron injection
• 12 days of Follistim (FSH) injection & SolX (LH) injection
• 1 Ovidrel ovulation shot
• 9 trips to Buffalo IVF at 52 miles each way
• 8 blood work draws
• 6 vaginal ultrasounds

In case you didn't know, that's what it takes just to get to tomorrow, egg retrieval. There is so much invested and now I enter the world of the unknown. How many eggs will they retrieve? How will I feel? Will I be in much pain after? Will the IV hurt going on? How many eggs will fertilize? How will the quality be of the embryos? How many embryos will make it to transfer day? WILL THIS WORK?!

Please be thinking and praying for us tomorrow and going forward for hopefully the next 9 months! <3

IVF Cycle & Longest 2 Week Wait Ever!!

So I figured I should write a new blog post since I haven't written one in a long time! A lot has happened since I last wrote a post. Since I said from the beginning that this blog was for me and my future children, there may be some things in here that people not going through infertility will not understand, and some things may be a little TMI.

But anyways, my IVF cycle officially started when we were in Las Vegas on January 26th. As I've mentioned before, an IVF cycle is extremely long!! On January 29, I started birth control pills (bcp) for 3 weeks. It is common to go on bcp's at the beginning of an IVF cycle to regulate your cycle and we also don't want any "left-over" follicles from the previous cycle hanging around. Two weeks into the bcp's on February 13, I was started on an injectable drug called Lupron which suppresses the pituitary gland, it basically tricks your body so it doesn't know where you are in your cycle so the doctors have total control over the process (i.e. no early ovulation, stuff like that). As you may or may not know, Lupron made me feel very sick at first. I even missed work the first day after taking the drug. Thankfully after a few days of what felt like "morning sickness," the side effects seemed to go away. Lupron is a medicine that is continued throughout the whole cycle up until the night before ovulation induction. I took my last bcp on Feb 17th, which brought on a period on February 20th. This doesn't necessarily constitute a new cycle as the doctors do not care about this period, it's more so an inconvenience on me, more like a "fake" period.

My baseline blood work and ultrasound was completed on February 21. I then started my FSH (Follistim) and what the doctors call a "magic diluted solution" (sol x) on February 24th. I was on a retreat for the Chautauqua Leadership Network (CLN) on February 24th, I went up to my room at 8 pm to give myself my now 3 injectable shots after being duct-taped to a wall Lol. I developed a very large bruise from these shots, thankfully that was the only time that happened. I posted a picture on February 24th on this blog if you want to see it, I won't lie, it's pretty gross!! Starting on February 26th, I started going up to Buffalo every other day for bloodwork and ultrasounds. On Monday March 5th, Casey and I made a daily drive to Buffalo until Thursday March 8th. It was our morning "date" haha.

Ovulation induction occurred via the injectable Ovidrel (hcg) on March 8th at 8 pm, which allows me to ovulate approximately 36 hours later. On March 9th I had to take the dreaded antibiotic Doxycycline which I absolutely hate! It always makes me feel so yucky! Worst antibiotic ever! It's take as a safety precaution though for the upcoming procedure. I was also required to use a medicated douche that night which surprisingly made me feel more violated than my practically daily transvaginal ultrasounds lol.

On March 10th, I needed to be in the doctors office at 7:15 for Egg Retrieval. After a bunch of questions and having the IV stuck in my arm, I was taken into the IVF room. I remember as soon as the anesthesiologist attached the sedation drug to my IV, I instantly felt the drug creep up my veins into my shoulder and that's the last thing I remember before being wheeled back out into the recovery area. At this point, they told me that they retrieved 7 eggs. We were hoping for 10-12 eggs, so this was definitely less than what we were hoping. After drinking a bottle of water & eating some crackers we headed out of there to head home! I was very sore all day Saturday, the cramps were much worse than period cramps and I felt a sense of mental "emptiness" it was a weird feeling that I wasn't quite expecting.

On March 11th about 9:30 I received a call from the Doctor for my fertilization report. He proceeded to tell me that out of the 7 eggs retrieved, only 3 fertilized but 2 of those were considered to be abnormal, so we only had 1 good embryo. I was really upset when we received this phone call. I couldn't believe that out of 7 eggs, only 1 turned into a healthy embryo. The 1 embryo came about from ICSI where they directly inject a sperm into the egg. The chances are higher of fertilization with this process, so it has become a commonly used fertilization procedure. I know all we need is 1 embryo and I am so thankful for it, but the original plan was to have 2 embryo's transferred and that we'd have others that would be frozen for possible future use. I am very thankful that that 1 embryo did make it though, so I think it'll be a super baby :-) Oh and I forgot to mention I started on Progesterone Sunday called Endometrin to thicken my uterine lining in hopes that the embryo will attach itself and stay on my uterine wall. This definitely isn't the "funnest" stuff as it's a suppository that I get to take 3 times a day haha.

Embryo transfer normally takes place 3-5 days after retrieval but when there is only 1 possible embryo for transfer they like to do the transfer ASAP because "my incubator" is better than their incubator. So now the plan was to be in Buffalo for transfer on Monday March 12th at 9:00. We just needed the cells in the embryo to divide overnight. If this didn't happen, I would receive a phone call on Monday morning that the transfer would not happen.

Wouldn't you know that my phone rang on Monday morning while I was in the shower, my stomach literally sank because I was under the impression that a phone call meant bad news. I frantically answered and Dr Sullivan said, come on up, you have "1 beautiful 4 celled embryo ready for transfer" :-) So Casey & I headed up there for a 9 am appointment. I was given a prescription for Valium to take 30 minutes before the transfer. The Embryo Transfer occurred and I had to lay on the exam table about 30 minutes after transfer. This is when I started to feel "goofy" from the Valium, it not only put me to sleep but it made me feel so silly, kind of like I was tipsy, I think Casey got a kick out of this. So Monday consisted of another day of rest for me.

So now, all we have to do is wait...I think this will be the longest 2 week wait of my life. After 2 weeks, I will get a blood pregnancy test. If it's positive, I'll have a followup blood test as well as an ultrasound. If it's negative, the I will stop the progesterone and a new period/cycle will begin and we will take it from there. I have a lot of hope and think there's a reason that only 1 of the embryo's survived and that it's meant to be our baby! So lots and lots of prayers and all extremities crossed! :-) <3

The Road to IVF

So we had our consultation with Dr. Sullivan on Thursday (1/12), it went really good but of course I always think of one million questions after I meet. Anyways, I found this really great website that explains the whole IVF process from me starting a new cycle to hopefully finding out that it worked. The article is called Understanding IVF Treatment Step by Step. It's helped me understand things a little better but I think I still need to make a phone call to talk to the IVF nurse to answer a few more questions.

Our percentage of IVF working is even greater than IUI, so I really hope it is successful...IVF is going to be the beginning of an end of an era for us, whether it works or not. I am of course still very hopeful that I'll be able to have my own children. One of the things we took from the meeting was that our percentage of having twins is now 50%!! This is super exciting for us. Within days of dating, Casey and I both talked about wanting twins. It's just something we've both always wanted. So maybe the reason we have to go through all of this is to get our twins...who knows. Of course we would be ecstatic to get one baby, but we'll be excited if we get two as well! Anyways, after all the scientific talk and what drugs I'll be taking and what not, Dr. S. talked about how well I've responded to the Follistim in the past (ie the reason we had to cancel the current cycle - I responded too well for IUI), so he thinks he'll be able to get 10 good oocytes out of me and about 70% will likely become embryo's. Dr. S. will transfer 2 embryo's into my uterus. This could leave 5 healthy embryo's leftover which will be frozen for possible future use. So if this IVF doesn't work or if we decide to have more children in the future, we don't have to go through all the hassle we've gone through this time. I would just have my body "tricked" again then when the time is right, embryo's would be transferred in. If we decide not to use them, we can have them destroyed, can give them to someone else we identify within the practice (huge hassle though as he pointed out, plus I don't know if I could let someone else have "our children"), or they can be donated to research which would be ideal for us if we don't use them.

Once I start my new cycle, I'll get started on birth control and then Lupron to trick my pituitary gland. Essentially, the doctor will have total control over my reproductive system. The meds he gives me tells my body what to do and when. Pretty crazy how we can take control over our bodies! Then I'll be back on Follistim and a new drug for me called Ganirelix. Then once Dr says it's time, I'll take the Ovidrel shot and have the egg retrieval done 36 hours later!! I'll get an IV of "Michael Jackson's favorite drug" Propofol (don't worry, it's a very safe form of an anesthetic when given safely and as prescribed) to put me to "sleep" while they retrieve the eggs. I'll then add another drug in there after retrieval (can't remember the name of that one right now)...this is a lot to remember!! Lol. Then, 3 days after egg retrieval, he will transfer 2 embryo's into my uterus. So after the embryo's are transferred, I will start the daily Progesterone (brand name endometrin) and have the dreaded two week wait to see if it worked. So stay tuned, this is a fairly long process. So that's what IVF is in a nutshell, the link above probably does a better job at explaining it than I have, but that's where we're at...

To end, in 7 days and 10 hours, we will be on that big bird to Las Vegas!! :-)