Well it is 2 days since the embryo transfer. Everything went well. The 3 embryo's survived the thaw. However, the freeze/thaw was very hard on them. The 2 that were grade A's before the freeze, dropped to grade B's after thawing. One of the embryo's had lost some cell's as well, so I don't know what to think. At least they were still all alive!! I was so positive the day of the transfer. I am starting to feel a little more negative as time goes on. I just think if we would have transferred them when they were fresh we would have had a much better chance. Anyway I am now in the dreaded TWW (two week wait) until I will have my blood drawn and we will know! Until then I will be driving myself crazy wondering if it did or didn't work. The transfer itself went great. My RE was amazing and the whole thing only took like 10 minutes. They rolled a incubator into the room with the embryo's in it. Coy got to go over and look at them through the microscope. He asked me later if they were suppose to be moving around, I though that was funny! It was so neat to get pictures of them! Well I will post more when I know more. Once again, a big Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers. Coy and I both appreciate it!!

My Ultrasound on 9/21 went well, my lining was at 9.3, anything over 9 is acceptable. I am still going to be on estradiol, so it should be thickening more until Tuesday. Friday I went and got that dreaded stitch put into my cervix again, last time I was under anesthesia, this time I had nothing! The numbing part hurt, but after it was numb I didn't feel a thing, I think she put like 4 stitches in there!! She decided if she was going to do it, she was going to do it right. She said she wanted to put enough in to get a good lift on my cervix? Who knows? But she was very nice, I liked her a lot!! So it is Sunday night, only 2 more days to go and we find out if the embies survived or not. The freezing/thawing of them is rough, I am just praying we have one that makes it. The RE that did the stitch said she thinks we have a good chance, so I am holding on to that for now! I have acupuncture tomorrow for the last time, I am going to try to use that to relax me some tomorrow. I have a feeling I will not be getting much sleep on Monday night. We have to call the mailbox on Tuesday morning to see if any of the embies made it! So we will be praying like crazy until then!! Thanks to everyone for thoughts and prayers, we so need them right now!!

Well, Tommorrow is my second and last ultrasound for this FET. They will check to see if the lining is thick enough and will also re-check my estrogen level. If everything looks good tommorrow, I will start progesterone and will have the transfer 5 days later. Starting to get excited, but still worried about our frozen embies and how they will make the thaw!! Please send up a bunch of prayers that our embies will make it!! I will post more tomorrow when I know how the lining looks and what my estrogen level is. Thanks to everyone for your support during this very long journey we have been on!!!

Ultrasound and blood work went well yesterday, I had no cysts and my estrogen level was 23. So I started my estrogen injections tonight. Coy gave me the shot in my hip, not too bad, he does it fast, he is too good!! So we have started this whole circus again. I will take another injection on Sat. 9/12, then again on 9/15 and 9/19 and then I will go in for an ultrasound and bloodwork on 9/21. If lining and estrogen are good I will start progesterone on 9/25 and the transfer will hopefully be on 9/29!

I talked to the NP yesterday about my embryo's. She said they will thaw all 3 embryo's and that what you want to see happen once they thaw is that they re-expand. Apparently they take all of the water out of them to freeze them and put them in an a cyroprotectant solution. Once they thaw them, they wash the cryoprotectant off and then they want to see the embryo take up fluid and re-expand. If they don't re-expand then they will not be viable or live. I am putting my faith in God, that he will hear our prayers and make our dream of becoming parent's come true!

So please pray for our embryo's to expand!!

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers!!!

Finally 1st injection day is here!! I have started Lupron! Now the countdown is on until suppression check, which will be September 9th!! Very glad to be getting started again! I don't know if it is because I am used to needles or what, but I didn't even feel the injection today. Funny, I am thinking I must have been a baby the first time around, because now everything seems so easy. Funny how a new perspective will do that to you!!

So, I am in the waiting stage of the game, I am taking BCP's currently. I start Lupron this Friday 8/28/2009! Finally I am back to doing somthing! Funny, I never thought I would be happy about injecting myself with something, but when you are in the fertility game you wish for a lot of weird things. Those of you ttc will understand exactly where I am coming from!

I am on a support group board for those of us who are doing IVF, and two of the girls on the board that did FET's have gotten pregnant, so I hope the same will hold true for me. So happy for those girls, we have all been through so much.

Please keep praying for Coy and I that this FET works for us!!

Thanks!!!

Finally AF is here!! I will start BCP's on Friday 8/14/2009 and Lupron will begin 8/28/2009, Supression Check will be on 9/8/2009. Estrace injections will begin 9/10/2009. U/S and estradiol check will be on 9/21 and then the transfer will be sometime the week of 9/28/2009. Finally we are getting started again!!

Still waiting on AF(Aunt Flo) to show before we can start the process with the FET, of course when you want AF, she is nowhere to be found, and when you don't want her she is right there! Frustrating!!!! As soon as I know more I will post, I am kind of guessing around the second week in September for the transfer, but as usual everything depends on how you respond!!

Julie

WoW, alot has happened since I posted last. So to follow up with the last blog, 7 out of those 12 fertilized so we were thrilled. Out of the 7, four were abnormal and 3 were perfect after the PGD was done to determine chromosomal abnormalities. So we were excited that we had 3 perfect embryo's. But the rest of the story is that I ended up with OHSS (ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome). So instead of having my transfer on June 23rd, like I was supposed to, I was in the hospital instead. To make a long story short, they drained 8 liters of fluid and I finally turned the corner. So the 3 embryos were frozen and we are just now waiting until the first of August to begin again with the FET process. I will update again once I start that process.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and prayers, this has been a difficult journey to say the least!!

Yesterday was retrevial, they retrevied 12 eggs. Still very sore from the whole process, but it went well. Today I am waiting on the fertilization report to see how many fertilized. I will log back on and post that when I get the news!
Thanks for thoughts and prayers, we need them!!

Finally it is here!! Egg retrevial is Thursday(6/18) morning at 9am. Coy and I have to be there at 8am. So excited and nervous!!

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!!

Okay so 3rd Ultrasound and estradiol blood draw was today. Estradiol is 5681 and I had approximately 29 eggs/follicles on the Ultrasound today.
So it looks like trigger shot will be tomorrow night (Tuesday 6/16) and egg retrieval will be on Thursday (6/18) instead of Friday like we had planned. I think I stimmed a little better than they thought I would.

As always please pray for us on Thursday am during our retrieval, I will post the exact time once I get it tomorrow.

Julie

1st Ultrasound check yesterday, 6/10/09 went well, I had four eggs that were >10cm and 11 eggs that were under 10cm, with 7 micro follies(these probably won't grow to anything). My estrogen level was 490. So I am looking at 15 eggs right now, but we will have to wait and see what grows, as this U/S is very early in the game of the 10 days of stimming. They did say that I was stimming "vigoriously" and actually backed my dose down to 1/2 dose last night to 75IU's of follistim. Coy has been giving me the nightime injections and he has done a wonderful job! I am doing 225IU's of follistim tonight. My next ultrasound is tomorrow, Friday 6/12, and we will know more. I was kind of worried about them bringing by dose down(i was on 300IU's a day) on Wed night and Thursday, but they go off estrogen level and follicles, so I am sure they know what they are doing.
I will know more after tomoro's ultrasound. Please pray for us during this very emotional time. Coy and I appreciate the prayers so much!!

Suppression check went well on Wed. Estrogen level was only 23, so I am definitely suppressed! They did an U/S to check and make sure there were no cysts on the ovaries and there were none. I was very worried about that so I was excited to get the news that there were no cysts. My body just really likes being on BCP's.

At the suppression check you also talk to the NP and they do a trial transfer with the catheter they are going to use when they put the embryo's back into the uterus. Well this is where the fun starts!! So I don't know if I mentioned earlier, but during the hydrosonogram, that another RE did, they had a hard time with the catheter. So here I am talking away to the NP, while she is jabbing a catheter into the middle of my cervix, she says "well I am meeting some resistance". I told her about my experience with my IUI's and how all the nurses had no difficulty, but the last IUI we did, a NP did it and she had considerable difficulty. Makes you wonder if the other one's even knew what they were doing? Coy and I both beleive they did not, because, 3 very experienced practitioners have had considerable difficulty with the catheter and my cervix as of late. So anyway, the NP keeps trying, and she says :"I can pass it, but I am having to manipulate it alot to get it through there, I think you have a pretty significant curve in your cervix", which probably means I have an anteverted uterus. Which will be good for after transfer, but not so hot for the transfer. So the NP keeps talking and says that they do not want to have to manipulate the catheter that much when they are doing the actual transfer. The solution to this problem: "We will just put a stitch of suture in your cervix and leave two long strings, so that when we do the trasfer we can pull on that to help straighten the cervix".

Now I don't know about you guys, but having a stitch in my cervix does not sound pleasant!! So at this point, I am definitely patient Julie and not NP Julie, because my mind goes blank. I can't think of what to ask, I just lay there! After I regained my composure a bit, and she left the room to let me get dressed. I realize you need to be asking some questions about this. So when she comes back, she explains that at the retrevial, and while I am asleep, they will put the stitch in. Thank god, I will be asleep, I start to relax a little. She says it is not that uncommon and that in the transfer, they do not want the uterus to contract. She goes on to explain, that they have a tool called a tenaculum, this is a tooth steel thing that they can grab onto you cervix with, however, when you use a tenaculum to grab the cervix, the uterus contracts. Why is that not good? I didn't know either, because when they are transferring the embryo's back in you want the uterus to be as relaxed as possible, so if they put the stitch in at retrevial, it will be there at transfer to act as a loop they can pull on if needed, and the uterus will not contract. They actually give you a valium as well to help relax the uterus. After they have deposited the embryo's they will cut the suture and pull the stitch out. So I guess I am glad that they are prepared, I would sure hate to have a catheter with my embryo's in it and have difficulty getting them in my uterus!!!

On another note, today was day 1 of the injecting of the FSH stimulation drugs. These are the drugs I inject twice a day and make my ovaries and follies/eggs to mature and get very big. After the first injection this am I got very dizzy and somewhat nauseous. We were headed to church and I was very dizzy, Coy was like maybe we shouldn't go to church, but I insisted. Anyway it has gotten somewhat better, but I feel like I am in a fog, and I have only had one dose!! This is going to be an interesting week to say the least!! I just don't want to be dizzy at work!!

As always thanks for your thoughts and prayers, it is so comforting to feel the love!!

Julie

We met with the embryologist and we are definitely doing the PGD. My big question was if the embryo's were not doing well on Day 3 that they would be transfered back in without doing the PGD and that is the case. If the embryo's are not 6 cells at Day 3 they will not do the PGD on them. So in other words, if we have a 3 day transfer, there will be no PGD. We will just have to hope for the best.

Today is day 7 of lupron, so far so good, I had a hot flash yesterday, which according to Stephanie I work with, is a good sign. It means I am not producing estrogen and I am probably suppressed.

On Wed. I go for supression check and we will see for sure. I will have an ultrasound and blood work on that day, as well as a trial embryo transfer. They require a full bladder for the trial embryo transfer, can you even imagine!! Everyone who knows me knows that I go to the bathroom about every 5 minutes and cannot hold anything! Should be real interesting with me trying to hold a full bladder. I am just going to tell them in advance that they might get urinated on in advance! How embarassing would that be to pee on the doctor? Anyway, the trial transfer is just so they can use the catheter that they will use the day of the real transfer to make sure they will not have any problems with the catheter. Apparently you have the US probe and the catheter and they thread it right into the uterus to make sure they go right to the middle of the uterus so they can deposit the embroy's right in the spot they need to be. I read an article today, about how important the embryo transfer itself is and that the RE that does it has to be very trained. Thank goodness all of the RE's at NFC are very good, I will not neccessarily get my doc for the retrevial or the transfer, it will be whatever RE is on call on each day as to who I get. Glad they have all done this thousands of times!!

I will keep everyone posted as to how the supression check/trial transfer goes on Wed.

Please keep praying for us, we are very nervous!!

Julie

Sorry I have not posted for awhile, the memorial day weekend was very relaxing and computer free! Coy and I are celebrating our 2 year anniversary today, so we are excited about that.

I started Lupron injections on Saturday, so today was day 4 of doing those, and all has gone well. It stings like crazy, but for the most part is not that painful. I will do these injections up until my suppression check on 6/3. Hopefully at that point, everything will be "quiet" and we can start the stimulation injections.

We go tomorrow to talk to the genetic counselor about the pre genetic testing, where they can pull a cell from the embryo and tell if there is any chromosomal abnormalitites, before they place it back in, of course if there are abnormalitites they will not put it back in. So we will talk with the geneticist at 2pm tomorrow to decide if we want to do that. It is very expensive, but worth it to know you are only putting back the embryo's that would make it and not have any abnormalitites. They test specifically for trisomy 21, and a bunch of other chromosomal abnormalities.

I will post more after the meeting tomorrow.

As always, thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers during this stressful/emotional time!!

Calendar of Events

I kind of have a closer calendar on when everything is going to happen. Apparently anyone doing IVF for the month of June starts stimming at the same time. They only mix the medium that the embryos will be in, in one big batch, apparently it is very expensive and they don't want any wasted, so they want everbody to go at the same time.

So, I will have a suppression U/S on June 3rd, to check and make sure everything is quiet, and then I will start stimming June 7th. Possible retrevial days are June 18th or 19th, with possible transfer June 21, 22, 23, 24. It will all depend on alot of variables, so those dates can change. We just have to be flexible this month and think positively.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, we are going to need them!

Well, yesterday we spent about 3 hours in a IVF class, where they basically showed us how
to do injections, me and another nurse in the class were so bored we could have died. Coy got to play with the pens, so that was cool. We had a chart review and of course met with the financial person. Of course, Coy and I were shocked at all the financial stuff. Basically everyone had their hand out for a payout yesterday, and it was very stressful, thinking about the money. We both agreed that fertility is definitely a business first, and they are going to get their money or you do not go any further in the process. Was definitely different for both of us because we are so used to going to Vanderbilt, where eveyrthing is covered by my insurance. Rude awakening to the fact that this is all self pay!!

Today I had a hydrosonogram, it was supposed to be at 8:45am, but ended up being about 10:30 before they started. And of course I had to hand over $722.00 for that afterwards. Guess I am a little fixated on the money during this blog, but is seems to be all Coy and I can think about, in the last two days we have handed them $1,000.00, I had to pay 100.00 for a chart review, and 116.00 for the IVF class, total waste of money, and then the money for the sonogram. So we are a little stressed right now to say the least.

The good news is that the hydrosonogram looked normal. This should be the last test I need, if they say that I need anything else, they are really going to have to come up with a good reason to do it before I am game.

I got my tenative calendar yesterday, looks like the egg retrevial will be sometime around June 12-15th depending on how well I stim with the medicine.

Please pray for us we are so needing any prayers we can get right now!!

So yesterday I got the call from Metro Drugs, the RE's office is using them, b/c they were offering a $100 coupon off any follistim order. My total for the follistim, lupron and PIO that I needed was $1000.00, should have been more around $4500 if I had not gotten the donated meds, not too bad. The meds will be shipping to Coy's work, there is always someone there during the day, so we decided it would be easier for Fedex to deliver them to his office, than Vanderbilt. They should be here by Tuesday.

Nothing new to report yet, except I have to laugh that I started on BCP's(birth control pills) yesterday, seems counterintuitive when you are trying to conceive to be on BCP's. Apparently they are needed during the time you are receiving the lupron injections, you are more prone to form cysts on the ovaries, so the BCP's keep you from forming cysts while you are shooting yourself up with the lupron! Sounds Crazy. Thank God, literally, that a NP I work with did fertility for years with my doc. Her name is Stepahine, and she gets bombarded by me daily with questions. Her along with my extensive research and I feel like I could be a reproductive NP!!

Today is Mother's day, I wish all you mother's out there a Happy and Wonderful day! Today more than ever I understand just how important this day is and hope that I soon will be able to celebrate this day as a mother as well!

Meds ordered

Ah yes, to blog about my experience with IVF...
Okay, so today is CD1, (for those of you who don't know fertility lingo yet, that means cycle day 1) and I promised I would start posting from day 1 of this IVF journey, so here it goes. I called my NP today, b/c today is day 1 and that is when the doc said to call. Well, this must have got her looking at my chart, because she calls me back and starts saying she is going to order my meds, and that I should be getting a call from the pharmacy and she just starts spouting off all of these instructions. I am thinking wow, this is really moving fast for day 1. Then she says that I will begin Lupron injections next week, and we have IVF class on Wed. of next week, and she said she would give me the instructions with the lupron when we were at our class. So I get off the phone and start thinking, why am I startin Lupron on Day 6 of this cycle, when the template I got from their office says I do not start until day 17?

After talking to a couple of people I decide to call the NP back. Well to make a long story short, Dr. Hill had put in the chart on the day that he saw us for consult that he was giving me BCP's to start on day 3. Well, the nurse thought that meant that CD1 was when we saw Dr. Hill on April 28th. So she was throughly confused, finally I got through to her that just today was day 1 and she was like "oh my gosh I am so sorry", I will be sending you another calendar, I already sent one to you, so that one will be wrong! So I kind of have to laugh that from Day 1 even things are screwed up, hopefully this is not a sign of what is to come....

I guess the good news is that my drugs will be here early!!

Ok, I just have to post that God must be watching out for me, because two different friends that have already done IVF, had left over meds, and gave them to me for free!! I have 2100 units of follistim, so I only had to order a 900IU cartridge, so I saved about $2000 on medications, thanks to my friends, that has to be God working his magic in all of this.

Other Misc. stuff: My hydrosonogram is scheduled on May14th, and our IVF class is May 13th.
Looks like I will begin BCP's on Saturday and the Lupron injections will begin around the 22nd of May.
Very excited to be getting started, Coy and I are both nervous, but excited!!

Thats all I got for Day 1...