The Waiting Game..... by Steve

Its been 4 days since the embryo transfer and we are waiting impatiently until the day when the blood test can be done to see if we are still progressing along as scheduled. We will update after pregnancy is confirmed by ultrasound in about 3 weeks. Lexie is a little anxious but is coping well. Steve has been cleaning the house constantly because the wind storm we have been having blows sand into the house. If anyone wants to bring over some dirt bikes we can go jump the sand dunes on our back patio. The bathrooms needed to be freshened up so he took care of that as well. What a wonderful husband. He is the greatest ever.

Transfer Scheduled

Steve and I received a call from the clinic this afternoon with an update on our embryo's. We still have 7 embies growing in the lab...yeah!! Then the nurse gave me my instructions for the embryo transfer. Here are the highlights:

We are to arrive at the clinic at 10am and I should promptly empty my bladder. I will then need to drink 32 oz of water between 10 and 10:30am (no chugging). For those who are wondering - the water intake is necessary because they do an abdominal ultrasound prior to the transfer and when your bladder is full, they get a better view of your uterus. I also decided to do acupuncture before and after the transfer (offered by the clinic) - not sure how I am supposed to drink my 32 oz of water and get acupuncture at the same time, I guess we will see. After the acupuncture session, we will meet with the Doctor and the Embryologist and they will make their recommendations about which embryo(s) to implant. After we are implanted, I will have another short acupuncture session and then we are sent home to rest and hope it works!!

Tomorrow is Steve's birthday, how exciting that its the day before our transfer! At least I will have something to look forward to and help pass my time tomorrow, as I'm sure I'll be a ball of nerves!!

Fertilization Report

I must say....god bless my husband and family, because I was a MESS today!

Yesterday at our egg retrieval, both the doctor and the nurse told Steve and I that the office would call us the very next morning to give us a fertilization report (ie, how many of the 13 eggs retrieved were mature, and how many they were able to fertilize). Steve reassured me when I woke up at 7am that most likely they wouldn't call until mid-morning (he thought around 10:30), when mid-morning came and passed, I started to get more and more anxious. By 12pm, it was no longer morning, so I called the office myself, my call was put through to the answering service and they assured me that they would get the on-call physician my message and someone would call us back shortly. By 2:30pm, I was in a full on panic, crying, the whole nine yards. When just about all hope was gone, my phone rang at 2:54pm and it was the clinic!

The fertilization report is in.....of the 13 eggs retrieved, 11 were mature, of those 11 mature eggs, 7 were able to be fertilized. So, Steve and I OFFICIALLY have 7 embryo's growing in the lab - please, oh please grow little embies!! Per the doctor who called today, the clinic will be calling us tomorrow morning to let us know if we are going to do a 3 day transfer (Tuesday) or a 5 day transfer (Thursday) - I must mention....Steve's birthday is on Wednesday, what an amazing birthday gift this would be!!

Retrieval Day - The 4th of July 2009

This is going to be a short post, as I am still a little groggy from the anesthesia. Steve and I arrived at the fertility clinic at 7:30am this morning. By 8:00am I was in the operating room and fast asleep. I woke up around 8:45am and Steve was right there next to me in the recovery room. The doctor came in around 9:00am and shared the good news...13 eggs were retrieved!! Today they will fertilize all of the eggs with a procedure called ICSI. Tomorrow morning they will call us to tell us how many fertilized eggs made it to the embryo stage. By Monday morning, we should know if we are going to do a 3-day transfer or a 5-day transfer. Please pray that our embryo's grow and fertilize normally. Thanks to all of you for you love, support, and encouragement. Now, it's time to catch up on some recorded TV!

Retrieval Scheduled!!!

Today at the doctor appointment, we were given great news....our retrieval surgery is scheduled for Saturday, the 4th of July at 8:00am. As my cousin Crystal said....God Bless America!!! Steve and I are very excited, and in fact, he is finally on his way up here! The count down has begun. For those of you that are interested...today's ultrasound showed 22 follicles, 15 of which are mature. On a side note, I had my "butt shot" tonight at 8:00pm on the dot, Steve hadn't quite made it to Cle Elum, so mom gave me the shot and I must say it didn't hurt and she did a wonderful job. Here's to hoping this 4th of July is as exciting as last years!!

Day 10

Today is day 10 of the stimulation injections. This morning mom and I were up bright and early as we headed to my appointment in Bellevue. They did another ultrasound and more bloodwork. During the ultrasound today, they counted 11 follicles on my left ovary and 11 follicles on my right ovary!! Unfortunately, the follicles are not quite mature yet, so they sent me home and instructed me to do another round of injections tonight and come back tomorrow morning and see if I am progressing. If all goes well tomorrow, we will be looking at a 4th of July retrieval. The medications are definitely starting to wear on me. Climbing stairs seems impossible and believe it or not....I had NO desire to go to Bell Square today, walking around the mall seemed entirely too tiring. I parked myself at Barnes and Noble with a magazine while mom shopped. We just got back to the river house and I am looking forward to putting on "comfy clothes" and watching TV....too bad I don't have my DVR with me! More to come tomorrow.....

Bringing you up to speed......

After nearly two months, I have finally decided to update our blog. Here's a quick update, to get you up to speed: Steve and I moved into our new house on May 16th, at the end of May we went to Canada for "Aden Puke Fest 2009," and on June 22nd we started our IVF Cycle.

As you may know, Steve and I have faced some fertility issues and had sought out the advice of a fertility center in Seattle. At our first meeting, they recommended we move forward with IVF when we were ready. Steve and I decided that we would wait to pursue the IVF until after our house was completed. Originally, we were given a tentative start date of June 1st to start our stimulation medications. But of course, we were delayed by 3 weeks due to my persistent cyst and an ever increasing estradiol level. On Friday, June 19th I went in for my 3rd Suppression Check and FINALLY passed! After the suppression check, we received a phone call from the clinic with the news we were hoping for.....Steve and I were instructed to start our stimulation medications on Monday, June 22nd.

On Monday night (6/22), Steve's mom came over for a refresher on medication injections. At about 8pm, I took my first two doses of medications. Since Monday, Steve has faithfully given me my injections each night. There was only one injection for which I tried to fire him, but after the stinging and burning subsided, I agreed to give him his job back.

On Friday (6/26) I went in for an ultrasound and bloodwork to see how I was responding to the medications. I had about 6 follices on my left ovary and 4 follices on my right ovary. (For those people reading that are not well versed in IVF lingo, each follicle has the potential to hold an egg that could be fertilized and transferred back.) We received a phone call from the clinic in Seattle on Friday afternoon (they review the results of the ultrasound and bloodwork and call with further instructions). The lovely coordinator explained that I would remain on the same dose of the medications and I would be seen on Monday (6/29) at the Bellevue office for my next ultrasound and more bloodwork.

Monday morning (6/29) my mom arrived at our house at 5:30am to pick me up for our trip to Seattle. (Steve decided to keep working until he was "needed" - he's planning to head to Seattle on Thursday.) My appointment on Monday was a great experience. We arrived about a half an hour early, but they promptly took me back drew my blood and then moved me to the ultrasound room. During the ultrasound, the nurse practitioner told us that we now have 9 follicles on the left ovary and 6-8 follicle on the right (all of the follicles were measuring between 11-15mm). They instructed me to start a new medication that will prevent me from ovulating on my own and they upped the dosage of one of the medications that I have been taking for the last week. Mom began to panic a little bit because that meant three shots she was going to give me per day - but, as expected she did GREAT!

Tomorrow morning we head back to Bellevue for another ultrasound and more bloodwork to see if I am getting closer to the retrieval. They are looking for multiple follicles that are measuring +18mm. Once they see those, they will schedule the retrieval. As a side note....at our appointment on Monday, we asked the different staff we saw, when they "thought" the retrieval would be....2 of them said Friday (7/3) and one said Saturday (7/4). Tomorrow we will know!!

For the time being, mom and I are relaxing at our AWESOME accomodations....we are staying at my aunt and uncles River House in Cle Elum. What a blessing to have such loving and supportive family. I don't know what we would do without all the support we have. Steve and I are so very blessed.

Until tomorrow, I think this pretty much gets you up to speed....more to come, on a more regular basis, I promise!