Egg Retrieval Day

It's was a great morning. We got to sleep in have some pillow talk with ms brinley in our bed.

Call me crazy but I had time it all out.

It was a good morning, everything got done perfectly and I had a great time relaxing at the surgery center. 

It's hard not to have a good time when you are getting perfect pictures of your daughter back at home like this....

Here we are right before they are wheeling me in. After they gave me the good drugs to relax me and then when I went in the room they put me out before I could remember a thing.

When I woke up from recovery I remember looking at a clock. A few days earlier I remember them telling me that I would have until about noon to wake up and so I was watching the clock because I just wanted to lay there and sleep.
By the time noon came around I was fully awake and knew they would sent me on my way. We got in the car and came home. When I got home I went right back to sleep and rested the rest of the afternoon.
Earlier in the day (when I was fasting) I was dreaming about sushi, so I told Joe if I feel up to it I wanted to go out for Sushi that night.
He got Brinley in bed for me at 7pm and we were out for dinner by 7:30. I stayed out way to late, but it was worth all you can eat sushi!!!
It was a good, easy day for an egg retrieval.

Pre-Op, IVF appointment # whatever

Today was the worst day of them all.
I woke up to the worst migraine and I had to get to the drs early. I didn't know how I was going to make it, but I thought if I start moving and get my routin I would be okay. 

I grabbed a water and chocolate protien shake and started driving. I was also running late because I was trying to sleep in longer to make my migraine go away. 

As I drove I made myself more and more car sick. As I pulled into the parking lot, grabbed my parking ticket and knew I needed to throw up. I hurried and pulled into the handcap parking spot, got out and ran over to the bushes and threw up my chocolate drink. The worst was getting all over my white shoes and pants. I was so disgusted.

Thankful for baby wipes I cleaned up best I could and headed up to the drs. 

This time they only did blood work and talk to me about my pre op procedure for the next day.

We finished everything up, and although I wasn't feeling nausea at the time, I still wasn't feeling great.

I started driving back home and just a few stop lights in I felt sick again. This time I was the first car stopped at a red in a huge intersection ( crown valley and margarite). 

I had no choice but to open my door and vomit outside. I was so afraid the light would turn green and I'd still be throwing up. Luckily it was a long light and as I started driving  again I knew I had to pull over. I finished throwing up all my breakfast and made it home. Crawled in bed and slept the rest of the day.

Thank heavens I made it through that day, and hope tomorrow is better.

IVF appointment #10

CD- 18!

Wow I can't believe my poor responding ovaries took this long to get the size we need. My dr came to conclusion today that we are ready to schedule my egg retrieval! Whoo! Tonight at exactly 11:30 my husband will give me my HCG shot that will make me ovulate in exactly 36 hours and my ER will be exactly 34 hours so we can hope to get the most mature eggs. Fingers cross 

IVF appointment #9

This will never end.....
Today's ultrasound was showing a lot more hope. I was so happy and chatty that I didn't want to keep track of the follicles and sizes. I did notice the 2 Huge follicle on my right side and talked to my Dr. about it later. To sum it up he told me my body is finally responding better and he doesn't care to go under to grab those 2 because he has often found huge follicles can have no egg in them, so our focus is on the other ones that are almost mature and the ones that are already.
So again...we are going on 2 weeks of follistim (IVF drugs). I have been moody, but soo soo grateful we are able to do IVF and I just hope the best for the egg retrieval later this week.

IVF appointment #8

Today was a very hard day.
There was not much progress and to me it even seem like some we're not growing at all. I was bummed about of a lot of things going on and not to mention moody, very very moody.
Thanks IVF
Hope to get all my babies soon!

IVF appointment #7

We were out camping last night with the extended family and I woke up early to be able to drive to the Dr's other location that is open on weekends. 

I got my blood work done, and instructions how to measure out my HCG shot and give it. 

We are getting real close to the retrieval, the follicles are growing nicely, just not anymore. So they say around 7-8, which seems crazy to me but I've come to terms that this is the cards I've been dealt with and it's okay.  

I got the call from the nurse this afternoon that my dr looked at everything and is keeping my dosage up to 250 for follistim and I'm doing another stim tonight. Looks like I'll be triggering tomorrow night and egg retrieval probably Tuesday. 

IVF appointment #6

We are now on daily appointments here.
I went in this morning knowing things were getting closer and the number I have now will be close to the number of mature eggs we get.
Both my Dr and I were very bummed that my ovaries are just not responding well for IVF.
I had 8 measurable follicles.
4 on each side.
I want to be bummed out and say Dr.s want to see 20 or more follicles but I have to once again just stay positive. So here is what I'm telling myself....
these could all be great quality eggs,I do have small ones that could hurry and grow over night and become amazing eggs for us to work with, and they can all survive the brutal freeze and unfreeze of IVF and they can all surpass PGS & PGD testing and come back normal.
Right?

Appointment #5 and more

Since I can't remember what happened during my appointment today, this will be short. I know I had 1-2 more follicles that they were able to measure, nothing really promising though I thought.
After my appt. I was in a lot of pain so I called my Dr and went in for an urine sample because I was pretty positive I had a bladder infection. A few hours later I was right and taking some antibiotics that were helping.
On top of that Brinley spiked a fever in the middle of the day and we have both just been snuggling bums on the couch.
Hope tomorrow is better, just glad it wasn't side effects or OSHH.

IVF appointment # 1-4

So I feel ready to write this all down while I can still remember.
I started my cycle on May 31, so I went in on day 3 to see my Dr. for my baseline apt.
We did an ultrasound and blood work and everything looked normal.
I started that night on only the follistim shots at 225. I was to do this for 3 night then go back in for monitoring.
I went back in Thursday which was CD 6 and even though I thought I was feeling bloating and fatigue already, it was just a fluke. everything looked good at that appt. and I continue what I was doing. Two more nights of follistim at 225 and back in on Saturday, CD 8.
This morning I had 2 measurable follicles on each side and smaller ones showing. I was very discourage thinking I would have a lot more, but I have to keep telling myself we want quality over quantity for sure!
They showed me how to do another shot in the morning that will keep my body from ovulating at all. We kept my follistim the same but added menopur to the mix
Another two days of that and I went back in this morning...
we are now measuring 3 folliciles on one side and 4 on the other. slowly we are progressing here.
My Dr. called me and didn't want to change a thing, he said things are still looking good and to keep it right where it's at. I'll go back in two days from now.

Timeline IVF Cycle-
CD-1 (may 31)- started period
CD-3 (June 2)- Baseline appt. Blood work/ultrasound
CD-6 (June 5)- Blood work/ ultrasound small follicles showing
CD-8 (June 7)- Blood work/ ultrasound measuring 2 follicles on each side plus small ones, started Ganirelix to prevent premature ovulation and added in Menopur for nightly shot with my follistim
CD-10 (June 9)-Blood work/ ultrasound measuring 3 & 4 on each side plus small ones

IVF cycle

I've been puttin off writting for almost a week now. 

We have officially started out IVF cycle. Saturday may 29 was the first day and I went in on Monday for the normal blood work and ultrasound. I also started taking 225 of follistim and even on the 3 day started really feeling the side effects, emotional, bloated, uncomfortable. All things I'm so happy I'm feeling. Tomorrow I go in and and start adding more meds to the mix. 

Baby making phone call

When doing infertility treatments a lot of it is scheduling appointments, or as I like to call it "Baby making phone call"
I got to call this morning to talk to the nurse about ordering all my IVF medication. We have been working with a pharmacy called Freedom Fertility Pharmacy.  They specialize in all fertility medication and our insurance plan is covered under them. Even though we still a less than a month away, I want to make sure I have everything squared away long before I need to start. This is also the case with Joe providing his sample to be frozen as a back up.
Doing stuff like this gets me happy and excited, like I'm doing something at least to help have another baby. It keeps my mind very positive and hopeful.

Aloha...

from my couch in Southern Ca.
we never made it to Hawaii due to a family emergency in my extended family. We have reschedule it for Oct. when we can add more family member there, 1. a new sister in law  2. hopefully a baby in my belly 3. my aunt and uncle.
We are taking advantage of this and headed over to visit Hubby's mom and 2 brothers in Oklahoma the end of this month. More family time before we start our IVF 2 month cycle.

Emotional cycle

Looking back, I did great yesterday.
Waking up this morning was a different story. I need my space and I need to be alone.
Going through treatments I can not be around pregnant people, they are at (in my eyes) the best stage of their life and they need to enjoy that and be happy and right now and I can not do that. I only bring this up because Brinley is almost two, and most of Brinleys friends mommy have had their second child or pregnant. I realize this is no race or competition but puts me is a hard place to be around, not to mention the Mormon culture of popping out babies.
All in all I have Bryn, Joe and our families and I'll be checking out of much of society.
The depression of infertility

Vacation needed

We are headed to Hawaii in 5 days and it is much needed.
I went in this morning at 8:30 am to get my blood work. If you didn't know, after I do the IUI I start progesterone shots and this holds in the uterus lining so I won't get my period if I'm not pregnant and we only can tell through the blood work. After the blood work I headed off to Disneyland with my mom and sis and Brinley to distract me until I got the phone call. We had left and getting baby stuff back in the car when I got the phone call. I acted like I knew it was going to be negative when the nurse told me that it did NOT work again. Although I was disappointed, I was also in shock so I just seemed numbed. I had to switch my thinking right away and get excited and pumped to move onto IVF. I know I feel like I said that a few months ago, but we decided then do wait and do the Laparoscopy and Hysteroscopy surgery (which I'm still 100% happy I did that first because we found Endometriosis that I never knew I had). So now that IUI #6 hasn't worked I have to stop taking the progesterone shots, wait for my period cycle to show up, then order all my IVF meds and wait for my period cycle to start again. Then we will start harvesting a whole bunch of eggs to retrieve. Once we retrieve them all, more drugs...more drugs then the following cycle we will do a frozen transfer.
So until then...Aloha!

The morning of the dreadful day

Last week I went in for blood work to check my progesterone levels. The dr had me start my progesterone shots the night of my IUI. So when I went in I wasn't worried.
The nurse called me back and my progesterone was well into the 60's which is great. Anything into the 20's can hold a pregnancy and stop any miscarriage.
Fast forward to this morning, it's been 5 days seems I've had a lot of activity. Cramping, migraines- bad ones, hot flashes, more cramping, night sweats, just some stuff I don't usually deal with. If I'm pregnant obviously these were the signs I was, but I'm not pregnant these were again the nasty side effects of fertility drugs.
There is a lot going on in my life with the choice of natural medicine and traditional modern. The more and more I look at it, I am 100, moo 110% all the MD, Dr, prescription meds, this including all my fertility medicine. I don't like to play the guessing game or self diagnosed, I just like good o fashion "I have a headache so I'm taking ibuprofen"
Since I'm on my own blog soap box I want to say I believe whole heartily what trial and disease that come our way aren't always brought on because of us. Yes smoking can lead to lung cancer but I DO NOT believe  anything my mom fed me or exposed me to at a young age brought on my fertility issues. I believe in a loving Heavenly Father  who wants us to return to him, we knew the different trials we would be facing going to earth and gaining a body but knew we wanted to do that. So I believe right now this is our trial to strength us and make us pull closer to Him.  I do not believe that I could have prevented this or lead a perfect life. I do not believe changing my diet only can cure endometriosis but I do believe moderation in all things and changing my diet to healthier will better my life in the long run a and give me more energy.
Since quitting soda last month I have felt an increase in my life, and right now I love it and can handle not having soda. Will I go on the rest of my life without it? Probably not, but for right joe this is good for me.
With that said.... We are off to the dr.