The Plan

Sorry I didn't get this written down yesterday.  It was just a long, busy day, and we were both exhausted.

We got to UFC a little ahead of schedule yesterday, which, believe me, never happens.  After a few minutes, they called Ryan back for his semen analysis.  After that appointment, we met with the financial counselor and had our blood drawn by Abby, who could be the most awesome phlebotomist I've ever known.

Last we met with Dr. C.  She did both saline and regular ultrasounds on me.  We also sat down in her office and talked game plan.  And this is it, after conversations and phone calls yesterday.  Things have changed a little bit:

*My uterine lining actually looks pretty good.  When Dr. C. is in there for our egg retrieval, she's still going to do a light scraping.  I think this means they're going to knock me all the way out, which is good.  No intubation, thank heavens.

*We are not even going to try a fresh embryo transfer.  Dr. C. just returned from an international conference with world-renowned reproductive endocrinologists.  She said there was lots of discussion about patients with higher BMIs and fresh versus frozen embryo transfers.  The current research, along with advancements that have been made in freezing and thawing embryos, suggest that a frozen embryo transfer, allowing the patient's estrogen levels to regulate, are the best protocol for us.

*Unfortunately, Ry's semen analysis was a little different from the last time we had one completed.  Because of this, Dr. C suggested we use ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection) to help create our babies.  This, and the fact that we are doing a frozen embryo transfer adds significant cost to this cycle, which really, really stinks for us.

*I scheduled several of the required ultrasounds.  During the two-week stimulation period, I will need around five of them.  The one will take all day, because I have other things to do at the office.  The rest I will be getting up really early, driving to the Murray office for my 8 a.m. ultrasound appointments.  I have one day where I have to go to Pleasant Grove, and that is going to stink, but, I guess I'll make a day of it.  It's nice that for most of our appointments, we don't have to go all the way to Pleasant Grove.

*All of my blood work came back pretty good, except for my thyroid.  Dr. C. upped my dosage of my thyroid meds a little bit in preparation for a pregnancy.  Good news---neither of us are HIV+.  I knew you were really worried about that.  lol :)

*For those of you familiar with stimulation meds and dosages, I'll tell you what I know.  This protocol will not have any lupron, thanks heavens.  I'm already taking Ortho-Cyclen to help calm my ovaries, which, according to the ultrasound, have tons of follicles.  Hopefully they'll generally go away before the cycle.  I will be on 225 of Follistim two times a day.  This is about twice the dosage I've ever had.  It's gotta work.  With that much Follistim, our meds are going to be REALLY expensive.  I'm going to ask if we can order them as soon as possible.  We're almost to our deductible, and then everything else is free.  That's always a good thing.  In addition to the Follistim, I'll be doing 1 vial of Menopur (I've never had that before).  On day 6 of the stim, I may begin Ganirelix, which is a drug to keep me from ovulating.  I'll also be taking a baby aspirin every day, and I need to take prenatal vitamins as well.  Both Ryan and I will be taking a course of antibiotics in November, and he takes one really strong antibiotic the day before our egg retrieval, because he has to give his "donation" on that day to make our babies.

So...that's "The Plan" for right now.  It's so weird that in just a little over a month we'll be hard at it.  I'm kind of glad we're not going to do a transfer in December, because it would probably be the week before Christmas break, and my kiddos at school will be nuts.  After the transfer, I have to be on 48 hours of bed rest.  Hopefully we can arrange to do the transfer on a Friday afternoon and I can just take the weekend to be lazy.

Please continue praying, friends!  I'm reluctant to allow myself any sort of hope.  We've got a month before things get serious.  November will be busy, hopefully, and I can keep my mind off of this little glimmer of "maybe..."

Aaaaaand We're Back

So...it's been a while.  We were kind of lost in the wilderness for awhile there, but now we've been delivered.  Kind of.

The first weekend in August, Ryan and I participated in a 5k for the Pound the Pavement for Parenthood organization.  A doctor from the Utah Fertility Center was there, and when they were announcing winners for prizes, I wandered my way over to her.  I told her my story, and she said that I should have my records sent and come in for the free consultation they were offering for participants of the 5k.

So, two weeks ago I met with her (on our way to the Luke Bryan concert).  She looked over the records with my friend Aja and I, and the records from the last IVF cycle we attempted at the U were particularly interesting to her.  She said, even though my estrogen levels plateaued, if she had been monitoring my cycle, that she would have went ahead with an egg retrieval.

She said we'd start me out at relatively high dose of Follistim and Menopur, which both work to stimulate my ovaries to produce multiple eggs.  I have a lot of eggs (I feel like I should cluck here...), and she's a little concerned with ovarian hyper-stimulation syndrome (OHSS), where your abdomen swells full of fluid, and it's generally gross, and can require surgical intervention.  Dr. C. said that there is a special kind of trigger shot (which matures the eggs so that they're ready for harvest) that can help prevent OHSS, and depending on my ultrasound and blood test results, they'll give me that.

The doctor in Denver suggested harvesting eggs, making embryos, and then freezing them for a month so that I could heal and have my hormone levels stabilized.  Dr. C. said that we might be able to just do a fresh transfer depending, again, on my hormone levels.  If I do end up needing a D & C, we'll need to make freezer babies and do a frozen embryo transfer later.

So the plan is on October 18 to have a phone appointment with the IVF nurse to answer any more questions and get my calendar as to when I have to take what medications, go in for ultrasounds and blood work, etc.  Then, a week later, Ryan and I will go to Salt Lake for our big appointment where he'll do his business for an analysis and back-up for the day of retrieval, and I'll have blood work, a regular ultrasound, and a saline ultrasound so the doctor can see the inside of my uterine cavity.  That will be the determinant as to if I need a D & C or not.  My guess is that I will, unfortunately.  The good news is they can do that while I'm out for my retrieval.

So, we're moving forward again.  I think this is going to be it.  I can't handle any more.  Either it works, or it doesn't, but I think we need to move on with our lives, and build our family a different way if that's what we decide to do.  Dr. C. says we have a 75-80% chance of getting to retrieval this time, and the clinic has a 50-60% pregnancy rate with fresh IVF cycles.

Please pray for us as we continue down our road towards parenthood.  I watch Ryan sometimes, and I think about how he'll be such a wonderful father--fun, affectionate...I just can't imagine him not being a dad...