So now
that we know all of the things that are wrong with our “baby making moves” we
have to figure out a way to fix, or work around the “issues.” First off, I am continuing with all of the
appropriate vitamins, DH is now taking Zinc (which is supposed to help? Who knows!)
The reason I say, “who knows,” is once you have these diagnosis’, it is
very difficult to not research online. You
will learn so many things online. I have
read countless medical articles on the subject, I have read pages and pages of
blogs, and discussion boards. Sometimes
this can be a bad thing, doing all of this research, and finding out some
things that you probably don’t want to know, or finding out all of the new “what
ifs” you didn’t even think of. So there
are definitely ups and downs to all of the reading. I will tell you this, if I have learned
anything that I would like to pass on to anyone else starting on this journey,
is that you MUST be your OWN ADVOCATE!
I am a very organized person, so
for me starting lists of different questions to ask the doctor, and which
topics and concerns I need to research, etc. was second nature. But I mean this 100%, no matter how wonderful
you doctors are, they will not tell you what people who have gone through it
will tell you. I am seeing one of the
top doctors in the country, and I will tell you that if DH and I had not done
our own research, and made a plethora of lists, with a ton of different
questions, we would not have felt anywhere near as prepared as we did. Even being as prepared as possible, and acquiring
as much knowledge as we can from the “infertile community” online, whether it
be from blogs, or medical sites, etc., you still don’t know what you are to
expect until you have gone through it.
Once we were cleared through our
insurance and approved for our first cycle of IVF, we were told that they would
also be using a process called ICSI. In
short, they are going to take the eggs, clean the sperm, run them through this
process called ICSI, and put them together in petri dishes and hope that some
of the eggs fertilize. Before all of
this could happen we had to sign our names about 50 times each just to get the
process started. All of a sudden you are
thinking about the “extra” embryos. They
are asking you questions like, “if you have extra embryos are you choosing to
dispose of them?” Questions such as, “would
you like to donate any extra embryos to research?” are not questions we would
have considered ourselves ready for.
They of course ask you if your wish is to use all of the embryos, and
you happen to have a plethora; you must use them before the age of __. Questions we weren’t expecting, but we were expected
to answer.
So now the eggs . . How do they get
these eggs, you ask? Well let me tell
you. Since I don’t have a regular cycle
and I do not ovulate they must force my body to have a cycle, so we can know
exactly what day in my cycle I am on.
IVF relies heavily on timing. So
they put me on BC pills for 3 weeks.
Once I got off, I started my cycle.
This is when the real fun began!
I was given medications that were delivered in a big box (or 2, I don’t
remember) and there were very specific instructions. Some of these drugs were to be refrigerated,
some were to be left at room temperature, and some were not to be used until
weeks later. I started on something
called GONAL-F. This is a drug that is
in the shot form. The directions said I
could inject the drug into my thigh, my arm, or my stomach. I chose my stomach, but it is strictly on
preference. I got to do those shots
nightly. After a few weeks of that, I
added a Ganirelix every morning and continued with the GONAL-F at night. During this time I was going in the RE’s
(Reproductive Endocrinologist) office every other day or so for ultra sounds to
check my uterine lining, and my egg production that was being cause by the
hormones, as well as tons of blood work to check my estrogen levels etc. I would get calls each afternoon, after these
appointments, and depending on where my levels were, they would tell me if I
had to change the amount of the drug I was injecting, or not. Once they believed I was about 2 days away
from my retrieval surgery (this is where they removed the eggs from my uterus),
they had me take a trigger shot. This
trigger shot involved mixing a liquid and a powdery substance together and retrieving
it into a shot, and then I gave myself the shot. I did watch the “how-to” video on how to do
the shot correctly about 10 times before administering it to myself, with the
fear that if I did it incorrectly, I could risk the last 2.5 months of “work”
to be flushed down the drain. The next
day and a half I didn’t have to do anymore shots. I just had a waiting game for when I would go
in for my Egg Retrieval Surgery. FYI,
the shots were awful, but I will tell you what . . they were NOTHING compared
to the pain of how swollen and sensitive your stomach area becomes . . inside
AND out.
The day FINALLY came. I was nervous, but excited! All I wanted was to cry . . because of all
the hormones in my body, one, the fear that it wouldn’t work (2), and three, because of the joy I got thinking
that it just might work! Today could be
the day that DH and I conceive our miracle baby we have been praying for! I was quite nervous for the laughing gas,
that was going to put me “to sleep,” temporarily, but I was told it was only a
15 minute procedure and I will be completely fine!
Surprise, surprise, the 15 minutes
procedure took over 45 minutes. I was
told that my body responded almost too well to the treatments, and we had 22
eggs that were retrieved! Usually they
are happy to retrieve anywhere from 6-12 eggs!
So needless to say I was told that the pain of the swelling is going to
take a little bit of time to come down, and I should be “down for the count”
for at least 4 days.
Gosh, I feel like this is the
longest entry, but I have ALMOST caught you up to where we are currently. Getting over a year of information and 4
months of treatment into 3 entries was not an easy task, lol. To make the next step of this process a
little shorter and less painful as it actually was . . all I am going to say is
that 5 days after the egg retrieval is when I would be implanted with the
embryo. Out of 22 eggs, I was told that
there were at least 7 that were in excellent condition to use for implantation
(we were only using 1, and having the others frozen for now) and that they were
keeping an eye on them to see if the remaining eggs will be at a great enough
condition in which they can be frozen.
Almost all caught up!
Praying
for Baby Dust,
Lindsay
No comments:
Post a Comment