Stims Medications!

   I started my follicle stimulating medication on Monday August 25th. I inject Gonal-F 150 units and Menopur (2 vials the first two days, then 1 vial a day thereafter)  in the morning around 8am. I am still injecting Lupron in the evenings around 7-8pm. I also take a Prenatal, Synthroid, and a baby aspirin per day. It was very difficult to figure out how to fit all of these medications into one day, because I have to separate each medication out. I finally have a rythmn where I take the synthroid in the morning with my injections. The prenatal and baby aspirin I try to take with my lunch, so I can have food on my stomach. The injections in the morning have to be given exactly 12 hours apart from my evening dose, because Lupron stops my body from ovulating to early. I will be on these medications for 8-12 days, depending on my follicle development:)
     Once we are given the green light I will inject both syringes of ovidrel, which causes my body to ovulate 36 hours later. My egg-retrieval surgery will be schedule exactly 36 hours from Ovidrel injection!! The next/last step is embryo transfer, where they will put 2 embryos back into my uterus:) Embryo transfer will hopefully be 3-5 days after egg retrieval! We both just pray that my body reacts well to the medication and that we are able to at least have one good embryo:)

Our First Appointment!

     Our First appointment we signed our consent forms, blood work, and ultra sound. The consent forms were a little intimidating, because there was so much to decide/sign. We had to decide if we were going to freeze the embryos that we didn't use or throw them away. I had already decided that we would freeze the embryos, but my husband was struggling spiritually about the decision. My husband was concerned about having "babies on ice". He didn't think it was something that God wanted him to do. The nurse left us alone to discuss, which before this day we had talked about it a million times. I explained to him that if this doesn't work the first round, I would want to try again. I also explained that the frozen embryos would be given a chance to live. If we were blessed with 6 embryos, then We would put every single one of them back into the uterus to hopefully survive. We are only aloud to put back 2 embryos per cycle. My husband then voiced his opinion about how we should only try this one time. His reasoning was because if God wanted this for us, then it would work the first time. Now before this day, my hubby had not researched anything concerning IVF. He was just going on whatever everyone else had told him. I explained that our RE will take the eggs out and place the sperm inside the egg, but he doesn't make the embroyo stay inside of me. God decides if my body is ready for a baby or not. The doctor doesn't make me pregnant, he just gives us the highest chance of becoming pregnant. I also stated that throwing away embroyos, was never an option for me. I believe if we were blessed with that many embroyos, then they all get a fighting chance. Once my husband understood exactly what we were doing, he signed to freeze our embroyos:)

      Next we both had to have blood work done! I had to have about 4 tubes of blood taken and My husband only had 2. They were checking for diseases, infections, and my estrogen/progesterone levels to make sure everything was in good shape. Everything came back perfect and we were ready to start the stimulating process, but first an ultra sound...
      Our first ultra sound was to check the lining of the uterus and that my ovaries were at complete rest. Everything looked good and were had some follicles forming. I had 4 in my left ovary and 3 in my right. All were measuring around 6mm, which we were told was perfect. A follicle is what produces the egg each month and they look like dark fluid sacs on the Ultra Sound. They want them to get to a size of at least 18mm and then they would retrieved the eggs inside:) After the Ultra sound we went over my medications I would be starting for stimulation/Stims process of IVF!

      

Birth Control & Lupron Injections:)

       I started Birth control on July 20th, which was day 2 of my menstrual cycle. I was taking the medication in the evening to try to help with the nausea, but I still had nausea hours after taking it. I took this medication for a little over 5 weeks.
        August 15th I began injecting 10 units of Lupron between 7-8pm at night. I will continue injecting this medication until we are ready for the egg retrieval. Lupron stops the body from ovulating to soon, so it allows the other medications to boost up my egg supply!! I inject in my abdomen and I really have had no side effects from this medication. I'll be honest it has been the easiest injectable medication so far. I stopped taking birth control on August 22nd and we had our first ultra sound that day as well....

How we came to our Decision!

       Our decision to do IVF was not a quick decision. From the beginning of this journey I kept saying I would do anything, but IVF. I didn't want to believe that we couldn't  have babies the "natural" way and I didn't want to mess with my hormones. When our second IUI failed in June, our doctor called us into his office to have a serious talk. He stated that both IUI were "Text book perfect", there was no reason for the failure. He gave us 3 options at this point;

1.   We could try another IUI, but he only gives us an 8% chance of it working. An IUI only has a 10-20% chance the first try and decreases with each month:(
2. Laparoscopic surgery to just look around at everything to see if everything looked normal and that I don't have endometriosis. 
3. IVF

   We knew we didn't want to do another IUI, because we couldn't take another month of no baby. We didn't like our odds of 8%. My husband really wanted me to have the minor surgery to see what we were dealing with, but as the doctor explained it would put us back a few months from getting pregnant and we would end up doing IVF anyways. It took us a good 2 weeks before we called the doctor back to tell him our decision to move forward with IVF. We also told him we didn't want to have the transfer until at least September, so it would give us time to relax before the madness started! Our insurance will pay for 80% of our IVF cost and all of our medications. Knowing this information also helped with our decision, because why go thru another IUI or surgery if you going to end up here anyways?! We would be wasting more money and still have no baby! We feel very blessed that our insurance is paying for majority of our cost. We were really thankful when we received one of my medications that cost us $50, but insurance paid $3,000! It just amazes me that insurance companies are still not wanting to pay for it. I know it cost a lot of money, but the outcome of a beautiful baby is worth it:) So our decision was made to begin the process...

Our IVF Protocol!

   IVF protocol is different for every patient and every clinic. The RE will decide what works best for each patient individually, so to prevent over stimulation! Here is how our cycle will go...

•         7/20-Started taking Birth Control pills, on day 2 of my menstrual cycle. I have to take BC to help relax my ovaries and hopefully prevent hyper-stimulation from occurring. I stopped the BC on 8/23!

•         8/15-Started injecting Lupron (10 units) at 7 pm everyday!  Lupron is prescribed to prevent ovulation during the stimulating phase. I have to be on this until we are ready for the egg retrieval. 

•         8/25-I will be starting Gonal-F (150 units) and Menopur (2 vials) injections in the morning at 7am. Both of these medications will stimulate my healthy follicles to produce lots of eggs. 

• 9/4 or 9/5-Egg Retrieval day! This day can vary, depending on when the follicles get to 18cm.
• 9/9 or 9/10-Egg transfer day! This day will be 5 days after the egg retrieval, so it could change!

    We have appointments everyday starting August 30th. Our RE will monitor my estrogen/progesterone levels and my ovaries by ultra sound! They are looking for each follicle to be the size of 18cm, which they are currently at 6. I have 4 follicles on the right and 6 on in my left ovary. Follicles are the fluid sacks that produces the eggs. During a normal cycle most women only produce one egg, in one ovary.  If they starting getting to big, our cycle will be canceled. This is the reason for daily ultra sound and blood work checks. We don't want to hyper-stimulate and have to start all over again.

Our TTC Story:)

         Lets start from the beginning of our journey! I am 27 yrs old and my husband is soon to be 31 yrs old! We have been together for 7 years, but only married for 2. We decided together that we would just let things happen when we got married. I was secretly hoping we would get pregnant right away:) Well of course 4 months go by and still no pregnancy. We decided that in January we would really start putting effort into having a baby..like looking at a fertility calender! Well we ended with a BFP on March 11, 2012, but we miscarried alittle over a week later:( We had an appt. with our OB the following Monday to make sure everything was fine. After this appt. we were very optimistic, because we had gotten pregnant so quickly! Our doctor suggested to keep doing what we were doing and follow up in a few months. My husband and I did take sometime to grieve, because we still felt sadness/disbelief that this had happen to us. We were told by so many that getting pregnant would be a breeze and don't stress about it! Well our story was different...

         About 3 months later I missed one of my periods. I was then diagnosed with PCOS, because I had multiple cyst in my ovaries, that wouldn't allow me to ovulate! I questioned the doctor multiple times, because my periods have always been 28 days apart and duration of 5 days! I don't have any characteristics of PCOS, but I just trusted my doctor. We were then put on a medication, Clomid, to help jump start ovulation. This medication taste terrible and actually stopped me from ovulating completely. We did 5 rounds and then decided to see a Fertility specialist.
   
      Our first appointment was in February and I will never forget his reaction to us. Before I could even speak our RE asked if he could do an ultra sound. He confirmed that I do NOT have PCOS:) This discovery was good/bad, because now we don't know why we can't get pregnant:( We are now classified as unexplained infertility?!! My husband was tested and has lots of sperm, but low motility! We tried another oral ovulation booster, Letrozole, but no success! We then proceeded on to IUI procedure, which we failed twice! We were only given a 20% chance from the beginning, but we still had hope! Our RE doctor only gave us an 8% chance of an IUI working a third time. He says your chances go down each month you do the procedure:( So now here we are...IVF bound:)

Welcome!

Welcome to our Page!

    My husband and I wanted to start a blog for our family, friends, and anyone who needs a little guidance! We both love to write about things we are passionate about, but by no means are we amazing writers! So during the journey we will post pictures, updates, and our feelings from day to day! I hope you enjoy our blog:)