My Bum Hurts!

I have been receiving shots in my bum/hip area now since the end of February with a rather large needle. Up until this point it has really been no biggie. Until. Today. OUCH! The progesterone in oil is beginning to get on my nerves. Not a constant 'pain in the rear'...just when my hands hit it or I bump up against something. Something as simple as putting my hands in my back pocket can make me really crabby....really quick...for a second (then I am all good again).

**That is a picture of me :) I look very similar to that now....especially the hand on the bum....

Let's Pass the Time...

Okay friends and family...so we have a wait in front of us that so far feels like F-O-R-E-V-E-R! I don't have a lot of news this week. I knew this week would be slow, so I saved a special video for you. This was the video my Dear, Dear Husband thought it would be good (hilarious) to create right after I was coming out of my anesthesia. (Bless his heart). I am talking quietly so you are going to have to crank up your volume.

Chris showed this to me about 5 days after the retrieval. I had forgotten all about it, and I have no recollection of starring in it. I just remember him mentioning it to me later in the day on Sunday. Then, if course I forgot about it. Until then...

The best line of the video is when Chris says, "Are you sleepy?"

I respond something like, "Yes, but it's a GOOD sleepy..." (apparently I am referring to the drugs).

PS-If you can't this to play...download Quicktime...it is free.

Thank you for your support through all of this! Now go ahead and watch me make a fool out of myself...just to show my sincere appreciation for each and every one of you!

Love y'all!

Snow Babies

I received a message from the RE's office this morning. They have officially ended our 'culture'...which means they are no longer watching our two embies grow. I instantly became saddened when I heard those words..until she said:

"we went ahead and froze them, so now you have a total of 4 FROZEN EMBIES!"

We really are so blessed. It is nice to know that we have some 'wiggle room' or a definite back up plan if this first round doesn't work. It takes a lot of pressure off. I think I might enjoy this 2 week wait a little more knowing we have options.

My guess is that they must have started to show signs of hatching so they had to go ahead and freeze them. I am confident that they would have pushed it another day if they could. The whole freezing process is pretty interesting. Once I can wrap my brain around it, I will try to explain it to you. All I can think of when I consider the idea of 'freezing embryos' is Walt Disney and Michael Jackson. Didn't they both want to be frozen? (Creepy).

A Pea in Mashed Potatoes...

So, today was the big day. We had 2 beautiful embryos implanted. The nurse promised me that I wouldn't:

1. pee them out

2. sneeze them out

3. cough them out

4. laugh them out

She said it is like dropping a green pea into a pile of mashed potatoes...

The picture is gritty because I had to play with it a little to get the scan to show up. They look perfect. The larger one is actually already 'hatching'. You will notice if you look at the large one at about 5 o'clock, it has what looks like a little bubble coming out. That is what becomes the baby. The large group of cells along the bottom half is all a part of that. the whole thing will slide out. The cluster of cells around the top of the embryo becomes the placenta.

The larger one is farther along. Yet, they are both considered blastocycts at this stage.

I will write more later tonight....ps...we have snow babies too :) I will give you the number later tonight..

We. Are. Blessed.

Keep Praying....

Love-

Jenn

Thursday....

Today's report...
All 7 embies still dividing and growing!
Tomorrow is the big day!

Wednesday...

We still have 7...one is lagging a bit behind...but that's okay. We are really blessed to still have 7!

The World's Most Expensive Babysitter

This is a picture of Dr. Michael Tucker, our embryologist. He has an impressive resume. I would post it, but I can't seem to copy and paste it. So, at least you can see his picture. He is the man who was responsible for fertilizing and keeping a close watch on the little ones.

Sigh...Thank You for Your Prayers!

Hi Everyone...Chris and I received more great news today. All seven embies made it through the night and are dividing and growing right on schedule. The nurse has scheduled us for an 11:30 transfer on Friday morning. Yeah! That means our little embies will be at a blastocyst stage by then. That is great news. They will have many divisions by then. The transfer of a blastocyst has a much better success rate. Many embies don't make it that far...so please keep praying. The embryologist feels confident that we will still have enough by day 5 to transfer. Of course, if there are any changes, we will receive a call and come up with a plan B. That would mean we would transfer sooner and get them in my body ASAP. Obviously embryos do better in the womb, but by waiting until day 5...the strongest can be transferred.

The picture above is what they should have looked like on Tuesday. I am assuming this is how they looked, since our report was good. Overnight they will divide again and I will post a new picture. (Such a proud mama.)

Thank you all so much for your support and prayers! This has been a crazy ride! We have learned so much. Don't tell my boss, but I am starting to get really distracted at work. I have stacks of papers on my desk that need to be graded. I am hoping tomorrow that when I go in, they will all be graded :) Probably not.

Take care! We are so excited! Grow embies! Grow!

What's Next?

So, after we left the RE on Sunday...this is what took place.

That is not a picture of my actual egg. That is simply an example folks. Just trying to expain the process.

First Fertilization Report

I received a call from the nurse today. Yesterday 12 eggs were retrieved. Out of the 12 retrieved, 10 were mature. Each of those 10 were fertilized. As of today, we have 7 embryos growing in a dish in downtown Atlanta. :)

This being our rookie season, and hopefully only season playing infertility...I wasn't sure how to react to those numbers. According to the nurse, because of my age...12 is a really good number. For seven to fertilize out of 10...is fantastic...according to her. Apparently, when ICSI is done (sperm is injected via needle straight into the egg), it has a 50-60% fertilization rate. Ours is 70%. So that's good, right?

The next couple of days are going to be really important. We are going to lose embies as the days progress. Tomorrow the embryologist will peek in our embies in the morning and a decision will be made by him/her at that time whether they will transfer them to me on Wednesday or Friday. ***Disclaimer***when I say 'them' I do not mean all 7!

Whether they do the transfer on Wednesday or Friday, they will let any left-over embies grow until Saturday. If Saturday, we still have embies, they will freeze them. The chances of this happening are very low. (PS-They call these...'snow babies', cute, huh?)

Snow Babies are nice because they can be thawed and placed in the uterus without having to go through all the crazy stimming injections. Unbelievably, snow babies have a very high pregnancy rate. I taught a 'snow baby' last year. His sister is actually 2 years older...but they were retrieved on the very same day. He was just an embie that his parents froze. I work with his mom, otherwise obviously I would not know this information. It is not on the kid's permanent record :)!!

Right now I am taking an anti-biotic, pre-natal, metanx (high dosage of folic acid), something called Medrol (don't know what that is), and I am getting an intra-muscular injection of progesterone every night. I will start back on baby aspirin soon.

Keep on praying...I will update tomorrow!

Retrieval Today!!

So today was the big day. I had my egg retrieval. Woke up around 4:30, then couldn't go back to sleep because I was afraid my alarm wouldn't go off and I would have to repeat the last 6 weeks.

We left around 7:00 A.M. They took us back to the IVF suite. We each sat in some Lazy-Boy recliners and the nurse handed me one of those high fashion hospital gowns (along with a blue mesh shower cap, and matching booties). Chris took a picture of me with my new look on his phone, but I promise that no one will be seeing that!

The nurse started me on an IV.

I was taken to the surgery room around 9:15. Placed an interesting position.

Lights. Out.

I remember waking up aound 9:40...so it didn't take long at all. I felt good. Real Good. Thank you meds! Chris walked in shortly after.

He told me tonight at dinner that he took a video of me in recovery on his phone (we were laughing about that beforehand). I didn't ask to see it tonight. I don't remember it taking place...probably don't want to see it. We will save that for a later date. Maybe I will post it sometime soon.

12 eggs. That is all I know at this point. I will get a fertilization report sometime late morning. I asked them to leave a message on my cell. I probably won't listen to it until after school. Although I am thinking positively, I do not want to get any bad news in the middle of the school day.

Gimme a T...

Whoot-whoot! Trigger time! Yeah :) I went to the doctor this morning. My follies had grown quite a bit since Wednesday. I had a feeling this had happened because sometime Thursday afternoon I started to become really uncomfortable. Plus, when I woke up this morning I had to put on a pair of my 'big girl pants' (disclaimer...I realize that you are thinking..."ahem...Jenn, all of your pants are 'big girl pants'...). But please understand...these were REALLY big girl pants! Two sizes up to be exact. I just had to make REAL sure that nothing was touching or rubbing against my belly. Mission accomplished.

Anyway, so my follies are between 19-26. Three of seven that are above 25mm. That's pretty big, hence the soreness. My E2 also rose to 2447! :) Sooo...

(Insert flashing Vegas-like lights here...)

We got to trigger tonight!

Translation: I will have my egg retrieval exactly 36 hours from the trigger shot. (Which we were instructed to give at exactly 9:00 EST tonight. So, we did...but of course we were about 7 minutes late. (Refer to the earlier entry centered around my inability to be in a hurry to do anything....grow follicles, raise estrogen levels, trigger on time...oops-hopefully my doctor doesn't read my blog (probably safe bet).

Face Lift

Okay...so I didn't go to the doctor today, so I have no new news. Instead, I gave the blog a face lift. It seems that I am lying in bed more than usual. I am tired. Plus, I get my shot in bed, then just tend to stay here and surf the net until I go to sleep.

As you can see, I found a 'comment blinkie' on line and added it. I seem to be the one doing all the talking (what's new?), so let's make this a little more interactive. To be honest, I am starting to get bored. Follies are growing slowly people...we still have a solid 2+ weeks of this process, so I need to be entertained. I started this process on February 8th (day of my first IVF med).

So leave some comments. There are only a few of you who read this anyway. You will notice that after every entry, there is a comment option. Feel free to leave a comment. I am not asking for any corny inspirational stuff...Chris and I already know that we are amazing people--just kidding...just comment...about.anything...please.please.please. Something to move this process along...plus, when this DOES work, I may want to read this blog to our quintuplets (kidding) someday, and it is important to know who supported this little angel(s) along this amazing journey.

A Picture is Worth 1,000 words...

Gosh, I hope so! Tomorrow is day 12 of stims. The doctor has now doubled my dosage since the beginning of this (an increase in meds is normal). I went in on Sunday and Monday for bloodwork and an ultrasound. I go in on Wednesday A.M. for another check. I am hoping E2 will be 1000+ by then (currently 500). Grow follies grow! I have 2 at 14....5 more between 11.5-13.5. My second group has 15 follies between 6.5-11. We want a few of those to catch up.

The egg retrieval is being pushed back, probably Friday or Saurday. They won't do a retrieval until the E2 is over 1,ooo and a group of follies is between 16-20. So, I am hoping with the increased dosage, the second group of smaller follies will get a chance to catch up. I would really like between 10-15 eggs at retrieval. We currently only have 7 in that larger group.

Bullseye!

Why a bullseye, you ask? Because this is what the nurse drew on both buttcheeks this morning when she saw my bruising/bandaids from the new needle. I thought we had this shot giving thing down pat. Last night was a breeze! Apparently the only problem was that we were within centimeters of the sciatic nerve. Oops. **blushing** Good news is...that thanks to the big black Sharpie circles I am now rockin' on my rear...we should be just fine!

E2 has gone up...(insert cartwheels, fireworks, high-fives here). That is good news. While it is still a little low, nurse said not to worry. So. I. won't. My lining is looking good, and follies are growing slowly. But, slowly worked for the tortoise...so we will remain positive. Plus, in 37 years I have never done anything really 'fast' (i.e. graduating from college, running the bases, cleaning my room, etc., etc.). Hence, I figure we are right on schedule!

Follies Measuring:

RT Ovary: 1@11mm, 1@10.75mm, 1@9.75mm, and 8@(7-8mm)

LT Ovary: 2@10mm, 1@9.75mm, 7@(7-9mm)

Our hope is that none of those lead (big) follies turn it into high gear and start taking off from the others. Right now they seem to be growing at the same pace....that is good. When the majority of those reach between 16-18mm, I will get my trigger shot to induce ovulation. The RE (doctor) will then retrieve all the eggs exactly 36 hours after my trigger. By that time, my E2 (estrogen) levels should be well over 1,000.

My next appointment is Sunday morning at 9:50. Hopefully I can talk my 'nurse' into making the trip with me :)

Disappointing Trip to the Doctor

Uhg...well, I headed to the doctor this A.M. with Chris for my day 5 of stims bloodwork and ultrasound. The ultrasound showed:

RT OVARY:
5 follies measuring 8.5-9.5 mm follies

LT OVARY:

10 follies measuring 6.5-7.5 mm follies

about 15 others at about 5.5-6.5 mm

Okay, so this news was not bad. Follies are growing slowly, but I am currently on a low dose of meds...so RE (doctor) is okay with this.

Disappointment comes in here.

E2 (Estrogen level)

At day 3 of stims it was 132...okay, but a pinch low...so RE upped my dosage on Monday to get the number up.

Today....E2 was 95...so rather than going up...it dropped. Hmmm....not supposed to happen.

So...the plan is to up my dosage again. I am now taking 225 (3 viles of Bravelle). The other change is that rather than using the little 'insulin' needles for my shots, I have graduated to a 2" intra-muscular needle. So no more tiny shots in the tummy. Now-long needle straight into butt muscle. Good. Times.

Tonight was our first time with the big needle. Bless Chris' heart. I know this was tough for him. The process took about 15 minutes because someone (I will not mention names in order to protect the innocent) was having trouble with the idea of sticking that needle in my butt. In lieu of pictures of the process...here is a sample of the conversation that took place...

"Okay, are you ready Honey"

"Yep...hurry up let's get this shit over with"

(wipes the area with alcohol)

(30 seconds pass)

(a deep sigh is heard coming from my 'nurse')

(30 more seconds pass)

"Hello...come on Honey, let's do this"

"Okay, okay"

(30 seconds pass)

TIME TO RE-ICE---NO LONGER NUMB

"Okay...let's do this. Honey, please do this quickly."

"I will. I just don't want to hit any bone...this is supposed to go in the muscle only."

"Umm...I am pretty sure we don't have to worry about hitting bones...(hand smacks butt). I think we have plenty to work with here."

(30 seconds pass)

"Hello...let's go. Just do it."

"I am. I just don't want to hit anything major. This is a long needle."

**sigh**

Reread that conversation about 5 times...and consider yourself there.

Once it actually happened, it wasn't bad. Chris pulled the needle out, grabbed a band-aid, stuck it on where there was a little blood, and walked out of the bedroom on his way to the gym muttering...

"I am gonna go pass out now."

And there you have it....night 1 of the big needle.

Bruiser...

I figured I might as well...I thought you would much more appreciate my arms as opposed to a picture of my bruised stomach. They are actually fading; over the weekend the bruising was much worse.

Mixologist

Here are my daily meds (which have since been upped to add one more vile of Bravelle). I mix all these together to create 1 shot. It is really pretty cool how it all works. I was so intimidated the first time, but after you do it once...no problem. I can now add chemist to my repertoire. It takes 3 needles and Q-cap to mix the shots. I am learning so much!

Blue Belt...

If the title were Black Belt...I know you would have assumed I had lost my mind and taken up karate. Well, no karate and no black belt! What I have is a blue belt...wrapped around my tummy. Thank. you. shots.

The good news: They don't really hurt. No big deal going in, no burning from the meds, the needles just enjoy leaving bruises every time they enter my stomach. I am sure that part of this has to do with the baby aspirin I have been taking everyday now for about 45 days. So I look like I am a real trooper, but it is really no big deal.

Side effects other than the bruising...Chris swears I now mumble in my sleep, beg for him to turn on the fan in the middle of the night-even though it has been in the 30's here at night, some good old headaches...but that is about it. (Okay, MAYBE I am a little more emotional).

I am sure that as the week goes on, I will start to feel a little more uncomfortable closer to my egg retrieval...but so far everything has been fine.

Holy Follicles!

I had my RE appointment on Thursday afternoon. Which I was very much looking forward to so that I could move on to the next step. The appointment began with an ultrasound that showed 34 antral follicles. (These are the little follicles that house your eggs.) The average for my age is much less...like 20 less. Having so many isn't horrible, I am lucky that I have some...but 34 puts me at high risk for ovarian hyperstimulation. In other words, I will have to be watched very closely when I do start my stimulation medications. The goal of the stims is to take those follicles and grow them really big and mature. That is why I take the shots. Here lies the problem. I don't want 34 follicles to grow big in my belly. My cycle will have to be canceled. There will be too many and my estrogen levels will get too high. These follicles tend to get very large and fill with fluid, if that happens with that large of number, I will be in rough shape.

They have put me on a very low dose of medications because I apparently will be a high responder. I will go in on Monday morning at 7:30 to give blood and have another ultrasound.

Fast forward from Thursday's appointment to Friday afternoon...
Just received a message from the nurse. My bloodwork was 'excellent' so I am starting the stims on Friday night 03/05/10.

Progress Update...

My next doctor's appointment is this Thursday, March 4th. I will have a baseline ultrasound to make sure the suppression meds have been doing their job effectively and a refresher course on mixing the stim meds for the next round of shots. If everything goes well with the ultrasound, I will start stimming on Friday evening. I will continue with the Lupron that I have been taking (to shut down my pituitary gland) and add a mixture of 4 new meds to stimulate growth in my ovaries. These meds will also be given in the form of shots. YES! :)...(not really that excited)

I am sure things will be fine. The Lupron has not been a big deal. I have had a few headaches and have been a little more emotional (okay a lot more emotional) than usual. Just continue to pray for Chris...he is not used to being married to a sensitive, emotional....blah, blah, blah....you know the type.

Just Because...

Luckiest Girl in the World...

I am not sure why this was sitting on the kitchen counter when I got home from my basketball game tonight, but maybe because

...we stayed up until after midnight finishing accounting HW together

... I have cried more in the past two days than in the entire 90's decade

...a stray cat has decided to reside on our front porch for the last 3 days/nights and he understands just how scared I am to walk out the front door in fear of the lurking feline

...maybe it was for the shot that went awry last night and rather than the needle entering my belly, it bounced off so I had to get stuck a second time

---whatever the reason. I love him and I AM the luckiest girl in the world!