A Sunday drive to Pleasant Grove

What a beautiful, hot morning to travel down to Pleasant Grove! The Utah Fertility Center's Murray location is closed Sat, Sun & Monday's; so Chris joined me and we drove to the Pleasant Grove location for my Ultrasound and my bloodwork.  Each day, my ovaries are getting more and more tender.  Some days, I can only stand for a little bit, while other days it hurts to sit down.  It's all worth the 10 days of misery to get the outcome.  Today my ultrasound reviled that I have 16 follicles on my right ovary and 17 follicles on my left.  Out of all of those, I have about 5-6 that are getting close the size we need.  My bloodwork also came back great! Everything is headed in the right direction.  We will need to do meds, ultrasounds & bloodwork until Tuesday, then we should be good to go for the egg retrieval on Thursday.

I want to explain what follicles are.  Follicles are like an egg sack; within the follicle is the egg.  It's good to hear that I have so many follicles on both ovaries, but they will probably only take 5-6 follicles off of each over, the largest ones of course.  Once they have the follicles, they will be able to see the egg within the follicle and determine if they are the correct size and healthy enough to be fertilized with Chris' sperm.  So while it is good to hear that I have so many follicles, we just need to make sure they continue to grow and we get a good number on the day of egg harvest.

Ultrasound & Blood draw

What a day! I headed down to Murray first thing this morning to take a look at my ovaries.  And boy or boy, can I feel my ovaries! Especially the left side.  My ovaries are producing good follicles and I already have one that is measure at a 12; you want them around an 18 when you get ready to "trigger" and harvest the eggs. So in a few days, we will be ready to go!

 And since I have been through this a time or 4, I know when the ovaries start working, it's time to break out the sodium.  I have been drinking 40 oz of Gatorade a day.  So far, so good!

At my appointment this morning, upon seeing the follicles and how quickly they are growing, the Nurse Practitioner sent me straight home to start my Cetrotide. This is the medication that stops my ovaries from ovulation.  You want the follicles to stay on the ovaries and grow as much as they can before they take the follicles off of the ovaries.  The shot wasn't to bad; the needle is long and I have to mix the medication.  It had a sting to it, but overall, not to bad.

Blood Draw

There is nothing quite like getting up early, getting Weston ready and heading to Murray for a blood test.  That's it.  Just a single blood draw.  Drove an hour, for a 5 minute appointment, and drove back home.

All my levels are coming out good though! And the vampire taking my blood is a pro.  She is going in the same arm, in the same spot and you would never know.

Medication time!

First day of injections!

This little beauty if called Gonal-F.  I am taking 150 ml everyday; for the next 10 days! I also started Clomid today; I will only be taking it for 5 days. 

Luckily, the shot went in smoothly with no problems.  Fingers crossed, it stays that way.

Ultrasound, blood & money

There is nothing quite like undressing from the waste down and taking a paper napkin and placing it over your private areas.  But all of us women do it.  All. Of. Us.

 

This is going to be my normal attire for the next 2 weeks.  Lots of ultrasounds to make sure my uterus lining is thickening, my ovaries are producing follicles and my blood levels are staying on track.

So, here are my results from the day.  My AMH level is at 8.60.  Let me explain what AMH is and why it matters for me.  When we started the IVF process back in 2009, I was 28 years old.  I am know 35 years old.  When a woman reaches the age of 35, her ovaries become considered old (it's a shame).  AMH testing helps tell what a woman egg quality if going to be and how many eggs they could potential develop.  Normal range for a 35 year old woman is 1.0-1.5; this is when my PCOS gives me an upper hand.  My egg quality is 8.60, extremely high.

PCOS - Let's chat real quick.  Woman with PCOS have a very hard time getting pregnant. VERY HARD.  Most woman with PCOS, don't even get to experience pregnancy.  PCOS, causes ovulation to not occur due to the cysts that are on our ovaries.   Yet, with a little medication, our ovaries become stimulated and we produce more follicles to ovulate.  Power in numbers.

So, here we are.  No going back! Oh, and I swiped our credit card; $5350. I'll take it! When we swiped our first round $9900. 

Lots and lots of Meds

Today, via UPS, I received all of these beauties! I know, I would be jealous too.  There is nothing like opening up a package and seeing alcohol swabs, syringes and a red needle box!

 The meds are received are different from any other round we have done.  Since we are at a different facility, it's been interesting to see what they do different.  We are also doing the minimal stimulation, so only have the meds are needed.  That saves on the pocketbook!

 The meds are received are:

Gonal F - to help increase the amount of Follicles.  I will be taking a dose of clomid for 5 days with the Gonal F.  The more follicles, the more eggs.

Cetrotide - this will stop my ovaries from ovulation. 

Progesterone - I have always hated the progesterone shot.  It hurts so bad.  This clinic likes to use progesterone vaginal suppositories.  I'm excited to see how it goes.  Down side, I have to use it 3 times a day, with the shot, it was only once a day.

HCG - is a natural hormone that the body produces to say, "Hey, we are pregnant".  This is a "trigger" shot that I take about 36 hours before they harvest my eggs.  That will help my ovaries know its time to make some magic!

All of the meds cost roughly $1800, and its only 2 weeks worth.  A normal cycle, you take meds for about 4-5 weeks, so imagine that cost.  So glad we are able to try this minimal cycle out.  Fingers crossed luck and babies are on our side.

Weston made the final decision

Well, here we are; over a year after our failed attempts at round 2 and 3 at IVF.  We have had times of darkness, a lot of lightness and a lot of memories we have made.  We have been back and forth many different times talking about what we should do about having another child.  Should we really be done? Is there another soul waiting out there for us? We are definitely happy with the one child we have.  Chris is scared that if we do another round, I might not be able to come out of the darkness again.  We really are both really content with Weston.  He is so much fun and tests us to our very limits.  I don't know what we would do without him.  And he is hilarious, the little comments and saying that come out of his mouth make us laugh so hard.  And his is the sweetest kid you will ever meet.  And he is the reason we have made the decision we have made.  He asked for a sibling.  That was enough to push us.  How do you tell the incredible Weston no??

We did meet with a couple doctors the beginning of the year.  We met with a doctor named Dr Swelstad; he is very smart and knows exactly what he is doing.  But costs quite a bit of money.  We were also able to meet with Dr Gurtcheff; she is the doctor that got us pregnant with Weston.  We were so excited to see her again and talk about our options.  She is now at the Utah Fertility Center and offers what is called a "Minimal Stimulation".  Basically, it is the same concept; yet instead of trying to get as many follicles/eggs as they can, they want to get only a handful of them.  That way, if it does work with one or two embryos, we won't have the guilty decision to make if we want to do it again or discard any embryos.  It made the decision a lot easier to make.

Now, we met with Dr Gurtcheff on February 4th, today is July 19th and we are 2 weeks into the IVF process once again.  So far not much has happened. On July 8th, it was the 3rd day of my cycle, and I started the dreaded birth control.  Luckily, I was able to get on a low dose and haven't been too crazy.  The crazy I have been experiencing, however, is from the lake of caffeine.  I have stopped the drinking coffee and Coke.  The terrible caffeine headache lasted a week.  Thank goodness it has passed.  On Friday the 15th, we met with a new doctor for Chris named, Dr Hotaling.  He is pretty confident in Chris's procedure and also has a new technique to extract the sperm.  It is less invasive and will be a quick recovery.  For me, tomorrow I stop birth control and started a low dose of asprin.

It all starts with one little pill.  The birth control pill.

Our calender for our IVF story.  Normally, it would take about 6-8 weeks to complete.  Luckily, we are going to be able to complete it in 5 weeks.

On Friday the 15th, I also met with the doc to have my water ultrasound performed.  Those are always fun.  The water ultrasound is pretty basic.  They fill the utures with salt water to make sure there are no pollups and when they transfer the embryo, everything is clear.  This was the 4th one I have had done.  You would think by now, it would be no big deal, but it is something you never quite get comfortable with.

I am going to update through the whole process.  This week is a pretty easy week.  Next week is when the fun begins.  Shots, shots, shots! The following week is full of sperm extraction and egg extraction! Its always a party!

For some reason, God made us wait.  Some things are worth the wait.  Even if it's the anwer you don't want to hear.