Transfer Day and Blood Test

Tuesday was a great day!  We went to the doctor’s office, and they transferred two embryos.  One was 1BB, and the other was 1BC (Grade A is the best, but B’s are not bad).  I got a call yesterday saying they were able to freeze 4 other embryos, varying from 1CC to 1AA.  When we were filling out some extra paperwork, they gave us our blood test day — May 15th.  Seeing the 15th on paper felt surreal.  It made everything feel like it has gone by so fast, even though we have done a lot leading up to this point.

As far as meds go, I just finished two of them, so I am not only on progesterone (crinone and prometrium) and estrogen patches (starting Tuesday).  No major side effects yet except my sleep cycle is all screwed up.  I am not allowed to lift anything over 5 lbs, which is very strange to me.  I constantly catch myself picking up boxes or a very full laundry basket, only to have to drop them quickly!  Despite doctor’s orders (and the fact that I am following them), I do not truly believe picking up something over 5 lbs would hurt anything, though.

One thing I noticed today is that I have lost quite a bit of weight, especially over the past week since the egg retrieval.  I have heard that fertility drugs can cause you to gain weight, but that is definitely not true in my case.  I have been trying to eat so healthily and avoid caffeine that I had not even considered making sure I am eating enough.  So, I am going to see if I can remedy this (I am feeling lots of grapes, pineapple and bacon; strange combination, but yummy!), at least until we find out if we are pregnant, then re-evaluate.

Overall, I feel like we have been incredibly blessed to have such an easy cycle with little pain and side effects.  I know this is not the case for everyone, so I am very grateful.  I am also so grateful for this feeling of peace and being able to set aside all worries I may have had for this treatment and just let God handle it.  Regardless of the outcome, I know we will come out of this stronger.

Quick Update: Egg Retrieval and Fertilization

First of all, I want to thank everyone who has contacted me letting me know you have been praying for us!

I want to give you all a quick update of what happened over the past couple of days.  Yesterday morning, we went in for my egg retrieval.  All of the nurses, the anesthesiologist and doctor were amazing.  I remember falling asleep, then I woke up to find that they had retrieved 10 eggs (that was our goal!).  I have been quite bloated and crampy since coming home; however, it has gotten better throughout today.  The embryologist called this morning to let us know that 9 of the eggs were mature and properly fertilized!  She will call back on Sunday to let me know how they are doing and how many have continued to grow.  Then, we will do a 5-day transfer (so that puts us at Tuesday for the transfer!).  I will again have to stay at home and rest that day; resting is actually hard for me to do.  I feel guilty for just sitting/lying in bed all day, despite the doctor telling me to do so.

Here are some fun (okay, that may have been sarcastic for a few of them) things I learned over the past two days:

1. The enema is not your enemy.  It actually was not bad at all, and it was over quickly.  My stomach felt good and I, surprisingly, was not hungry again til I woke up around noon after the transfer (despite having not eaten since about 8:30pm the night before).  If you know me at all, you know I am generally a pretty hungry person!

2. I am not allowed to take antihistamines over the next couple of weeks, as it may interfere with the implantation process.  Zyrtec is my best friend; I usually take it every night.  So, we will have to see how my allergies handle not being handled ;).

3. Gatorade, soup and pretzels have been the main portion of my diet, as the doctor recommends drinking lots of fluids and eating salty foods to deal with bloat.  It seems to be working!

4. Progesterone makes you sleepy….very, very sleepy…I am now on more drugs than when I was stimming.  Well, I just can’t mix them together like I could when doing the shots.  I am on different drugs right now, then I will add one more to the mix a week after the transfer — I should get to stop taking two others at that point.

I am looking forward to the phone call on Sunday, but I am trying to not think about that too much and focus on getting myself rested for work tomorrow.  Thanks again for all of your support!

Stims and Egg Retrieval Day

I am very happy to report that I am finished with my stim meds (bravelle, menopur and ganirelix) and experienced no major side effects!  I felt slightly more emotional on certain days, and I was exhausted on certain days, but those were not necessarily due to the meds.  I have had very little bruising, and I only had slight swelling/itching due to the ganirelix.  All-in-all, I would say it went super well!

On a side-note: I am pretty sure I am a pro at giving myself shots now.  Because you have to take them on a schedule, you must prepare to take them wherever you are at that time of day.  So, this morning I had planned on taking my medication after my appointment at the doctor’s office.  In the midst of talking about all of the preparations for our egg retrieval (ERT), I forgot all about it until I had driven about a block down the service road.  So, I pulled into a parking lot, mixed my meds and gave myself the injection in the car.  It was the first time I truly felt like a druggee, and I was just waiting for a cop to pull up and ask what in the world I was doing!

On another side-note: I have been amazed at how much peace God has provided me with throughout this process so far, along with how little I have worried about things (which is very unlike me — I tend to over-analyze every little thing and worry).  For instance, yesterday I went in for another blood draw and sonogram in the morning, planning to go to work right after the appointment.  Well, little did I know that the doctor would want me to take one extra injection today (that we did not have mailed to us in our big box of meds a couple of weeks ago).  It was too late to order it from the pharmacy, as they would not be able to get it to me by the time I needed to take the shot today.  So, I had to drive about 40 minutes in the opposite direction from work to go to a fertility Walgreens pharmacy (I did not know these existed!) and wait over two hours for it to be ready.  The normal me would have been trying to re-plan my whole day and worrying about what I was not going to have time to do; the calm-and-collected me simply called my Assistant and let him know I would be late.

As aforementioned, I have an Assistant at work.  I hate calling him an Assistant because he truly is more like a co-Director than an Assistant Director.  He started out as an Instructor, and he was promoted to AD in September ’14.  I had never had another full-time employee to help me out, but it was perfect timing.  I finally started feeling comfortable enough to start these fertility treatments, as I now had help and could rely on someone to handle the center while I was gone (even in the mornings/early afternoons – depending on the day).  He is also committed to running a Godly center and cares about the kids and employees as much as I do; I am so thankful God brought him to us!

Back to the schedule: ERT day is Thursday — it sorta snuck up on me, as it feels like just yesterday we were scheduling our initial sonogram appointment.  I have 10 follicles that have been growing well (but I think only 9 will be ready come Thursday), and we are praying that we will have 2 eggs fertilize and grow throughout the process so we can transfer both.  If more fertilize and grow, we will freeze them, but it is unlikely many more than 2 will make it.

David has to work an overtime shift on Thursday, so I am thankful that my mom is going to drive to the doctor’s office and take me home after the retrieval. Tomorrow, I will have some unpleasant preparations to take care of (all of you other ladies doing IVF know EXACTLY what I am talking about!), but I know it will all be worth it!

I am taking my Ovidrel injection in about thirty minutes, then I am headed to bed so I can go to work early and get some stuff done before I take off for the next two days.

Please keep praying for peace and relaxation over the next few weeks.  Thanks for your support :).

Paleo Turkey Meatballs!

I am happy to report that today was the first day I felt about 90% better all day!  I did not go to church, just in case I still had the germs (I do NOT want to give this to anyone!), but I am pretty sure I am in the clear.  I was praying a lot about getting better quickly, as I did not want to combine starting the ganirelix and estrogen patches with the stomach bug.  In my mind, I had blown it out of proportion: I had decided that I had developed a stomach infection after the stomach bug or had a parasite that would take weeks/months of treatment, which would interfere with the IVF, and I would not be able to tell if it was the fertility drugs or the parasite causing all of the trouble.  I also thought I would lose 7 more pounds if this continued (that is right, I lost almost 7 pounds due to this stomach bug!).   The aforementioned is exactly how my worrisome mind works, but I generally do not let it get past my imagination and into my everyday life thoughts.

Despite that worry, I am still very peaceful when it comes to thinking about the IVF.  I must admit that my mind is not as focused on other things, so planning ahead for work (I promise I used to be very good at multi-tasking and not forgetting to do anything, at least at work) and meal-planning at home have been put onto the back-burner.

I managed to get together a meal-plan last night for the upcoming week.  Today, I went to the store, washed all veggies, made chicken treats for Sam (see dehydrator pic; it is my favorite thing ever!), and prepped the meatballs.  Tomorrow, we will be having some delicious (well, they look and smell delicious) Paleo Turkey Meatballs.  I decided to make 21 meatballs, and then tomorrow morning I am going to try and scramble the remaining mixture with eggs for some quick meals other days, along with make pancakes (not Paleo, but they use greek yogurt and bananas!).

As for meds, I began ganirelix last night.  My husband had reminded me to not search the internet and read about IVF (or anything medical, in fact), as I tend to believe much of what I read and get anxious.  For instance, when Sam (our boxer) was younger, he had a white growth on his lower gum under his teeth.  I immediately searched the internet and decided he had cancer or needed an organ transplant; if I remember correctly, I even offered (whilst crying) to donate my organs to him, if need be. 🙂  Yes, I know I overreacted slightly… Turns out it was a non-cancerous tumor that would go away on its own — very common apparently.  All that said, I actually had not searched the internet much or talked in depth with any friends who have had an IVF treatment up until last night.  After taking the ganirelix shot, I immediately got online, as my stomach was stinging like crazy!  I had expected it to feel similar to ovidrel or even bravelle, but it definitely did NOT.  It turns out that others describe ganirelix as feeling like a bee sting, and I would have to agree (if I could ever remember getting stung by a bee…but I can imagine).  Well, tonight was similar, but it stung slightly less.

Overall, it is a small price to pay for a family!  Please continue praying for us to have a smooth IVF process and, of course, for it to be successful!  You can see a few, fun photos below.  Before I got sick, I decided to pull all of the weeks and dead plants out of the front flower bed and actually plant new things.  Sam loved going to Home Depot with me to get flowers!