Its here!!

I am kind of freaking out!  Our medications arrived today!  That's alot of boxes huh?  Should I be excited?  Probably, but I feel more intimidated than anything.  I know we can watch the videos to try to refresh our memories as to how to administer all of these medications, but I just feel overwhelmed.

I think more than anything I am dreading the roller coaster.  It has kind of been nice just to know that all of this is "on the horizon," but not actually here.  Now its almost here.  And my head just keeps swimming with the "What Ifs?"

"Lord give us peace. Oh and please give Craig a steady hand too...."

7 days...

6 days from today I have my next sonogram to see if the cyst is gone.  7 days from today I might be starting our meds for IVF.  So approximately 4 weeks from today I might be doing an Embryo transfer.  Which means in approximately 5 1/2 -6 weeks from today, we COULD be pregnant! Obviously, I didn't sleep much last night because I am getting more and more anxious.   I know God has His timing.  But I am also sure that by now He knows that I will always have MY inner timeline too. Prayers requested.

By the way, I think we are making an offer on a house today.  Its going to be a LOW BALL offer, so I am not too hopeful.  Either way, we're gonna be in the place that God wants us, and I truly do believe this.  So as much as I tend to worry about things.  I am not overly worried about this house thing.....yet. ;)  Again, prayers requested.

New Rx...kind of

I had acupuncture this morning.  However, it wasn't with my normal acupuncturist (Dr. Z).  It was another doctor filling in for her.  I don't even remember her name.  But she was AWESOME!  I have never felt so relaxed and she talked to me for a long time about my body and things I need to work on.

She first told me that she is very concerned about my body temperature.  Mainly the fact that my feet and hands are usually cold and so is my abdomen.  Something about Yin/ Yang balance....I dunno.    Now, I am not saying that I totally embrace all of the thought behind Chinese medicine.  But she did have some great points.  She explained that in Chinese medicine, they consider the abdomen something to more closely protect than the brain.  She said that the body needs to be warm in order for pregnancy to be achieved, because you want to encourage the egg to implant by making a cozy environment.   

Here's my new Rx from the Acupuncturist:

Noooo cold drinks or overly cold food.

Ginger tea (homemade with ginger root and honey) 1-2x a day

Lots of Apple Cider (NO problem! yum!)

Keep WARM! (Heating pad on the abdomen, warm socks, and soaking my feet in warm water at night)

Interesting, but I'll give it a try.  

- Rachel

P.S. If you haven't tried Ginger tea, its pretty yummy.  Sipping some right now while I edit!

DELAYED...

Yep, you read that right. We're delayed 2 weeks (at least) because I have a cyst in one of my ovaries. Sounds scary, but its actually pretty normal for someone with PCOS (Poly cystic Ovarian Syndrome). If you aren't a person who ovulates normally or regularly, then some of the follicles tend to develop cysts. I just have to stay on the Birth Control Pill for a bit longer and hope it takes care of the cyst.

Emotionally, doing ok. I've had my meltdowns, but this bad news really didn't affect me much. The day before I was debating whether to order my meds or not. I decided to wait until after my appointment, just to make sure we had the green light. I don't know. I feel like God was kind of preparing me for a delay. I actually feel a little relieved, since we're also house hunting, and I have alot of editing to finish. Now, I feel like I have a few more days to finish up some things before putting all my emotional and physical energy into IVF.

I posted the new TENTATIVE SCHEDULE on the blog. There's a page link at the top of the blog. I know some of our family have wanted to know the ins and outs our schedule, so there you go!

-Rachel

BIG appointment & IVF Basics

January 6 was a significant day for us for two reasons now. For one, it's our anniversary, our third as a matter of fact. But now it also marks the day that Rachel and I began our In-Vitro Fertilization odyssey. Like any true adventure, we have no idea what kind of good or bad surprises will meet us on the path, but we are hopeful that it ends happily ever after, i.e. with a healthy baby.

When I say we began our odyssey, I mean we OFFICIALLY began. Of course we've mulled over the idea from a spiritual and financial perspective for months. But today we broke out the credit card, which really makes things official, especially when you're spending more money than you ever have on anything – as someone put it, about as much as a Hyundai. Also, this was our first real chance to visit with the doctor's office staff to discuss and outline the entire procedure.

The appointment runs kind of like an orientation. We first met with the financial consultant. She outlined all of the costs and informed us that we would be paying up front, which we knew. We kept reminding ourselves that this is happy money – we are giving ourselves the best possible chance to have a family. It's something you have to constantly remind yourself of.

After the financial lady, we met the embryologist. She was awesome. We signed a lot of consent forms – everything from “Is it okay to freeze our unused embryos for later use?” to “If we both die and we still have frozen embryos, here's what we want you to do.” This was tedious but the embryologist was really smart and inspired a lot of warmth and confidence in us. We felt better after this. She also showed us pictures of what good embryos look like and explained how they grade each one for quality. She said they were going to do everything they could to help us get pregnant. She seemed very sincere and this was affirming.

The next thing was for me to go give a sample so they can freeze it in case anything happens between now and the time they put the embryo in Rachel. I should probably stop here and explain how IVF works, at least as I understand it.

Essentially, IVF is where they take a sample from both the male and female, a sperm and an egg, and fertilize them outside the body. Then they take the fertilized eggs (embryos) and put them back into the woman. The hope is that the embryo will latch on to the uterus, thus making the woman pregnant. Traditionally, your chances of getting a live birth from IVF are around 45-50% . There is no way to give yourself a better chance, but it is still, in the end, somewhat of a gamble.

So, what is supposed to happen on the day they take the eggs from Rachel is that I give a sample that same day and they use it fresh. But in case I die between now and then or get gun shy or whatever, they have this frozen sample that I already gave them. They will also probably run some tests on it and try freezing and unfreezing it to make sure it works okay.

After that, the nurse showed us all the drugs that Rachel will have to take, along with a calendar that indicates when to take them and how much. Most of the medicine is injected into her stomach, so primarily we were discussing where the needles need to be stuck. For about one month Rachel will be driving to the doctors office almost every other day and I will be giving her shots every single day.

Lastly, I gave some blood samples to make sure I don't have any kind of bad diseases. That was the easiest part by far. During this appointment you don't actually see THE doctor, but we will be seeing very much of him in the coming weeks. We left feeling encouraged that the first hurdle was cleared: the $$$ and feeling a little confused about how to work all of the syringes. But all in all, I think we are ready to do this thing and see what happens.

-Craig

Starting again...

I am not a writer.  Well, only if you count lists on post it notes.  I tried to start this blog a year and a half ago to document my thoughts and experiences as we started our journey through Infertility.  But then the journey got really long, really boring (nothing good was happening), so I stopped.


But Craig and I decided to attempt this one more time.  Only this time, we're just opening it up to our family and friends.  For us Infertility went from this exciting little road to parenthood while navigating a few road bumps along the way to an intersection completely blocked, only the traffic lights are out, there are no police officers, oh and the GPS is on the fritz!   So now what do we do?  Not much fun to write about.  But we've had alot of prayers that have seen us through.  And here we are Starting AGAIN!


All that to say, now that we've decided to move forward with IVF, we've had alot of questions.   When do you start, when will you know, what all does it entail???   Thus the reason for the blog.  We want to be able to answer the questions, put the info out there, without people having to ask.  We want people to know what we're going through, how to pray for us, but mostly we just want others to share in this great blessing God has given us: Infertility.   Yes, this blessing.


This verse comes to mind: James 1:2-4
"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."


I can't say that we will share everything.  In fact, I can definitely say we won't share everything.  But we realize that most people have no idea what IVF entails, nor will each of you have any idea what great things God is doing in our lives through this, unless we share it.  So here it is.


Please feel free to leave comments and ask questions...