Embryo transfer!

It's hard to believe today was the day of our embryo transfer! But before I go into details I have to share with you the thoughts I had before the transfer which actually started yesterday. We have stayed really positive this whole time about the process and last night it's just like I let myself get back into my old mindset of being anxious, thinking this could never happen for us, and looking up info on how this has worked or not worked for others which I have not allowed myself to do during this. But this morning I realized that I needed to get back in that right mind set so I went back and read all of our blogs that I have written about each step through the IVF process! And its like God just started speaking to me! So as I set there at 4 in the morning bawling, which is so not me, I just re-realized how God has truly been in this every step! And then I found this blog which I encourage everyone to read this because it could apply to any situation your dealing with: http://m.crosswalk.com/faith/women/biblical-encouragement-for-couples-waiting-to-conceive-11608040.html

After reading this it made me realize again how blessed we actually are to have been given this opportunity!  Like it mentions in the blog we have been able to increase our faith, learn the true meaning of patience, know what true joy feels like especially when keeping God first(not taking little things for granted), and finally learning to fully rely on God because there is nothing we can do ourselves to make this happen! And I wanted everyone to know that even before we know the results I truly thank God for this opportunity and for completely opening our eyes to his greatness! And whether the test comes out positive or negative I wouldn't change anything because even though we are praying with everything we have it works, it would still have been worth all the money, time, and mental exhaustion just to be able to experience this!

Ok now to the part everyone has been waiting on! We had 2 perfect embryos transferred as you can see below! We are a little biased but we think they are the most perfect embryos we have ever seen! And with having two embryos that does mean there is a chance we could have twins. But we have knew this from the beginning and are going to be thrilled with whatever God gives us whether one or two babies!!

But it was a pretty cool process to watch! The worst part was I had to drink 24 ounces of water at 8am but wasn't allowed to pee until after it was over so that a bit scary since they had a stomach ultrasound pushing really hard on my bladder while doing the transfer. But it was really neat getting to watch them put in the embryos, which we could see white spots as shown on the ultrasound showing the air puffs that the embryos are inside of after they put them in. The day could not have been more perfect and even while this may be a more unconventional way to get pregnant but it seems perfect for us!

Car ride home cause Zack just
wants to keep me laying down!

So now we began the 2 week wait that everyone talks about. They did say we still have 9 more embryos that are left and they are going to let them continue to develop till day 5 or 6 and which ever ones are still good they will freeze in case we need them for future use. During this time I will continue taking my progesterone oil shot and prometrium pills until we know the results. Like we mentioned before, after those two weeks if you haven't heard anything that is good news and if it wouldn't work we will just go ahead and let everyone know once we find out. And the point isn't to hide this from people because we're going to be dying to tell but its just to avoid the heartbreak of getting asked over and over again how the pregnancy is going when people haven't heard that we miscarried or something happened if that were to, heaven forbid, happen again. But the second we feel safe in telling everyone and we have heard a heart beat we will definitely let everyone know!!

So again please keep us in your prayers! And I hope that I will not be updating this blog for a while!!

Egg Retrieval and Embryos!

Sorry I didn't update yesterday after my egg retrieval but I decided to wait until after I heard from Kettering so I could share with everyone the the latest information on our embryos! But the surgery went great yesterday! As you can see in the picture below Zack caught me still groggy but he said I wanted to give a thumbs up to send this picture to my parents to let them know I am good.. I have no memory of this lol

They retrieved 24 eggs which was great and of those, 17 were mature! After they knew which ones were mature they performed ICSI on them, which I explained in more detail in our last blog what this is, but basically its where they put a sperm into the egg to fertilize it. Of those 17 eggs they fertilized, 11 of them took and are developing! So as of now we have 11 embryos that are developing but normally this amount will decrease due to some of them will develop abnormally. This picture shows the stages of the embryos in more detail :

Day 1: 1 cell with 2 dots in the middle.  This indicates a normally fertilized egg with each dot representing genetic materials from the mom and the dad.

Day 2: usually 2-4 cells.  The cells are expected to double every 24 hours or so.   

Day 3: usually 6-8 cells. Sometimes more cells.  Same doubling effect.  This is when fragmentation can be observed (small dots, not clean cell divisions) representing abnormal cells.  I’ve read somewhere that chromosonal abnormality can be around 25-70%. 

Day 4: Morula or compacting cell stage.  This is when the cells have doubled to around 16 and the individual balls are starting to expand and blend with the others.  You can see the bumps still.

Day 5: Blastocyst.  This is when we see 3 distinct parts – the shell, one dense bunch of cells (the baby), and the lighter cells (the placenta).  The blastocyst is ready for implantation but first it has to hatch from the shell.  The picture on the bottom right is a hatching blastocyst (can happen naturally or with the help of your embryologist – assisted hatching, like ours in IVF#1).  The hatched blastocyst should implant within 12-24 hours to the uterine lining.

They originally told us we would be doing a day 3 transfer because sperm obtained through ICSI does not thrive as well in the artificial environment. But since we still have 11 embryos, that as far as they can tell now are great quality they are debating doing a day 5 transfer! The nurse I talked to today said when they call me with the update on the embryo development in the morning they may have a better idea of which day we will be transferring! A day 5 transfer is better overall than day 3 just because they can tell which embryos are the best even more by day 5 and then they don't have to transfer as many which reduces the risk of multiples. They originally told us they were probably going to transfer 2 embryos but now I am not sure and won't know until the day of transfer.

So for now while we wait I have to take my medrol pill (which is pretty much an anti rejection pill so my body won't reject the embryos), my progesterone oil shot, my antibiotic, and starting tomorrow I begin the prometrium pills as well. The shots that I had been taking were no problem at all but the progesterone oil shot is definitely not fun and leaves me sore but it will be worth it. This is the first muscle shot I have had to do thankfully, but when I get a positive pregnancy test I will continue this for at least 10 weeks!

They said that we may not know whether we are transferring the embryos Saturday up until about an hour and a half before. So we will update the blog either way with a short update either on our embryo development or details on how the transfer went Saturday! Please keep the prayers coming we can see they are working! Everything has gone completely perfect so far!

Growing the eggs!

This has been a very crazy week for us during our IVF process! We had an appointment on Monday, Wednesdays, Friday, and Saturday. So far everything has been going great!

Monday we had labs to check my estrogen level which was at 69 and they checked the level at every appointment. They wanted to get the number to start going up a lot higher which was slow to raise at the beginning of the week but by the appointment today it was at 1141. Not exactly sure how high they are wanting it to end up but I do know he was very pleased with the number today.

Wednesday I had my first ultrasound to check the growth of the follicles and my lining. And he said there were a lot of follicles evenly spaced. At that point there were 3 at 10mm and 8 or more less that 10mm on one ovary and 2 at 10mm and 8 or more less than 10mm on the other. My lining was 6.0 They have been raising my dose of Gonal F to help give me a boost and it seems to have worked. Today on one ovary I had a 17mm, 16mm, 3 at 14mm, 2 at 13mm, 2 at 12mm, 2 at 10mm, and 4 less than 10mm. On the other ovary I had a 16mm, 3 at 14mm, 3 at 12mm, 2 at 10mm, and 5 less than 10mm. The doctor said my lining was looking great and it was at 10.0 today! The doctor said the goal for retrieval is to have the leading follicles in the upper teens and the rest to be higher than 14 because anything below that most likely does not have a mature egg. This picture is not on my ovary but it resembles what it looks like right now with the follicles growing!

Next week on Monday I have one more ultrasound and labs to check the status of everything and as of now I am scheduled to take my Ovidrel shot Monday evening! The Ovidrel is supposed to trigger ovulation. Then the egg retrieval will be on Wednesday and implantation on Saturday! They will have me take Xanax the night before retrieval and the morning of to help my body to relax. I will be put under general sedation for the procedure but I have heard it only takes 15 to 20 minutes for the retrieval. We will know how may eggs they collected before we leave.

Once they have collected the eggs they will have one of the vials of sperm they have taken from the TESA procedure unthawed and perform the ICSI procedure to create the embryos. Not everyone with IVF has to do this step but since the sperm taken through TESA is less mature they have to do this. But the diagram below shows that they will insert a single sperm into the egg using a needle.

We will get updates from the lab everyday up until implantation on the status of our embryos. Typically not every embryo they make will develop correctly but we will give more info on this part after we have the egg retrieval. 

We will update the blog again Wednesday after the retrieval but please again keep us in your prayers this week!!

Injections and Ultrasounds

I have been on Lupron since April 22nd and it has been going great. I had my baseline ultrasound and lab on Friday to check how I have responded to the Lupron and to see if I was ready to start the Gonal F and low dose HCG. The results were both perfect. They said my Estradiol blood level came back at 19 which they said was right at baseline. And they didn't find any cysts during the ultrasound and said that it looked like I had 8 antral follicles aka resting follicles on the right ovary and it looked to have just as many on the left ovary.

So Saturday I was able to start the Gonal F and low dose HCG injections. As mentioned before those are both used to stimulate the development of the eggs and follicles. Also I will continue a lower dose of the Lupron than I was taking to continue to prevent my eggs from being released to early.

I will have 4 labs and 3 ultrasounds this week to monitor how the follicles are growing and to make sure I don't get overstimulated which would cause them to have to cancel this cycle. So they closely monitor this so they can adjust my medication dose according to how my body is reacting the the injections. Then the following week I will have an ultrasound and labs on Monday the 12th to check everything one last time before the egg retrieval. Right now they have the date set for the 14th but it could be a day earlier if they think my eggs are mature enough. Then the implantation will be set for 3 days later!

I will update everyone again next Saturday on how the progress is going! We are getting really excited with less than 2 weeks till implantation! But please keeps us in your prayers this week with all my labs, ultrasounds, and our traveling to Kettering 4 different days!

Mock transfer and Lupron shots

I had my mock transfrer yesterday! Everything went great so now they have all the measurements and know that my cervix curves so they can be aware of if the day of the real transfer. They also did an ultrasound to make sure there were no cysts and everything went great with that also. They said I have multiple tiny follicles in my ovaries which is good so hopefully we can get plenty of eggs!

So now today I was able to take my first Lupron shot! Like I mentioned last time this medicine helps shut off my body’s normal process of hormone and egg development. It prevents the premature release of eggs from the ovaries. I am pretty surprised but it didn't hurt at all just itched a little after. 

Also the other picture below is all my medicines I will be taking over the next 3-4 weeks! I have another  ultrasound and blood work next Friday on the 2nd. They will be checking again to make sure I have not developed any cysts. So I will post an update probably the following day after I do my first gonal f shot. Thanks again everyone for your prayers!

TESE Procedure and IVF schedule!

Went up to Kettering last night to stay for Zacks procedure this morning. We hated to miss church but atlease if we had to miss we got to see UK advance to the elite 8! But Zack had his TESE procedure and it went great! They got 4 vials of good quality sperm so we are set with that now and it will be frozen and stored until after my egg retrieval! We did learn today that Zack does not handle IV sedation well due to his CF. The anesthesiologist were really nervous doing it after they found out that he had CF. So they decided they were going to do the IV sedation very light but when they started putting him to sleep they said he started coughing really hard so they immediately stopped the medicine. So they decided to do local anesthesia instead so he was actually awake during the whole procedure. But he is doing pretty good now he is pretty sore but has decided that a bag of frozen peas is his best friend.

I also got my IVF packet today and we have a timeline now for everything! The next appointment I have will be around the 21st of April and on that day they will be doing a mock transfer and an ultrasound to check if there are any cysts from my birth control pills. This mock transfer allows him to measure the depth of my uterus and to determine the best way to insert the catheter during the real transfer. Then the following day on the 22nd I will start my first shot which will be Lupron and will continue taking until the egg retrieval. Lupron is an injection I will take daily to help shut off my body’s normal process of hormone and egg development. The next shots I will begin is Gonal F and low dose HCG which will begin on May 3rd! They are used to stimulate the development of follicles and eggs. These will be taken until May 12th and also on that day I will take another shot called Ovidrel, also known as the trigger shot. This is the last shot before our egg retrieval. During April 21st and May 12th I will have 5 appointments for labs and ultrasounds to check my response to the medications.  

As of now the egg retrieval is scheduled for May 14th! The goal will be to get as many eggs as they can. Once they have them they will have Zacks sperm unthawed and insert the sperm into the eggs through a process called ICSI.  After this they will begin monitoring them to see which ones mature. There are multiple medications I will be taking after this but I will not bore you with those details. The only one that is really important is the day of the egg retrieval I will begin progesterone shots that will be continued up until the pregnancy test and when its positive I will continue it till I believe atleast the end of the first trimester. 

Then the big day which is the embryo transfer is scheduled for May 17th! They have not told me yet how many embryos they will transfer but I assume it will probably depend on the quality of the ones they have to choose from. I will then have a blood pregnancy test 2 weeks following. Something I have not mentioned so far is whether or not we will tell the results of this right away. Our plan is this...when it works take my not saying anything as a good thing but if you don't hear anything after a few weeks then something went wrong. If it would not work then I will go ahead and tell right away that it didn't work. We just don't want to rush and tell everyone like we had before and then have to go through what we did last time with people not knowing I had miscarried and them asking me about the pregnancy. 

Also on a side note we got some great news about two of my medications! I will receive 75% off my Gonal F and Ovidrel prescriptions since we qualified for a program called Compassionate Care! This will save us easily over $1000!!

The next time I will post will probably be the day I start my first shot and I will have the details of my previous days mock transfer and ultrasound! Also the dates we have mentioned could change by atleast a day or so but if they would I will make note of it on our blogs. Again like always we appreciate your prayers! 

Surgery and Testing Part 2

I had my laparoscopy and hysterscopy surgery yesterday at Kettering! He said he did cut out quite a bit of endometrosis and removed 4 or 5 cysts/nodules that were pretty deep on my right side that would have been causing a lot of my pain. He said my tubes, ovaries, and uterus look great and he found no blockages in the tubes when taking the camera through them. He also said this will definently maximize our chances of success with our IVF procedure! He took pictures of the endometriosis and cysts but I will spare you guys the pictures unless anyone wants to see them just let me know!  Now I have my post op on the 27th and he said we will start figuring out dates to begin IVF medicines which will most likely be 3-5 weeks after that visit! I did put pictures at the bottom from the day of the surgery and my incisions afterwards. 

In the mean time while waiting to start the IVF medicines they have scheduled Zacks TESE procedure for March 31st! We are excited but he is very nervous! This will require general sedation but it will be more like wisdom teeth removal sedation than actual surgery. They said the procedure should only take about 10 minutes! They will freeze the tissue they get and then it will be stored until it is ready to be unthawed when I have my egg extraction so they can make the embryos!

Last week I had my hormone testing and they tested my TSH, LH, FSH, Insulin, Prolactin, Estradiol, HCG, DHEA sulfate, and Testosterone levels! So thank you everyone for the prayers they all came back in the normal range which is awesome! Those results help them determine how good of a chance of success we will have with IVF and makes sure that according the the numbers I should have good quality eggs which is very important with IVF!

But again thank you all for your prayers and the donations that we have been given! It's what is making all this possible! We have such a peace about it and everything is just going so smoothly so we know that it can only be God working this all out for us! We will post again after Zacks TESE procedure and will let you know how that went as well as the dates we will begin IVF shots!