Still Waiting!

Well, obviously egg retrieval did not happen today but we've still got some good news. My ultrasound yesterday showed that I now have 10 measureable follicles which is 7 more than Friday! Also, my Estriadol levels jumped from 285 to 1020-I'm not too sure what this means but the nurse said it was a GREAT leap. I know it has something to do with the maturity/number of follicles so we're getting close. The nurse I spoke with on Sunday said that she wanted the 10 follicles to grow a little bit more so I'm scheduled to go for another ultrasound tomorrow morning. I have a feeling this will be the last one before retrieval and maybe we'll even have more follicles by then! Keep those prayers coming...more updates soon!

Slow but Steady Wins the Race

Just thought I'd share a quick update with you all. My testing on Friday showed that I have three measurable follicles and more on the way. Three is not as much as we had hoped for but hopefully "more on the way" is good news. I go in to the Brigham tomorrow morning for another ultrasound. Hopefully well see many more measurable follicles. The more the better!! It looks like retieval and transfer will be later than originally thought but nurse Kathy says things are still going well. Please keep uP the prayers.

Nice to Meet You, "Follies"!

Well, this won't be a long post but my testing on Wednesday went well. My levels looked fine so I was advised to continue on my Lupron/Follistim regimen until tomorrow morning when I'll go for more bloodwork and another ultrasound. This will be the most telling appointment yet-I'll actually get to see how many follicles (AKA "follies" in the IVF world) I've produced and what sizes they are. Hopefully I've made a lot and they're growing well!! Based on the measurements (maturity) of the follicles, the doc should be able to tell me whether or not we're getting close to retrieval. Once my follicles get to mature size, they will give me the go ahead to take the "trigger (HCG) shot" which is done precisely 36hrs before retrieval. The trigger shot will assist in the final maturation process and ensure that the mature eggs are released from the follicles at retrieval. So, in conclusion, tomorrow is a big day!! More updates soon. :)

The "Stims" Have Started!

So, Thom and I have officially made it through the "first round" of shots (Lupron) and I even managed to do them TWICE on myself while he was away this week. Yep, it took me a looong while the first day but I was finally able to trick my brain into not thinking about it by pinching another area of my belly while giving the shot. Whatever works, right?! The Lupron has otherwise been going well-no real side effects except for some MAJOR night sweats. It's pretty nasty, actually, but much better than some other side effects I read about so I'll take it. I stopped the birth control pill on April 16, which meant today ("day 4" of my cycle) was baseline testing day. This includes some bloodwork and an ultrasound to make sure the Lupron has done its job hormonally and that my ovaries have not developed any cysts as a result of the medications. I recently found out that this is also the "make it or break it" testing-if hormone levels are off or any cysts have developed, the whole cycle is cancelled. Yikes! So, of COURSE there had to be a little drama yesterday (for those of you who know me well, it wouldn't be a Kristin story without it) when I got diagnosed with the flu. The IVF team doctor told me that a fever this morning would mean I could not go for testing, which would compromise the whole cycle! Well, after a lot of worry, rest, fluid, and prayer I woke up fever free and was able to go ahead. PHEW! Things went well with the testing aside from a "runaway ovary" scare. The ultrasound tech almost had me convinced that I only had one ovary because she could not find my left one. I think she asked me three times "So, you're SURE they didn't take an ovary when they did the surgery?" As much as I'm not the biggest fan of the docs who were in charge of my care, I'd like to THINK they wouldn't try to pull the wool over my eyes on this one. So I just kept saying "Ya, I'm sure. Can you keep looking?" The tech finally refused to torture me with any more poking and prodding, decided to do an abdominal ultrasound, and found the left ovary all the up by my ribs! Little bugger. SO, the hope is that once the stimulation meds start to kick in (which apparently make the ovaries swell to the size of grapefruits-what???) the left ovary will drop down a bit. If not, we're looking at possibly having to perform the egg retrieval abdominally, which is much less common and a bit more risky of a procedure. We allll know that Thom and I could do without that concern so (never thought I'd say this) please pray for my left ovary! :) So what does this all mean?? Since all looked good with the testing, I got the go ahead to start my Follistim tonight. This is the medication that will stimulate my ovaries to start producing lots of follicles, which will eventually hold the eggs. For those of you who need a biology refresher as I did, the normal female cycle produces just one egg per month. The Follistim (the "stim" med in IVF lingo) will hopefully cause my ovaries to produce as many as 30 eggs, which is why the ovaries get so big. Of course, along with this comes risk of overstimulation (OHSS) which is just another thing that makes my little worry wheels start turning. I don't mention all this to be a downer or to get sympathy-I just promised I'd include you all in the good, the bad, and the in between so I want to be honest about everything that goes along with this journey. I will be taking Follistim injections every night at 8pm and again the next morning at 6am, along with the Lupron at a decreased dose. Poor Thom is really being put to work now as my designated "shot giver" so keep him your thoughts!! I will go for more testing on Wednesday AM at the Brigham, which will be our first insight into how my ovaries respond to the stimulation medication. We'll hopefully get some more good news which will lead to more progress! I HAVE to include the fortune I just broke out of a cookie as its very pertinent to this blog!! It says "May your faith always exceed your fears--no price is too great to go through life afraid". Does God speak through fortune cookies?? :) I think I need to take these words to heart a bit more in this journey. Please continue to keep us in your prayers for big results, little worry, and LOTS of progress-we're potentially 10 days from retrieval and 13 days from transfer!! Thanks for reading! :)

Ready, Set, Poke!

Today I started my injections! Like Laura, I just couldn't bring myself to do it so Thom was the lucky one. I know, I know...everyone says it-"Why not?? You're a nurse! You poke innocent children all day!". Yes, this is true. BUT, its much different. How do you tell your brain to hurt yourself?? Its not natural! Its like pulling a bandaid off yourself and I was NEVER good at that. "Just rip it off", right? Nope. I was always the kid that thought it would make things less painful to pull it off ever so slowly...one arm hair at a time. I'm still that kid! Anyways, Thom did a good job this morning. As most of you know, he is not a morning person (sound like someone else you know??)but he was a pro! I woke him abruptly at 5:45am, syringe in hand, and not even 30 seconds later it was all done. I'll be honest-perhaps it was fatigue or beginners luck, but I didn't even feel a thing. Phew! The worst part was that I could NOT get back to sleep afterwards. I was just laying there in bed thinking about what all of this means. I know I keep saying this but we're REALLY on our way! It's been such a long time coming, its just hard to wrap my head around the fact that we're here. A lot of it still seems like dream-like WAIT is this REALLY happening or am I going to wake up tomorrow, 9 months pregnant, and say "honey I had the strangest dream"?? For so long this whole process has seemed like just a jumble of dates and foreign terms to read about. Its easy to forget that this is actually our LIFE right now and not just something I'm learning about in a textbook. Laura has become such a close friend to me that I often forget how she came into my life in the first place. I feel like we've already been through so much together and this is only the beginning! Wierd, wierd, wierd. Anyways, back to reality-whats the next step?? I'll be taking the Lupron injections for at least 10 days and then going for baseline bloodwork and ultrasound (April 19). Laura has started taking Estrogen (her 2nd medication) and has decreased her Lupron. Based on blood testing that she will be doing this Friday, we will both be given instructions as to where we go from here. I'm currently having a battle with the pharmacy because they suddenly "ran out of stock" of one of my medications and failed to tell me this until today when I called to figure out what the heck was going on with the hold up! So, prayers would be very helpful that we can (promptly!!) find another specialty pharmacy that carries this medication and takes our insurance. So, thats it for now. But more updates to come. As always, thanks for all the love and support-Thom and I feel extremely blessed!