Well I never meant to take this long in making another update, but time has gotten away from me. Life is never dull and always seems to be busy these days. This weekend my brother-in-law and my 2 nephews left after being here for 3 weeks. We had lots of fun times in the pool and in the sun while they were here. I know they are glad to be home but we already miss them especially the puppies miss the boys. We had some family pics done while they were here and some pics of Chris and I for our 1 year post opp, so I will post some of those very soon!
We are still going to the gym and meeting with the personal trainer and the best part is we are seeing real results! I love it! For someone who has asthma and has always had crappy lungs, apparently my body has forgotten this because I have been able to do things I have been able to do since I was very young. Like an hour and 10 min of intense
cardio work……who knew I could do this? Not me that’s for sure. The trainer keeps saying to me are you sure you have asthma and I say yeah but you
would’t know it from this. It amazes me how much better my lungs have gotten. It has been so many years since I could breathe easy that I had no idea life could feel this darn good. I am so tempted to go to the Dr and ask for a lung function test……its been about 6-8 months since I had one and at that time my lung function had improved to about 75% capacity which was up from 60-65% capacity. I haven’t had over 75% capacity in my lungs for over 10 years now and its averaged more like 60-65%. It is a horrible feeling especially with the humidity in Houston, you just constantly feel like you can’t catch your breath. And I know for certain that if my lung capacity was still that low, there is no way in the world I would be able to do what I am doing at the gym. So if I can find some time to fit it in my schedule, I think a stop for a lung function test is in order. I am just so amazed at how my lungs feel especially when I am working out hard and sweating like a crazy person.
Well on to the news I have been meaning to update you on…..the fertility Dr visit! First of all let me say, my dear friend Angie was so right, Dr. Dunn is fantastic, amazing, the best ever! I have never in the last 6 years of going to fertility Dr’s left an office feeling so optimistic, positive and completely comfortable and at ease and feeling like whatever happens it will be fine. All other
appts have ended with both of us on edge, crying or on the verge of crying and the most intense feeling of helplessness I have ever felt. So Angie thanks for convincing me to go to Dr. Dunn. Just a fore warning this will be long but I want to make sure I document everything for later when I might forget what all actually happened. So our
appt was on Wed June 16t
h. We walked in the office with about 6 pages of questions for the Dr….after everything we have been through ourselves and with other friends down this road you go in prepared with an arsenal of questions because this time it has to be on our terms, with us making a smart and informed decision out of clarity not a quick decision out of desperation. So they take me back and check all my vitals and the nurse asks lots of questions about my success with
GBS and of course I can talk about that forever. We get past that and we are taken to Dr. Dunn’s office. We only waited about 2 minutes and he walked in the door. To my amazement he walked in called us both my name and sat down at his desk which did not have a file on it nor did he have a computer on with our file pulled up he just sat down and started talking to us like he had known us for years. He knew our entire history (all the paperwork I filled out online 6 weeks prior)! I have never in my life had a Dr that looked me in the eye and talked directly to me about my specific situation the way Dr. Dunn did. Usually they are talking to you while looking at your file and finally at the end they look you in the eye for about 2-5 min max. So right of the bat we were so impressed and so at ease. We started out by covering everything we had tried in detail. At this point, I started to get mad but quickly decided what happened, happened and I can’t change it so there is no use dwelling on it. We explained in detail the 4
IUI’s we tried after being diagnosed with male infertility and then 6 months later being diagnosed with unexplained female infertility. We explained that our prior Dr said there was a less than 1% chance of us getting pregnant on our own and if by a miracle we did we had a more than 70% chance at having a child with a disease or abnormality. In fact the old Dr scared us so much that we even considered Chris having a vasectomy. Thankfully we
didn’t do that. So we told Dr. Dunn that we had bought 5 donor sperm samples and we used 4 of the 5. At that point he looked at us and shook his head and said I want to explain something to you. First of all he said, we can do
IVF with Chris’s sample with no problems. He said even in the worst cases that a man has at least 10K sperm in a sample (normal is 5 million) and even in the 10K sample you can find 15-20 healthy sperm for
IVF without a problem. We looked at each other and
couldn’t believe our ears. The other Dr had told us that we would need to use donor sperm if we tried
IVF because his were too few and too dangerous! Dr Dunn then explained to us that basically the 4
IUI (artificial insemination) we did were a complete waste of time and he would have told us our only option was
IVF. So basically we spent about 30K for nothing. He explained that anyone normally trying to get pregnant only has a 10-15% chance of success each month which I already knew. He said with Chris’s counts back then our odds were about 6-8%, but then he said something that floored me. He said when you freeze sperm that the freezing and the subsequent thawing process typically kills between 25-50% of the sperm! Seriously! So he said we basically had the same odds of getting pregnant with the frozen sperm that we would have had using Chris’s. At this point I was mad and wanted to cry, but I said wait, I am not going to let the past get in the way of my future. So I just put it out of my mind and listened to what else Dr Dunn had to say. We then talked about how we were mentally not in a good place and we made decisions we normally
wouldn’t have made because we felt desperate. He said that is very common which is why they offer counseling if needed to make informed decisions which are best for you and your family. WOW! Moving along….. He told us our best and really only option was
IVF which we pretty well knew and had already decided that was the step we wanted to take. From there he went over all the testing I had before and there were several tests that he does that the other Dr
didn’t do. Oh and by the way, I called and faxed and confirmed the old Dr received the fax about 5 weeks ago requesting my records be sent to Dr Dunn and of course they
didn’t. Dr Dunn said I am not surprised, but do not worry I will get them from her for you. He then said this is a common problem with that Dr. He never came out and said anything bad or anything but you could tell from his mannerisms that he has gotten lots of her patients and he
doesn’t feel she is a competent Dr! Lovely just lovely, but back to being positive because lots of positive things came from this
appt. We continued talking about the tests he wanted to do on us. He wanted to do a new sperm test which Chris took care of today so that’s off the list. Then there are 2 different sets of blood work he wants done on me and a sonohystogram. The first blood test is to test for CF and several hormones. The second blood test is like a glucose test. It’s a fasting blood test where they take blood then you drink a drink in 3 min and 2 hours later they draw more blood. This test is used to determine if I have insulin resistance syndrome. This isn’t diabetes but can be the beginning of diabetes and it’s something that people have and have no idea they have it. He said when it comes to fertility in a woman, if you have this your body will still produce eggs but it produces poor eggs and eggs that have no chance of being fertilized. Who knew….not us! He gave us lots of info on this and said if you have it no problem, you just take a pill for about 5 weeks and then we proceed with
IVF. We just need to know it up front so that we can compensate for it. So I had all of these blood tests done on Tuesday 2 weeks ago…..and what a joy that was. Really between these and the blood work I had done a few weeks ago, I don’t know how I have any blood left! Moving along… On Thurs the 8t
h I had the sonohystogram done. This is an ultrasound whereby they fill your uterus will water before performing the ultrasound. In doing this he gets a clear picture of my ovaries and follicles and my uterus. And with this and with the blood work he can age my ovaries and eggs since I will be 35 in Aug and I will be considered advanced maternal age. Nothing like being told you are old when it comes to having babies! So with these 3 tests he will be able to determine what
meds and how much to give me for the
IVF. After he explained all of this I said so what are we looking at as far as getting started on
IVF. With that he smiled and said, well we need you to start your period so that we can get these tests done ( they all have to be done on certain days of your cycle). Then once the tests are done we will have another consult
appt and at that
appt we will go over the protocol and begin putting your calendar together for
IVF which means, we will get started the end of July. He said that means that you will be harvested end of Aug and implanted the end of Aug the first few days of Sept. I have never been so excited. He said they only thing that would push it back a month would be if I tested positive for insulin resistance syndrome. He said he doubts that I will have it because he would have thought that Dr. Davis would have found that before my surgery, but we are double checking. On 7/14 we went back to the Dr for all of our test results and to review all of the files from the old Dr. Well believe it or not Dr Dunn still doesn't have the files from the old Dr so after multiple phone calls and a few choice words we should have them by Wed at the latest. The good news of the Dr visit is everything went GREAT! All of our tests came back great. My reproductive organs and health came out younger than my actual body so that was great news. Chris's test results came back better than expected. His count and morphology was fine but his motility was low. This means that we have less than a 1/2 % chance at getting pregnant on our own but that with
IVF we shouldn't have any problems. Dr Dunn said that even though his motility is low that its not as low as over 50% of the couples he has treated with male infertility. With all of our test results he still feels we have a 50-70% chance at success. Those are odds I can live with. So with that he said, do you want to think about
IVF and before he could finish the question, I said can we get started today! He laughed and said not today but very soon. So we are again waiting for my period which should be between the 23rd-25t
h. Once I do start, I will call Dr. Dunn and on day 3 go in for an ultrasound and to get my calendar of when the pills, injections, other ultrasounds, harvest,
retrieval and pregnancy test will take place. So for the second month in a row, I am praying for my period to hurry up so we can get this show on the road. The entire
IVF process will last 5 1/2-6 weeks and in vague dates the harvest will take place the last week of Aug and the implant will take place the first week of Sept. The two of us are so excited and nervous its
unbelievable. I can only imagine how we will feel the day we actually get the calendar in our hands. I can't wait! After 10+ years of trying and so many disappointments we have so much optimism right now.
So as you can see from my long winded post and yes I did cut out a lot considering we spoke with the Dr for over an hour at both visits, we are very excited to get on our way with this journey finally. Please continue to pray for us. Oh and did I forget to mention that Dr Dunn gave us a 70-75% chance of success. For those of you who don’t know those are great odds in the world of infertility so we are beyond thrilled and we feel blessed beyond belief to finally have the chance to realize our dreams.
Until next time thanks for all of your prayers along our journey and please if you have a few extra seconds in your day, say a prayer for us as we continue this journey. May God Bless each and every one of you!
Back Row - Alec (nephew), John (Chris's brother), John Jr (nephew)
