Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Feels like a whirlwind...
It has been a very busy few days setting up appointments and what not. We officially have our IVF calendar and the orders for the injections have been sent it. As I said before I have already begun taking the pills. Today I am heading to Dr. Dunn for the sonohysterogram. So not looking forward to this one, but it has to be done so here we go and it will all be worth it in the long run. Then we have a consult appointment on 9/21 to get all our instructions for injections and meet with the Dr. one more time. Injections are set to begin on 10/1 and our tentative retrieval date is 10/15 with implant being 10/20. These two dates could move based on my response to the injections but they will be around that time at any rate. This time around I will be taking Gonal F instead of Follistim, so I am looking forward to asking Dr. Dunn why we are changing it up this time compared to last time. All other injections seem to be the same, Menopur, Ganirelix & Oridrel. Hopefully this afternoon won't be too terribly painful but remembering from last time it will, I just keep saying it will all be worth it in the end! Until next time, praying for a happy ending.....
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Here we go again.....
It is surreal to be typing this, but here we go again! We have ultimately decided we have to try IVF one more time to achieve our dream of being a family of four. I know it has been forever since I have updated and there may not be anyone reading anymore, but I have to document this whole process again so I make sure I remember every step again. We have a smart, talkative, happy and out going big boy now enjoying PreK4 to the fullest. I never thought we would be here again but the stars have aligned just right and by the Grace of God, we will once again be successful with IVF.
So we began this journey again almost 10 months ago. We began by meeting with my OB/Gyn to see if she was okay with us trying IVF one more time because I am having a side effect from gastric bypass surgery of very poor absorption of iron. Last year I had 5 iron infusions and I am set to have two more in the next few weeks. She stated that the big issue is we need to stop my period, and if I am pregnant I won't have a period and then we can end it once a for all after birth. So after getting her blessing we made our way to see Dr Dunn to see what our options really were since we still have a frozen embryo.
Our hope was that we could just implant the frozen embryo. After our initial meeting with Dr Dunn he suggested we both have some testing done to see where things were with our fertility and he informed us that the frozen embryo we have isn't a great option because based on today's standards he would probably not choose it to be frozen. He essentially gave us about a 17% chance of success. So we decided to have the tests done to see if full blown IVF again was a option. Chris would have a new sperm test and I would have a series of blood tests to determine my egg quality and quantity due to my age, 40. We then returned to Dr Dunn to get our results. He began with me where we got very good news, my scores looked good and I showed a high chance of a successful IVF. Then we received news we were not expecting. It seems the sperm issues we had before had only gotten worse. His count was significantly lower than last time around and morphology was terrible too. Essentially they did not find any whole active moving sperm at all. So he was placed on some high powered special formula vitamins for three months and then another sperm test was performed. Again we went back to Dr Dunn for the results and he stated that although he saw an improvement there still wasn't enough to do IVF. He recommended we go see urologist, Dr Khera. He gave us special instructions to get an appt with him within 3 weeks instead of the normal wait time of about 4 months to get an appt as a new patient. We indeed got an appt 3 weeks later.
So now we go to meet Dr Khera for the first time and we found another awesome Dr. We had such a great trust in him after only one meeting. It turns out he is close personal friends with our gastric bypass Doctors. He gave both of us a lot of hope and confidence. Dr Khera recommended a testicular biopsy to hopefully find whole, healthy, active sperm. However it would be almost 3 months before this surgery could be done due to his surgery schedule, vacation schedule and our vacation too. In the meantime, he placed Chris on a prescription that is usually given to women battling breast cancer but has been proven to increase sperm count, motility and morphology in men. We were hoping for a quicker timeline but we put it in God's hands and waited.
On Aug 26th Chris had surgery and after a longer than expected wait, Dr Khera came out to see me with a big smile on his face. He said we found what we were looking for. Now take these 6 samples and pictures over to Dr Dunn's lab. I can tell you I found good sperm, but his lab will need to give the final say so if they are good enough for IVF. So off I went to Dr Dunn and then we waited another 7 days.
On Sept 2nd we met with Dr Dunn and finally got the news we had been waiting for....they have enough moving healthy sperm to do IVF again. Of course me being a bit of a control freak had already figured out that we could start the whole process as soon as my period started. So I told him, listen I am due to start my period next week, can you go ahead and give me the prescriptions for the birth control pills and begin my calendar now. Dr Dunn laughed and said you have this all planned right? We all laughed and he said yes I will give you everything today. With that we headed down to the lab to have blood work done on both of us, he gave me the prescription for birth control pills (step 1 of IVF), and said to call the within 3 days of beginning my period to have a sonohystogram scheduled. This is a test that is done to confirm the uterus is clear and ready for IVF. It is a very uncomfortable and rather painful procedure however it is quick and is done within about 10 min.
On Sunday Sept 6th, I started my period. This means today I begin taking the birth control pills and I am waiting to hear back from Dr. Dunn's office to have my sonohystogram scheduled in the next few days along with picking up my IVF calendar.
To say that we are excited, anxious and nervous is an understatement. However I must say this feels completely different than it did the first time. We are both excited and praying for a baby in the end but we have definitely put this in God's hands and we know He will do what is best for us. So with any luck and lots of prayers, we will be expecting a little one around the end of June beginning of July.
God's Blessings to All
So we began this journey again almost 10 months ago. We began by meeting with my OB/Gyn to see if she was okay with us trying IVF one more time because I am having a side effect from gastric bypass surgery of very poor absorption of iron. Last year I had 5 iron infusions and I am set to have two more in the next few weeks. She stated that the big issue is we need to stop my period, and if I am pregnant I won't have a period and then we can end it once a for all after birth. So after getting her blessing we made our way to see Dr Dunn to see what our options really were since we still have a frozen embryo.
Our hope was that we could just implant the frozen embryo. After our initial meeting with Dr Dunn he suggested we both have some testing done to see where things were with our fertility and he informed us that the frozen embryo we have isn't a great option because based on today's standards he would probably not choose it to be frozen. He essentially gave us about a 17% chance of success. So we decided to have the tests done to see if full blown IVF again was a option. Chris would have a new sperm test and I would have a series of blood tests to determine my egg quality and quantity due to my age, 40. We then returned to Dr Dunn to get our results. He began with me where we got very good news, my scores looked good and I showed a high chance of a successful IVF. Then we received news we were not expecting. It seems the sperm issues we had before had only gotten worse. His count was significantly lower than last time around and morphology was terrible too. Essentially they did not find any whole active moving sperm at all. So he was placed on some high powered special formula vitamins for three months and then another sperm test was performed. Again we went back to Dr Dunn for the results and he stated that although he saw an improvement there still wasn't enough to do IVF. He recommended we go see urologist, Dr Khera. He gave us special instructions to get an appt with him within 3 weeks instead of the normal wait time of about 4 months to get an appt as a new patient. We indeed got an appt 3 weeks later.
So now we go to meet Dr Khera for the first time and we found another awesome Dr. We had such a great trust in him after only one meeting. It turns out he is close personal friends with our gastric bypass Doctors. He gave both of us a lot of hope and confidence. Dr Khera recommended a testicular biopsy to hopefully find whole, healthy, active sperm. However it would be almost 3 months before this surgery could be done due to his surgery schedule, vacation schedule and our vacation too. In the meantime, he placed Chris on a prescription that is usually given to women battling breast cancer but has been proven to increase sperm count, motility and morphology in men. We were hoping for a quicker timeline but we put it in God's hands and waited.
On Aug 26th Chris had surgery and after a longer than expected wait, Dr Khera came out to see me with a big smile on his face. He said we found what we were looking for. Now take these 6 samples and pictures over to Dr Dunn's lab. I can tell you I found good sperm, but his lab will need to give the final say so if they are good enough for IVF. So off I went to Dr Dunn and then we waited another 7 days.
On Sept 2nd we met with Dr Dunn and finally got the news we had been waiting for....they have enough moving healthy sperm to do IVF again. Of course me being a bit of a control freak had already figured out that we could start the whole process as soon as my period started. So I told him, listen I am due to start my period next week, can you go ahead and give me the prescriptions for the birth control pills and begin my calendar now. Dr Dunn laughed and said you have this all planned right? We all laughed and he said yes I will give you everything today. With that we headed down to the lab to have blood work done on both of us, he gave me the prescription for birth control pills (step 1 of IVF), and said to call the within 3 days of beginning my period to have a sonohystogram scheduled. This is a test that is done to confirm the uterus is clear and ready for IVF. It is a very uncomfortable and rather painful procedure however it is quick and is done within about 10 min.
On Sunday Sept 6th, I started my period. This means today I begin taking the birth control pills and I am waiting to hear back from Dr. Dunn's office to have my sonohystogram scheduled in the next few days along with picking up my IVF calendar.
To say that we are excited, anxious and nervous is an understatement. However I must say this feels completely different than it did the first time. We are both excited and praying for a baby in the end but we have definitely put this in God's hands and we know He will do what is best for us. So with any luck and lots of prayers, we will be expecting a little one around the end of June beginning of July.
God's Blessings to All
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