IVF Update

 I haven’t been able to talk to anyone one much because of how I’ve been feeling so I thought I would post an update!  This whole process has been tougher than I imagined but I’m happy to have made it through as far as I have! Through the weeks of high emotions, fatigue, discomforts, sleepless nights and worrying I have found comfort through the reading the scriptures, prayer, visiting with family and friends and being blessed with so many people serving us! I have been amazed with how many people in my ward (church congregation) have dropped off food or movies. I also really enjoyed all the conversations I’ve had lately with Grandma and Jamie. Thanks to all who have thought about us, prayed for us, and served us!

First Hurdle: Stims

The ‘Stims’ refers to the process of hormone injections to stimulate my ovaries to produce lots of eggs. This was the most challenging part of IVF for me because the hormones made me extremely emotional. I was freaking out over silly things like stuffing. Stuffing made it all over the kitchen. Enough said! I also experienced nausea, anorexia, fatigue, and water retention (4 pounds). Dr. C. was concerned about Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome (which is only supposed to happen in 5% of cases but I got lucky!) because my estrogen sky rocketed to 6500. Normal estrogen is 50-400. Normal estrogen during IVF is 5000 or less. Luckily Dr. C. "coasted” (took me off the hormones) for a few days and my symptoms resolved. 

View from OHSU

Second Hurdle: Egg retrieval.

Having more eggs was the up side of being hyperstimulated. I had 30!  They use a needle to extract all the eggs. It wasn’t painful because they gave me plenty of fentanyl. I started throwing up during the procedure. Honestly the worst part was seeing large air bubbles go into my IV without a filter in place and wondering if I was going to get an air embolism! I also freaked out when they gave me Phenergan in my IV because I know that’s a no-no (at least in peds hemonc). I was expecting my hand to fall off afterwards. I told the anesthesiologist that you’re not supposed to give it in a peripheral line!  I know I was a difficult patient but they were all nice to me- and I felt bad that they had to work on Thanksgiving!

Third Hurdle: Waiting for the embryos to grow

25 out of the 30 eggs were able to be fertilized. We started off with a great number! 10 out of the 25 survived until the third day. 6 out of the 10 made it into ‘good looking’ blastocysts. 

Fourth Hurdle: Letting Cory stick me with needles

It took me 40 minutes to ‘let’ Cory poke me and even then he did it on the surprise. Now it’s not so bad- and Cory would be a fantastic nurse!

Fifth Hurdle: Transfer

This was quite uncomfortable! I am choosing not to go into any details here. The good news is that we transferred 2 great embryos! They reached as many cells as they could prior to the transfer. One of the embryos was even quite active and the embryologist said he had a hard time catching it. We were able to freeze the other four. 

My friend Heather dropped off Peppermint cookies and a ROKU

Sixth Hurdle: 48 hours bed rest

Ok, I know this is nothing compared to pregnant women who are on bed rest for months of their pregnancies. But it was soooo hard for me! But I’m happy to say that now I can sit up but need to be a couch potato for 2 weeks. 

Seventh Hurdle: Waiting

Now Cory and I are waiting. We know we have a 40% chance of achieving pregnancy. We hope for the best but know it might take a few more tries. We’ll keep you all posted as soon as we are comfortable to share!

Dairy Free Cheesecake?

Cory is starting to mistrust the desserts I make because of all the experimenting I’ve been doing. The other day I offered Cory some ice cream and he immediately asked, “What kind of ice cream?” It happened to be pureed frozen banana with chocolate chips and peanut butter instead of the real deal. He is such a good hubby and obliges to my experiments, although I think he enjoys the richer and sweeter variety. 

This time I asked Cory if he wanted some ‘cheesecake’ and of course he didn’t trust me!  I promised him that this time it tasted even better than regular cheesecake and that it wasn’t weird at all! Since dairy makes me feel yucky I’ve been trying out vegan desserts. Being nudged to embrace simple and natural ingredients has enabled me to appreciate how good ‘raw’ foods can be. This cheesecake is the perfect example. The crust is naturally sweet and crunchy with dates and walnuts, the ‘cheesy’ center naturally rich with cashews and coconut, and the glaze naturally bold with honey and berry.

The whole thing took me 10 minutes to make, and then I just had to pop it in the freezer for a few hours to set up.  I followed the recipe below (but made my own walnut-date crust and used vanilla extract instead of vanilla bean) and halved the recipe using a 6” cheesecake pan.

http://www.roostblog.com/roost/in-the-raw-meyer-lemon-vanilla-bean-cheesecake.html/

Meyer Lemon, Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

(tweaked from Emily Lee Angell's recipe)

For the Crust

• 2 cups raw almonds soaked overnight
• 1/2 cup dates, pitted (about 7 or 8 dates) if dates are really dry, put them in a bowl of warm water for 10 minutes, discard water
• 1/4 cup non-sweetened coconut flakes

Place almonds and dates in a food processor and mix until chopped and well incorporated. Cover the bottom of a 9inch spring form cake pan with the coconut flakes (this prevents the cake from sticking the the pan). Pour the almond mixture on top of the coconut flakes , spread out and mold into the cake pan.

For the Filling

• 3 cups raw cashews soaked for three hours
• 3/4 cup fresh meyer lemon juice
• 3/4 cup raw honey (you can use regular honey if you don't want to go 100% raw)
• 3/4 cup raw coconut oil (Artisana is my favorite brand) you do not have to warm it, just use it straight out of jar
• 1 tsp vanilla or 1 vanilla bean, split open and seeds scraped, pod discarded
• 1/2 tsp celtic sea salt

To make the cheese, blend the cashews, lemon, honey, coconut oil, vanilla/vanilla bean, and sea salt. Blend until smooth and adjust to taste. (For the best results you need to use a high speed blender!)

Pour mixture on top of the "crust" and carefully tap the pan on the counter to release any air bubbles.

For the topping

• 1 bag of frozen blueberries (or any berry that you prefer)
• honey or dates to sweeten ( I didn't measure I just poured and tasted)
• 1/4 cup apple cider (this is optional, but my mixture was too thick so I added the cider to smooth it out....orange juice would work great too or water if needed)

Place honey, berries and cider/juice in a high speed blender and process until smooth. Pour over "cheese" mixture. 

Place the pan in the freezer for at least three hours or overnight. Before serving place on counter to thaw slightly. This is best served semi frozen, soft enough to run a serrated knife through.

(For my crust I used a large handful of dates, large handful of walnuts and 1 graham cracker sheet.)

IVF- Where to Begin?

I was feeling really stressed out when we made the decision to undergo IVF but now I'm feeling really good about it. Despite the hoards of medications, bed rest, and costs I feel good that we won't have to make the decision to reduce the amount of embryos that take (because we will only transfer 2) versus the gambling of doing the injections with IUI and hope that only one or two of the 7 follicles release an egg! Up until now we have just had doctor's visits to discus the logistics and benefits/risks. Dr. Chang (our Fertility Specialist) has been really patient with us! When I received the packages of all the medications I started getting a little nervous buzz again.......

"That's a lot of medications!" I though. As you can see from the picture below, they have taken up our living room! Looking at that stash and reading all the injections I get to take makes me wonder if I will turn into the Hulk sometime during this process.......

Well, unfortunately for Cory (and you) I might turn a little "Hulk-ish" in a week or so. My apologies in advance. Don't worry, I wont be rippling into a gigantic green monster and shredding my clothes in the process. But I most likely will be getting a little testy with the extra hormones on board! (That's just a guess from the smaller dosed hormones I was on before).

So I guess the purpose of this post was to
1. Document to future generations that YES, I really DID want to have children
2. Document to future me that YES, I really DID want to have children (believe me, too many people have been telling me that kids aren't that great and those comments have ALMOST made me give up on trying)
3. Show family members/friends who are curious about the process (because I'm not to good at talking about it and will soon become a Hulk)

Dr. Chang gave me a two month calendar with my medication/procedure schedule. For the first week I will be (am) taking a hormone called Lupron that stops my cycle and induces me into a 'mini menopause.' So far so good (besides occasional hot flashes- but not too bad). I'm also taking a few pills, including a steroid to decrease inflammation (and it's making me have the munchies- no, not the type from pot, but thanks Matt).

Once my cycle is reset I will be decreasing my Lupron dose down (but will be still taking it to ensure that my ovaries don't ovulate prior to the egg extraction) and adding Menopur and Follistim to stimulate my ovaries to produce many eggs. I will continue to take Follistim for about 11 days and will me monitored every 3 days to watch out for side effects and to see when my ovaries have developed enough decent sized follicles (we are aiming for about 14). After the ovaries are ready I will give myself a 'trigger shot' to stimulate ovulation and then will go in for the egg extraction.

The specialist will take my eggs and fertilize them with Cory's sperm in a Petri dish. The eggs will be kept in a safe environment while they become blastocysts and then embryos. Dr. Chang predicts that 10/14 of the eggs will be fertilized and 5-8 of the fertilized eggs will make it into embryos.

After the embryos have reached 100-200 cell size two will be transferred to my uterus. I will then be on bed rest for 2-7 days (still not sure how long) and will be taking estrogen and progesterone to support a possible pregnancy (This is when Cory get's to stab me in the hip with a needle).

I won't know if the embryo's took for 10-12 days after the transfer. If they did take will be following up with more pregnancy tests and ultrasounds.

That's about it! I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I get the news about the embryos taking. If you don't hear from me it might be because:
1. I am too scared to tell anyone that they took because IVF pregnancies are higher risk than the average.
2. They didn't take and I'm too bummed to say anything!

I'm hoping for the best. Thanks for everyone's support. It is tough to go through trails but it's sweet at the same time because you realize how much you are loved.

Butternut Squash, Fennel, and Sausage Galette

Ingredients:

For the Crust:

1 1/2 cups flour

½ Tbs. sugar

¾ tsp. salt

½ cup cold, cubed unsalted butter

1/3 cup cold water

For the Filling:

1 pound butternut Squash

2 Tbs. olive oil

¼ cup fresh rosemary, minced

¼ cup fresh sage, minced

½ large red onion, thinly sliced

1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced

3 hot Italian sausages

1 honey crisp apple, peeled and thinly sliced

1 cup loosely packed shredded Gruyere cheese

1 egg white

Preparation:

For the Crust:

Add the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. Pulse 5 times to mix. Add the butter and pulse about 15 times, or until a coarse meal forms. Pour in the cold water and pulse until dough forms. Form the dough into a ball and cover with cover with wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

To prepare the butternut squash:

Preheat oven to 500°F.  Wash and peel squash. Cut into small cubes (about ½ inch by ½ inch). Arrange butternut squash on a baking dish and drizzle with 1 Tbs. olive oil, mix. Place dish in the oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until fork is easily inserted in the squash. Set aside. (I cooked a 2 pound butternut squash and saved half of it for my chili recipe)

For the filling:

Heat a small nonstick cooking pan over medium high heat. Squeeze the sausage out of the casings into the pan and saute until fully browned. Set aside.

Heat 1 Tbs. olive oil in a large nonstick cooking pan over medium high heat. Add the onion and saute for 3 minutes, or until translucent. Add the fennel, and saute for 3-5 minutes, or until translucent. Remove from heat. Add the cooked sausage, apple, rosemary, sage and ½ cup shredded Gruyere cheese.

To assemble:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Roll the chilled crust on a floured surface into a large thin circle. Transfer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Pour filling onto center of crust and spread out, leaving 1-2 inches of bordering crust. Top filling with rest of shredded cheese. Fold border of crust over filling. Brush crust borders with egg white. Place in oven and cook for 40-45 minutes, or until crust is golden.

Crust Recipe from Sunset Magazine (I halved it)

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/easiest-pie-dough-50400000123745/

 

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (or canned pumpkin)

1/3 cup coconut oil (or canola oil)

1/3 cup applesauce

1 ¾ cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

¼ cup water

2 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ginger

Optional: ½ cup chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.

Combine all dry ingredients (except sugar) in a large bowl with a whisk.

Combine coconut oil and sugar in a medium bowl. Mix in the pumpkin puree, eggs, vanilla, water and applesauce. 

Combine the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Pour evenly into the loaf pans.  Bake for 30 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Nutritional Information:

For 1 slice

calories: 192

fat: 5.6g

sat. fat. 4g

Carbs: 34g

Sugars:21g

Fiber:1g

Cholesterol:21mg

Sodium:117mg

Protien:2.56g

Good source of vit a

Makes 2 loaves, each loaf with 10 slices