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!