Saturday, September 10, 2005
This is it - IVF starts now......
I know I have not written lately. Life has been crazy….. I guess I can start where I left off.
The last IUI did not take so we are moving full force ahead with In Vitro. I started my Lupron injections last night which is quite fun – I am used to Will giving me shots – not used to giving them to myself! I have set up a pharmacy in our bathroom – thank God we have two. I have syringes, vials of hormones, bottles of pills…. Everything you can think of! On the mirror I have taped my calendar for the next month – this is from UCSF telling me what I need to do / take daily – when to stop one medicine and start another etc….
The hormones so far have been Out of Control – brace yourself – I had to go out and buy 38 DDD bras!!! My mother thinks I am gaining weight; however, my wardrobe fits fine with the exception of my shirts. Even shirts I just bought a few weeks ago don’t fit anymore. It is quite embarrassing – my bras now have 5 hooks going down that back and all of the labels say “Minimizer.” Makes a hormonal woman feel SO much better about herself!
So – I am not going to be able to go to my 10 year class reunion in Oregon – I am bummed although kinda thankful. I have a funny feeling that my DDD friends might be the talk of the town for a while (not in a good way!!) Maybe I’ll make it to the 20 year and have a 9 year old then – that is very scary to think about!! Our embryo retrieval & embryo transfer is scheduled to begin the weekend of the reunion……. I’m also not sure if I can handle too many blasts from the past with all of these hormones running though me.
My friend / neighbor Lori had her baby – beautiful baby boy named Antonio James (A.J.) I thank God that he is part of my life – he is just amazing! Prior to his birth I always had the attitude that if God wanted to bless me with sextuplets through IVF then that is what it would be. Now I am stressing out at the thought of having twins!!! I can’t even imagine!
That is our dilemma at the moment, we have a choice of implanting two or three embryos during this first IVF try. I am split down the middle on this one. Part of me only wants two because worst case I could only end up with twins. The other part of me wants to do three because if some don’t take, maybe one would….. But –there could also take as well. As Tony (Lori’s husband) put it, then I would be done at one time. But – do I really want to take that chance?? I’m sure we will be guided to make the right decision.
About two weeks ago at my first ultrasound I had 18 eggs, that was prior to any fertility drugs. The prayer for the month needs to be to give me as many eggs as possible. The more eggs they can retrieve, the more embryos they can create, which means the more they can freeze, which means the more chances we have for a biological child. We have decided to pay $2,000 extra (this stuff is not cheap,) to do a process which they call ICSI. Instead of putting my eggs & Will’s sperm in a Petri dish and seeing what happens, they are going to force a sperm into each egg to create an embryo. This way you get more embryos to work with. They are thinking we could possibly have up to 40 embryos when this is done…… So – we will pay an extra $1000 on top of everything else to freeze the leftovers (that sounds like I am talking about dinner – that is awful!)
One final thing – I found out last week I am the youngest person in this UCSF study…… I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing……..
So – I will be keeping my blog updated more regularly…….. there will be lots going on in the next couple of weeks. Keep us in your prayers – we need all we can get!
The last IUI did not take so we are moving full force ahead with In Vitro. I started my Lupron injections last night which is quite fun – I am used to Will giving me shots – not used to giving them to myself! I have set up a pharmacy in our bathroom – thank God we have two. I have syringes, vials of hormones, bottles of pills…. Everything you can think of! On the mirror I have taped my calendar for the next month – this is from UCSF telling me what I need to do / take daily – when to stop one medicine and start another etc….
The hormones so far have been Out of Control – brace yourself – I had to go out and buy 38 DDD bras!!! My mother thinks I am gaining weight; however, my wardrobe fits fine with the exception of my shirts. Even shirts I just bought a few weeks ago don’t fit anymore. It is quite embarrassing – my bras now have 5 hooks going down that back and all of the labels say “Minimizer.” Makes a hormonal woman feel SO much better about herself!
So – I am not going to be able to go to my 10 year class reunion in Oregon – I am bummed although kinda thankful. I have a funny feeling that my DDD friends might be the talk of the town for a while (not in a good way!!) Maybe I’ll make it to the 20 year and have a 9 year old then – that is very scary to think about!! Our embryo retrieval & embryo transfer is scheduled to begin the weekend of the reunion……. I’m also not sure if I can handle too many blasts from the past with all of these hormones running though me.
My friend / neighbor Lori had her baby – beautiful baby boy named Antonio James (A.J.) I thank God that he is part of my life – he is just amazing! Prior to his birth I always had the attitude that if God wanted to bless me with sextuplets through IVF then that is what it would be. Now I am stressing out at the thought of having twins!!! I can’t even imagine!
That is our dilemma at the moment, we have a choice of implanting two or three embryos during this first IVF try. I am split down the middle on this one. Part of me only wants two because worst case I could only end up with twins. The other part of me wants to do three because if some don’t take, maybe one would….. But –there could also take as well. As Tony (Lori’s husband) put it, then I would be done at one time. But – do I really want to take that chance?? I’m sure we will be guided to make the right decision.
About two weeks ago at my first ultrasound I had 18 eggs, that was prior to any fertility drugs. The prayer for the month needs to be to give me as many eggs as possible. The more eggs they can retrieve, the more embryos they can create, which means the more they can freeze, which means the more chances we have for a biological child. We have decided to pay $2,000 extra (this stuff is not cheap,) to do a process which they call ICSI. Instead of putting my eggs & Will’s sperm in a Petri dish and seeing what happens, they are going to force a sperm into each egg to create an embryo. This way you get more embryos to work with. They are thinking we could possibly have up to 40 embryos when this is done…… So – we will pay an extra $1000 on top of everything else to freeze the leftovers (that sounds like I am talking about dinner – that is awful!)
One final thing – I found out last week I am the youngest person in this UCSF study…… I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing……..
So – I will be keeping my blog updated more regularly…….. there will be lots going on in the next couple of weeks. Keep us in your prayers – we need all we can get!
