Prayers Needed Again...

I woke up about midnight last Sunday night and I was bleeding bright red. I couldn't get an on-call Dr at my OB's office, I didn't know what to do so I went to the ER. They saw me right away, did an ultrasound and said that the baby looked fine. The bleeding had stopped by the time the Dr saw me so he said he couldn't say where it was coming from. I woke up Monday morning with more bright red blood. I followed up with my OBs office in the morning and they said to come in first thing, since they couldn't find the ultrasound from the night before they did another one. I saw the baby and heard the heartbeat and everything looked great. Then I saw my Dr, again the bleeding had stopped and he said it could be related to the non-viable twin. He said with no guarantees he thought everything would be fine and that I may experience this bleeding off and on for the rest of my pregnancy.

The bleeding had tapered of to light spotting until this afternoon when I had another gush of bright red blood. I am still very worried. I hope it goes away soon. I go back to see the OB next Friday but if this gets worse I will probably go back sooner.

I just don't believe God has brought us this far for something to go wrong now. I know everything will be ok but it is not ok right now.

Thanks in advance for your prayers.

Graduation...

We've officially graduated from our Dr in Charlottesville and had our first OB appointment in Lynchburg on Wednesday! After several bad experiences with local doctors, I was very apprehensive about returning to Lynchburg for prenatal care. Upon the recommendation of our fertility Dr we picked a local OB. I thought our appointment went very well. We liked the new Dr a lot. Turns out he went to school with our fertility Dr. which made me feel even more confident. I had my fourth ultrasound, and at 3.2 cm the baby had almost doubled in size from our ultrasound just ten days before. The baby was very active and wiggly, I can't wait to be able to feel these tiny movements. We also heard the heartbeat for the first time, it was very loud and about 160 bpm. This will be our last ultrasound for three months.

Troy has decided he does not want to know whether it is a boy or a girl and that is ok with me so we will wait to find out in December.

Now that we are no longer "waiting for 2 pink lines" I will be looking for a new home for our blog and I hope to post about where that will be. I can't thank you all enough for all the prayers that got us to where we are. We truly know this is a blessing and a miracle of God.

And then there was one...

I had some very minor spotting a few evenings, I wasn't worried about it at all, but I called our nurse on Tuesday just to hear her say it was nothing, but instead she asked me to come in. So I had an ultrasound Wednesday afternoon and we learned we lost one of the twins. The other one is just fine. Our Dr was very pleased with its development, in fact he assured us that we have a 90-95% chance that everything will be fine (nothing is ever guaranteed).

Because our new OB won't see us until the 27th our current Dr offered to let us to come back once more, mostly for peace of mind and we took him up on it. We have another ultrasound on the 18th.

Twins!

Well as most of you know our final beta test came in at an amazing 3026. God truly answered our prayers. We went for our first ultrasound on Friday and we saw not one, but two tiny heartbeats. Yep, we are having twins. On Friday they measured a healthy 4mm and 5mm. We go back to Charlottesville on the 14th for our final ultrasound and then we graduate to an OB! I will be seven weeks on Monday. Twins are considered full term at 37 weeks so I am due on November 28.

Beta Testing, Please Pray...

Well the results are finally in and we are pregnant. However...the test they use is called a beta test, it tests for the amount of HCG in your blood. A positive test is anything over 25 but ideally between 50 and about 150. Our first test was last Wednesday 4/15 and the result was and astonishing 437. My first though was twins! If the embryo is developing normally the number should double ever 48 hours so they check twice to be sure. We went back on Friday, 4/17 and it was only 740 (it should have been 880). We went back and tested again on Monday and it was only 1261 (it should have been at least 1480 ideally 2100 since it had now been 72 hours). The nurse said it could mean we had twins and lost one or it could mean that the embryo is not developing. We go back tomorrow to test again. We need the number to be at least 2100 and if the number goes down its over. I know I don't even need to ask, but please remember us in your prayers.

Transfer & OHSS

We were able to transfer two beautiful embryos on Thursday, April 2nd and we found out on Monday that we had four more that were frozen in case we need them later.

Unfortunately, it seems I have developed a complication called Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome or OHSS. It is caused by all the meds I took to help me produce extra eggs. Now my ovaries are swollen and leaking fluid in to my abdomen, which puts a lot of extra pressure on my insides. It got progressively worse through Friday night and my Dr saw me first thing Saturday morning. He admitted me at Martha Jefferson to do a procedure to draw off the extra fluid. Although very painful, it was unsuccessful. As it turned out it was really good that I was there; I was so dehydrated no one could find my blood pressure all day and they had to use and ultrasound just to find a vein to put an IV in. They gave me a liter of IV fluids and sent me home.

I have been getting progressively better since then and returned to work on Tuesday. My Dr said if I am pregnant I will likely get worse again, but this hasn't happened yet so I am a little discouraged at the moment. All we can do now is wait. In case the news isn't good, we have decided not to share our test date.

Retrieval Day!

Our retrieval was today at 9:15 am. I think it went well, but who am I to say, I was asleep! They retrieved 18 eggs! We will know late tomorrow morning how may actually fertilized. They expect about a 70% fertilization rate. We will likely go back for transfer on Thursday, at that time the embryos will ideally be 8 cells big! If they are doing really well they will allow them to grow for two more days, and become blastocysts which are between 50-100 cells big, making transfer on Saturday.

Montoring

I am currently taking two injections each day, one that develops lots of eggs and one that prevents ovulation. I thought there would be a lot of side effects, but I really haven't had any problems. Troy and I travel to Charlottesville daily for monitoring. During the appointment they do an ultrasound to measure size of each follicle (follicles hold the eggs). When a few of them are 18-20 mm they're ready. Today the largest ones were between 13-16mm. Then they do blood work to monitor my hormone levels. Everything seems to be going really well. We anticipate retrieval will likely be Monday of next week, but we really can't be sure.

We're Accepted!!!

The Testing is Now Over!

Today we did the Trial embryo transfer first, it went well and was fairly painless. Next we did the dye test or HSG which was much more uncomfortable. The x-rays showed that there was a void in the dye which our Dr said could potentially be caused by a cyst or polyp, which would have to be removed before we could continue treatment. To confirm he did additional test which showed everything was normal. Although we really panicked for a few moments, we were so relieved that everything is fine. They told us that the blood work I did last week was also normal.

Troy and I have both started an antibiotic regimen in preparation for the procedure, I am also now taking birth control pills to regulate my hormones.

We will find out on Thursday or Friday if we qualify for the shared-risk program. I will share this new when we get it. We go back on Monday for baseline testing and so I can learn how to give myself the hormone injections that will be necessary. We are scheduled to begin treatment on 3/21 and are very excited!!

On with the tests...

I finally started my cycle, so we are now able to do the remaining tests. I gave about 10 tubes of blood last Thursday. They tested it for hormone levels and, as mandated by the FDA, for HIV and Hep B & C. We go on 3/11 to do two more tests. One is a practice embryo transfer so when we go for the actual procedure they will know exactly where the best place to put our embryos is. The other is a test where they inject dye in to me to assess my uterus and to see if my tubes are blocked. Our appointment is at 9:00 am. These should be the last of the tests, we should know soon if we qualify for the Shared Risk program. I will share the results as I get them. If all goes well we go for baseline testing at 3pm on 3/16 and we start treatment on 3/21!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.

A new drug...

Last Tuesday I got back my blood work results back from our last Drs. appointment, which confirmed the PCOS diagnosis. The most common treatment for this is a drug called Metformin which is also used to treat diabetes. The PCOS causes a hormone imbalance which somehow affects the way my body processes sugars and insulin. The Metformin will help to correct this which will in turn right other hormone imbalances which affect my fertility. I don't really understand how. The only side affect is it is tough on the digestive system until I get use to it, so I start with one pill and work up to three a day. I have to take it until I get pregnant. So far so good. By taking it now it will prevent complications when I start taking the injectable drugs for IVF later.

Since the PCOS causes my cycles to be so irregular, I started taking progesterone this week to induce a cycle so we can get on with the remaining tests.

Wait for the Lord; Be strong, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14

Good News...Finally!

We went to the new clinic at Martha Jefferson today. It was a small practice and I think for a while we were the only ones there, which was nice! Everyone was wonderful. Dr. Williams, our new Dr., gave us his undivided attention and answered all of our questions. Then did many tests and gave us a lot of information.

One thing we learned today is I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). I was previously tested for this twice before but it was somehow missed. (I love Lynchburg doctors) It is not a bad as it sounds. In fact it I don't have cysts at all. In short it means I am not ovulating normally. Which is bad if you are TTC naturally but good if you are doing IVF because by not ovulating I have lots of extra eggs that were never released.

Dr. Williams feels we are ideal candidates for IVF. We were not officially approved for the shared risk program but he didn't feel as though it would a problem. He seemed almost surprised that we doubted we would be candidates. He gave us a checklist of the remaining tests to be completed before a final approval, but we anticipate everything will be normal.

The next step is to wait for my next cycle, then I will have to complete blood tests on day three and more tests on day ten or eleven. The blood tests will tell them about my levels of, FSH and Estradiol which are different hormones that affect fertility. The other tests will show whether my tubes are blocked and if my uterus is healthy by injecting dye and then taking x-rays.

I am both excited and relieved that today's appointment went well. We can't thank you all enough for your prayers, support and encouragement.

Everything in God's perfect time.

Nov 26 Test Results

After enough complaining to the right people we finally got our test results from the Drs. appointment on Nov. 26 at UVA. Yes, you read it right, it took us 2 months to get test results and if we hadn't complained we might still be waiting. Once again everything was normal. Which is both a blessing and a curse. It means Troy is ridiculously healthy but it also means that there is no surgery or magic pill they can give him to increase his counts either.

That Dr. doesn't make the decision about whether we will qualify for the shared risk program at the other clinic but he does work directly with them for IVF. I asked him if he thought we would qualify. He said that, based on the test results so far, it is likely we will not; but since we are young there is a possibility we still could. I guess we won't know till we know.

I believe that God has a plan for us and that it will be revealed to us in time. I also believe that for every door that He closes, He opens a window.

As of right now...

Hi everyone, Thanks for stopping by! I have never done this before so I thought I would give it a try. I was thinking I would start blogging so those of you who don't want to ask or don't know how to ask could know what is going on with us and those of you who don't want to know don't have to listen to my endless stories about doctors appointments.

Right now we have an IVF (invitro fertilization) consultation on Feb 4 in Charlottesville. The clinic has a shared risk program where for $20k + the cost of medications we can do four fresh cycles and unlimited frozen cycles (the number of frozen cycles depends on how many embryos are left after each fresh cycle) and if we don't get pregnant after that they will refund us the $20k. So as far as I understand on the 4th they will do a lot of tests to determine if we qualify for the program. Then they will take all the test results and a lot of other info like our BMI, alcohol and caffeine intake, etc. and a committee will meet to determine if we qualify. Keep you fingers and toes crossed and say a lot of prayers that we will!

And if you are still curious about all this, here is the link to clinic we are going to, it has a lot more info:
http://www.mjhreproductivemed.com/
I like their website is purple!