Huge Mistake!

I forgot to start my bcp....erghhh, grrr, blerg!

Screwed up my whole cycle. Now I have to wait until March for my Vegas IVF.

Photography

The most exciting thing happened a couple weeks ago! I applied for membership into an international wedding photography association, and to my surprise, I was accepted! I've read that only approximately 5% of applicants get in, so I've been just over the moon about it!

I do wonder why I decided to start a photography business right before IVF...probably not the most reasonable thing to do. So I got everything off the ground for my business - website etc. But when I was contacted to shoot a wedding in the summer of '12, I started getting very nervous. With my unicornuate, I could be put on bedrest very early, and I'll (hopefully) be 4 or 5 months by the summer of next year! So I think I have to slow down with photography until I get my baby.

Here are a few of my favorites from the wedding.

All Booked for Vegas

I just finalized all of the plans for our Vegas IVF trip! I'll be flying out at the end of January with my husband joining me for about half of the trip. It will be an 11 day trip for me. I'm very excited to be transferring blasts this time, and two blasts at that! I have a really good feeling about this cycle!

My new doctor tested my natural killer cells recently, which I assumed wouldn't be activated...and they kind-of weren't? During the normal test, my nk cells were deactivated, but under the stress test they became activated. I'll be doing 2 intralipid infusions, just in case the nk cells are attacking my embryos after transfer. I certainly wasn't expecting that, but at least it's easily fixable.

Lots of Change

There have been lots of good changes recently!

First, we finally got our insurance money back! It was a little less than I expected, but still probably enough to cover an IVF cycle. I was so excited! We've been trying to get this resolved since May, and finally finally I don't have to call the insurance company weekly anymore!

Second, I had a telephone consultation with an out-of-town doctor (Dr. S.) earlier this week. He seems to have a lot more ideas that my doctor (Dr. C.). Dr. C. doesn't want to change much going into a new IVF - slight follistim increase, and bring embryos to blastocyst instead of 3 day. My lining has been thin (7-8) through all of my IVF / FETs (I didn't even know this until my most recent FET). According to Dr. C., where my lining is could probably work. According to Dr. S., my lining is like trying to plant a tree in a rock. Now how their opinions vary so widely is beyond me. Dr. C has no plans for fixing my lining. Dr. S. seems to have lots of plans! He plans to change my protocol (from antagonist to agonist antagonist conversion) because he suspects my testosterone is high and affecting embryo quality as well as my lining. I will also be using viag.ra suppositories to try to help build my lining. I asked Dr. C. about using vi.agra, and her response was that they did not have good results with it at their clinic. Once again, huge difference in opinion with Dr. S, he says his results have been good. With Dr. S. I will still be taking my embryos to blast, but instead of transferring one, we'll be transferring two! Another major thing Dr. S. said was that 1/2 of my embryos not surviving thaw was a technical error. I had always thought it may have been. There are even more difference in their plans, but that's enough for now. So...I'm sending my deposit tomorrow for a January 30th cycle with Dr. S! Since Dr. S. is all way across the country, I'll be staying there for 12 days. I'm kind of a homebody, and thus dreading the "vacation" part of this. Mostly I'm gonna miss / worry about my cat sons. I'll try to be better about updating more as we go through this cycle. It's honestly been quite boring since the first IVF. FETs are no fun. I love getting the embryo quality calls! As long as they're good news I guess.

Third and final piece of good news, I will be second shooting at a wedding this weekend!! I've been wanting to get into wedding photography for a while now, so I'm looking forward to it! If I get any grand pictures, I'll post them!

Nope

Debbie Downer here.....It didn't work.

We had 4 embryos left, but unfortunately, we had to thaw them all to get a viable one. So now we're back at square one...

I guess we've got 4 options - use my mom as a surrogate, got to India for surrogacy, try more embryos in me, or adoption. We're not exactly sure what to do at this point, but we're leaning toward my mom as a surrogate. We've got an appt. on Oct 10th to discuss all this with the doctor and get her opinion.

The insurance money is pretty much gone now. I think we have $1500 left, so our next cycle will more than likely be out of pocket. My husband and I are both applying to companies that offer infertility insurance, but so far we've not had any luck. I hate our insurance company. They took $7000 for my surgery out of our $15,000 for infertility. My doctor and the insurance co. agree that the surgery was medically necessary as opposed to infertility, but something about self-funded plan, blah blah, get over it, no more money for you. Oh well, we tried and tried to get that money back, but it doesn't seem like it's gonna happen.

We're on a break from TTC until 2012. We've been doing pretty much continuous cycles all year and are just kinda tired of it all. That'll give us a little more time to try to find insurance and to relax.

Maybe I've mentioned this before, can't remember, but we're on an adoption waiting list with the state...kinda. We're actually on a waiting list for the workshop, but they only take 20 couples per year for that list then you decide if you want to move forward at that point. The workshop was supposed to be this fall, but due to a lack of babies, it wont be until next spring. My husband isn't quite on board with all of this yet, but we're still on the list just in case.

And for once, something unrelated to infertility! Imagine that.

I got a new camera a few months ago and I love it! I've been taking pics of bugs, flowers...mostly nature things. These are a couple of my favorites so far

I've never liked bugs before so what posessed me to like them now, I have no idea. It has actually been a good way to get rid of some of the bug fear. I still don't like taking pictures of spiders though!

The Latest

A quick update..

Everything is going fairly well with our FET cycle so far. I was supposed to have my transfer last week, but my lining was a little thin (7.2), so we decided to postpone one week. At my scan today the lining was 7.3, so not much of a jump. They say it's alright though. My lining was only 7.5 last transfer, so this might be about all my unicornuate uterus can do.

There is a whole new batch of residents and fellows at my clinic. I loved my old doctors, so I wasn't too pleased about this. They knew me and my uterus so it was nice. Oh well. What if I get to know these doctors, I'm still not pregnant, and have to meet all new doctors again!!

FET #2

We'll be having FET #2 on August 24th!

Four of our embryos are still frozen - 2 high quality and 2 mid-quality.

For the first two cycles, our doctor strongly recommended that we only transfer one embryo per try. This time she will let us transfer two if we decide, but we'd have to selectively reduce if both took. With transferring two there is a 50% chance that we'll get pregnant and if we do, there'd be a 33% chance of twins. We've decided that one embryo is the way to go for now.

I started my Lupron at some point in the recent past...it's all kinda blurring together at this point. Other than the Lupron, not much to report. I'll be starting estrogen patches and pills this weekend.

My insurance company took $7,000 (of my $15,000 lifetime infertility) for my surgery in February. My doctor has written them a letter asking them not to charge it to infertility, but I'm still waiting on their decision. UGH. If they don't give me that $ back, we'll only have $1,800 left for infertility. Luckily the FETs are fairly cheap - $1,500 medical cost I believe (and $1,500 for Rx, but we may still have coverage on that).

My husband will be working out of town through my progesterone, so I had planned to switch to Crinone (a vaginal progesterone gel), but insurance will not cover it unless I am already pregnant, and without coverage it'll be $900...compared to $20 for progesterone in oil for injection. I'm just gonna try giving myself the shots. I think I can do it! I've seen videos on youtube of people doing their own, so surely I can too! The hardest part will be checking the syringe for blood before injecting.

That's about that for now. Our next pregnancy test will be September 7th! Over a month away, but I'm getting excited already!

Waiting on Pregnancy Test

Just waiting on my blood pregnancy test...gosh it's taking forever to get here!

My transfer went pretty well. It always seems to be more complicated than it is supposed to be. First of all, I drank way too much water. By the time I was at the clinic, I was dancing around trying not to pee. My doctor said it was fine to let a little out, so I did. Went in for transfer, still miserable from my bladder being so full, and turns out it was still too full. After I emptied again, we were set to go. I hate having my cervix cleaned, it's just very uncomfortable, and with both of my transfers I've had to have it cleaned twice because of a speculum change. I still had to pee really bad, and was just uncomfortable. I got so hot, I sweated through the paper sheet on the table.

Our embryo was frozen as an 8 cell and came out a 7 cell.

I swore that I would not take home pregnancy tests this time, but of course I couldn't resist! I've been taking them since 6dp3dt (6 days past 3 day transfer). I swear there is an abbriviation for everything in infertility (IF) world! I guess if we can't make babies, we can at least make abbreviations! Anyway, all my tests have been negative so far. Go fucking figure! Story of my life! Hopefully Ill get a positive next week at my blood pregnancy test.

Embryo Picture!

FET Tomorrow!

My updates to this blog are getting fewer and farther between... After our failed IVF, I didn't really feel like doing anything related to TTC. Plus, FETs (frozen embryo transfer) are so much easier than IVF that there hasn't been much to update. But now my FET is tomorrow, so TTC has became exciting again!

In case anyone is reading this who's curious about the FET process, I'll re-cap my experience.

After our failed cycle, I had to wait one month to let my body rest. I didn't quite understand that considering I wasn't stimulating my ovaries again or anything, but I went with it and waited. I had to take BCP for two weeks, but I just started it on my month wait. At the end of my month wait, I started 10 units of Lupron per day. I continued on BCP for a few days then stopped those. I think about 10 days later, I reduced my Lupron to 5 units per day and added estrogen patches. I had blood work 4 days after starting estrogen, at which point we found out my estrogen wasn't quite high enough, so I started on Estrace pills twice per day. Had estrogen checked again and it was fine. Three days later I had an ultrasound to check my lining, which was fine, so I started Progesterone (PIO) two days later. I am on .5 CC of PIO twice per day. Yeahhhh, it sucks doing the PIO injections twice a day! Oh well, anyway, here we are 1 day before our transfer, and I'm excited again!

Hoping this time works!!

Negative

Well, as suspected, this cycle ended in a negative.

Next step is FET (frozen embryo transfer). Recipe for my FET is as follows:

BCP (starting tomorrow)
Lupron
Dash of Estrogen
Shot of Progesterone
One thawed embryo

Start BCP and take every day for what feels like an eternity (aka 1 month). Slowly add one shot of lupron per day. Cover your body in estrogen patches. Have husband give you huge shots of Progesterone in your bootay everyday. Thaw the embryo. Have it transferred and then start waiting again.

Bad Blogger

I've been a bad blogger lately! Sorry about that.

A quick update...

We had our transfer on April 9. Six of our embryos made it to day 3. We transferred one compacting 8 cell and froze 5 (one 8 cell, one 7 cell, two 6's, and one 5). I've been taking pregnancy tests like some kind of crazy person, but have yet to get a positive. At this point, I believe this cycle failed. My blood pregnancy test is Friday, so we'll know for sure then. I've already scheduled an appt. for Monday to discuss a frozen cycle, so hopefully we can start on that pretty quickly.

Octo-parents!

Finally I got the call!!

12 mature

8 fertilized

I go in on Saturday at 7:45 a.m. for the transfer. Since my uterus is off the side and smaller, I have to have an even more full bladder than normal. It's not going to be fun, but he said if I pee everywhere once they've got the catheter in my uterus, that's fine. haha

As a side note, I counted, and I've been to the RE 26 times in 4 months! Holy geez! At least it is fairly close to my house (30 min). I'm on a babycenter message board, and one of the ladies there has to drive 5 hours each way to her RE. She is committed!

Egg Retrieval

I went in at 8:30 a.m. yesterday for the egg retrieval. Of course the IV didn't work the first try, but luckily it did the second. Why does that always seem to happen? You'd think I'd be used to needles by now, but IVs are so much worse than belly shots (not the kind you do at the bar! haha). Around 9 a.m. they took me back for the retrieval and Bill went to "do his part". I was sedated but not completely under for the retrieval. It was a strange feeling. I felt one or two of the sticks to get the egg, but mostly I was out of it. The minute they were through though, I was up!

WE GOT 18 EGGS!! Seven more than expected! Now I am just waiting to get the fertilization report. RING PHONE, RING!!

Almost There

I started my stims and HCG on Saturday. The shots are not nearly as bad as I expected. I'm actually kind of having fun with them now.

My first ultrasound was on Wednesday (day 5 of stims). I had 18 follicles, with the biggest at 12mm. My estradiol was at 578. No change in dosage, but I did start my Ganerilix (to stop spontaneous ovulation) Wednesday afternoon.

Today I went back for another ultrasound. I had one 18mm follicle, two 15mm, and about 7 between 9mm-11mm. My Estradiol was 1290. They're slightly concerned that my estradiol is rising too quickly, so I have to go back tomorrow for another blood test.

I will likely trigger with Lupron Sunday or Monday with my egg retrieval Tuesday or Wednesday. From the start of my stims to embryo transfer will only be about 2 weeks. I can't believe how much easier than expected this whole process has been. I've had no side effects really...a little cramping and fullness in my ovaries, but that's it. I have made about 5 trips to my RE in the last couple weeks, but after my abscess fiasco, it's no big deal.

Will update after the egg retrieval!

Baseline Ultrasound

My baseline ultrasound went well today. They counted 14 follicles.

I can't believe I might be pregnant in a of couple weeks!

Check out all the meds I got today!

Meds ✔

One less item on my to do list! My meds should arrive tomorrow!

IVF / ICSI - Starting Meds Soon!

I have way too much to think about.

I will be stopping my BCP on March 22 and having my baseline ultrasound. As long as there are no cysts on my ovaries, I will start my Follistim + HCG injections on March 26th.

We got the results from the semen profile yesterday. Turns out that I was right to be nervous about it. Only 250,000 made it to the top, meaning that we have a 15% chance of fertilization issues. Instead of taking the 15% chance that fertilization will not occur, we will be using ICSI. In IVF they usually put some sperm in with the egg and which ever sperm gets the egg first is the winner. With ICSI they inject one single sperm into each individual egg. Now I have to figure out if our insurance will cover ICSI. I called BCB.S yesterday and we need written documentation from the doctor stating why we need ICSI before they will consider paying for it. Even after they have the documentation, they still might say no. The procedure is an extra $1500-$1700 on top of the usual IVF costs. My understanding is that our part of IVF cost is $430. I find this hard to believe though, and am assuming we will owe more than $430. Insurance is so confusing.

And for my prescriptions, I need pre-authorization too. I am supposed to call the pharmacy back on Monday to see if my authorization has gone through. I've talked to the insurance co. several times, and they assure me that the meds are covered so hopefully we won't hit any bumps in the road. Last I heard, our part of meds cost should be around $300

On an unrelated note, I planted some blueberry and raspberry bushes. I really hope they do well and produce lots of fruit for me to eat! My main problem will be keeping the deer away. I planted a rhinoculous and the next time I saw it, it was completely torn up from the ground, missing it's pretty flower. Seriously though, the deer are driving me nuts. I plan to make a homemade deer repellent - rotten eggs and garlic. That'll teach 'em!

IVF Protocol

I went back to the doctor yesterday to get my IVF protocol! I will be starting birth control pills this Thursday and taking them for 2 weeks. After the BC, I will start my injections for 12 days. I will be taking Follistim injections with HCG, then a few days later, I will start Ganirellix and eventually a shot of Lupron to trigger the release of my eggs (antagonist protocol). According to my RE, 20 eggs is a reasonable expectation from the egg retrieval! After they retrieve the eggs we will wait 3 days to transfer the embryo to my uterus.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to talk with my RE about transferring 2 embryos instead of only 1...she wasn't keen on this, so we'll just be transferring 1.

Our last hurdle will be my husband's semen profile this Thursday. His original analysis came back good, so I can only assume the profile will go well, but I'm still a little nervous. During the profile, they take the semen and put it into a spinning machine with a medium. After 30 minutes, if at least one million sperm make it to the top of the machine, then we're good to go. If 100,000 make it to the top, we have a 15% chance of sperm issues. If less than 100,000 make it to the top, we have an 85% chance of sperm issues. We'll also be taking the injection class this Thursday.

As far as my abscess, it is looking good. I will be packing the wound for 1 more week, and then finally I will be done with that..it only took 1 month! geez ;)

Lesson of the Day: Don't Get an Abscess

I have to learn how to pack my wound. First of all, it is a pain to go to the doctor everyday. Second, I found out today that it could take a couple weeks for the would to close, therefore; the wound could need to be packed for a couple weeks. Third, I could buy a TV for my bedroom instead of paying $20 a day to have them pack my wound.

I asked my husband if he could help, he agreed, but said he might puke. I think he's imagining it to be much worse than it is.

I love the doctor who's been packing my wound most of this week. He's so gentle and just all around super nice. Today I had a different doctor packing the wound, and she went to town in there, poking hard, just all around going nuts. Not really going nuts, but my belly button still hurts.

Let's hope Bill and I are capable of packing this wound!

Edit: I am so proud of myself! I successfully packed my wound! The hardest part was getting the used gauze out - that part took about 30 minutes, most of that time was me courting down and never doing anything. Eventually I got it though. The actually packing was no problem at all...such a non-problem in fact, that I'm worried I didn't pack it enough. Now I'm having a beer to celebrate my victory!

And Now an Abscess

On Friday I noticed that under my belly button incision was red with a small hard area. I called the on call doctor on Saturday, and was advised to use hydrogen peroxide on my wound twice a day and make an appointment for Monday. At the time, I had no pain, just redness. Later that day, the area started to hurt and the incision started leaking an orangish liquid. And probably TMI, but the liquid didn't particularly smell good. On Sunday I had more pain, swelling, and a few episodes of liquid.

I called the RE first thing Monday morning....literally the minute they opened. I wound up holding for 40 minutes! My RE is great, but the receptionists are quite the mess. When I met with my doctor after discovering that I have a unicornuate uterus, the receptionist was like "what does that mean." with a strange look on her face. I can't remember what all she said, but honestly, it's not her job to find out what it means, it's her job to schedule my appointment. And I would be glad to explain it to her, it's just that she made me feel like a weirdo or something. THEN, she kept pronouncing anomalies, ANN-O-MALEYS. How do you work at a doctors office and not know how to pronounce anomaly?! Anyway, this isn't the point of my post...

So right as I'm pulling into the doctors office, I start to smell the liquid from my wound. No big deal, I brought cotton balls, but when I looked down, the liquid was running down my stomach, filled my belly button, getting all over my seat belt. Needless the say, I was freaked! Had that happened at home, I would have probably gone to the ER. I was too scared to even look at the incision site, so I just stuck a cotton ball in and went in to the clinic.

My blood pressure is usually around 115/60 and it was 143/82! Whoa, must've been really shook. A positive side not, I've lost 14 lbs. since Dec. 1, and I'm not even trying!! :)

I went back to see an ob/gyn who informed me that I had an abscess. She cut a few of the sutures out and began to push all of the pus out of the abscess...quite painful. Then she used a lot of peroxide on the wound. After that she packed the wound, which I knew nothing about. They take a q-tip and wrap a piece of gauze around it, push that INTO the incision, then she repeated that twice. Now I am supposed to do this at home. That kind of stuff freaks the shit out of me. I could never be a nurse! So I started crying because it hurt and I did not think I could handle packing my wound at home. Since I don't want to pack the would myself, I have to go to the clinic everyday for 3-5 days to have it packed. ugh bugh! They prescribed antibiotics 4 times per day, and luckily I still have some oxycodone left from surgery.

The bright side to all this is that my post-op appointments was moved up to Feb 21 instead of March 4, therefore; maybe I can get in to see my RE for IVF planning sooner. As of today, she is booked until after my scheduled March 7th appointment, but I'm going to check everyday online to see if she's had a cancellation. Every day that the appointment. is moved up, is hopefully a day sooner to start IVF.

I love that my clinic has everything online. I can see all of my vital signs, lab reports, schedule reschedule or cancel appointments, pay bills, check in for appointments, basically the works. It makes life much easier.

Feeling A Little Lighter

...about one ounce lighter! I don't really know how much my fallopian tube weighed, but it's gone and I don't miss it at all!

I went in for my surgery last Friday. I must have been more nervous than I realized because my heartbeat was 110 as I laid there waiting. Getting my IV didn't help me calm down. I can't stand needles and of course the first attempt to put my IV in didn't work. After I was all set, my husband came back to keep me company.

It seemed like everyone wanted to be part of my surgery - my old gynecologist came, the doctor who did my HSG, the resident who did my pre-op tests, and all kinds of other people. I had 3 surgeons and about 10 other people participating in the surgery.

They rolled me into the operating room and I really don't remember much else until I woke up in recovery. In recovery, I was sleepy, but overall I was feeling ok.

I have a non-functioning rudimentary horn with a fallopian tube attached. No endomitriosis. And according to my RE, I have beautiful ovaries! So my right tube with the hydrosalpinx is gone, and the rudimentary horn and left tube were left in place - even though they're useless, they're not hurting anything either.

Overall I'm feeling good now. In March I will go back to my RE to get everything set for IVF! Can't wait!

I ordered some fiction books about infertility yesterday. I can't wait to read them. They better have happy endings! I also bought my first baby item today! I got a green onesie that says snuggle saurus and has a cute little dinosaur on it! l only paid $1.00 for it!

I was looking into infertility insurance from state to state, just out of curiosity, and found this site really interesting.

http://www.fertilitylifelines.com/payingfortreatment/state-mandatedinsurancelist.jsp

I live in North Carolina, and they have no mandated coverage, which is rather bunk! Luckily, we have Texas insurance so we do have some coverage. If I did not have these fallopian tube issues we would have had to wait 5 years for IVF coverage...out of control.

I will update again after I meet with my RE to get all my IVF stuff set.

Lots to Think About

Well, I've got my surgery set for January 28th. That means we'll get to start our IVF cycle on March 28. I can't wait!!

My husband and I were discussing last night whether a single embryo transfer (SET) is the best option for us. SET has only a 40% chance of taking compared to 70% with 2 embryos. Clearly, we do not want to carry twins in a half uterus, so if both took, selective reduction would be a serious consideration. I wonder if selective reduction (SR) increases risk of miscarriage in the one baby left? The chief of obstetrics that we met with the other day, said if SR is done early enough, it is safe for the remaining baby, but it still makes me nervous. It's something to think about and discuss with the doctor.

I found out that my clinic does vitrify their embryos to freeze!! I'm so thrilled that most of my frozens will make it through. On my first antral follicle count (small ovarian follicle at the beginning of cycle that could develop eggs) I had 26 follicles. If I could get a similar # during IVF and get them all to mature, we could maybe have 10 or so embryos to freeze.... trying not to get my hopes too high, but it seems realistic. Once we have our 2 babies, we plan to donate the remaining embryos to couples in need. :). (Update 10/18/13:  how hopeful i was back then!  I cannot believe I was talking about donating embryos.  I was so naive!)

I haven't received the results back from the pre-IVF tests. Here's hoping we don't have HIV! Other hormones levels received: FSH: 6.5, LH: 7.5, Estradoil: 32. Doc says all hormones are normal.

That's all I've got to update for now. Will post as things develop.

MRI Results and More

My MRI results are in! I have both kidneys and a possible rudimentary horn. A rudimentary horn occurs when the second mullerian duct begins to form the uterus and tube, but for some reason stops. Basically it is the other half of my uterus, but very small. At this point, they do not plan to remove the rudimentary horn

Tomorrow we have an appointment with a the chief of obstetrics to discuss the risks of pregnancy. I still need to schedule my salpingectomy, but am hoping to have it in February.

I was reading last night about vitrification for freezing embryos - the survival rate of the embryos is 95% compared to the usual freezing where only 50% of the embryos survive thawing. I really hope my clinic uses this technique, I'm gonna find out tomorrow. Also, I've been doing a bit of reading on whether to transfer embryos (day 3) or blastocysts (day 5). It seems like the blastocyst is the way to go. They're able to monitor the embryo two additional days, which is a big deal. Since I am having SET (single embryo transfer), I want to make sure I get the best quality possible! Will be discussing this with the doc tomorrow as well.

Having more blood drawn today and tomorrow....today is LH, FSH, and estradoil. Tomorrow my husband and I will be doing our pre-IVF blood tests (HIV, Hep B and C, Rubella, VLDR?, and blood type). I hate needles, so what a fun two days this will be!

Follow Up with RE

I had a follow-up with my reproductive endocrinologist regarding the results of my HSG. Our plan as of now is to remove the hydrosalpinx via salpingectomy, recover for 2 months, then start IVF. Once the salpingectomy is completed, I will have no fallopian tubes left, thus no chance of natural conception. It's upsetting, but I am happy to at least have a plan and some answers. Luckily, our insurance will actually cover most of one IVF cycle. We will only owe $400 for the whole cycle. I can't believe that insurance will cover any part of IVF! Hopefully the first IVF will be a charm, but if not, I'm hoping to get lots of embys to freeze. An FET is only about $3000 compared to $13000 for IVF. My RE will only put one embryo back per IVF / FET due to my unicornuate uterus and the risk of carrying multiples.
I'm going in for an MRI today to confirm whether I have two kidneys, and to see if a rudimentary horn is present with my unicornuate uterus.