IVF Round 2...
After our first unsuccessful IVF round in April - I literally did not know what to think. I was sad, frustrated, angry and left wondering are we ever going to be able to make an embryo/baby that is strong and can survive. After having 11 eggs and only one fertilize I felt hopeless. I needed a break. We had what is affectionately termed as the WTF appointment with our doctor 2 days after our BF (thank God - I think I might have searched the man down at his home to get some answers if it hadn't been so soon!). He honestly didn't have any solid answers for us other than that our egg and sperm quality were both poor. Whoa - what? In all the tests and all the talks before we knew we had male factor issues but now my eggs are bad? WTF. He talked us through things we could do to improve both. He suggested switching to an organic, natural, cage-free, free-range diet. avoiding products that could contain BPS (i.e. switch from my beloved purple plastic water bottle to a glass one), and load up on fertility enhancing supplements. A lot of women have asked what was suggested so I tried to snap a few pics of both the female and male supplements - if you can't read them let me know and I can scan and email them to you!
We left the office on May 8th feeling completely hopeless. I thought to myself no way is a bunch of fancy, expensive produce and overpriced supplements going to do the trick - but we went immediately to GNC and loaded up and tried to keep a positive attitude. May was our month off - summer in Chicago is our favorite time of year - street festivals and live music, Cubs games, walks along the lake - we loved it all and we were going to live it up and get back on the bandwagon in June. May was great and we had a lot of fun but we found that we still talked about IVF and babies and ttc so it really wasn't much of a break and once June rolled around we were raring to go!
I went in for baseline and was given the go to start birth control. 27 days later I went in for a suppression check to get the Lupron green light and they found an estrogen producing cyst and wanted me to trigger it out - say what? How does that many any sense - but ok...will do doc! We trigger the cyst that began at 36mm on a Thursday - by the following Tuesday it had stopped producing hormones and we were given the green light to start Lupron - which we did at Ravinia (a local outdoor music venue) to the tunes of Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20! But the cyst - it grew to 56mm and I was terrified. However we decided we had no choice but to put all our faith and trust in the doc so that's what we did!
After our first unsuccessful IVF round in April - I literally did not know what to think. I was sad, frustrated, angry and left wondering are we ever going to be able to make an embryo/baby that is strong and can survive. After having 11 eggs and only one fertilize I felt hopeless. I needed a break. We had what is affectionately termed as the WTF appointment with our doctor 2 days after our BF (thank God - I think I might have searched the man down at his home to get some answers if it hadn't been so soon!). He honestly didn't have any solid answers for us other than that our egg and sperm quality were both poor. Whoa - what? In all the tests and all the talks before we knew we had male factor issues but now my eggs are bad? WTF. He talked us through things we could do to improve both. He suggested switching to an organic, natural, cage-free, free-range diet. avoiding products that could contain BPS (i.e. switch from my beloved purple plastic water bottle to a glass one), and load up on fertility enhancing supplements. A lot of women have asked what was suggested so I tried to snap a few pics of both the female and male supplements - if you can't read them let me know and I can scan and email them to you!
For the man in your life ;)
A little something for my ladies
I went in for baseline and was given the go to start birth control. 27 days later I went in for a suppression check to get the Lupron green light and they found an estrogen producing cyst and wanted me to trigger it out - say what? How does that many any sense - but ok...will do doc! We trigger the cyst that began at 36mm on a Thursday - by the following Tuesday it had stopped producing hormones and we were given the green light to start Lupron - which we did at Ravinia (a local outdoor music venue) to the tunes of Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20! But the cyst - it grew to 56mm and I was terrified. However we decided we had no choice but to put all our faith and trust in the doc so that's what we did!
Chris looking serious - our first ever Lupron shot!
The crazy cyst that threw a wrench in our plans and set us back a week or so - wait did I just post a pic of my ovaries on the internet???
We were so excited to finally be starting again! 10 days of Lupron later we went in to baseline and found the cyst had shrunk to 16mm and was quickly diminishing - yay! And we were given the green light to go. 12 days of stimming on a long Lupron luteal overlap protocol using Lupron, Menopur and Follistim and we were ready for our Ovidrel trigger!!
First night of stimming shots for round #2!!
This cycle we promised to do more - so we packed our shots up in my adorable Steve Madden bag and headed to see Bon Jovi and Soldier Field!
It's trigger time baby!
We were anxious and nervous for retrieval #2 since the results were so grim the first time around! But it's like I told a few friends - for me - the night before the retrieval is the most hopeful I feel during a cycle. You are on top of the world. You just finished a long stretch of shots - for me over 3 weeks (and I'm "lucky" - my doc doesn't use PIO shots during a fresh cycle so after the trigger this girl is done with shots!) and you are nothing but hopeful for what tomorrow will bring. It's like the night before Christmas - you are so anxious to see what Santa will bring. And holy smokes - we must have been very good this cycle because we got 18 eggs!! We knew we were not out of the woods yet - we learned that on round 1. But Friday morning sore and moving slow, I got the call at work that we had 7 fertilize and all were growing and dividing and I literally broke down in tears thanking the nurse. I called Chris and he couldn't tell if it was good or bad news - that's how bad I was sobbing - my mom too! And once they finally heard 7 they weren't sure if I was happy or sad! I was elated! We were able to do a 5 day transfer and we learned today that was have 4 perfect and beautiful embryos frozen and waiting for us!
My magic socks - one from Allison & one from Heather!!
The crackers after the procedure are seriously the most deelish things I've ever tasted. Worth every bit of pain!
Holy smokes we got 18 eggs!!
And here we are with our perfect and beautiful day 5 grade AA blast that we hope is currently snuggling in where he/she belongs
No matter the outcome of this cycle we feel extremely blessed. We came into this cycle dreaming that one day we could have an embryo make it long enough and look strong enough to make it to a day 5 transfer and now we have proven we can indeed make great quality embryos - so whether it be BFN or BFP - I can take comfort and praise God above that we are not completely broken! ;)
I want to fill you in later on our decision to only transfer 1 - it's been something most have asked us and it's quite the dramatic/crazy story but I'll save that for tomorrow!
XOXO
K
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