Watch out!

At the moment Davy is shaking his sippy cup full of water over my faux leather couch, I am having trouble finding the will to care right now because he is also happily babbling to himself and not screaming or crying. Both he and I have been having quite a day. As far as I can tell he has molars coming in and is rather cranky because of it. I gave him some painkiller when we got home from church and that seems to be making things better. My excuse...well I am pregnant and I started back on the progesterone shots today. I don't much like the pain of the shot, or the emotional wreck I become, but it is better than the dizziness of the pills. Today I have been very anti-social and have had a very short fuse. Thankfully, or maybe not so much for him, I have only blown up at Kevin today. Which means that I haven't ruined any relationships with people at church. And Kevin understands that pregnancy sometimes makes me a raging hormonal nightmare. He really is very understanding of all my moods and tempers. I really do applaud him for it. Anyway, together Davy and I are just a lovely little couple of crankybutts. Thankfully we can pretty much hole up at home and ignore the world. Davy is now spitting on the couch. I will probably go over in a bit and wipe it all off, but for now I will just enjoy the peace.

Shots and Stuff

I went in today for another blood test to check out my progesterone levels. When they called me back about my levels they told me that they are taking me off of the shots and putting me on suppositories and a pill that I am to take at 2 pm everyday. As nice as it will be to get off the shots I am not looking forward to the suppositories or the pills. I suppose we will see how it effects everything.

1st Ultrasound

My first ultrasound will be on May 18th, I will be 7 weeks along at that point. Hopefully I will also be able to find out whether I am having twins or not. I am still on the progesterone shots and will probably be on them until I am about 10 weeks along, that is quite a bit of time still. The progesterone is making my backside numb in the areas where I have gotten the shot. The nurse said this is normal. It is a good bit weird but it also tends to work out well because in some areas Kevin doesn't even need to worry about hurting me because I can not feel the needle even go in anymore.

In other news I have been dealing with back pain like crazy, my neck and shoulders are super tense and have been sending jolts of pain down my arms. I have been feeling morning sickness for weeks now but have not yet gotten to the point of throwing up. I am kind of happy for that. It is kind of weird, I have basically told everyone about our pregnancy, except the people at work. I probably will not tell them until I hit the "safe" zone where miscarriage is pretty much not going to happen. And they wont really notice since I don't come in very often.

Positive

Today we got the fantastic news that we are pregnant. Today was the pregnancy test, however I knew that I could also take a home pregnancy test and was planning on taking one before we left for my doctor appointment. So last night I went to bed around 10 pm, at 11 pm I woke up and went back to sleep, at midnight I woke up and went back to sleep, finally at 1 am I woke up and said to myself, "Well, I have to pee pretty bad, might as well take the test now." So I got up, took the test and finished up, by the time I was done washing my hands the test was showing a positive result. So I got back into bed and woke Kevin up and said, "We're pregnant!!" This woke him up out of a dead sleep and woke him up for the rest of the night. Maybe I should use this technique every morning to wake him up. Probably only works once, darn.

I went back to bed after texting family, I probably got back to sleep around 3 am. At 5:30 I woke up to get ready for my doctor's appointment and we left the house at 6:15, we got to the doctor's right on time for my 7 am appointment and after having my blood taken we were out of there by 7:05 am.

Poor Davy, we woke him up early and took him with us because he had a 9:45 doctor's appointment as well. He is a little under the weather with a cold and he got his last two shots until kindergarten. We got the call from my doctor's office at 1 pm today to let us know that we are indeed pregnant! Yay!!

Testing

Tomorrow is the day I have my pregnancy test. I am really excited and nervous. So much so I had dreams about it last night, I dreamt that I took a home pregnancy test and it came out positive. Hopefully it is a good dream and will come true tomorrow.

Davy was sick last night we will see how he is doing this morning. But there is a good chance he is staying home from church. Poor little guy. Today should be a bit crazy.

Transfer

I know it has been a few days, I have been on bed rest but it is really no excuse. Pretty much good news all around. We had the five embryos and one of them stopped dividing, but the remaining four all made it to blastocyst, which means that they were in the best condition for surviving. We transferred two of them and froze the remaining two. How glad I am of our Flex Spending Account, it allowed us to afford the $850 cost of freezing the embryos. I am currently on that ten day wait to the pregnancy test. I still get the progesterone shots which Kevin gets to give me in my backside. We are very much hoping and praying for a positive pregnancy test next Monday.

Tomorrow is the day

Tomorrow we have the embryo transfer at 10:20 am, I talked to the embryologist today and two of the embryos are compacted and hopefully will be in blastocyst by tomorrow, which means they will be in prime condition to be transferred. The remaining three are still dividing and looking ok, I am hoping that they all make it to being frozen. That would give us three more chances at having kids from this IVF cycle. Right now I just hope it all works out ok.

Embryo update

Just got my call for today on the embryos, they are looking good and are dividing, they have set my embryo transfer date for Friday. This means that the embryos that they transfer will be day five embryos, which according to my doctor are more aggressive. Kevin and I are just hoping that everything goes well and that we are able to freeze some of the embryos as well as get pregnant from this transfer. Lots of prayers.

Embryos

Got my update just now, out of the 15 eggs they were able to fertilize 12, out of the 12 only 5 made it to embryo. We will see how many of that 5 actually survive. We will be transferring the two best looking ones and will be freezing any others that make it to the freezable status.

Egg Retrieval

Yesterday was the egg retrieval, for the retrieval they put you under and retrieve the eggs while you are under anesthesia. Out of the 18 follicles they were able to retrieve 15 eggs. I have basically been on bed rest since it was over yesterday and have been sleeping a lot. Today they will call me to give us the number of eggs that made it to embryo. Then on Tuesday they will tell me if I should come in on Wednesday or Friday for the embryo transfer. Chances are that I will be going in on Friday. I will be posting updates on where we are as each day passes.

Check up

Today I went in for an ultrasound, I have 19 follicles so far, 8 on one side and 11 on the other. So far so good, I am hoping things continue to go well and that we have a good number of eggs that are harvested. But even more than that I am hoping that we get a good number of good embryos from this attempt.

I got a letter in the mail today from our insurance letting us know that this IVF attempt is our last one they will cover. I knew this already, but having it in print is kind of finalizing.

On a non IVF note, Kevin contacted our mortgage lender about the fact that our property taxes were lowered due to us going to the county assessor and disputing our taxes. This means our mortgage payment is lower and that we have over-payed, so they sent us a check for the amount that we over-payed and we used part of the money to help pay off the debt we had on our furnaces. So by the end of this month we will no longer be paying off our furnaces! One big debt down and a few more to go. We still are working on paying off the cost of having Davy, as well as the car and the house. Not much debt wise, but still I would rather be debt free. One day it will happen, hopefully.

Shots and Escapes

Tomorrow I begin the Ganirelix shots along with the Follistim shots I have been taking since Wednesday. It seems strange that next Sunday we will be going in for harvesting (as long as everything looks good). This is another one of those faith building experiences, I feel good about April every time I pray about it, so here we are trying this again. I just have to have the faith that it will work.

Today Davy figured out how to climb out of the barrier of couches that keeps him in the living room. It happened earlier today, the dogs were in the area between the living room and the kitchen chewing on bones, Davy saw them and wanted to get to them. So he got up on one of the couches and started to climb over the side, he lowered one leg down towards the ground and then brought the other leg over and dropped the rest of the way, which wasn't far. I saw him as he brought the first leg over. When he hit the floor he rolled and seemed to be just fine, which meant that he would try it again. And sure enough when I put him back in the living room again he did it again. Thus ends our great plan to keep him safe in the living room. Now we have to baby proof the rest of the house, because now that he knows he can get out there will be no stopping him. Sometimes that boy is too clever for his own good.

Pushing back my appointment

So the fertility clinic called me to see if they could reschedule my next ultrasound appointment. They want to push it back a few days. Which is fine except for the fact that I am still feeling nervous about the increase in Follistim meds. So I am going to be calling them tomorrow and see if I can talk to a nurse about my concerns. We shall see how it all goes.

April IVF

Haven't really updated since shortly after the whole failure. So here goes. We went back into the Fertility doctor in late March to discuss where we wanted to go from there. Before we did so though I really prayed about it. I didn't want us to try again when it wasn't the right time and waste our last attempt. After a lot of prayer I got a feeling that we should really try in April. It was kind of scary because if this next attempt fails then we are basically out of IVF options. It will be the last attempt that insurance will pay for and with our income we would not be able to afford it out of pocket.

When we met with the doctor he went over what probably happened the last time that caused it to fail, he said that it is not very often that it happens the way it did. Basically when we got 13 eggs we should have gotten more than 3 embryos out of it. And the embryos should have developed more than what they did. So this time he wants to see how many eggs we can get so he will be upping my dose of Follistim. The goal is to get as many eggs as possible and then to get as many of those eggs to embryo status so that we can freeze them for later use. We told him that we wanted to try again in April and he said that sounded good. 

I was expecting that I would get my period in late March and then get the period we would use in late April. But my March period waited and waited until it was two days before April. So when it showed up I called in and got the process started. My first appointment was today, I went in for blood work and an internal ultrasound. Every time I have had an ultrasound in the past at the doctor's he has been in surgery and has not been available to talk to me so I would get a call later with instructions on what to do. This time he was there. So he decided to up my Follistim dose to 300 units, which is really quite high. I have never been on that high of a dose before. I do remember being on a higher dose with my first attempt, but when I looked at my previous posts about my first IVF attempt I found that instead of a 100 unit dose it was 150 and then went down from there. I am really hoping I don't over stimulate, which could lead to my ovaries getting over stimulated and bad things happening, it could result in death even. Kind of scary. 

I start my injections on Wednesday and hopefully everything goes well. Here is my meds schedule: 4/2/12 Estradiol (estrogen) two pills daily (one in the morning and one at night) for today and tomorrow 4/3/12, Wednesday 4/4/12 start 300 units of Follistim, continue with the Follistim with 300 units injected everyday until Sunday 4/8/12 when I continue with 300 units of Follistim and also begin to take Ganirelix, which is premixed, and begin the Estradiol again, that continues until Tuesday of next week 4/10/12 when I go in for my next ultrasound. 

Embryo Transfer

Today was our Embryo Transfer, or in other words where they implanted the embryos into my uterus. The drive into Chicago was not too bad, except for some of the traffic. The worst part was when we got there. In my instructions for pre-transfer I am instructed to drink water/liquid when we were halfway there. I had Gatorade in a two liter Gatorade bottle, I ended up drinking most of the bottle. Meaning I really had to go when we got there. It took 30 minutes for them to bring me back, but thankfully once they did they let me empty my bladder a little. Yay!

Then the embryologist came in and talked to us about the embryos, one was in early blastocyst and the other two were compounding, which is pre-blastocyst. The optimum is when the embryo is in blastocyst, but the embryos were good for implanting as they were. They took the early blastocyst embryo and the farthest along compounding embryo and implanted those.

Some neat things:
1. Kevin got to stay in the room and watch the embryo transfer, last time he wasn't allowed in the room
2. They showed us the embryos on the TV in the room before the transfer
3. We got to watch the ultrasound and see the embryos placed in my uterus, we even got our first picture of the baby/babies if they end up taking, the gave us an ultrasound picture of the embryos in my uterus

Now is the waiting time, on February 23rd we will have the pregnancy test that will tell us if this worked or not. I really hope that it will.

Eggs -> Embryos

Yesterday we got a call from the Fertility Center where I had my eggs harvested, out of the 13 eggs they harvested only 7 were viable, and of the 7 that they fertilized only 3 made it to embryo status. It is difficult for us to know that we lost 10 eggs out of the whole process, but 3 embryos is better than none. They called me today to verify that they are going to implant the embryos on the 5th day. They could have done the implantation on the 3rd day if the embryos were not looking too great, but they must look good for them to be planning on implanting on the 5th day. Fifth day embryos are much more aggressive and have a greater chance of implanting and becoming a successful pregnancy, so they will not be implanting all three but will only implant two. There is a high chance that we will get twins out of this.

Either way I am currently on a bunch of meds, and getting daily shots in the bum from Kevin. Yay fun! It is all for a good cause though, so it is worth it.

The Harvest

Today they harvested my eggs, this time they were able to harvest 13 of them. Last time when we got pregnant with Davy they were only able to harvest 5 eggs and only two made it to embryo status. Hopefully this time we get a lot more embryos so we can put them away for our next try. Tomorrow the clinic will call me and let me know how many eggs made it to embryo status. Next Wednesday is my implantation date, so we will drive back in for them to implant two embryos.

The clinic is in Chicago, which was quite a drive. We had to wake up at 4 am to make it to our 7 am appointment. Thankfully Kevin drove us into Chicago, and then he had to drive us out as I am on instructions not to drive the rest of today. I am also on a 5 lb lifting limit. Which means I can't pick up anything over 5 lbs, so no picking up the baby and I can only hold him if he crawls into my lap, which thankfully he does quite often. Love our little boy. I hurt today and feel quite under the weather so I can't really do a lot of walking without it hurting. I think that is what upsets Davy the most, Mommy can't get up and walk around a lot with him like I usually do.

Nana and Grandpa watched him yesterday and today because I had to drive into work and today we drove into Chicago. Nana sent me lots of cute pictures of Davy having fun at her house. I guess he spent a lot of time watching videos on her iPhone. I am on a new set of meds, and Kevin has to inject the progesterone in oil into my backside again. I will post more about my meds and the update on the embryos tomorrow. I think I am going to take another nap.

Walking and Schedules

Lately Davy's favorite thing to do is walk around the living room with someone holding his hand. He can walk between us but he doesn't seem to feel comfortable with his new walking skills to go walking on his own. According to his doctor he should be able to walk now, he has great muscle tone and good balance but he is just chicken and will walk once he gets up his courage. In the meantime Mommy and Daddy have become his walking companions. He does not do so good when it comes to walking with Mommy or Daddy outside the living room area, because he wants to see all the things he doesn't usually get to play with. Davy has also started to climb, which is giving us all sorts of fits as he likes to climb up on the couches but has not realized that falling off the couch could seriously hurt him. There is a part of me that feels like I should let him fall once to let him learn that he needs to be careful on the couch. It is difficult letting my baby learn tough lessons.

On the fertility side of things I have begun to give myself shots. I started on Monday January 30th. Here is my schedule: Monday January 30th to Thursday February 2nd (today!) inject 200 Units of Follistim subcutaneously, Friday February 3rd inject 200 Units of Follistim, 2 pills of Estrodiol and one syringe of Ganirelix, continue all three until Monday February 6th when I have a doctor appointment and will be given a new schedule by the nurse.

Speaking of doctor appointments I am full of them for the next few weeks. I have the appointment on the 6th, as well as an appointment with my General Practitioner on the 7th, and another with the fertility clinic on the 8th. On the 9th I will be driving in to work for a meeting and then on the 10th we will be driving to Chicago for harvest of the eggs. We will be returning to Chicago on the 15th for implantation. Just thinking about next week makes me feel tired. Davy will be spending the 9th and 10th with Nana and Grandpa while I am at work and in Chicago. I am sure they will have more fun than I will.

I exercised last night and the night before. Turned on a tv show and exercised for the duration of it. I need to do more of that.

Dodging the bullet

Or the $4738 hospital payment.

I have found that when going through any medical proceedure that requires you to go to the hospital it is so very nice to have insurance. I learned this first when we went through cancer with Kevin and a $17,000 bill came to us saying that it had all been paid by our insurance. Those are the kind of bills that stop your heart and then get it started again in a leap of joy.

So when I received my first bill for the egg extraction I had a similar reaction. 4738 dollars? Oh, wait, it is covered entirely by the insurance company, and I only have a $200 co-pay. Whew!

So imagine my surprise when I got a letter yesterday saying the following:
"The claim for this patient was reviewed based on additional information received. We have completed an adjustment, and have determined that an additional payment is not available.

*Your total responsibility to the provider of services is $4,738.18.* This total includes any amount you may have previously paid your provider for these services."

This is not the kind of letter you want to receive, especially when you have already jumped through all the necessary hoops. Done all the unpleasant tests that the insurance company required to cover you, and used the referal just like they required you to. When you have done every little thing the insurance company asked you to this is not what you want to see.

So I called the number they listed for questions. And got a lady who looked into it for me. I ended up sitting on hold for about 30 minutes while she looked at things and got things taken care of, but at the end of it all she said that it was covered, and that we didn't have to worry about it after all. Another big whew! My only worry now is that this bill was only for the egg extraction. The bill for the embryo implantation was another $3000. Hopefully I will not have to go through the same thing with that one.

Missing the Fertility Clinic already

Today was my first doctor appointment with my regular Obgyn, it was interesting. I am already missing the fertility clinic. Appointment was at 9 am. Got to the doctor’s office early, and they had me fill out paperwork. That was interesting, seeing as they were my obgyn office before I went to the fertility clinic. Filled out the paperwork, got my paperwork from the fertility clinic from the car. And sat and waited with Kevin in the waiting room. Finally about 9:30 am they called me back. A nurse asked me a bunch of questions about myself and my pregnancy and everything. One question was what is my religion. I was a bit surprised by that, but I suppose it makes sense as some religions require certain things. Then she took my blood after asking when the last time I was tested for STDs was. Then she took blood to test for that and who knows what else. So this means that within a year I have been tested three times for STDs. Then she asked me for a urine sample. The cup she gave me was odd, and I wasn’t quite sure how to work it. So I tried to use it how it seemed to work, but I got it wrong. I think I got enough urine in the cup for them by the end, but I am not sure. To give an example of how weird the cup was, I accidentally pricked my finger on the cup. That’s right, I stabbed myself with the cup hard enough to draw blood. Weird cup.

After that whole ordeal they took me and Kevin to a room where we met with the doctor and talked a bit. She discussed the pregnancy with us, and how we got pregnant, took a look at the paperwork from the fertility clinic, talked about her expectations with the pregnancy and what we should expect. Then she took us to another room where she would be giving me an exam. Inside was a paper shirt and paper lap blanket. So I put on my paper outfit and Kevin and I wait, and wait, and wait. At one point I say to Kevin, “I just love it when they put me in nothing but a paper outfit and leave me to wait for 30 minutes in a cold exam room.” He asked me if this had happened before and I said, “Yes, but it is better this time because I have someone to talk to while I wait.” Finally the doctor came in and gave me my exam, which was more like a physical, with PAP smear and everything. I asked her a few more questions, about exercise, and pregnancy tea, and sleeping positions. Yes I can exercise on the elliptical, but I have to start slowly, no she didn’t know anything about pregnancy tea, as for sleeping positions I can sleep however I want to just as long as I get lots of sleep. Then she gave me a folder full of stuff, a travel bag with what looked like formula in it (weird), and told me to make another appointment for three weeks from then.

So my next appointment is on the 29th and my next ultrasound is in September at my 20 week mark. I want to see the baby sooner, but I guess I will have to wait. Yes, I miss the fertility clinic greatly. Speaking of which I need to call them and see if I can donate my excess fertility meds somewhere. We don’t need them and probably won’t need them for another few years. So I want to get them out of the house as we need to get the house ready for selling.