I am heading home today from visiting my New York family and being in my cousin Melissa's wedding. All of our posts are In Vitro related because I don't ever think our work/home work/home schedules are exciting enough to blog about...but thought this time you guys might want to hear about us, not just our IVF experience.
Both my mom and dad grew up in upstate New York, just a short drive from Canada. It is beautiful here, I would move here if it weren't for the 6 month blistering winters!! Here are a couple pictures that I have taken so far.
It was a crazy week with the wedding on Saturday, but everything turned out beautifully! The pic above is of me and the bride at her bachelorette party, we had a great time! I have a couple wedding pics that are stolen because I didn't take any of the ceremony. I was escorted by Melissa and Jim's son Brody, also, here is a pic of him in his element....
Long flight home today, but I am very ready to see Scotty and puppies! I am sure Scotty is ready to see me too, and to take over dog duty (no pun intended!! )
We are headed to North Carolina for vacation with Scotty's family, we can't wait!! Will post blog/pics soon!
xoxo....Tera
Sorry it's been so long since our last update, things have been slooowwwww going. I am in New York right now for my cousins wedding, and Scotty is at home manning the fort (and all the dogs)!
The only news that we have is that we now have a schedule in place. (Assuming my body cooperates). I started birth control to get me on a schedule that works for the doctor and blood labs. It also makes sure that we don't inadvertently get pregnant while on hormone injections, which would be really bad for the baby.
Next Wednesday we will go to the class that will teach Scotty how to give me the injections, which will be interesting to say the least. After that we will start Lupron injections on July 3rd which will last for about a week. I don't know the simple names of the other drugs, just the 27 letter names that came on our pharmacy bill, but those will last until the end of July.
Once we get on that schedule our aspiration (retrieving the embryos) will be somewhere around July 29 with the transfer five days after that (beginning of August). It will be exactly 2 weeks after the day of the transfer that we will be going to take a pregnancy test!! If I'm pregnant I will continue on the injections to help sustain the pregnancy :)
So, we will try to update more often than once a month!! We appreciate prayers. It's not over yet so keep them coming. Love you all!
So I am thinking our posts will slow down for a little while. There are a couple reasons why:
First-We have all of our pre-testing done. Everything was normal and healthy, yahoo! Well, we haven't heard anything and they said, "no news is good news" so there you have it.
Second-Our next appointment is on May 10th to sign consent forms. This is where we will start paying for our procedures. When I set up this appointment we put down our deposit.....kind of exciting, we are locked in! This appointment will also be an ultrasound to measure my uterus :-D TMI? Don't read the next sentence then! It is basically measuring how deep they will need to go to place the embryos...when we get there. She (the coordinator who surely has had this done since she can say what it feels like, lol) said that this doesn't hurt, feels like an annual exam. I'll let you know if they are liars!
Third-We aren't really sure when the actual aspiration will happen, and the embryo transfer 3 or 5 days later because that depends on my cycle-which is irregular. Reproductive medicine group are very accommodating and have offered to start my injections throughout May and do my procedures in June because I am a teacher. This would be wonderful but......one of my longest and best friends (and cousin) is getting married in June in New York and I am the Maid of Honor. That being said, it could have happened in June if my cycle worked out perfectly, but they don't allow you to travel while you are doing your injections or a few weeks after your aspiration and transfer for obvious reasons. (Blood work, ultrasounds, lastly and my favorite....pregnancy tests!!!) Since their lab is closed for 3 weeks in July (who does that) it looks like I will be doing the injections in July and hopefully the procedures in August. My luck-the first week of school :)
Until May 10th.....
I (T) have been dreading this day all week. Really.....for months, since the last time my doctor told me to get an HSG. I have been told by friends who have experienced this that it's not bad at all. Well, God has a funny way of timing, and making things work out for His plan. After my blood work on Monday broke loose a chaotic start to a long, trying process....... I needed more blood taken today. So, I then started to worry less about the HSG and more about the blood work! Clever, right?!
I have been very healthy for all of my life, and really haven't experienced very much. The things I have had to endure have NOT gone well at all. I like to think that my body has been spoiled and is rebelling against all of these ridiculous torture methods! The only times I have had to give blood have ended in passing out, smelling salts, pretzels, & juice.
NOT TODAY! It couldn't have gone better (unless of course I could have avoided it all!). I start the morning with a miracle pill (not the one some of you are thinking of..) VALIUM! At first I thought, this crap is crap. (Verbatim) Well then about 8 minutes went by and I had to remember what I was doing and why I wasn't at work :)
Scotty came home to drive me there (good idea), in the process I sneezed ALL over myself, Scotty had to hold my head up, and other things I can't remember. We didn't wait long which was good because he had me drink at least 3 bottles of juice, probably paranoia from Monday. Scotty wasn't allowed to come back with me for the HSG because we don't want to x-ray his sperm (Dr.'s words-not mine). The whole thing lasted maybe 3 minutes and was painless!! No more discomfort than an annual visit-ladies you can relate.
I had decided last night that I was not going to have Scotty with me for my blood work this time, and I think he appreciated that. The way my body responds to passing out is not something anyone should have to see, I still feel guilty for how much I have put him through the last three times.
Well either the valium, the nurse who wouldn't shutup (with good reason), or my determination not to pass out worked. I almost cried walking out, this is the first time I have not made a scene for something that should be very simple. It's honestly embarrassing being labeled a "fainter" because I thought I couldn't control it. But now I know it can be done :) Also, my nurse drawing the blood shared her story with me. She now has three kids, and wasn't able to do IVF, had to go as far as surgery for each of her pregnancies. She said it's the most rewarding process anyone could experience, that made me smile.
The next step is our IVF informational meeting on Tuesday. I am not sure what to expect because it will be a separate class for Scotty and I to learn how to give myself the injections :-(
I already feel very blessed to have such a supportive group of family and friends around us. Not to mention a husband that has already been more caring and understanding than I could want.
Until next time..............scary thought: Scotty and I have several times said, "When our babies are here," or "what are we naming the babies"....I certainly hope that isn't foreshadowing anything...... ;-)
Well, we had an interesting doctors visit this morning. We went to do blood work on both T and myself to make sure we don't have any diseases we could potentially pass to offspring. I gave blood first and it all went well. My blood flowed like the sound of Capistrano. I couldn't have been more proud! Then she went...
If the plan was for them to start taking blood, for T to pass out, and to scare her husband to the point where he needed to check his underwear afterward, it all went perfectly according to plan. Here's the thing. Remember my last post about how this would be worse for T than it was for me? Well if you missed it, it was way worse for her. They only took two vials of my blood. For T, they didn't have enough vials in the room so they had to go get more from the next room over. The nurse came back and laid 10 vials down on the table. She told the nurse about her history of passing out so she brought in reinforcements along with a box of smelling salts. She laid back and they prepped the arm. Needle went in, vial one success. Vial one came out, vial two success. Vial two came out, vial three success. Vial three came out... T very calmly announced, "HERE IT COMES"! It's a good thing there wasn't a fan in there cause the poo would have smashed it to pieces.
If you've never witnessed someone losing consciousness, it's not pleasant. If you've never witnessed your spouse going through it, it's scary and I don't recommend it. There is some remotely good news though. They took enough blood in the first three vials to be able to run all but two tests. Bad news is that she has to go give more blood to be able to complete the last two tests. Next time she does it they only need one more vial so hopefully the effects won't be long enough to get to her.
This coming Friday is the Hysterosalpingography (HSG). It's far too long to explain so READ HERE to see what it's all about. Basically, it's the test to make sure everything is as it should be downstairs. This is the first real procedure we've had to go through so please keep her in your prayers again for another week. Until next time...
~Scotty
