November 18, 2009...Egg Retrieval Accomplished

The egg retrieval went great today. IV drugs are amazing, that's all I've got to say. I've been experiencing some pretty intense abdominal cramps, which is completely normal because they seriously jabbed a needle through my uterus and directly into both ovaries to aspirate the follicles. Ouch! But anyway, we were out of the office by 9:30, so no complications at all. They retrieved 12 eggs. That is actually a very good number. Ten eggs is average, and they hope to get in the range of 8-12, so we were right on the money. The lab will fertilize the eggs this afternoon and we will get a phone call sometime tomorrow (Thursday) letting us know how many eggs actually achieved fertilization. It is a little out of my comprehension to think that Cody and I are potentially creating embryos right this minute. It's really quite amazing.

The nurse did my first IM (intramuscular shot) in my rear this morning while I was still in recovery. The injection is progesterone in oil and is something we now have to do everyday. I am hoping Cody does as good of a job as the nurse did...I am sure he will, I have faith in him!! I will also start on an antibiotic tonight to deter any possible risks of infection from today.

We can't wait for the phone call tomorrow, hopefully with some good news. I will share with you tomorrow!!

November 17, 2009...Egg Retrieval

I just want to clear up any confusion as to what is happening tomorrow. Tomorrow we are doing our egg retrieval only. Cody and I have to be at the lab at 6am where Cody will give a semen collection and I will get ready for the retrieval. The procedure will actually start at 7 oclock. They will put me to sleep and then Dr. Hansen will insert a long needle through my vagina and into my ovaries. He will aspirate all of the liquid out of every follicle on each ovary. When he is finished, he gives everything to the lab who then have a long day ahead of them. They will wake me up and hopefully I will have a quick recovery and we will be on our way. As long as I am feeling fine, I should be able to go back to my regular routine on Thursday. Throughout the day tomorrow, the lab will be removing my eggs from the liquid aspirated and place them in a dish. They will then look through Cody's sperm and pick out the "best looking" sperm and prepare them. Once everything is ready they will be doing the ICSI procedure, where they will be inserting a single sperm into each egg. This is obviously an extremely delicate process. Once the sperm is inserted into the egg, we then have to wait to see if fertilization occurs. Tomorrow, before we leave, we will only know the number of eggs that were retrieved. We will then receive a call on Thursday from the nurse telling us how many of the eggs actually fertilized (which we will then call our embryos). They very rarely get 100% fertilization, but we are hoping for a good number. We will also find out whether or not we will have a 3 day transfer or a 5 day transfer (that is the time when they will transfer the embryos back into my uterus). This will be determined by how many eggs were retrieved and how they look once fertilization takes place. The embryos then have a few days to "grow" before the transfer takes place. This will happen on either Saturday or Monday. So yes, tomorrow is a big day. Please pray for peace, comfort and success....I am VERY nervous.

November 15, 2009...Wednesday It Is!

We have a date. Our egg retrieval is scheduled for 7am this Wednesday!! After looking at my follicles again today, the number of measurable follicles has gone up, but I didn't ask how many total follicles we were looking at now. When the dr. does the egg retrieval he said that he goes into every follicle and aspirates the liquid out of each of them. He then hands it directly to the lab and they are the ones that take it and look for the egg. So we may not get an egg out of every follicle, but that is the hope...so that's why he goes into every one, even the smaller ones. We are just hoping for a good number of good quality eggs. I will continue with my shots through tomorrow night, along with my hCG trigger shot, which is exactly 35 hours before the retrieval. Then no shots required for Tuesday!!! I know it's only one day, but at this point, I'll take whatever break I can get! Cody and I have to be at the clinic at 6am that morning. The actual process takes a very short period of time, but because of the invasive-ness of it all, they do put me under anesthesia. Including recovery time, the nurse thinks we will be out of there between 9 and 9:30 that morning. We are praying that everything goes smoothly.

Believe me, I am beyond nervous, HOWEVER, I am absolutely thrilled to be here and actually have this date scheduled...we are finally getting to the good part!!!!

November 14, 2009...No News

My ultrasound this morning showed that I am getting closer, but still not quite ready. The doctor really wanted to be able to give me some more detailed news, but he said he just couldn't. They would like me to continue with my meds. AGAIN, back to the pharmacy...sending me into meltdown mode once I got into my car. For some reason I was under the impression that my first large bag of medicine was going to be everything I needed. So every time I have to fork over more money, it's a little difficult to swallow. I understand that my body is unpredictable and of course they don't want you to pay for more than you need, but our cost for meds alone is really starting to stack up. Anyway, my ultrasound this morning showed 4 follicles on the right side and 6 on the left (so a couple less than the original 12 they were thinking). The biggest follicle in my right ovary measured 15 and the biggest one in my left is measuring at a 17. Ideally they would like the follicles measuring between 18 and 22. So I have to go back in tomorrow morning so they can take another look. I am really hoping we can pinpoint a retrieval date tomorrow. It's hard not to want to rush things but I have to put my faith in everyone that they know what they are doing and we will get the ball rolling when I am ready, and not until then.

November 13, 2009...On The Road Again

I apologize for not getting an update on here yesterday, just didn't get the time. I had my ultrasound appointment with Dr. Hansen yesterday morning at 7:15. Then I drove back to Worthington to work for the day, and then had to be back in Sioux Falls by 4:30 for my acupuncture appointment. I didn't get back to Brewster until about 8:00 last night, only to finish laundry and quickly pack our weekend bags so they could be in the car this morning as we have to be back to Sioux Falls this afternoon for another appointment. This has been a little challenging and I am putting a lot of effort into making sure I always have with me the right medication for the right time of day. All of my injections are required to be given at the same time every day, and because I haven't always had Cody with me at these times, my parents have had to step up and take on the challenge. We got a pretty good show yesterday morning when my dad attempted my morning injection (right mom?).

The results of my ultrasound showed that my eggs are growing, which is good, but they are not yet mature enough. Everything is a very exact science. All of my eggs have to be just the right size before egg retrieval. But they can't be too big and they can't be too small. So finding the perfect time where the majority of eggs are within the right size is a tricky process, hence all of the ultrasounds so they can be montirored very, very carefully. My plan of action is to continue with the stimulating meds and go back in Saturday morning for another ultrasound. So back to the pharmacy, another $460.00 for just four more injections to get me through to Saturday morning, and away I went. Thanks to my uncontrollable mood swings I seem to be having lately, I actually thought I might cry over the thought of handing over my check card. But once I got into the car and called Cody, we have learned it's easier to just laugh at the insanity of it all rather than getting upset.

The dr. is thinking my appointment on Saturday will give us much more information as to when my egg retrieval might take place. They are guessing Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of next week, but hopefully they will get that narrowed down once we go in on Saturday. Stay tuned for further details.

November 10, 2009...Grow eggs, grow!!

I started my stimulating meds last Saturday morning. This will help all 12 (or thereabout) follicles develop into mature eggs that will hopefully be capable of being fertilized once my egg retrieval takes place.  So now we're up to three injections a day, one in the morning and two at night. I am also continuing my trips over to Sioux Falls for acupuncture. Although I'm beginning to feel a little like a pin cushion, everything is going well, so I can't complain. I have another ultrasound appointment scheduled for early Thursday morning. Hopefully this will give us a little more information as to how my follicles are looking and possibly more of an idea of when egg retrieval will occur.

I would like to give my husband HUGE props for being the absolute best husband a girl could ever ask for. He has provided me with unlimited support and patience throughout this process and I don't know what I would do without him. He is going to make an incredible dad someday!

November 4, 2009...BIG Day!

I started my morning with acupuncture. I know right, completely stepping out of my comfort zone with this one. Our doctor, along with several other people, recommended we (or I) should do acupuncture along with our IVF cycle. As invested as we are in this process, we thought we should really go all the way. Leave no recommendations un-dabbled. So here I am dabbling into something I never thought, in a million years, would be something I could see myself doing. Seriously, lying on a table, my body covered in needles....yeah, not so much anything I would have ever envisioned. I kind of wished someone was there to take my picture!!! But it actually wasn't too bad. I can honestly admit there was nothing to it....which is probably a good thing, because there is a recommended 8 session protocol to accompany IVF. The purpose of acupuncture, in my case right now, is to increase blood flow to my uterus and my ovaries. This will help with the implantation process. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

After spending my morning spreading my wings, I headed over to Dr. Hansen's office for my first ultrasound appointment. At this point, my ovaries look good. They are showing about 6 follicles on each side. So hopefully there will be about 12 eggs on the day of Egg Retrieval...give or take a few. But 12 is a perfectly average number, so they were happy with that. Typically they would have started me on my stimulating medications today, but they want me to wait until Saturday. If they would have started me today, then my Egg Retrieval would have more than likely landed on a weekend. Which, if they can help it, the lab "people" really prefer not to do it on the weekends. So, if they start me on Saturday then my Egg Retrieval will fall sometime during the week. Which, as of now, they are looking at sometime around the 17th/18th of November. Then on to the pharmacy to pick up my "bag of goods."  This is all of the medication that I will need from here on out. Even with our insurance coverage, I have one thing to say.....STICKER SHOCK!!!

I finished out my afternoon with a bang.....a root canal!  No need to elaborate. A LONG 3 hours later and another big check, I called it a day. I did a lot of praying today. Not only for comfort, for obvious reasons, but for peace and acceptance. It's a hard thing to grasp...the fact that we are putting all of this time, money, and effort into something that isn't even a guarantee. But we remain hopeful!

October 26, 2009...so far, so good

The first couple days of injections have gone very well. As you can see, the needle we are using now is MUCH smaller than anything we have done in the past. It is smaller because this injection doesn't have to go into a muscle. It is actually given in my stomach, just below my belly button to either side. Although the needle is smaller and given in an area where I could give it to myself....I of course have opted to assign that job to my wonderful husband. I find having to deal with so many needles actually rather humerous at this point. For those of you who are familiar with my past fear of needles, you know the panic I would have at just the thought of a sharp object. For those of you who did not know that, there are literally no words to describe, as some might call, a "2-year old fit" I was known to have...yes, even into my 20's.  I am ashamed, but have come a long way. We have a lot of injections ahead of us, so we can definately both say we are thankful for my recent "maturity" on the matter.

October 23, 2009...Today's appointment

Wow...another appointment with a ton of information. Today:
*We each gave 5 vials of blood
*Cody collected a "just in case" sperm sample. This would be used as back-up in the event that Cody would be sick or would have an emergency the day of my egg retrieval and wouldn't get a sample collected.
*I completed a Saline Infusion Sonogram (SIS). This consists of imaging the uterus through an ultrasound while injecting saline into the uterine cavity. This is an attempt to detect any abnormalities such as polyps or fibroids that could be contributing to our infertility. Another VERY uncomfortable procedure, but thank goodness for normal results!
*We finished by going through injection training. Yikes!! Again, a lot of information. I was getting extremely overwhelmed but the nurse assured us that she was just giving us an overview and we only have to take it one step at a time and worry about what we are doing in the "now" versus looking at what is to come.
As far as my injection schedule goes, I already start tomorrow. This shot of Lupron is something I will do everyday and is to be taken in conjunction with the last five days of my birth control (to continue the suppression of my ovaries). I will continue this everyday until my egg retrieval, which will probably take place somewhere around November 13-17th.
I can definately say I'm getting a little anxious about starting with all of these injections, but we completed another big hurdle today and were blessed by coming out on top!!

October 9, 2009...and we begin...

Well, we have officially taken the very first step. I started taking the birth control pills on the 8th. I know it doesn't seem like much at this time, but Cody and I are very, very excited and hopeful that this process will result in expanding our family!! I will take the birth control pills until the 28th to keep my ovaries "asleep." We both have appointments on the 23rd...lab work, more tests, and injection training. You probably won't hear from me again until after that appointment. I am very surprised at how excited I am for this all to take place. A few months ago, I was terrified of the thought of going through with IVF. But now that we are here...bring it on!!! I can't wait!!

September 29, 2009...Finally, some good news!

Our appointment this afternoon went extremely well. Actually, better than we could have ever expected it to go. It was primarily a consultation prior to beginning IVF...discussing everything from the process to the risk factors. We gained an ENORMOUS amount of information today...it's hard to wrap my brain around everything. But the best news we could have received was from the financial worker. Once we saw the doctor and decided we were going to go through with this, he then schedules everyone involved to come in and "talk their talk." When the financial worker came in, she sat down and asked if we were aware of the fact, that as of this past July, my insurance now covers IVF (up to a certain dollar amount, of course)....but we didn't care, we were ecstatic!!!! I looked over at Cody and I think we both had tears in our eyes. She was absolutely thrilled to be able to be the one to give us that news. Just as much as she made our day, I think we made hers too :) A few weeks ago in church, our pastor gave a sermon that really spoke right to my heart: What is God's Purpose for Your Life? Knowing that we all have something left to offer the Lord, even in times of hardship. When you come to the end of your resources, a place where we are afraid, the Bible says you can expect a miracle. When you come to a disaster, God says this is the beginning of something great. The last week or so, I have been panicking, trying to get our finances in order and everything in place before taking this huge plunge. We have honestly felt like our resources were coming to an end, but this was something we had to figure out a way to do. I have realized that I can't look at what's been taken away or what we don't have, but what we do have. The message that Sunday focused on looking at what we do have and offering it to the Lord...and this is when we will see the blessings flow. God gave us a miracle today and we are on cloud-9.

I will give you a brief overview of "In-Vitro Fertilization":
*The whole process will take 2 months
1. I will begin by taking birth control (for a month) to suppress my natural hormones. The purpose of this is to keep my ovaries asleep so that I do not ovulate on my own.
2. This will be followed by MANY injections in order to stimulate the production of healthy eggs.
3. Once the eggs reach a healthy size (monitored by MANY ultrasounds), the Egg Retrieval will take place. This is a surgical procedure where a needle is passed through the vagina to aspirate the eggs out of each ovary. Yes, I will be put to sleep for this :)
4. Now for the egg and the sperm to meet...in a petri dish! Because Cody's counts are so low, they will be doing a procedure called ICSI (Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection). This is done by injecting one sperm directly into one egg. If fertilization occurs, the embryologist will incubate and monitor the embryos for 3-5 days to make sure they develop properly.
5. After the 3-5 days of growing embryos, they will be transferred back into my uterus.
6. Finally, approximately 2 weeks after the transfer, I will go in for a pregnancy test. The embryo MUST implant itself into the uterine lining. That's all it has to do. Everything has been done for it, all it has to do is find itself a nice, cozy place to rest and STAY THERE!!!

*I, of course, had to ask the doctor what the success rate looked like for this, and I was actually pleasantly surprised. He said a normal success rate is around 50-55%. But he thought because we were young and with our only problem being Cody's low sperm count (it's great that his morphology, or shape of the sperm, looks really good) that he sees us to be in the upper end, probably around 60-65% success rate!!

I know that was a lot of information. To keep you updated, I will continue to post more information as we go through each step, as to what we are specifically doing in the process. Our first step now, is for me to call on the first day of my next cycle (which I'm guessing will be within the week). At that time I will go on birth control for a month. Also during this time, Cody and I will both have to go back for more tests. This is a scary, yet exciting time for us and we ask for you to continue to keep us in your prayers. We COULD NOT do this without all of you!

September 24, 2009...IVF Here We Come!

I have finally gotten my many phone calls made and everything seems to be figured out...at this point anyway. I wanted to make sure we had everything taken care of through ARC and the bank before making an appointment with the doctor. We have our first appointment on Tuesday afternoon. This will just be to discuss the procedures and how everything will lay out. We are nervous, but anxiously looking forward to it. I think the anticipation is worse than the process (I might be changing my mind on that statement in a few weeks). But we are hoping for the best. I am sure I will be filled with knowledge after our appointment on Tuesday :)

September 17, 2009...Update

Today I had my MRI on my spine and my appointment with the doctor. Things went very well. It's been 6 months since my last one and today things looked good. The MRI still shows the fluid filled cavity in my spinal cord, but it doesn't look like it's growing or changing at all. My back has actually felt very good the last few months, so I was hoping things would look good today. My doctor feels very comfortable having me come back in a year.

We are still working on getting this IVF process into motion. Our fertility clinic in Sioux Falls is part of a network called Advanced Reproductive Care (ARC). This program is designed to help couples build their families by offering various IVF treatment packages. These packages are designed by lumping services together and offering discounted prices versus paying for the services individually. But trust me, when I say "discounted prices" it's kind of something to laugh at. The other advantage of going through this program is that they offer financing options. I never thought the day would come when we had to take out a loan "in hopes" of a child. Financing has to be in place before treatment can begin and because the clinic asks for the entire payment up front (not including meds), we need a little help from the bank. So that is where we are at in our journey. As soon as everything is in place, I will be giving the doctor a call so we can get moving on things. Please keep us in your prayers. Just in the few phone calls I've made so far, I have found this to be very overwhelming....and we haven't even started with the treatments!!!

September 4, 2009...Aunt Holli

Yep that’s right – you heard me correctly. I’m going to be an aunt. My sister is having a baby!!! ~WOW~ This is a hard post for me to write. For several months now I’ve been giving my sister a hard time, telling her that it was time for them to start trying to have kids. If I can’t bring children into this family, then she might as well give it a try. She obviously had concerns, knowing how hard it would be on me if they were able to get pregnant while we were still trying. I shared my feelings with her...this is certainly something I didn’t want them to put on hold because of us. They cannot live their lives based on what’s going on in ours. If they were ready for children, then they needed to do what was best for them. Although, I could understand her hesitation. I told her she was right, it would be hard for me, but I would still be super excited...it would be the next best thing. Right??? How wrong was I!?! Now that the time is actually here and the news is real, I can’t believe how difficult it’s been for me to handle. Again, I want to reiterate, this is not easy for me to write, because I know this is going to be read by my family. I have said from the beginning...not for one single second do I EVER want to take the excitement away from Kris and Josh, and from my parents who are overjoyed to be grandparents. On the other hand, it has often taken every fiber of my being not to bust into tears every time the topic comes up. I want to be excited. I don’t know how to be excited. I am having a very difficult time handling the overwhelming emotions I’ve been experiencing. I try to let myself experience it and go through whatever I am feeling, rather than suppressing it. I let myself feel angry, I let myself hurt, and I let myself cry. It’s important for me to know that that’s ok. These are real feelings for me. It's hard to watch everyone dance, while I'm still waiting for my party to begin. I continue to pray for guidance in this area, I am needing a little help right now.

Kristal, my dear sister ~ please know that I am beyond happy for you two and I honestly AM thrilled to become this baby’s favorite aunt :) although I am having a rough time showing it. Please forgive me.

September 2, 2009...Our News (or lack thereof)

Once again, it is a sad day in the Finke household. This baby makin' stuff is getting harder and harder. Our third, and final, round of IUI failed us once again. I will be calling the doctor in the next few days, but our plan will be to begin the steps to conquer our first round of In-Vitro Fertilization. I am especially bummed this time around, mostly because I am absolutely terrified to do IVF. The only thing that keeps me positive about it, is that it may just be the one thing that could possibly bring us closer to becoming mommy and daddy. I'm not sure how things will go now that we've decided on IVF. I will find out more once I call our doctor. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. I strongly believe they will be answered one day...in one way or another.