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.