And now...we wait!

I had my transfer performed this past Tuesday. Mom and dad went with me. It was a completely painless procedure. I had to arrive an hour before my appointment to begin drinking tons of water. They wanted me to have a full bladder because it allows them to have a better view for embryo placement in the uterus. While I was drinking, the embryologists came in with a picture of the two embryos the were looking at placing in my uterus. She said that they had progressed beautifully and she had already frozen 4 other embryos and was watching 6 more to see how they progress. Seeing the picture just excited me and I can't wait to share this whole story with them one day! After my bladder was uncomfortably full we moved into the procedure area. They placed a small catheter in and used an ultrasound probe on my stomach so they could see the placement of the catheter and embryos. The embryologist brought in the babies in another catheter and they inserted them through the other catheter into my uterus. Me, mom and dad were able to watch the whole thing on ultrasound screen. When he placed them in we saw two small white dots float across the screen. It was wild! I was able to leave immediately afterwards with a few rules, but was told to live life as normal. I has already taken off the next day because I wasn't sure how I would feel, so it was a mental health day full of resting and a few errands with my sister. The nausea started Thursday and lasted all day. An afternoon nap had become part of my everyday schedule. Friday I had a field trip at school and still felt nauseous all day and tired. On the way home from work that day I got sick and had to pull over....not my best moment...lol This weekend has been fine though. I am still tired, but the nausea has subsided a little. I'm trying not to get too excited, but I just have a feeling that this will work for us. My follow-up appointment is Friday and they will do a blood pregnancy test to see if it worked or not. The next five days will be some of the longest I will ever experience. Luckily we are testing at work, so that will make my day fly by and my dad is going out of town so I'm sure my mom will keep me busy till bedtime. I will let everyone know when I know...maybe Friday or the weekend...keep the prayers coming!!

Until next time....

-BLT

Tuesday is the big day!

My egg retrieval was this past Thursday. I didn't feel a thing and was put to sleep so the day was full of lots of laying around and sleeping. They did tell me before I left that they retrieved 24 eggs from my ovaries that morning. I returned to work the next day, which wasn't my best idea because I was dying by the end of the day in pain. My Friday night consisted of one of my besties cooking me dinner and watching a movie on the couch. My nurse called early Friday morning and informed me that out of the 24 retrieved eggs 6 of them were immature leaving 18 for them to fertilize and progress. After injecting the sperm and watching them for the day, 12 of the eggs had fertilized and were progressing nicely. The other embryos didn't make it. They called again this morning and informed me that 11 of the 12 eggs were still progressing nicely and want me to come in on Tuesday morning for my transfer. As the day approaches I get a little bit more confident and anxious. I'm hoping to have them transfer 2 embryos on Tuesday, but that will be determined when I get there on Tuesday and talk with my doctor. What they do not transfer will be frozen for later use if we need them. I will keep everyone updated how the process goes on Tuesday....

Until next time....

-BLT

It's time!!

The time has FINALLY come.... yippee!

So the cyst is gone and I've been doing nightly injections the past 10 or 12 days and driving up to the doctor for my monitoring appointments every other day. I know understand why I don't live in a big city like Atlanta, traffic sucks. At these daily appointments they have been watching my eggs grow and mature and waiting for just the perfect moment for me to take my trigger shot and perform the actual retrieval. I went today for an appointment and I have 10 good sized mature eggs that Dr. Perloe seemed very positive about. There are also a few smaller eggs that he thinks will mature by retrieval day. My personal nurse, Jessica Summers, will give me my trigger shot tonight and I go in Thursday morning for the procedure. Luckily I will be put to sleep and shouldn't feel a thing. They will then take my eggs put them in a dish and directly inject Travis' sperm. They will monitor the eggs and watch them fertilize over the next few days. Once they are ready, they will be transferred into my uterus, possibly Monday or Tuesday of next week. Dr. Perloe will be transferring two embryos into my uterus that day...fingers crossed for twins! I am so excited and anxious about having IVF done. I feel like one of the reasons we have struggled the past three years in conceiving is due to the mobility rate for his sperm. I feel like they just were not meeting up soon enough in order to mate. I feel that since the specialists are making the egg and sperm meet physically themselves, that this will be successful for us. I pray that my body accepts the babies and it leads to a healthy pregnancy and delivery. I'll be in touch....remember Travis and I throughout the coming days and continue pray for success along with us.

Until next time....

- BLT

Egg retrieval day!!

Hooray for good news!!

I went to the doctor Friday and was happy to find out that the cyst on my right ovary was gone! God i good! Everything else looked perfect and my blood work levels were perfect so I go the go ahead from my doctor to go ahead and officially begin the IVF process. Yay! The first step is I have to give myself an injection every night for the next 10 days or so. The medicines in the injection are supposed to help my eggs grow and mature and help me retain most of them. Naturally women produce lots of eggs each month, but just through natural causes our bodies usually only has one that has grown and matured and is released during ovulation. The medicine should trick my body into keeping that amount of eggs I have now. As of Friday I had a total of 21 egg sacks that had potential of growing. My doctor did say that they usually are not able to get 100% of the eggs to mature enough by egg retrieval day, but is still hopeful we have plenty when we need to retrieve them. I am very proud of myself because I have been giving myself my injections. I was worried this would be an issue for me because I am a huge wimp. But I have surprised myself doing them myself. I go back to the doctor on Tuesday March 12th in which will begin my monitoring appointments. I will go every other day for them to do an ultrasound and check to see how my eggs are progressing. Once my eggs are ready, I will give myself a trigger shot that will make my body ovulate, releasing my eggs. I will go in the next day or two and they will put me to sleep and retrieve my eggs. This party I am nervous about and I'm thankful for being put to sleep for the procedure. I can not put into words how excited I am to finally begin the process. I wish my honey was here to go through this with me, but I I know he is here for me even on the other side of the world. Thank you everyone for your prayers, support, and kind words. If not for you, I would be a total mess through this whole process. I will keep you updated as we continue to progress....so stay tuned!

Until next time....

-BLT