Our Little Doozer!

Here's our little Doozer. I have found myself as well as my wife looking at the picture throughout the day and have to tell you I have become quite attached to it. So far I have been so optimistic and in previous cycles if things didn't go well I talked myself through it telling myself it's o.k. we'll just keep on trying. This is where my fear comes in. I have such high hopes for this cycle and have become quite attached to our Doozer that if for some reason this cycle doesn't work it may be more devastating than the many others. Oh well I guess I can't worry about that now. All I can do is patiently wait and leave it in God's hands. I so hope this is it!!

Transfer Complete!!

Sorry I didn't update yesterday. I've been kept busy taking care of Morrisa. Our transfer was pushed back a day, so we went in today. Everything went smoothly. We had 2 emdies that were ready for transfer, and 7 that were on th brink of reaching the blast stage. At first we were debating putting 1 or 2 back but finally agreed with our RE on putting 1 back. We have named our embryo's Doozers from Fraggle Rock for those of you who remember the show. Anyway we're home now resting and hoping that our little doozer digs in. I will post of picture of our embryo as soon as I scan it.

Embie Update!!

For those reading both my blog and my wifes I apologize for the repeated blogs, but I'm updating both while she is resting.

We just got a call with our transfer time for Monday. We are scheduled for 1pm. Also we asked about the state of our embies, and she said that all 10 are doing excellent. She said some were 6 cell, some 8 cell, and some were beginning to compact. We are so proud of our little embies!

Transfer Update

Wow what a night and start to the weekend. Last night Morrisa was in extreme pain and had a lot of pressure in her upper abdomen and I couldn't take seeing her in that much pain so we agreed that a trip to the E.R. is probably the best thing to do. If anything they could do something for her pain right? So after ultrasounds and hours of waiting to hear from the E.R. doc the verdict was that she had fluid in her abdomen as we suspected from hyper stimulation and she also has fluid in her lungs. We were concerned about her having fluid in her lungs but they spoke with the on call dr at Shady Grove and we can leave and go to Shady Grove in the morning. So at 3:45am we departed for home and left the house this morning at 8am so we could make it to Rockville. She felt sick all night and when she got up this morning vomited a couple times. She also still had a lot of pressure right below her sternum I guess it is (rib cage) and what she said feels like a beach ball in her stomach. They took her right away and did another ultrasound and the dr said that "yes there is fluid but if it were up to him and if we were transferring today he would still go ahead with it." With that said he then told us that they moved our transfer day from today to Monday. He couldn't give us a total number of embies that are still growing but did say that there were quite a few. We have to call first thing tomorrow morning to let them know how she is feeling and we will ask then because we are so curious to know how many of the 10 embies there are remaining. As of a couple hours ago Morrisa was still feeling bad but took something they gave her for her sickness feeling and a vicodin and has been sleeping since. So I will update when I know how she's feeling now and when we hear how many embies we have.

Fertilization Report

Just wanted to pop in and give a quick update. Our nurse called and said that 16 eggs were mature and that we have 12 embryo's. Morrisa was the one to call and let me know and we're both excited with this news. Even though she's still in so much pain.

Chicken Little

Yup, that's what I am! Chicken Little! So when we triggered the other night I was to give Morrisa the shot. I mean that's why I have been the giving her the sub-Q shots to work myself up to the IM shots. I couldn't bring myself to give her the shot. I forgot to mention this earlier. I was reminded as I was about to give Mo her first Progesterone injection and simply handed her the needle. I just can't get past the size of the IM needles. Oh well. She seems to not have any problem doing it herself, so don't fix it if it ain't broke right? Thank you everyone for your kind comments!

Egg Retrieval Time!!

We arrived this morning at Shady Grove in Rockville at 8:40 for our egg retrieval. They were pretty quick to take us back to the recovery area where we would wait for the procedure that was scheduled at 10:30. It was what seemed like an extremely long time filled with anxiety and a little fear that something might go wrong. 10:30 finally rolled around and they came in and walked Morrisa into the O.R. I then was shown the way to my waiting room where they would then escort me to my collection room. Which I might add wasn't all that bad. For those of you who may be curious they had a recliner type chair, tv, and material. Which I was curious if they would have since before we went to Shady Grove I had to give a sample at Kaiser where I had to share a public restroom with whomever walked in and out.
Anyway, around 10:50 I was allowed to go back into the recovery room to see Morrisa. She was really groggy, but was in good spirits. The doctor who did the retrieval came in and said that they were able to collect 16 eggs!! She also said that she drained about 4cc's of fluid which was from pre-hyper-stimulation. She said that she doesn't think there is anything to be concerned about but to keep an eye out for any symptoms for the next couple days.
We're both home now and Morrisa is recovering on the couch where I get to baby her for the remainder of the day. We should hear from a nurse tomorrow with the fertilization results and how many eggs mature.
Other news my dad's surgery went very well and he is recovering and was up walking a little today. Also I'm a little ticked off that the Washington Capitals lost last night and are no longer in the playoffs! Oh well there's always next year.

Monday? Blah!

Happy rainy Monday to everyone! The weekend was short as usual. We were at Shady Grove Saturday and Sunday mornings to monitor Morrisa's E2 levels as well as the growth of her follicles (or egg farm as I like to refer to it as.) and all seemed well. Her E2 levels continued to rise as expected with the growth and number of follicles that she has. The last results we have heard on her E2 levels they were at 2175 and of the eight follicles they measured they were all pretty much in the 16-18 range with one being a 20. They kept us at 50 units of Follistim and lowered the amount of Menopur from 75iu to about half of that.
We went back in this morning and the follies have grown and the ones on the right side seem to be the growing pretty consistently. All seem to be between 22-20, so it looks like we are going to be triggering tonight. WooHoo!! We still have to wait to hear the official word from our nurse but that's the way it looks as of now. That would put the egg retrieval taking place on Wednesday. I can't believe that we're finally approaching this stage of the process.
This is the start of a busy week for us as my dad goes in tomorrow to have his other hip replacement, replaced. He had his his left hip replaced back in October I believe it was. He originally has both hips replaced years ago and the plastic has worn down so they are replacing all of the hardware. He said it's no where near the pain and recovery he had during his original surgery, which is good. He was up and back at work after 3 weeks from his last surgery in October.
Then we have the egg retrieval on Wednesday (hopefully) and if they do a 5 day transfer which we're praying for we will have the transfer on Monday. So now we wait for official word from our nurse.

Thursday? Why Can't It Be Friday Already?

Well as I struggled to keep up with my wife this morning we made it to our dr's appt. After another 2 softball games last night, 4 in 2 days I am to say the least completely sore from head to toe. The appt went good. Her lining was 8 and she has 27 antral follicles. Now I have no idea if this number is good or bad, but I can guess that since it's a high number it's a good thing. That and my wife seemed happy that the number was high, although it probably means she's going to be very uncomfortable in the coming days. As we we're walking into the office we ran into Erin as she was there for her beta. Hoping she gets awesome news later today!

I'm going to go find some Advil, Asprin, Tylenol, conference room floor to lay on, anything to help feel more comfortable.

We've Started..Yippee

Well the weekend was a relaxing weekend. I just wish my wife felt better so she could have enjoyed it a little more. We went to Gettysburg and stayed at a Bed and Breakfast and Morrisa was sick all weekend so we pretty much stayed in the room the whole time, but it was nice to be together and relax. We cam back Monday and went to our appt. that morning for her Lupron evaluation. The nurse called Monday afternoon and gave us the go ahead to start our stims that night. So now I am giving her 5 units of Lupron in the morning, 150iu of Follistim & 75iu of Menopur in the evening. Giving the shots is comical at times but I guess I'm getting the hang of it. We go back for an appt tomorrow morning to see whats going on with her follicles. It's exciting to finally start stims but I'm nervous as well. I hope everything progresses as they should and she doesn't over stimulate, but we can't control that so all we can do is put it in Gods hands and listen to the Dr.
Also I started softball last night and we won our first 2 games of the season. This is the first season I am playing on 3 different teams. So I'm playing 2 games on Tuesday, 2 games on Wednesday, and 2 games on Saturday. My legs are already killing me and that's only after 2 games. We'll see how tonight goes.
I promise I will be a better blogger and update more often.
I also want to send out a huge congratulations to Jon and his wife who just announced Monday that they got a BFP!!!

Wait a minute...

My wife received a call yesterday from her nurse telling her that her Day 3 E2 levels were too high to start stims last night. Her E2 levels were 78 and they needed to be below 50, so we continued with the Lupron shots this morning at our usual 20 units. We go back in on Friday morning to check her levels again. Looking at the positive we won't have to drive to Annapolis on Saturday or Sunday and can stay in Gettysburg. I know this news though has my wife devastated because we have been so looking forward to starting and feels that this cycle is already a bust. I try to help by being my optimistic self and tell her it's not the end of this cycle and that we are just pushing everything back a couple days. Although by being optimistic and sharing that with her I also don't want her to feel that I am making it seem like her feelings aren't valid and that she's over reacting. I know it can seem that way sometimes but I do understand her fears, it's just I try to point out the positive points to cheer her up. So we will wait until Friday and hopefully her E2 levels drop and we can start our stims that night. This week isn't going by fast enough!

Green Light

We had our Lupron evaluation appointment this morning and all is good, so we got the go ahead to start our stims. We have been doing 20 units of Lupron in the morning and that is being dropped to 5 units. Thank God!!! We are starting with 150iu of Follistim tonight as well as 75iu of Menopur. I'm excited because that means I get to give 3 shots a day instead of the one. This is starting to get fun. We have to go back in on Friday morning to monitor so hopefully there is growth. Also I'm hoping that we don't have to go in for monitoring over the weekend because I have planned and paid for a trip to Gettysburg, PA. We've kind of made it our annual get away. If we do have to go in, we'll have to drive to Annapolis which is kind of a long hike. Anyway we'll see what they decide when we go in on Friday.

Back to normal

Well it's finally back to normal, I guess. AF has visited Morrisa so we have an appointment setup for tomorrow morning to go in for her Lupron evaluation. So as long as everything goes good which I think it will we will start stims tomorrow night. I am so excited to get started! I'm getting better giving shots, I guess. The other day was funny because just as I was about to stick her with the needle I stopped mid poke which wasn't quick enough. The point at where I stopped was when the needle tip hit her skin (It didn't break the skin though). :) I quickly pulled back and her expression was "Ouch why did you just poke me and take it back out!" I don't know why, but I found it hilarious.

We had my grandfather's viewing on Thursday and it was packed. Then the funeral on Friday which was more of a celebration of his life which had the church so packed there was people standing around the sanctuary and out the door. Even though there were also a lot of laughs shared as everyone recalled the good times. It was an amazing ceremony.

On Saturday we had my B-Day party which was a blast! It was great to see everyone from out of town that we don't get to see that much of. We even got my grandmother out on the dance floor and she boogied down to the awesome 70's music our DJ had going. It was good to she her having a good time.

All in all these last few days have been tough but good times spent with family and friends! Now I'm hoping we can start our stims tomorrow so that we can get on our way to hopefully bringing some good news to everyone.

Sad Day

I want to thank everyone again for your continued thoughts and prayers as my grandfather has been in andout of the hospital. The family received a call this morning to all meet at my grandparents house because he wasn't doing good. Everyone arrived and he passed away this morning at 9:40. My parents, wife, myself and grandmother sent hours with him last night and he was his usual awnry self. It was nice to have that time with him while he was feeling good and joking around. I know he's in a much better place now and isn't in pain anymore. We were all saying that it is so Pop to wait until April fools day. Also in other family news my grandfahers cousin passed away yesterday. Our family has never had much luck with this time of year. Our hope is to have a successful cycle so that we can have something to celebrate soon.

IVF News: I gave Morrisa her second Lupron shot this morning and had no problemdoing so. Now she is concerned that I am getting too much enoyment out of giving her shots.