Friday, June 26, 2009

More to worry about...

Not only do I have to worry about whether I am pregnant or not, but now I'm worried that I am-with an Ectopic pregnancy. I have two symptoms...One is sometimes when I get up, I get a sharp pain in my lower right abdomen which lasts maybe 30 seconds or so happens randomly on and off for the last couple days. The other one is sometimes when I get up too quickly, I feel really dizzy, which also lasts a few seconds. This is also on and off the last couple days. Neither of these are normal for me. I am so worried now. :( I hope it just means I have a NORMAL pregnancy or it's something else - maybe the new prescription vitamins. :(

Why can't things just go normal for once? Beta is Friday, it's going to be a long week.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Our Embryos...

Here is the photo of the embryos we were given. Are they not just the cutest. :)  I hope they are still inside and growing, well maybe just one of them. I keep thinking about having twins. Scary thought, but I suppose not too bad....

Pluses of Twins:
1)  Our family would be complete, we wouldn't have to do all of this all over again and cost us a ton more money.
2) I'd only have to be pregnant once.
3) the children have a built in playmate.
4) Ideally, one boy and one girl would be awesome.  Not, sure what I would if we had two boys. I've always wanted a girl and only two children. I wonder if I would feel like a 3rd child. Perhaps adopt the girl for a 100% guarantee.

Minuses:
1) Health of myself & the babies.
2) Chance of premature birth much higher.
3) Body stretching even more than I would like.
4) First few years are going to be very tiresome and probably impossible to continue to work from my home.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Transfer was a success!

At almost 2 pm today, two nice looking embryos were transferred to my slightly over full bladder. That was the worst part. They even gave us a picture of our little guys. That was too cute. 

Is it a good idea to say I am pregnant unless proven otherwise? Positive thinking to help get the job done, or devastation waiting to happen? My honey is being so great. He's waiting on me hand and foot. He's off now getting me some Thai food for a craving. He might be going over board a little, but I think it's really sweet. He's going to make a great father. 

July 3rd, will be the day of our pregnancy test. It's going to be a long wait. Today I'm on 24-hour bed rest and am suppose to take it easy for the next 2-3 days. I'm going to try hard to not take a home pregnancy test. Let's see how that goes. Hope is something I haven't had for a while, today I am quite hopeful and happy.

Transfer is tomorrow :)

The time is finally here!! Tomorrow at 1:30 one or two of our growing 5 embryos will be implanted. It will only be a 3-day transfer. I was hoping for a 5-day transfer. I just hope it all works. I'm super excited, so is my honey.

Tonight's Progesterone shot went SOOO much better. I got some 1" needles instead of the 1.5", I didn't freeze the area first, but used some numbing cream and it worked perfectly. I think freezing the area first was making it more difficult to inject.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

My road to being a mom has some more speed bumps...but I'm still driving.

So the ulcer I got from the Doxy slowly went away. I can now eat and drink just fine. The following Wednesday I found out that I have gallstones, which explains some other pain I get in my chest that radiates to my back.  I am assuming this came about because of the birth control pills or the estrogen. I did some more testing for the gallbladder, which showed that it was functioning normally, so that is good. All the doctors was recommending me cancel our IVF cycle.  I met with a surgeon on Monday, who said I could go ahead and take the chance. The problem with gallstones is that it may get worse when I get pregnant.  I've learned that I would get the pain when I don't eat until lunch, so I've started eating more frequently and I have been fine. I hope by eating more frequently and avoiding super fatty foods, I can manage the symptoms.

I am happy to know we can go through with the cycle. It's been a lot of effort & time to get to this point. Our donor has given us 10 eggs on Tuesday. She had a total of 30 that were split three ways. Today we have 6 that are growing!! Transfer will be Friday, Sunday or Monday at the latest. I am super excited. I can't wait. Sunday is father's day, kinda a cool day to have a child conceived. It will also take my mind off my first father's day without my father. I've been kinda depressed lately with all the father's day ads. 

Two nights ago, I started the Progesterone in oil. Sucks that I have to take these every day. Plus my hips already feel pretty bruised. :( I can't image taking these shots for over 2 months. Oh, how I wish this was simpler. What happened to the fun part of having sex to get pregnant. I just skipped over that part. My honey is about to go out of town for three days (luckily after transfer), so we have to find someone to help me with the shots. I REALLY don't want to give them to myself.

I hope this cycle takes and we have at least 4 frozen eggs to try for a sibling in a couple of years.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

My first ER visit as an adult...

So the pain of eating and drinking became way too much today. I decided it was time to go to the hospital to try and find a remedy.  I had called my regular Doctor, but they had suggested that I go to the hospital to get quicker results. A few seconds after I swallow food or liquid, I get severe pain, I'd say 9 out of 10 on the pain scale. Today I actually refused to eat or drink anything. :(

We got to the hospital around 2:30 or so.  After a lot of redundant stuff - questions, blood pressure tests, etc, and 5 hours later, I finally get a prescription to help heal what we all think I have, which is probably an ulcer or inflammation of my esophagus caused by the Doxycycline  I only took for four days.  I stopped taking the meds Monday night and it's Friday night and I have the same constant pain. I'll probably have the pain for another week until it heals. I've been given a proton inhibitor (i think) to help it heal. I have to make a follow up appointment in a week, and if it's still bad, I believe they well scope my throat. I just hope I can manage to find the energy to eat and/or drink until then.

We talked to our fertility doctor today who prescribed this terrible antibiotic for us, and he says this kind of reaction is rare. I doubt that, since all my research on the net showed many many people with the same problems. I was also told that an allergic reaction to the Lupron was also extremely rare. How is it that I'm the special case? I'm afraid that all of this bad stuff is going to hinder me in some way. I really hope it doesn't. I'd hate for them to pull me from the shared risk program, because I become too much of a risk.

Tomorrow it will be a week on the Lupron, and we have an appointment for blood work and an ultrasound. We are getting closer—only 19-24 days left until our transfer!  Anyone know how close it gets to when they can narrow down the dates a little better?

I also had my first acupuncture appointment today. It went well. I really liked the lady I saw. I felt comfortable with her. The session lasted 2 hours and she now pretty much knows my whole life story. I find that strange, but if it helps, then I'm all for it. She's recommending two sessions a week until we get to transfer time. I hope it helps with some other ailments like my lower back pain, calm me, and work it's fertility magic on me. I do find it all strange, but am willing to try anything for this to work! I didn't feel any different during or after the session, nor do I now, but today was an unusual day, spending 5 hours at the hospital and all. I'm going to lay in bed now and do some deep breathing. I am hopeful.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Started taking meds...and have been cursed.

So far, not so good.

I started the Lurpon shots saturday morning, 20cc. It went o.k. at first, needle in, meds out. Shortly later though I start swelling up. First about the size of a mosquito bite, but then bigger, and then bigger. And it itched like crazy. The swelling lasted an hour and a half. We had gone Kayaking and when we got back I called the answering service and talked to the oncall nurse. She suggested I take Benedril 20 minutes or so before the next shot.

O.k., so now it's Sunday, I took the Benedril and then the shot, and everything was good. No swelling. This time however, I got soooo very sleepy. I ended up sleeping until 5pm. Not exactly the best way to spend part of a 3-day weekend. At this point I have also started taking 100mg of Doxycycline. At first I assumed it was like most antibiotics and are taken once a day. Well we did that for two days before I realized we were supposed to be taking two of these a day.

Monday, I take my Lupron shot, this time using Benedril cream around the injection site and I take my morning Doxy. The anti-cream worked just as well as the pill so that's good, but the Doxy made both me and my husband very nauseous (we took it on an empty stomach).  It's confusing because the paperwork from the pharmacist says take on an empty stomach and the paperwork from the doctor says take with food.  Lesson learned I suppose. Eventually it wore off and we were able to enjoy the second half of our day.  I took the second Doxy an hour or so before bed.  I ended up sleeping terribly. I started getting very weird chest pains. At first I was dreaming someone was squeezing my heart, it felt so uncomfortable. It was and actually still is coming in waves. Almost every time I swallow, especially with food, I feel pain down my chest.
I just want to be asleep now. I'm no longer taking the Doxy and I hope very soon, this pain goes away.

I took my last BC pill yesterday and now have 5 more days of the Lupron. I get to look forward to a lovely painful period this week, hopefully my last one for a while. I sure hope this cycle works on the first try or my body builds up a tolerance to all these drugs. My boobs are still super sore from the prescreening & BC pills.

I contacted an acupuncturist today. Kind of expensive and she can't see me for a while. The earliest would be Saturday or next Wednesday. It's $140 for the first consultation, then $80 each, if I buy two with the consult, I will save $50. She says the follow up visits are 30 minutes. I'm not sure what I am going to do at this point. She's local. The other place I am looking into is actually associated with Shady Grove and may be more flexible timing wise with my transfer (they are in the same building). I would have to drive a ways to get there though for the other appointments. I will try to call them tomorrow to ask questions. I wasn't up for it today.

I'm going to take something to help me sleep. Goodnight.