So it has been awhile since I last posted. I had thought about it many times, even had some posts outlined in my head, but of course as time went on I just never got down to it.
A lot has gone on in the past few months we did a bunch of testing, I changed my diet and we moved forward with our 2nd IVF. Let me start at the beginning though ...
As I mentioned in my previous post I was going to go for an MRI and a Hysteroscopy/biopsy of my uterus. Frustratingly both of those tests came back negative. All that was found on the MRI was that I had developed a cyst, so I had to go for another ultrasound to ensure that it had gone away on its own. So from there we moved forward with the Immune Testing. The results were interesting, it showed that my levels were abnormal however, they were on the low side and they only treat it if they are on the high side. I was feeling defeated because yet again we didn't have any answers. Everything was coming back negative or normal (or abnormal and not treatable) but I knew that my body wasn't normal because we had yet to get pregnant! I had started looking up different options such as adoption and surrogacy because at this point I thought that our chances of getting pregnant were slim. I could not shake this feeling that it was just not going to happen for us but I was prepared to move forward regardless.
I kept up the Paleo diet and from late July to October I lost about 20-25 pounds. I also had noticed an overall improvement in my chronic pain, so that was a bonus as well! There were a few weeks of stress with the testing and not getting results back in time (it took about 3 - 4 weeks to get the Immune Results back and it was only supposed to take a week), so I had several cheats here an there between October and November.
During this waiting time the Provincial Government announced that they will be adding funding for another 5,000 individuals/couples to receive IVF starting in December 2015. Although we were super excited about this and feel that the program is going to be essential for many couples, we didn't want to wait before we moved forward. I had fears that, like every new program, there were going to be bumps along the road and I didn't want to have to wait any longer than we already had to move forward. The clinic didn't have any information and there were no guidelines in place how the clinics were supposed to manage the wait lists so that added to the apprehension. We also felt that if this attempt failed then we always had the funding to fall back on. So with support from family and friends we moved forward with our second IVF at the end of November.
As soon as we made the decision to proceed I made sure to go back on my diet 100%. I didn't want anything to jeopardize this cycle and wanted to do everything I could to make it as successful as possible. I continued to see my Naturopath and we planned to do Acupuncture to increase the blood flow to the uterus. I went a week before retrieval and then the plan was to go back the day before, day of, and the day after transfer. My Fertility Dr. had requested that I start taking Vitamin D 4,000IUs, and Vitamin E 400IUs on top of the stimming medications which he had also increased the dose of. The first few days on the medications (gonal-f) I was sick. I had nausea, a massive headache, upset stomach, and overall just felt like crap. After a slight adjustment of the meds the side effects dissipated and I started to feel better.
I was also was seeing a counselor, mainly to assist with other stressors in my life but it had been good timing when the cycle started. The one comment that he made which I thought was very interesting - considering the number one comment those dealing with infertility is 'relax' - was that I was an emotional mess when talking about my other stressors however, when going through the cycle and preparing for the retrieval I was quite calm, centered and cheery. He noted this and felt that since IVF was a super stressful experience he was expecting more of an emotional roller coaster from me. It was an emotional roller coaster, and the early mornings to the clinic and waiting to get the call to go in for the retrieval was anxiety provoking, but I it was manageable. I was actually dealing with my infertility better than I was dealing with other crap in my life.
December 3, 2015 we went in for our retrieval. Got my lucky socks, cute little penguins, and just hoped for the best. Well, we got the best news! Out of the 10 eggs they retrieved this time, ALL 10 fertilized!! Our first IVF we only had 5 that fertilized. We anxiously waited for updates and I called in a couple times to check on them and each time all 10 were still growing. It was absolutely amazing news!!.
December 8, 2015 we returned to the clinic for our 5 Day transfer. We also got an update as to how our little embryos were doing - out of the 10 we had, 7 of them made it to day 5! In fact all 10 were still growing as of the day before and unfortunately 3 had stopped growing overnight. We were floored with that news!! Out of the 5 fertilized for our first IVF we only had 3 that made it to day 5 so we had more than a 50% increase!! Our Dr. decided to transfer two embryos again since we had more than 5 and due to the fact that we have not had good luck in the past with the transfers being successful. I told him that I wasn't going to argue with him this time and would take his recommendation, which he just laughed at. Maybe those lucky socks were working after all!! Hubby made sure I wore them to the transfer as well :)
Now, a funny story about the first night the embabies were settling in, a little TMI but you should be used to that with my blogs by now! Just before going in for the transfer I was suffering with some bad constipation. I had gotten myself so worried that the transfer was going to be cancelled because of it. Thankfully it wasn't, and my nurse suggested a couple different things to help things along, such as prune juice, eating dates, and taking sennokot or docusate sodium. Now, what I would NOT recommend to anyone is taking all that advice in one day. Let's just say that it worked and it was not a pretty scene at all! I again was worried that I had jeopardized the embryos and started worrying that this IVF was going to fail because of my 'incident' (as it is being called in my support group). So we strapped in and continued the dreaded two week wait.
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