IVF and PGD Part 2 – The Eve of Our Second Egg Retrieval

It’s 11: 30 pm on the eve of our second retrieval, and I can’t sleep so I decided to get up and make myself a cup steamed almond milk before my “no food or drink after midnight” cutoff. The same thing happened to me last time. I went to be early in hopes of getting a good night’s sleep before the procedure, but tossed and turned for hours. I understand why it was so hard last time. I had not done this before so I was worried and nervous about the procedure, and I was really worried about the outcome. However, this time I know what to expect so I really thought I would be able to rest easier tonight, but as it gets later and later, and I get closer to my 4:45 am wake up time, I’m even more and more worried. I guess it’s because if all goes well tomorrow, we’ll finally be moving forward with the PGD and that has me even more scared. Sigh… Will I ever rest easy again? Who knows… I guess for now I just have to be thankful that we’ve made it this far and wait and see what happens. So…Continue reading IVF and PGD Part 2 – The Eve of Our Second Egg Retrieval

IVF and PGD Part 2 – Trigger Day!

Image Source: Pinterest and stayinspired365.com Today is trigger day! Woohoo! This morning I kissed the hubby goodbye on my way out the door to my monitoring appointment and asked him to say a little prayer that we were good to go, and it must have worked because Dr. J announced that everything looked great and we’re ready to do the trigger! I have 6 follicles measuring between 19 to 21 mm and a few stragglers that will hopefully catch up by Monday. We’ll see what we actually get at the retrieval, but 6 is still a pretty good number since we already have the 5 frozen fertilized eggs from our retrieval in September. Praying it will be enough to get us to 5-day blast and have at least one healthy embryo after PGD! I’m so relieved we’re ready to trigger. Aside from the obvious relief of moving forward to the next step, I’m beyond ready to be done with the injections. I did the usual Lupron shot this morning and then 1 last vial of Menopur and 200 units of Follistim at the clinic to give my follicles that extra boost for final maturation, and then at exactly 8:15 this…Continue reading IVF and PGD Part 2 – Trigger Day!

IVF and PGD Part 2 – Injections Day 9

Today is day 9 of injections and day 7 of Stims and so far so good. I had another monitoring appointment today and the 8 follicles are doing well and measuring between 14mm to 16mm. There are a few smaller ones measuring around 11mm so we may actually have a few more if they catch up to the rest. We’ll see. I know something is happening because I can really feel a lot of pressure in my uterus and ovaries. Pressure is good! I’ll take it if it means good things to come! If things continue to progress as they have been, we should be good to trigger on Saturday evening. We want to be around 20mm before we do the trigger. I have another monitoring appointment on Saturday morning, so I’ll find out then. Fingers crossed! My hubby is making popcorn and we’re going to settle in and watch a movie. I will write more on Saturday after my appointment. Hopefully with good news that were about to trigger! Happy Thanksgiving! May the spirit of the holiday bring good things for all of us!

IVF and PGD Part 2 – Injections Day 8

Today is definitely the worst day in the entire process so far. For one, I’m really not feeling great. I still have the weird throbbing headache, and now I also feel foggy and tired and my stomach has been queasy for the past 2 days. I think it’s the HGH causing these newest symptoms because I didn’t feel this awful last time. If that wasn’t bad enough, my husband had to stay late at work tonight. He thought he’d be home in time to do the meds, but when 7:00 pm came along and he wasn’t home yet, I realized I would have to give myself my injections. After panicking for a few minutes, I slowly started getting the meds together, all the while mentally preparing myself for the task at hand. Once I had all the meds laid out on a tray, I sat there for a good 10 minutes psyching myself up and praying that my husband would walk through the door and save me. But he still wasn’t home by 7:30 pm, and I’m supposed to take them at 7:00 pm every day, give or take an hour. He did eventually get home to help me, but…Continue reading IVF and PGD Part 2 – Injections Day 8

IVF and PGD Part 2 – Injections Day 5

I’m 5 days into this round of meds (day 3 of Stims and HGH), and to say I’m feeling off is a bit of an understatement. Other than feeling like a pin cushion, physically I’m not too bad. Although I have to ask, why does Menopur burn so much when it’s injected? The Lupron is fine, the Follistim is fine, even the HGH is fine. Other than that initial prick, they’re all manageable, but the darned Menopur feels like I’m being injected with fire. Seriously? What the heck? Has anyone else felt this? Other than that, I still have that throbbing headache, but it’s not as bad as it was a few days ago. I’m also feeling a bit queasy, but it’s not too bad either. The most noticeable physical side-effect so far is I can really feel my ovaries. I know that sounds weird but they feel achy and huge. I’m still early into my Stims so I hope this is a good sign that there are lots of follicles starting to grow and not hyper stimulation or something scary like that. I have an appointment with Dr. J on Monday for an ultrasound so I’ll find out how…Continue reading IVF and PGD Part 2 – Injections Day 5

IVF and PGD Part 2 – Injections

Meds, Meds, Meds My hubby and I are becoming experts at preparing and administering all these meds. I get the tray ready with the vials, needles, gauze, alcohol wipes, and sharps container and my hubby prepares the meds and does the sticking. He’s becoming such a pro! It’s such a relief! I just can’t get the nerve to do it myself. For all of you out there who do this yourself, I am very impressed! To recap, we’re on a pretty intense schedule for meds this time around. So far it’s been a breeze with just 1 injection of Lupron (Leuprolide Acetate) at 7 am and 1 injection of Lupron at 7 pm. My only notable side effect so far is a really bad headache. It’s a bit better today, but it seems to get worse about 4 hours after each injection. I’ve read on other blogs that, headaches are a pretty typical side effect of the Lupron, and I had headaches last time with the other meds too so it was expected. Dr. J recommended upping my electrolytes last time so I stocked up on Gaterade this time and I think it’s helping. Even though we won’t be transferring…Continue reading IVF and PGD Part 2 – Injections

Preeclampsia Foundation News

World Prematurity Day is November 17 Last Updated on Friday, November 15, 2013 Friday, November 15, 2013 The March of Dimes brings attention to prematurity with other organizations worldwide on World Prematurity Day. We partner with them to deliver information that impacts roughly 15 million babies worldwide—more than one in ten born each year. Preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of prematurity worldwide, accounting for approximately 15 percent of all premature births in the US alone. Please share this information, and help us make others more aware and supportive of our mission. Here are links to some articles that will update you on the statistics, concerns, advances, action items, and reasons for hope. Delivering action on preterm birth (The Lancet) Born too soon: Global action report (Save the Children, March of Dimes and World Health Organization) Join the conversation on November 17 (Healthy Newborn Network) World Prematurity Day Events (Maternal Health Task Force) US cannot brag about infant mortality rates (Preeclampsia Foundation) Prematurity means separation, medical complications, sometimes depression (Preeclamspia Foundation) From hope to joy (BabyCenter.com) Why do we need a world prematurity day (Impatient Optimists Blog – Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) European Prematurity Group: Socks for Life campaign(European Foundation for the…Continue reading Preeclampsia Foundation News

IVF with PGD: Egg Retrieval Part 2 – Update #2

And I thought I had a lot of meds last time! When I last left off talking about my upcoming procedures, I had to take birth control pills for 18 days before beginning my next round. This is the first step in the protocol for a long IVF cycle before starting the stimulating medications and egg retrieval. This is the second time I’ve had to do this, and it’s all leading up to getting as many embryos as we can in order to have the best outcome for the real reason why we’re doing all of this, Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). I know it’s supposed to help the process and give us the best possible outcome, but it really feels counterproductive. So do the condoms we have to use to make sure we don’t “accidentally” get pregnant on our own while in the middle of all this. There have been so many moments in the past few months that I have just wanted to say to heck with all this and get pregnant on our own again and maybe, just maybe the next time we’ll catch a good egg and it will all work out, but with my track record,…Continue reading IVF with PGD: Egg Retrieval Part 2 – Update #2

My Special Holdon Necklace

A few weeks ago I was perusing Pinterest and came across a necklace similar to this on my home screen. The necklace was highlighted for me because I follow the Preeclampsia Foundation and I had pinned a logo that was on one of their boards that was designed by Melissa Muir, preeclampsia survivor and Jewelry Designer. The logo was created for the Preeclampsia Survivor T-shirts, that are sold to raise public awareness about preeclampsia. Melissa is a 3-time preeclampsia survivor and had created a special necklace in honor of her daughter Kelsi. Kelsi was born at 24 weeks gestation and only lived for a couple of days. The wonderful and magical world of Pinterest, highlighted this necklace for me because of my previous pin of the logo. Seeing the image of her necklace had an immediate affect on me and I simply had to have one in honor of my son, Holdon. This began my connection to this amazing artist and the discovery of my preeclampsia sister, as she called us. Given our bond through this terrible condition of pregnancy, and the way she immediately opened her heart to me and shared her story, I realized we really are preeclampsia…Continue reading My Special Holdon Necklace

I Would Die For That

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqfGqOx2iDQ&w=420&h=315] Watch it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqfGqOx2iDQ By Kellie Coffey © Duet Inc. All Rights Reserved I’m feeling especially emotional tonight. There’s been a recurring theme in the Recurrent Pregnancy Loss circle of the blogging world lately. Some of you have been writing about whether you think you’ll be a good mom and the more time that goes by in the trying process and with all the losses, some of you are giving it more and more thought. I wish I could say I wasn’t one of you, but of course the thought has crossed my mind too. In the darkest recesses of my mind, I have asked if there is a reason why none of my pregnancies have worked out. Maybe I’m not meant to be a mother, or worse, maybe I shouldn’t be, but somehow my hope and faith always prevails. Then today I read a very touching post by A Calm Persistence, where she writes I just won’t go there… She talks about how with each of her subsequent pregnancies after her first loss, she protected herself and didn’t allow herself to fully hope, but if she becomes pregnant again, she plans to honor her baby by allowing herself to hope…Continue reading I Would Die For That