All depends on tomorrow...

Yesterday Darryl and I had another appointment. Our doctor wasn't there so we met with the RN. She did the ultra sound and we found out that there were only 7 follicles now measuring above 10mm and 2 measuring below 10mm. She said she would call my doctor and let me know later that night what we should do since my numbers went down. So needless to say, I was a little bit of a mess again because I can't control any of this and I don't know why the numbers are dropping. But the good news was, we had a really fun day yesterday watching my niece/god daughter at the Maya Hotel in Long Beach while my sister in law Trisha was in a wedding. (Thanks for the free hotel room sister!!!!!! We LOVED it!) My other sister in law Jen, also joined us with my niece Delilah! We swam in the pool, went to dinner at Open Sesame in Belmont Shores, and then spent the night cuddling with my 2 favorite nieces.

My doctor called me today and told me for now, let's continue medication and she will see me tomorrow morning. She said my hormone levels have been rising really good so she is expecting good results at tomorrow's appointment. She reminded me that it's not the quantity of the follicles that's important but the quality. She also told me that she will be the first to tell me if we need to cancel because she doesn't want us putting any more money towards this cycle if the chances of it working don't look good.
If we need to start over, she will use a different protocol since my body didn't react to the hormones the way it should have for someone my age. However......most 30 year olds going through this overproduce follicles which then causes most of the follicles to have poor quality. And Darryl told me today that he has been praying that we have little or no embryos left over from our IVFs because he doesn't want us to have to make the decision of what to do with them when we are done having children. Do we continue to freeze them? Do we donate them? Do we get rid of them? Very ethical questions that are not the easiest to answer. So maybe God is just making sure we have the perfect amount. Only he knows the plans he has for us. :)

Prayer Requests: Please pray...
1. that tomorrow's appointment goes GREAT and that we are able to continue with this cycle
2. that we will continue to trust God
3. that we can add a baby (babies) to our family within this year

Thank you!!!!!!! We love hearing from everyone who is praying for us. We are hearing that lots of you have your children praying for us too which is sooooooooo awesome!!!!! Tell them all thank you from us! xoxo

Today's Appointment....

So Darryl and I had an appointment this morning at 6:30 to have an ultra sound and a blood test. The doctor said I have 6 follicles in my left ovary and 6 on my right....I was thinking that was pretty good but when I asked her if that was good or bad, she said, "it is what it is." So right away I knew that probably wasn't great. She said my hormone levels weren't where they were supposed to be on Monday so that's why she added in the extra shot so fast. Today I will get a call telling me what our next step is. Whether or not we need to add more medication or less. And I was a bad girl and started looking stuff up on the internet and found out that 12 follicles total is considered low. So of course now I'm worried about it and to top it off my P.O.S. car started acting up AGAIN today. Needless to say, it's been a tear filled morning (and that could be all the meds I'm on too) but I'm praying for calmness and acceptance. Everyone keeps reminding me that it only takes one egg and one sperm. I know they're right and that it's completely up to God anyway. One way or another....I know we will become parents.

Prayer Requests: Please pray....
1. that our next ultra sound will show many more follicles and that maybe my body is just a few days behind
2. that I can remain calm and accept the fact that God is in control, and be thankful for the many blessings we already have
3. that the medication will do it's job
4. that we will be able to add a baby (babies) to our family within the next year

THANK YOU!!!!!! XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Call from the nurse...

Just got a call from our nurse telling us to up the Follistim to 450 units and add in the Menopur shots as well. So it looks like I get 3 shots tonight and every night until we meet with the doc on Thursday. I'm a little worried about the Menopur because it's not a prepackaged shot....we actually have to measure and mix powders. So wish us luck! :)

Shots...

Friday we were able to begin our Follistim shots for the first time. (These shots go into my belly right below the bellybutton) Darryl did an amazing job! He was a little nervous but ended up doing it perfectly and I barely felt it. Yeah! The only thing that sucks is that he has to give me 300 units of the medicine and each vial has 400. So instead of throwing the extra away, he has to give me the leftover medicine the next night and then refill so that I get 300. This means 2 shots sometimes but so far it hasn't been too bad.
We had an appointment this morning with Dr. H. She did an ultra sound and a blood test. So far all looks good and our next appointment will be Thursday morning. She will let us know then if we need to add the other two shots into our nightly routine. Until then, we just do the Follistim shots each night.
Thanks again for all your prayers and support and we will keep you all updated. :)

Prayer Requests: Please pray...
1. That Darryl and I will continue to stay healthy during this time
2. That with each ultra sound the Doctor will see that I am progressing the way I am supposed to
3. That Darryl and I get to add a healthy baby (babies) to our family within the next year.

Spoke too soon...

So remember how my last blog left off with things looking better? Well.....I spoke too soon. It seemed like as soon as I set the laptop down, my fever went back up to 102 and stayed there for the next few days. I was hoping that it was just part of the cold that I also had going on and that it would soon go away. However, as the days went by I was feeling worse and worse, I had no appetite, and I was becoming very irritable (just ask Darryl). On Sunday morning I woke up with another fever and this time a rash covering about half of my body so Darryl and I decided it was time to go to Urgent Care. (PS...don't EVER go to Saddleback Urgent Care Center...you'll see why in a minute) So the "doctor" looked at me and said, "Yeah, you're having an allergic reaction to one of your antibiotics" (well my dermatologist ended up calling me the night I got my first fever and told me to go back on both antibiotics at the same time) And the genius "doctor" at the Urgent Care said, "And since you're taking both I have no idea which one you're allergic to, so let's say it's the blue one."

Well....he guessed the WRONG one! So I spent another full day taking the antibiotic that I am VERY allergic to only to wake up the next morning with a rash covering my entire body and the reddest face I have ever seen on anyone (except maybe Darryl after one beer :) ) So since I was now in even more pain than the day before, we had to cancel our IVF injection class so that I could go see my original doctor to get this taken care of first. My mom was over to help me out so she went with me. My doctor took one look at me and said, "This is a very bad allergic reaction to sulfa. You're going to need to stay on the blue pills and take some heavy steroids to get rid of the rash." We were so thankful that she knew just by looking at me what was going on and she was in shock that the Urgent Care "doctor" would not have known that AND that he told me to take Zyrtic for the rash! Crazy!

Soooo after I took my first round of steroids (which was 6 pills at once!), we were able to make a later appointment with our fertility nurse to take our class. She went over how to use the Follistim pen, how to mix the Menopur injections, and how to give the Ganirelix injections. They all seem pretty easy and they go right into my belly. We will start our first round of Follistim on Friday night.

Today we had an appointment at 6:40am just to see if we can proceed with the IVF round with what's been going on with me. Dr. H is on vacation until next week so we got to see Dr. Werlin today. He asked what medication I was on, did an ultra sound, said everything looked good, and that we were still on to start injections on Friday! Yeah!!!!! We will have one more ultra sound with Dr. Werlin that morning just to make sure all looks good but so far we are right on track.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who has been praying for us and especially my health. I feel a million times better already and have only been on those steroids for 2 days. I'm sure by Friday I will feel amazing and hopefully be at that 100%. :) And the good that came of this, is that I now know I am allergic to sulfa and....believe it or not, I was a little nervous about spending 5 days on bed rest with nothing to do after IVF, but after spending the last 5 days in bed in pain, I look forward to 5 restful days of watching all my favorite shows, eating my favorite foods, reading my favorite magazines, and being waited on. :) God is so good!

Prayer Requests: Please pray....
1. that our ultra sound on Friday goes well and that we are able to start our injections on time
2. that Darryl and I will stay healthy and free from infections and viruses during this very important time
3. that we will be able to add a healthy baby (babies) to our family within the next year

Thank you again for your love, your support, and your prayers and for sharing this journey with us.

Hormones, needles, and drugs...oh my!

So we received the package of all of our IVF drugs yesterday. I felt like a drug dealer as I unloaded all of the bottles and needles. It kind of scared me to see how many different things I will be putting in my body but as my friend Kristina was told by her fertility doctor, "Nothing about this is natural but it's what some people have to do to get pregnant." These drugs and hormones will make it so that at the time my embryos are implanted, I will have the perfect house for them. Then its up to them to stay there. :)

Last night, Darryl and I checked our list to make sure we had every single medication we needed, and thank God we did, because one of them fell out in the box that I was about to throw away. We also checked the instructions to see which ones needed to be refrigerated and which ones didn't.

Darryl is very excited to use the Follistim Pen.... (big needle that will not be going into my shoulder......Do I really want him sticking me with this thing?)

And as you can see, I'm not amused.

But....we are excited to get this process started.

And yes, I still have a nice bandage on my face from Lowell (my lovely staph infection). I saw the dermatologist yesterday who lanced the boil with his own bare hands (well he had gloves on and used gauze but still....ouch) and told me to keep taking the two antibiotics but not at the same time because they are too strong and can make me sick. I wasn't feeling good at all yesterday and ended up coming down with a fever last night. I still have a slight fever but lower than yesterday and the good news is that the swelling of the boil has gone way down. I just pray that I feel 100% by the 30th when we start our hormone shots.

Thank you for keeping Darryl and I in your prayers and for sharing this journey with us. It really means a lot to us to have so much support!

Prayer Requests: 1Pray that all signs of this infection are completely gone by July 30th and that Darryl and I will be 100% healthy and ready to start the shots 2. Pray that our injection class goes really well on Monday (Darryl and my mom will both be there to learn the procedures) 3. Pray for my lovely cousin Arielle (who is also going through fertility issues and has been trying as long as Darryl and I.....she has been a major support through all of this, and nothing would make us happier than to be finally pregnant together)

4. Pray for a healthy baby (babies) within the next year. THANK YOU!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us" (Romans 8:37)

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!

Ok...so I debated even putting this up here but I need some prayers pronto and this situation may affect our IVF rounds. (Sorry for the TMI...but I warned you all the first blog) Thursday night I started noticing a nice red welt on my face and thought...."whatever...it's just a giant zit". And awesome that this was taking place right before we were leaving for Vegas but I knew that I had been super stressed out so I figured that this is what I get. So on Friday we went to Vegas and all weekend my friends and I were making fun of my gigantic zit (who we eventually named Lowell) So we all said stuff like, "Lowell is hungry!" and "Lowell is tired!" (We thought this was funny at the time). I tried popping it several times and then thought it was a fabulous idea to soak all day in a bacteria infested Vegas hotel pool. So on the way home from Vegas (Sunday) I realized that this bump was not getting any smaller, it hurt like hell, and then I remembered the word "boil". I took a picture of it....

sent it to my friend Hilda (who is a pediatrician) and asked if it was a boil. She replied back that it looked pretty big and started asking me questions about draining. I decided I better go see the doctor the next day. So Monday, I went in and my doctor said it looks like a staph infection. She gave me 2 different antibiotics, squeezed the "you know what" out of it, and as I tried my hardest not to cry she said that she will need to see me back on Thursday when the dermatologist is in.
Now....I'm not trying to be "Oh wahhhh...poor me" but Darryl and I are supposed to start our IVF medication on the 30th. If I'm still on antibiotics, we may have to push the IVF back a few weeks and we may lose money if they have to cancel the first round. I'm really hoping since we haven't started yet, that they will be able to push it back but you never know with these kinds of places especially if they already have the rooms, doctors, and equipment booked.
Sooooooo on to prayer request time....please please please 1. pray that the antibiotics will kick in very fast and heal this staph infection 2. pray that the infection will heal with no scars 3. pray that our scheduled IVF is able to go on as planned 4. pray that we will have healthy baby (babies) within the next year.
Thank you so much!!!! (and again sorry for the gross out factor) xoxo