Retrieval Day!

Hey Everyone. It's Darryl. Jen is resting and relaxing from an eventful day for us.

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been reading and praying for us. It has been pretty overwhelming for both of us to see how supportive you are.

Today's procedure was successful relative to whom you spoke to first. Dr H. harvested 4 perfectly healthy and mature eggs today. That is 4 of 12 that Jen had produced. Jennifer was disappointed at the outcome and was crying when I came in to see her.

Prior to going to the recovery room, Dr H. explained to me that the other eggs were not as developed and were not good candidates for re-implantation later. She thinks that this is from Jennifer's endometriosis. A woman of her age would normally produce many more eggs than she did at the maximum dosage she was at. We also discussed the re-implantation. This will be done on Wednesday morning if the eggs fertilized today. She will be place 2 (possibly 3) embryos back. Dr H. is reluctant to do 3 and be so aggressive on the first round. She does not want a high risk pregnancy for us. Her goal all along is for us to have 1 child, not a litter. The biggest concern would be for the eggs to split (6% chance) or for us to have them at 20 weeks and be disabled. I know we have been joking about having a basketball team (I was saying we should go all out and get 11 so we can field all major sports...). I am really only ordering 2 or maybe 3 max!

When I got to the recovery room, Jen was crying and Dr H. was explaining to her what she had just told me. Jen had wanted as many eggs as possible and was disappointed with the outcome. We both told Jen that we only need 1. She started to feel a little at ease. We stayed for about an hour so that the drugs could wear off. Dr H. will be calling us tomorrow morning to let us know how many fertilized.

I am perfectly happy with where we are right now. It would be nice if everything would just go smoothly for us, but if I have learned anything throughout this process, its never up to us. Its God's decision, and if its our turn, then we have an addition to the family. I personally did not want to have to figure out what to do with any extra embryos. To me, they would be our kids, and I don't know if I could donate or discard any. I don't think Jen could either. So in my opinion we are exactly where we need to be.

On the fun side, Jen was pretty "high" coming out of the procedure. Apparently, she was telling the anesthesiologist to "Get Off!" We aren't sure what she was talking about, but I think she was dreaming about our German Shepherd puppy, Ari, jumping all over her. She also was acting like 10 Second Tom from 50 First Dates asking the same question every 2 minutes or so.

So the plan is now to hopefully get a good call tomorrow morning and have our kids put back into Jen on Wednesday. Jen will have 4 days of bed rest and we have a pregnancy test in a couple weeks. Please keep praying for us and hopefully we have good news soon.

Thanks,

D

Retrieval day is tomorrow!!!!

Sorry this is so late but all I have tonight are prayer requests. Please pray that the egg retrieval goes perfect tomorrow and that they are able to take out all 10-12 eggs (however many there are tomorrow). Pray that the sperm sample is a high number (Darryl normally has no problem in this area....but prayer always helps). Pray that when the sperm and eggs are put together that they grow the way they are supposed to. If they are growing at a good rate, I will only have to be on bed rest for 2 days. If they aren't growing at a good rate, I will have to be on bed rest for 4 days. And last but not least, pray that we continue to trust God and that we are able to add a baby (babies) to our family this year. :) We love you all and thank you so much for your support. xoxo

A quote from a book I'm reading, As Silver Refined, by Kay Arthur
Meekness says, "God if this is what You want, then since You promised me it will work together for good, since You promised that it will make me like Christ, since You promised that by enduring this I won't be ashamed when I see You at Your coming, and since You promised that this endurance gives me a crown to lay at Your feet-then God, if it pleases You, it pleases me.

Thanks Dianne for the book! It's helped a lot! :) xoxo

HCG shot!

Just got a call from our wonderful nurse Michelle and she said our surgery time will be 9:00am on Sunday for the egg retrieval. I need to be there at 8:00am and no eating or drinking anything after midnight the night before. We have to take a Ganirelix shot tonight along with our HCG shot at exactly 10:00pm. We still need to go in tomorrow for a blood test but so far we are on schedule. Today the RN said that my follicles were slow growing but it was worth the wait. I guess that means they look good. :)

Please continue to pray for...
1. Our follicles to grow in number and in size
2. We are able to continue with the retrieval and transfer
3. That this first round of IVF works and we are able to add a baby (babies) to our family within the year
4. And most importantly, that we can continue to trust God

Thank you!!!!!!

Getting close...

We had our daily appointment with Dr. H this morning and although I didn't keep track of how many follicles she measured, it seemed to be more than yesterday. She was talking to me throughout the appointment about different thing so I lost count. :) This might be helpful to me since I tend to obsess over how many I have. We also received our HCG shot today to take home with us. The HCG shot is the trigger shot that will allow my body to ovulate so that my doctor can retrieve the eggs 35 hours later (It's also a drug that some major sports stars have been tested positive for to "UP" their game. I find it pretty interesting that a drug I have to take to ovulate, is the same drug that big manly sports stars are taking too. Weird!) This shot is very important and Darryl has to give it to me at the exact time that the doctor tells us to. She's thinking that we will take the shot on Friday night and Sunday will be the retrieval.

Prayer Requests: Please pray...
1. that my follicles continue to grow in number and size
2. that we are able to continue with the retrieval and the transfer
3. that this first round of IVF works and we are able to add a baby (babies) to our family within the year

I can't express enough how much your prayers mean to us. Thank you thank you thank you!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

More shots and more appointments...

Our nightly shots... Menopur, Follistim, and Galinex

Another appointment today and everything looked good. Dr. H measured 9 big follicles and I had 2 smaller ones. It seems to be changing each day but she said that a few of my follicles are just taking their time to grow. This is fine but since my ovaries are taking their time, we have to keep refilling the meds. It's getting a little pricey but it will all be worth it in the end. :) It's now looking like we will do the egg retrieval Sunday or Monday. Dr. H also reminded me no exercise, lifting, or cleaning house! Whooo hoooo! (but if you know me, you know that's not easy for me....I'm kind of a clean freak!) :) Please continue to keep us in your prayers these next few appointments and pray that we can continue with the egg retrieval and the embryo transfer with plenty of embryos left over for more children in the future. Thank you again for all the prayers and uplifting messages. xoxo

Another appointment...

We had another appointment today and things still looked good. Dr. H measured 10-11 follicles and said there were 2 more smaller ones growing which made me very happy. I know that all the follicles probably won't finish the race but it's good to know that it's still a pretty good number. She also added in the Ganirelex last night so now I'm up to 3 medications a night. This one gave me a bruise on my tummy because the needle is a little bit thicker and Darryl has to push much harder for it to break the skin. Fun right?? Well I guess this only prepares me for the huge needle that will be going in my back in the next week or so. I'll add some pictures when Darryl has all the needles laid out so you can see all the poking that goes on. Other than that, we are just waiting for the retrieval day. We'll keep you updated! Thank you for all the prayers and nice messages! xoxo

Prayer Requests: Please pray...
1. that my follicles continue to grow in number and in size
2. that the quality of follicles are really GOOD because that means GOOD EGGS!
3. that we continue to trust God
4. that we can add a baby (babies) to our family within the year

Looks good...

Darryl and I had our appointment this morning at 6:30 and the doctor was very pleased with the results. She said my hormone level had gone from the 100's to the 400's in 2 days so she knew something good was going on. She did the ultra sound and found about 11 or 12 follicles growing nicely and I think a few more that were a little smaller than the others. She used a car as an analogy, saying you never know how fast the car can really go until you push on the pedal and give it some gas. The medicine sometimes takes a while to kick in but once it does, it will show us how many follicles my body can produce. She said we would continue with everything and hopefully do the egg retrieval this Friday or Saturday. From now on we go every morning for an ultra sound and blood work just to make sure things are moving along. I am definitely getting the crampy feelings so I'm looking at that as a good sign. And Darryl says I haven't been too moody yet (but maybe he's afraid of what I will do to him if he says I am....haha) I've just been emotional....but that's always better than bitchy right? Thank you for everyone who kept us in their prayers last night. I was ready to accept whatever the doctor decided today as what God wants and am so happy that she wants us to continue. xoxo

Prayer Requests: Please pray...
1. that my follicles will continue to grow in number and size
2. that the quality of each follicle is really GOOD because that means GOOD eggs
3. that we will continue to trust God
4. that we can add a baby (babies) to our family within the year