Our Infertility Journey: Great News!!!

Hello Everyone!!

It has been a good week full of appointments! We had another appointment at the Pleasant Grove Location yesterday. I thought We had to be there by 10:30, so we made a plan to leave the house at 9:15 just to give us some extra time. About 5 minutes before we were going to leave, I had a feeling to look at my calendar in my phone and make sure that our appointment was at 10:30. Come to find out it was at 10:15.... So I'm glad I listened to that still small voice! I told Tyk that our appointment was actually at 10:15 and we rushed out the door. Once we were on the road, Tyk had said "Good thing we planned on leaving early or we would've been late!" Usually I'm not the best person at being on time to places, but throughout this experience I have made extra sure to be on time. Maybe here is why... When you get to the clinic for an appointment, they make you sign in with your name, what time you got there, what time your appointment is at, your doctor, and if anything has changed on your insurance or personal information since the last visit. SO they pretty much make you acknowledge that you were late to a very important, and possibly life changing appointment, and I NEVER wanted to feel like an idiot for being late. We made it to the Pleasant Grove office with one minute to spare, and that was even with Siri trying to lead us a stray.

The appointment went well! The nurse didn't flick any goo on me this time and I felt a lot more comfortable with the situation. Robin, Tyk's mom came with us today. She has been so supportive through this whole process and so we invited her to come along. The nurse began the ultrasound, and my follicles (the egg houses) had grown since the last appointment. Robin asked what she was looking for, and the nurse explained that she was looking at the little black shadows in the pictures. She explained that these were the egg's homes and that we want them to be 18 millimeters before we do the retrieval. My follicles on the left were growing according to plan, but the right side was slacking and not quite as big. The nurse said to probably plan on doing one more day of injections and then we would probably do the trigger shot according to my regular plan. Somehow throughout the conversation we started talking about how so many women are struggling with infertility now days. We mentioned how it is much more common now than years ago, and we decided that it must be in the food we eat or something. The nurse had said, "Ya what did they do to those Doritos's I ate as a kid?" She they said that a lot of the women in her neighborhood are patients at the clinic as well.. If you are one, like me, struggling with infertility, hang in there. Its a rough road, but with a positive attitude, faith in the plan that God has for you, and patience, it will all work out! Everything you are going through will make sense one day, and we can get through this together!!! The nurse finished the ultrasound and Robin had asked how many follicles I had. She told us that she would tell us when we came out of the exam room. So I hurried and got all cleaned up and we exited the room. I then got my blood drawn and as we finished up the nurse came in to tell us how many follicles I had. She said that I had about 11 on one side and 9 on the other. I was happy with this number, but a little worried about my right side. The nurse told us we were good to go and that they would call later with the blood work results.

On our way home we stopped at In N Out Burger, one of my most favorite places to eat!!! Tyk was giving me a hard time for wanting to eat there because it was only 10:40 in the morning. I don't even care what time of day it is, that place is good anytime of day. As we were ordering, Tyk had asked me if I wanted to share a fry and I looked at him like he was crazy, really. We both got our own fry and then I couldn't finish mine.... Oops! After we finished eating, we headed home talking the whole way about babies and whats to come! So many thoughts are constantly running through my head about what I'm going through, that its nice when other people want to talk about it too. Once we got back home, we dropped Robin off at her house and we had to run to our friend Michelle and Otis's house to pick up a medication I needed. She had extra, and was so kind to offer it to us, rather than me having to get it from the pharmacy. Thanks Michelle!!

It was Tage's (Tyk's Brother) birthday yesterday too and Kyla, Tages Fiance', had plans to go to a go chart racing place when we got home. The whole family went, and I sat and watched while the rest raced each other on the track. I have to be really careful with what I do right now to protect my potential babies! At the race, everyone had to wear helmets and they were each given a head sock to wear with the helmet. The boys though they were hilarious and kept them on, pretending they were dew rags!(I have no idea if that is how you spell it, but hopefully you know what I mean) Tyker wore it the whole ride home, pretending to be a gangsta and listening to rap music like usual! Afterward we just went back to Tyk's parents house to do presents. Later in the night Tage had planned for some friends to come over for a little BBQ and cake and ice cream. It turned out to be a really good night with good friends and family!

Today we had another appointment to check the follicles. It was pretty stressful for me because it was right in the middle of school. So I had to find a sub to cover my 3rd period and make sure they were all good to go. By the time I left I had so much anxiety about leaving, but the damage was done at that point! My mom came to the appointment today, and I was worried about her being late to pick me up from the school. This probably added to my anxiety... But just to make sure she was going to be there on time, I called her from my classroom phone to see where she was at. Sure enough she was on her way and was waiting in front of the school for me when I walked outside. We got to the clinic and began the usually routine of ultrasound and blood work. During the ultrasound I was explaining to my mom what Ann Marie, my nurse practitioner was looking for, and I explained to her that the follicles were the egg's house. Ann Marie started laughing at me, and I verified with her that I was telling my mom the correct information. She confirmed that I was and kept going along with the ultrasound. When she was finished, Ann Marie showed us the follicle sizes that she had measured. My left side is in Beast Mode and I have multiple that are ready for retrieval!!! My right side, once aging, is slacking and still needs some time. Ann Marie said that Dr. G may want to do another day of stimulating but that the blood work would show more. I got my blood work done and Ann Marie told me they would call me with instructions later on today.

I made it back to the school in time eat a quick lunch and get supplies ready before 4th period started. I was relieved to be back and it looked like everything from 3rd period had turned out okay. As a teacher, its so much easier to just be there to teach your own class than it is to get a sub. I've learned this in the short 8 months that I have teaching.

Usually when I leave the school I have a voicemail from the clinic giving me the results on my blood work. Today I didn't have one, so I just tried to be patient. 5:30 came around, I still didn't have a call, and I knew the clinic closed at 5! By 6, I began to worry. I was talking to Tyk on the phone on my way home and I told him if i hadn't heard anything by 7 that i would call the after hours nurses line. I don't like calling them, I feel like I am bugging them, and I don't feel like they are very nice... While I was talking to Tyk the other line rang from the clinic. I told Tyk I would call him back and answered the call. Well.. It didn't last long because I didn't have the paper I needed to have for further instruction. I had given the paper to Tyker when we left the clinic because I didn't want to take it into the school and have any of my students see. So the nurse asked me when I would have the paper, and told me she would call back in about 25 minutes. I got home and began to cook dinner. 25 minutes passed and there was no call. I knew someone would be calling so I just kept my phone close and kept cooking. When I finally got a call it was good news!!! Dr. G has decided that it is time to have me take my trigger shot, which means that my retrieval with be on Thursday like it was originally planned!!! I was relieved to here this news because I have been worried all day about taking another day of stimulating injections due to my left follicles already being so big. I did not want to have the chance of hyper stimulation. This is where your ovaries get over stimulated and being to fill up with fluid. It can make you really sick and can even make it too dangerous to do the egg retrieval. In that case I would have to stop treatment this round and start all over from the beginning. The instructions for the trigger shot are crucial! This is the most important shot of all because it releases all of your follicles to be retrieved. The nurse explained to me the exact amount I was to inject and at exactly what time. I was supposed to inject 1 ml of water into the vile and then draw up 1/2 ml of medication to inject at exactly 8pm. She then told me of other instructions I need for the next two days. I tried to write everything down and I confirmed it back to her about three times I think just to make sure I got everything correct. 8 pm began to creep closer, and I was getting nervous about the shot. Tyk and I went into the bathroom to prepare the syringe. I had so much anxiety that the shot was going to hurt that I just kept saying "it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt." This shot, like the menopause came in a powder form and you add water to it to make it into a liquid. The time came around and I got ready to give myself the shot. As time counted down, Tyk counted down for me to do the stab. The poke wasn't bad, and as I was inserting the liquid, Tyk began to do his usual blowing on the injection sight. It actually didn't hurt that bad, and it made me feel good to think that this shot was potentially the last shot I would have to do to have a baby!

The next steps are to take a pregnancy test in the morning to see if the trigger shot worked. The test should be positive. Tyker will take a medication tomorrow to help with the semen sample he will give on Thursday. I need to order another "Zpack" from the pharmacy tomorrow for both of us to take. They suggested I eat a high fiber diet until the retrieval on Thursday to try and help with constipation. Thursday morning, we have to be at the clinic at 7:45. I'm not allowed to wear any perfume, makeup, or lotions to the retrieval. I was told that It can affect the embryo's, and potentially kill them. The actually procedure will be at 8 AM and should only last about 15 minutes. I will be sedated for this, and thank goodness I won't feel a thing. After the procedure I am going to come home and rest for the rest of the day. I hope to be back to school on Friday... but we'll just see how everything goes.

Our hearts are now full of hope as we enter into the next stage of this process. We know that we are doing and have done everything we can on our side of things this far. Now it is time to leave the rest up to Heavenly Father and to have faith in his plan. Hopefully I can stay come and relaxed for the next couple of days!

Wish us luck!!!

And ALWAYS...
Thank you for reading!

Love,
Shandee