IVF

I wanted to blog about our IVF procedures and I figure I should do it now before I forget. 

We had to do two invitro fertilization (IVF) procedures to get these two little turkeys to grow in my womb.  We did a fresh and a frozen cycle and the two were so different in terms of how I felt both physically and emotionally.

Towards the end of February we started our first (fresh) cycle.  For the first two weeks, all I did was take a birth control pill.  They want to have complete control of my hormones so taking the pill flat lined them so the fertility place could make them do what they want.  After two weeks I began Lupron shots.  Lupron is the hormone they give 8 year old girls that start their period too early to make them stop.  It has other functions, but that's what I got out of it.  Basically it was just another thing to suppress my hormones.  I did the Lupron shots (in my stomach) until the day before the egg retrieval. 

After a couple weeks of shots, they checked my hormones and they were low.  So I got to start my stimulation medications.  I did my Lupron shot in the morning and then in the evening I had to do two different kinds of stim meds.  One of them burned like a mofo so I got a free swear word ever night when I did that one.  Some nights I didn't have to use it, but for the majority of the time, I made it count.  After I started those I had to go in to the fertility place every day/every other day to see how my follicles were responding.  They had to monitor me VERY closely because they didn't want me to hyper ovulate, which can be extremely dangerous.  I was a slow responder for the first couple days (they had me on a super low dose just to be careful) but once the meds kicked in my ovaries did a great job!  The first few days I was paranoid I wouldn't respond and they would have to cancel the cycle so I would lay on the floor with my legs up on a wall in an 'L' shape to get the blood to flow to my reproductive parts.  Hey, it might be silly, but I would do whatever I could to help.  So I would go to Seattle every day to get an ultrasound and a blood draw to make sure my follicles were still growing.  Finally, 10 days after I started the stim meds, my follicles were ready to go!

They want your follicles to be around 15-18mm for them to do the procedure.  I had 18 follicles growing.  That means that my ovaries were the size of lemons and I was super tender and looked a little pregnant without actually being pregnant.  Once we got word the egg retrieval was a go, I had to get my first butt shot.  36 hours exactly before the procedure was scheduled, Dr. Brent Anderson had to administer the shot.  It was an HCG shot to get my eggs to mature the rest of the way and get ready to be harvested.  I was terrified because the needle was huge, but it actually wasn't that bad. 

So in we went to get my eggs taken out.  The worst part of the whole thing was the stupid IV they gave me in my hand. It hurt so bad!  And I remember being worried the medicine they gave me wouldn't knock me out.  So they gave me extra.  And boy oh boy I was out cold.  Brent and I had a goofing around conversation before I went in for surgery about his part in all of this and apparently when I started coming to that's the thing I was most concerned about.  I turned to Brent (I don't remember this.  It's just what I'm told) with the nurse in the room and asked, very seriously, if he spilled his specimen.  I guess drugged up me doesn't have a good memory, because a few seconds after he answered me, I asked him again.  In front of the nurse.  "Did you spill your stuff?"  Poor guy.   And then I wouldn't stop talking about how amazing the apple juice they gave me was.  I liked it so much I asked for another one.  Because it was the best. apple. juice. ever.  This is why I'm glad I never did drugs. 

The next day they called to update us with our eggs.  They had gotten 17 eggs, 13 were mature.  Out of those 13 they did ICSI (where they pick a sperm and put it in my egg) to those 13 and 10 fertilized.  Of those 10, 9 divided and started growing.  They watched the eggs for 5 days and after 5 days we had the embryo transfer.  When we went in for the transfer 7 of them were blastocysts (excellent quality embryos, so they were very excited) that we could use for IVF.  Since we didn't want to have a future reality show, we used two of the 7.  The other 5 got frozen for later use.

5 days after our egg retrieval we had the embryo transfer.  90-45 minutes before the procedure you have to drink 35 oz of water and not pee.  And I had to take Valium.  I learned two things.  Drinking that much water at one time and not peeing is torture, and Valium is fun.  Really fun.  I laughed a LOT.  I was a lot more outgoing than I normally am, too.  So we went in to the transfer room with my bladder as full as could be.  They showed us our little embryos on the screen.  They did assisted hatching, where they take a little laser and make an incision in the shell of the egg to help the embryo hatch out.  Apparently when you get pregnant naturally, your body had to do this on it's own.  So they do it to help it get out of the shell and (hopefully) implant.  They did a stomach ultrasound (and pushed down very hard on my full bladder) and inserted a tube into my uterus where they wanted to put the embryos.  After everything was all set up (and I was mostly focused on not peeing on the doctor) they brought the embryos in and we watched on the ultrasound as they transferred them to my uterus.  I had to lay there for 10 minutes after everything was done to make sure they settled.  I have never had a more relieving pee in my life as I did after the embryo transfer. 

The next 48 hours after were spent on bed rest and for ten days after the transfer I had to take it easy.  I also had to do daily progesterone shots in my butt.  Dr. Anderson administered those (seriously if you ever need a shot in your booty, Brent is your guy).  I was terrified of these because they were supposed to hurt so bad (and the needle is HUGE), but it wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be.  I also had to wear estrogen patches to help with that hormone.  They were just little sticker-like things that I put on my stomach.  Ten days after the transfer I went in for a blood draw to see if I was pregnant.  I wasn't.  So I cried a bunch of tears, ripped off my estrogen patches, and then chugged a bunch of Diet Coke and went to Las Vegas for my birthday. 

At the end of May we started our first frozen cycle.  From May until the middle of July all I had to do was take the birth control pill.  Then I had to wear the estrogen patches to help the lining of my uterus grow.  I had to go in to the fertility place twice before my egg retrieval to make sure everything looked good.  TWICE!  That's it!  6 days before the transfer we started progesterone shots.  It was heaven. 

So the transfer went the same as the first for the most part.  We used 2 of our leftover 5 frozen embryos and they said they dethawed beautifully.  We did the transfer on Brent's birthday and I told Brent that when our kids learn about sex and calculate when they were conceived I can tell them not to worry because they weren't conceived on dad's birthday, they were dethawed.  I drank all my water, they pushed on my stomach and off I went to bedrest.  At 5 days after the transfer everything started smelling stronger.  That's the first thing I noticed the first time I was pregnant so I started wondering.  At 7 days after I couldn't wait anymore and I took a pregnancy test (somehow with the first cycle I had the willpower not to do this).  It came up with two dark lines RIGHT away.  I also did tests on day 8 and 9.  Both super positive!  We went in for our blood test and our number was through the roof!  The nurse actually told us, "I don't say this very often, but you can be VERY excited about that number". 

I had to continue with my daily butt shots and estrogen patches until 10 weeks of pregnancy.  So the total shot count of the first cycle was 57 (43 in the stomach, 14 butt) and 59 the second cycle (all butt) for a grand total of 116.  And I had 25 blood draws.  After all this I will never complain about a shot again. 

Brent and I are so lucky that we had the opportunity to do IVF.  All the pain, tears, shots, money and frustration was more worth it than I could ever describe.  Being pregnant is the most amazing experience and I am so lucky that I get to go through it.  Now our next big milestone is finding out what these babies are for sure (they have a guess, but aren't positive) in a week and a half!