You Are Not a Winner, Please Play Again....

So, most of you know that our last transfer wasn't successful. We do greatly appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers; please keep'em coming!!! We will do another fresh cycle in January. After our last cycle, my doctor discussed our case with the other docs in the practice and they decided we should try again with my own eggs. We will do the same protocol as we did last January, which we harvested a lot of eggs. In case, some of you don't remember; I wasn't supposed to be a good responder. However, we proved that theory wrong. I am really nervous that our next Fresh cycle will not result in the same amount of eggs. Plus, we have to decided whether to do a 3 or 5 day transfer. Oh, the Joys of IVF... I will keep you all posted as we get involved with our next cycle. Right now we are really enjoying not doing any treatment. I know some of you have seen my new hobby, but if you haven't check out my other blog at:
www.justaddwaterbycynthia.blogspot.com

Smile for the Camera!!!

Just a quick post (for our adoring fans) of our latest bunch! We decided at the last minute to add a "limper" to the mix! The first picture is of the best 3 from the brood. After some discussion we decided to throw in one more for good measure. We did have to thaw all 8 embryos and now have none left. If this cycle is a bust we will have to do another fresh cycle to get more embryos. So these little burgers better decide to stick around. We put all the chips on the table for this transfer. My beta test will be around the 20th. Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers!

One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready.........

Well the new progesterone protocol seems to have worked and my last biopsy came back good!!!!! So, baring no unforeseen illnesses or surgeries we will do another transfer around Friday, September 7th. And as we always say "We hope this is the last one!!!!" (throwing salt over left shoulder, crossing fingers, avoiding black cats, etc)

Biopsy Results

Well unfortunately my biopsy results came back "off". So, I am lucky enough to repeat the procedure again!!! I can hardly wait (insert a large dose of sarcasm here)!!! By "off" they are saying that my lining did not match up to the post ovulatory day it should have. It should have read 7 days post ovulatory and instead it came back as 3 days. Now to stop you from looking in your bedside medical encyclopedia, I will tell you what all this great news means! I am telling you it is amazing that anyone can get pregnant because so many things have to line up just right for life to form. If we would have gone ahead with the transfer it would have failed b/c my lining would not have been ready to accept the embryo. So, the next plan in this great experiment is to get me knocked up is to change the medication protocol and redo the biopsy. My next biopsy will be August 15th. It takes a week for the results to come back. I am not sure what we will do if the results are "off" again, but that is what we pay our doctor the big bucks for!!!

"Friday the 13th" Enough said!@#$#$#@#

Well unfortunately we have to cancel another cycle. I think I may have jinxed myself on this one. When talking to my doctor before she left on vacation she asked me if I was superstitious and what I thought about doing a Friday 13th transfer and I replied "What worse luck could we have at this point" and TAH DAH!!! We have it! Not that this is the worst thing that can happen in this process, but my patients is seriously being tested. Anyway, after talking to my doctor, she felt that it would be best to put some distance between the virus and the transfer. She said she was being ultra conservative, but I am happy with that approach on this issue. I know that if we did go ahead with the transfer and it failed, I would question whether we made the right decision or not. Really as disappointing as it all is, it is for the best.

We did decide to put some of this invested time in the cycle to good use by doing a lining biopsy next Wednesday. To do the lining biopsy you have to take all of the medications like you are going to do a transfer, but instead of the transfer they will biopsy my lining to see if it is were it should be at transfer. We are jumping the gun on this a little bit, but it would be the next step if we failed our next FET. So, I don't feel like this is a complete waste of time and we will be ruling out another problem before our possible last frozen transfer. I also got my rubella
re-immunization taken care of this week, which you have to wait a month afterwards before getting knocked-up.

So, tick tock we wait again.... I am hoping to be lucky in the power of 3's. This will be our 3rd transfer, the 3rd time we will try to do the 3rd transfer, and will be transferring 3 embryos again. It is amazing, what straws we grasp at during this process.

And we stumble off the starting block again......

As many of you know, my latest run in with the "Reuben's" (as Mark likes to call it) has left us up in the air if we will get to go forward with this cycle. I will find out on Monday what Dr. R has to say and see if any of my blood test are back. So, we may be sacking in another cycle, but if that is what she recommends we will do it. I will post more on Monday after we talk to the Dr. If you have time check out this funny youtube song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIH5ayG1qho&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efree%2Divf%2Ecom%2Fblogs%2Findex%2Ephp

For those of you who check out this link the "RE" is a Reproductive Endocrindologist. Which is really just a big fancy name for our fertility doctor!

A Funny E-Mail....

What people would say if we were paraplegic instead of infertile...

As soon as you buy a wheelchair, I bet you'll be able to walk again!

You can't use your legs? Boy, I wish I was paralyzed. I get so tired of walking, and if I were paralyzed I wouldn't have to walk anywhere! I could just sit around and relax all day long.

My cousin was paralyzed but she started shaving her legs in the other direction and she could walk again. You should try that.

I guess God just didn't mean for you to be able to walk.

Are you sure you want to be able to walk? It is SUCH hard work!

Oh, I know exactly how you feel, because I have an ingrown toenail.

Sorry, we don't cover treatment for paraplegia, because it's not a life-threatening illness.

So, when are you going to start walking?Oh, I have just the opposite problem. I have to walk everywhere I go!

But don't you want to walk?

You're just trying too hard. Relax and you'll be able to walk.

You're so lucky...think of the money you save on shoes.

I don't know why you're being so selfish. You should at least be happy that *I* can walk.

I hope you don't try those anti-paralyzation drugs. They sometimes make people run too fast and they get hurt.

Look at those people hiking...doesn't that make you want to hike?

Just relax, you'll be walking in no time.

Oh do my legs hurt, I was walking and walking and going up and down the stairs all day.

I broke my leg skiing, and was on crutches for weeks, and was worried I'd have a permanent limp, but I'm 100% healed.

You're being selfish, not coming on the hike with us, and looking at all of my track & field trophies.

Don't complain, you get all the good parking places.

If you just lose weight your legs will work again.

You don't know how to walk? What's wrong with you? Here let a real manshow you how to walk!

You are just trying too hard to walk. Give up, and then you'll walk.

Here, touch my legs, then you'll walk!

Everyone in my family can walk. It must be in the water!

Just take a vacation, and the stress-break will be sure to get you walking!

When _we_ were young we only had to worry about having to walk too much.

And I bet a parapalegic going to a bookstore doesn't find books about paralysis stacked next to all the books on running..."

anonymous

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3......

Good News/Bad News. I didn't test positive for APAs. Good because obviously I don't want to have a blood clotting disorder, but bad because it would be an easy treatable problem and a reason why we have failed our last 2 cycles. Anyway, we will electively do the heparin therapy for the first trimester. So no one is allowed to hit me after we do the transfer!! LOL We will also use a different transfer media called "embryo glue". Here is a link to the site if your interested in learning more. http://www.zanderivf.com/zivf/gill/embryoglue.asp. We are throwing every trick in the bag at this next transfer, hopefully it will be our last.

A few more pieces to the puzzle.

Hello Everyone,



Talked to all the doctors this week and we have devised our new plan of attack. Both my specialist and my ob/gyn agreed that it may be a good idea to test for Antiphospholipid Antibodies (APA). Here is a website explaining more about them in detail. http://www.lupus.org/education/brochures/antiphos02.html#common
Basically, these are things in my blood that may be making it difficult for me to get pregnant and the reason for the multiple failures. Also, I have found multiple studies showing an increase evidence with +APAs and chronic pelvic adhesions. After seeing the pictures and talking to both of the doctors my baby basket was pretty mangled up and they both confirmed the right tube is nonfunctional. Another interesting piece to the APAs is that a the person may have a low platelet count. I have had always had a low normal count. I even remember one time I donated platelets and they took me off the machine early because my platelet count was low. So, what does all of this mean. Well if my tests come back positive then I will do heparin therapy for my whole pregnancy. If they come back normal/negative we will still do heparin (just to try something different), but only use it in the first trimester. It looks like our next transfer will be sometime in the first 2 weeks of July depending on how my cycle falls. I will post when I no my test results! Take Care! Cynthia

The Journey of a 1000 Miles Begins with a Single Step and Another and Another.......Does Anyone Have a Map!!!

Hello Friends and Family,

After talking to a few of you, I realized people were still checking this page! Sorry for the long delay in posting. Unfortunately, we still don't have any good news to report yet, just a few more bumps on this journey to parenthood. To catch you all up on the recent events here are the cliff notes:

March: FET #1 March 24, 2007 (Frozen Embryo Transfer)

As you can see we transferred 3 this time. This is the normal coarse of events to have the option to transfer more after a failed fresh cycle. We had to thaw out 5 embryos to get the 3 we transferred. So, we are left with 8 kids in the freezer. We changed the protocol slightly this time as you do with each cycle while trying to find the right combination. This time we did the progesterone in oil (pio) shot daily during the 2nd phase of the cycle with twice daily prometrium. This combo at least kept my period away before my pregnancy test. However, our test was still negative.

The good news I found out, is that they don't freeze the embryos according to best to worst. After the fresh cycle (where they pick the best 2) the rest are randomly frozen in straws of 2 and 3. Each frozen cycle is like reaching in a bag and randomly pulling out eggs. The frozen cycles are much easier than the fresh cycles, less doctor's appointments, less medications, etc. We were all set to go on to fet #2...

Fet #2 April 8, 2007 (Good Friday)

Well things go off to a good start. We changed the protocol up again. I was to do the estrogen 3 times a day instead of 2. The estrogen is used to build up the lining. Do the PIO daily in second phase with once nightly prometrium. Basically your cycle is chemically controlled and there is no ovulation. This is called a medicated FET. We were also going to add a "embryo glue" it is a different transfer medium that is supposed to help the embryos stick to your lining and add in implantation. This embryo glue is also supposed to mimic the environment of the fallopian tubes which is were the embryo is on day 3. Anyway, you go in for your start ultrasound and blood woork appointment on day 3-5 of your cycle. Take the estrogen and come back on day 10-12 to check your lining and set the transfer date if your lining is thick enough. Which is 9mm or over.

So, I go in for my day 10-12 ultrasound and I felt like something was up, but just equated it to the extra estrogen. As soon as she we started the ultrasound, I saw it on the screen, a small collection of fluid on my right side and a very large collection of fluid on my left side. After coming in a few days later to have my doctor scan me herself and make a decision on to transfer or not, we decided that the best next step would be to do another lap surgery and more than likely remove my left tube which appeared to be filled with fluid (called a hydrosalpinx). This can cause a harsh environment for the the transferred embryos causing a higher rate of failure. So, I gave myself a big shot of progesterone to end my cycle and surgery was scheduled for May 16th, 2007.

May 16th, 2007- Lap Surgery#3

During the surgery they discovered a lot of adhesions tangling up both of my tubes and ovaries. My left tube was dilated and was removed. The left side had always been a problem. It had been blocked before and reopened during my lap in May of 2006. They also found 2 cysts on my right tube which were removed. The fimbrae on the right tube were noted as being "misshapen". In previous surgery and testing of my right tube it had been shown to be clear and open. The doctors decided to leave it, although they are not hopeful that it actually works. However this is the whole point of ivf/fet is to bypass the tubes. The recovery has been a little rougher than my surgery last May, but I guess the more times you peek under the hood the tougher things get.

The Next Step:

So, the brings to the question to what is next. Well, we have to wait a minimum of 6 weeks after surgery to do another transfer. This time also depends on how my cycles fall. It looks like we will do another transfer in July or August. As we always say, hopefully this will be the last one. However, through all of this I am learning a lot. To be more patient, not take things for granted, to be thankful for the many blessings we already have in our life. I have also met a lot of wonderful people who are going through the same things and many of them have had happy endings. We remain very hopeful that we will get our time. Thanks for all of the prayers and support. I know that someday this will all make sense and my journey will be able to help someone else.

P.S. I promise to update more for my devoted followers.

If at first you dont succeed, try try again....

Well, unfortunately we will be picking up our frozen embryos a little sooner than expected. Our first cycle was negative. We will meet with the doctor in late February and map out our next plan. Thanks to everyone for all of the thoughts and prayers.

We picked the kids up today!

Today we went for the transfer. Everything went perfectly! We transfered two perfect embryos. So, the 2 week wait is on!

Just seeing how posting a picture works?

More good news from the lab!!

The lab just called again and we have 6 more embryos to add to our 11!!! So that is a total of 17!

Fertilization Report #1 Jan 22, 2007

Hello Everyone,

We have decided to create a blog to keep people posted on our progress through the winding road of infertility. I talked to most of you yesterday about the progress so far. We will continue to post on this blog, so you can check for daily updates. Today we got the phone call from the lab and it appears of the 22 eggs retrieved, 11 have shown signs of fertilization. I think they will call again tomorrow with another update, but will ask the nurse when she calls this afternoon to set up our embryo transfer time.