GREEN LIGHT

Whoo Hoo! We got the call that tonight we will pull the Trigger. By that I mean Rob will be giving me my "trigger" shot tonight which is HCG. The point of the trigger shot is to seperate the egg's from the follicles and promote ovulation. We have a spedific time tonight that the injection needs to be done at because 36 hours from that time we will have the egg retrieval. We are doing our injection at 11pm tonight and night owls we are not. Our egg retrieval is scheduled for Wednesday @ 10:00 am. Rob is providing his donation at 7:30 am which is equally important...So we are getting pregnant together in a petry dish Wednesday and we couldn't be happier.

Follistim Junkie

Question: If I stop at a McDonald's to shoot up Follistim in the bathroom does that make me a junkie? This morning I went in for blood and ultrasound AGAIN..and I was told to take another dose of Follistim this morning. The waiting room was crazy and the bathroom was occupied. I went out to my car and tried to get comfortable enough to shoot up in the parking lot but its freakin cold in Spokane. So hmmm what to do?!? I started heading back to the lake house and I saw the golden arches of a BRAND spankin' new McDonald's. PERFECT! I walk inside... head to the clean bathroom ....and bonus... elevator music is playing so loud in the ladies room. I head into a stall balance my needles and meds on the top of the toiletpaper holder and BAM I became a certified Follistim junkie. I just hope that no permanent damage has been done :) On with my day. We should be pulling the "trigger" tonight so more to come....off to lunch with one of my favorite girlfriends today for a much needed gossip session!

Sunday Sunday Sunday

HA! We made it through the week....WOW what a whirl wind. So for a re-cap of events....I went from being deathly afraid of giving blood (and this goes back as far as I can remember) to having my blood drawn every other day for a couple weeks now. My mom can vouch for the fact that I hated needles from the time I found out what they were. A week ago I cried when Rob brought out that first needle and this morning I got up and gave myself the injection so I didn't have to wake my tired husband. We went from having little Follies to Fabulous Happy ready to be plucked Follies. Although now we know that my right ovary is worthless...Thanks ALOT Rightie, lucky for me the Lord provided us with TWO yes TWO ovaries...How smart is he :) Today I am hopeful and excited...Thank you for everyone's support through this journey. We are so fortunate to have a very supportive friends and family surrounding us. I know that we are strong enough as a couple that we can make it through anything....for the first time last night I felt the both of us relax just enough to smile and laugh again. Thanks!

Fat and Happy Follies

I have had two a.m. clinics since my last post and everything is progressing nicely :) My left Ovary is pulling its weight thankfully. We are on track to have our egg retrieval Wednesday. I am taking Monday through Wednesday off next week and moving to Spokane...well for a little while. We are doing so well that I am starting a new drug tonight called Ganirelix. This extra injection every night will prevent me from ovulating.YEAH another shot. The next few days are going to fly by and I am getting sooo excited. I cannot wait to be done with this part of our journey...the next part will be more emotional than physical so expect some crying its inevitable :)

EXTRA FUN

Well I did it..for the first time in my life I gave myself an injection...not my favorite moment but I am so glad that I can now rely on myself for injections and not just Rob...For the record though I would like to say that I am not a HUGE fan and I will not be pursuing a career in the medical field any time soon. I had blood and ultrasound this morning and my left ovary doing AWESOME :) Rightie you need to pick up the slack. LeAnn called and she is increasing my dosage for follistim until my next morning blood and ultrasound on Thursday. I am feeling good a little tender in the injection area (my tummy is a pin cushion) and I have some lower back pain. Hopefully this increase in dosage won't add to the fun that we are already experiencing....Kinda funny today though I feel super protective over my ovaries which are growing very important follicles that could eventually create our baby....rest well follicles please don't hurt me too much as you grow and multiply on the extra fun meds :)

Palouse Falls

I have the greatest husband EVER. Yesterday was a tough day for both of us...so we struck out on an adventure in our Jeep. We ended up at Palouse Falls which was just what we needed to forget for awhile. There is nothing better than hiking around a waterfall with your BEST friend and getting some mud on the tires of our Jeep. I thought you all would like to see some pictures.

Minor Break down

Well I would call it a minor break down...Rob probably has a different name for it but fortunately for me I am the one writing this blog (tee hee) We drew up our first series of injections after we pulled out the prescription to figure out which needle belonged to what. I was doing good all day and I took one look ah the Low Dose HCG and the water works began...Rob did so good staying cool calm and collect. I put my hands over my eyes and sang ....I am henry the 8th I am...and voooallla I got both my my injections. They actually didn't hurt that bad. YEAH so we are on our way! Tomorrow at 7am we will do it all over again....I hate this part by the way. I really really hate this!

Lifes little twists...........

So we have been preparing for Rob to be the one giving injections but the nurse threw a little twist in yesterday. I will be needing Follistim 2 times a day starting Sunday and going until Tuesday. So I must figure out how to inject myself....YUCK! Hopefully after Rob gives me my injections tonight I will get a feel for it and I can start injecting myself with Follistim. I am still getting only one shot of Low Dose HCG which I will leave to Rob. This is by far the hardest thing I have ever endured. Yesterday I was in a waiting room with about 30 women. Thankfully I got there at 6:30 am and was the second person there. Basically they are so quick with blood and ultrasounds that you can throw dignity out the window on these mornings. Nothing is sacred anymore :(
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I would have to go through so much to begin a family. I have an injection station in my kitchen next to the fridge since half of my medicine needs to be refrigerated. MY KITCHEN IS FULL OF NEEDLES!!!! Anyway wish me luck on this part of the adventure because I am entering the FIRE SWAMP with Buttercup I hope to come out alive :)

First Lab

I had my first Lab today at the Center in Spokane. (note to self ...get there at 5:30 am) There are 40-50 couples going through this IVF cycle with us. You can imagine all of us fighting to get our blood drawn in the morning and rush off to our day jobs. The lab this morning thankfully only included a blood draw. The next set of labs will be blood and ultra sound to watch the follicle count for potential eggs. LeAnn, whom I haven't introduced properly, is our nurse coordinator, called to let me know that my blood results we good this morning. I will be talking about LeAnn ALOT since she is our direct line to the doctor and our results. The next appointment is on Friday which will be the blood and ultrasound. LeAnn will call us after the next lab morning and let us know the proper doses need for the injections that start Saturday night...YEAH US! I have 4 more days injection free......oh how I dread the needles waiting for me.

BIG Stinkin' needle

Is it true that the Lord never gives us more than we can handle? I am going to be asking him that very question everyday through this whole process. Today Rob and I had our injection class in Spokane at The center for Reproductive health. There was a slide show of the whole process of invetro fertilization given by a nursing assistant. After the slide show the needles came out and Amy's face went white. Rob did very good giving fake shots to a small tummy on the table. I was ok with the Follistim shot and the Low HCG because they were very small needles. I even gave the tiny tummy a shot myself....but out came the Progesterone shot which was a BIG daddy. To get the thick Progesterone (in Oil) out of the vile and into the syringe there was a VERY large needle used. After the syringe is filled a STILL VERY large needle is needed to inject the thick liquid into a muscle. Rob is my strength and my light, I am so lucky to have my husband and my best friend there as my ROCK. I will post all my drug info tomorrow but after a stress filled day this is all I had. Hmph search out and conquer BIG Stinkin Needle in my dreams tonight...

Happy New Year!

We rang in the new year last night with some Great friends. I am thankful that finally 2011 has begun...onward bound. I got my NEW calendar in the mail yesterday. Rob and I have elected not to be part of genetic procedure that would potentially come at the end of our process. I have realized that I haven't explained our process thoroughly since starting this blog. So from the beginning....Rob and I have elected to go through Invetro Fertilization or IVF. The doctor who has ran multiple tests on the both of us and has concluded that we have a 1% chance of getting pregnant on our own. After spending the last 3 years of our lives trying to get pregnant I am excited that we have a doctor who is 80% sure he can get us there. On January 14th we will drive to Spokane to attend a class on how to give injections. Everyone who knows me is well aware of my horror of needles, thankfully Rob has stepped up and will be the one giving me my daily injections. We are on schedule to start our medications on January 21. Once I start the injections I will start blood and ultrasound testing approximately every other day to monitor my Folicle (Egg) count. Once the doctor sees the Folicles where he wants them we will schedule the Egg Retrieval. This is the process of extracting the eggs from me to be fertilized in a lab. Thankfully I will be sedated for this process as it can be pretty uncomfortable. The day after the Egg Retrieval is considered Day one of our pregnancy. The doctor's will watch our little embryo's grow each and everyday and if we have enough viable healthy embryo's by day 5 we will transfer two of them back to me. After a successful transfer there is a 2 week wait before we can have a blood test done to determine whether it has all been successful! I will keep you updated with all our progress. Thank you all for your love and support.