I have been bad about updating here about things that have been going on.
Hubby did another SA a couple of weeks ago and I had a mock transfer and saline sonogram as well as another chat with my Dr. about doing IVF this cycle.
I have been on birth control pills for the past 10 days and tonight will be the last one I take. They say to take birth control pills to keep things quiet in your ovaries before starting the cycle. I think it is kind of funny that I, who have no chance of becoming pregnant the natural way, am currently taking birth control. Anyways...
My saline sonogram went off well. They inject a mixture of saline and iodine into your uterus and then take an ultrasound to see how the walls look. They want to see clean sharp lines and that is exactly what my RE said he saw. So this was good news because it means that there are no issues (as far as my uterus is concerned) that would make implantation difficult.
After the saline sonogram we talked about this cycle and the results from hubby's SA. RE told me that the SA they did this time was with the Kruger analysis which looks at the sperm to find ones that have the correct shape and angle in the heads to penetrate the egg. Apparently none of hubby's sperm have this shape/angle. My first thought was that maybe this was why my IUIs didn't work but RE said that this is specific for IVF and could not say if this would have contributed to my past IUIs failing. The other concern I had was if the sperm are not correctly shaped does this mean that there is a problem with the DNA or chromosomes carried by the sperm. RE also told me that this is not the case and that the sperm are normal as far as DNA are concerned. The only thing that this analysis means is that we will be doing our IVF cycle with Intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). This means that once they remove my eggs instead of putting each together with 50,000 sperm and letting them all attack the egg they will be selecting one sperm per egg and injecting that into each egg. Crazy to think how tiny that needle has to be...I have no idea how this actually happens but I think it is pretty amazing that it is something they can do.
I also got my protocol and a packet of information to review and sign including consents and information about what we want to do with our embryos. This is crazy stuff because for us this is the equivalent to asking what we want to do with our unborn children. Not something most people have to think about or deal with. The list of medications was pretty intimidating, not to mention the 160 needles that were ordered. I know that some of these are for mixing but it seems a bit overkill to me. Hopefully they just order way too many. I think the most I would have to use is 40 to actually inject myself with but I guess I will find out.
Another thing that has been going on is that my insurance is being annoying and saying that certain medications need additional authorizations. Hopefully all this gets straightened out soon. I was supposed to get my shipment of medications tomorrow but that is not going to happen because of the authorization issues and the fact that one of the medications is on back order. My nurse says that I must have all the medications by Thursday at the absolute latest since I have my teach class and start injections on Friday. This is making me a little (read - a lot) crazy. It certainly does not mix well with my need to be in control A-Type personality. Also I won't know how much this is all costing me until they actually ship it. Hope there is enough $ in my HSA account to cover it... Guess I need to figure out a way to relax until the medication gets here.
On Friday I go in for bloodwork an ultrasound and my 2 hour teach class. The teach class is basically where the nurses teach you how to be your own pharmacist: mixing and injecting and timing all the different medications I will have to take for 8-10 days starting on Friday.
I am super excited to get things started. My RE says that there is a 70% chance of success for me this cycle. Those are odds that make me happy. The big question for me right now though is still whether to transfer one or two. This is what is going on in my head about all this: If I transfer one there is a better chance that I will have a healthier pregnancy if it works. Also, raising one child is definitely preferable than raising two at the same time. The problem is what if the one does not work. I feel like I will always wonder if it would have worked if I transferred two. My Dr. is concerned about transferring two because of my young age he feels that my chance of multiples is very likely (about 50-60%) and he does not want me to have to deal with the complications that come with twin pregnancies, especially given my medical history with PCOS he is concerned about gestational diabetes, hypertension and other issues. I do want to be able to enjoy my pregnancy and not have to be on bed rest the entire time or on additional medications that could potentially harm our babies. So this is the current dilemma - one or two...it is a question that is constantly on my mind. I guess I will have to make a decision sometime soon...
No comments:
Post a Comment