Disappointment to the Infertility Community

I feel like a disappointment to our community in the lack of information on NIAW.

It has been incredibly busy in all our households but here are the links I wanted to share with you. Luckily, MSN decided to mention NIAW... for one day.

Invisible Pain of Infertility

What NOT to Say to an Infertile

8 Fertility Misconceptions

9 Natural Fertility Boosters

Fertility Awareness Stamps

My goal is to take each one of these links and discuss them... I hope I find the time!

National Infertility Awareness Week!!!

I know, it's Wednesday and I am just NOW mentioning this??? So crazy!

But it has been a very busy week and I have all these tabs up on my computer to make sure to write about and post links to... But I gotta find the time!

So today's short post is to make sure we get the word out about infertility and make it something that is OK to talk about!!! We have no reason to hide this, and the more people know the more help we may get through support from friends and family to better coverage on our insurance!!

So today's goal for me: write a few various posts on infertility and share them on all my networks.
Your goal? Share those posts, write some guest posts for us, tell your friends, family, strangers... Anything!

Have a great humpday!

Plus: find this awesome stamp on the address below!!

http://www.theafa.org/article/the-american-fertility-association-releases-infertility-awareness-stamp/

Ashley's hospital say at 4w5d (4/9/12-4/11/12)

Monday, April 9 I had off and was taking it easy - my husband told me just to relax and enjoy my day off. I felt really good in the morning, I called my OB's office and told them the good news that I am pregnant. The
nurse said I should plan to come in and have a nurse appointment at 8 weeks and then my OB will see me a couple weeks after that. I was at home watching some TV at 11:30. I got up to get a banana, sat back down and within a minute I had started to have extreme RLQ pain. I thought it may just be some weird bowel
pain. So I gave it 15 minutes and then managed to get up and go to the bathroom, I thought maybe I needed to have a bowel movement or just go pee. Well I got to the bathroom and the pain was getting worse. I got really hot and light headed so I stripped down. Then I got really cold so I covered up with a towel. The pain kept getting more intense and now it was 11:55am I started to get nauseous (which it’s rare I ever have nausea or vomit) and I knew something was seriously wrong. I was worried I was going to pass out and no one would know. So I managed to crawl out to my living room and grab my cell phone. I called my mom because she only lives and works 1/2 mile from my house. I called and said "Something is wrong" and she said "I'll be right there" she was at my house within two minutes. She said I looked white as a ghost. I said the pain is getting worse and we need to go to the hospital. Thought I had ovarian torsion or appendicitis we got in the car and I called my husband, he didn't answer so I just left a message saying "you need to call me as soon as you get this." My hospital that I see my OB/GYN and my place of employment is 40-45 minutes from my house. So on the car ride I also called my RE and told them what was going on; they advised me to go in. I called my OB/GYN again telling them what was going on and to see if I could go to the office instead of the ER. They were short staffed and said I should go to the ER. So the pain let up a little bit for about 10 minutes but as soon as I checked in to the ER the pain came right back and even more intense. The nurse grabbed me after about 5-10 minutes which seemed like an eternity and asked me some questions, took my BP, pulse etc. I told her I just had IVF I'm 4w5d pregnant, she asked me what IVF was! I was like In Vetro Fertilization. So they got me into a room I changed into a gown, laid down on the bed and looked for a garbage can because I vomited! I was in so much pain. The ER doctor (Radke) came in and talked to me I gave him all the details of our IVF and told him I called my doctor's office and told him they aren't concerned with an ectopic because my labs have been so good. He agreed and said he was concerned with ovarian torsion. He ordered labs and an ultrasound and pain killers and anti-nausea meds (I asked him if they were ok during pregnancy and he said yes). So they gave me morphine and zofran, they got a foley catheter placed and an IV. I asked about 15 minutes after they gave me the morphine, how long it would take to kick in because I didn't have any relief. So they said it should have kicked in and then gave me some delotid because that's supposed to kick in faster. My husband finally called back and my mom told him we were in the ER and I had severe RLQ pain, to get there as soon and safely as he could but don't panic. Then I went for my ultrasound (I work in this department) and my fellow co-worker Alicia did my exam. I was still in so much pain; the nurse came down and gave me more delotid. I told Alicia that from my labs last week they think I'm having twins; my blood work from today hasn't come in yet. So she did the exam, she saw two small fluid filled sacs both measuring 4w5d within my endometrium. :) She saw blood flow to both of my ovaries :) So they on-call ob/gyn Dr. Bublik-Anderson came in after the ultrasound and talked with me. She said we had two options either go to surgery to see if my right ovary is torsing or admit me and observe me and hopefully things get better or if they get worse then go to surgery. She said with everything I've been through she wants to be conservative and not jeopardize the pregnancy and I agreed. She said worse case scenario she'd get in there during surgery and have to remove my right ovary. (In my head this was horrible because my right ovary has been the "producer" and the champ ovary during the last two years and this would be horrible even though I am pregnant -probably with twins- and we have 5 frozen embryos) So she left to talk with the radiologist and I started to cry, I hadn't up to this point but hearing that I could possibly lose my right ovary (which I knew was a possibility before getting to the ER) but just hearing it made it all so real. At that time my husband arrived! It was so good to see his face. We updated him with what was going on. My pain was still so strong. We got back to the ER and waited for them to prepare our room on the OB unit. About 45 min. later they took me to the OB room and I got as comfortable as I could because the pain was still so intense they gave me more delotid in the ER after the ultrasound and more when I got to the OB room! Dr. Bublik-Anderson stopped by again she said she updated RMIA (RE doctor) and I said I still had so much pain and was worried that it would affect the babies. She said it doesn't cause any birth defects there is just a risk that the babies would go through with drawal. But she said it’s not chronic use and it's most important for me to be comfortable right now. So things settled down I had some jello and crackers and mainly just wanted to rest. My mom and husband went to grab some dinner. At about 7pm the pain started to decrease just a little, I had my last pain dose at 9pm. I slept pretty well. I woke up with very minimal pain. I was so happy but scared to move an inch in case the pain would come back. My OB Dr. Kerns stopped in in the morning and checked on me. He said he planned to keep me until Wed. morning. So I pretty much napped and watched TV all day. They let me have a regular diet and took my foley catheter out by noon. By 5pm they took me off my IV too. Here and there I would have a twinge of pain but it wouldn't last long and it wasn't very intense. Wednesday morning Dr. Kerns stopped back in and said I could go home, resume normal activities but don't do anything  strenuous or vigorous, no intercourse, no lifting heavy objects and I couldn't go back to work until I see him next week. So pretty much the same restrictions I've been on since the retrieval.

I'm so glad I didn't have to go to surgery, and that it didn't have anything to do with the babies.

I was happy to get home. Everyone was great at the hospital but it’s much harder to be the patient! Anyhow I was at home for a week and took it easy.  I had a follow-up appointment with my OB on Monday, April 16.  Things looked good and he told me I could go back to work.  He knew I would be having my viability ultrasound on 4/25 (I'll be 7w0d) so he said to schedule my new OB patient appointment with the nurse for the week after that and then the next week he'll meet with me.

So I went back to work this past Tuesday.  I am fortunate (and unfortunate in some ways) to be a  sonographer. I wanted to peak and make sure things were progressing normally with the babies and that my ovary size was starting to come down.  I saw two babies and two heartbeats!  We are officially having twins :)  I can't wait until Wednesday when we have our "official" ultrasound and we are release to my OB!!!  We are praying every day that things continue to go well.

I'll update you again after Wednesday :) :)

The last pill

I took my last bc pill. First sonogram and e2 are Friday morning. I'm getting so super excited and anxious! I really hope this works the first time.
They called with my hubby's tests and everything is perfect. Which we knew.... LoL and his genetic testing came back and he doesn't carry anything bad, which is awesome because I am a cystic fibrosis carrier, which was a scary concern. I'm so glad we won't have to worry about that but it's been cleared now. Friday seems so close and so far...

We still haven't told anyone and I feel like I wanna scream because its so exciting but I don't want the stress. I still have no idea what I'm going to tell my mom on WHY I'll be out of work for a week... LoL we were off yesterday and today and she txt this morning all worried why I was off -__- ...idk what we are going to do... I can't have her all hovering while trying to relax, but if I tell her what we are doing she's going to hover and stress me out because she wants a grand baby soooooo bad... so I get the same results... Idk what to do...

-Mrs Red

Fellow cyster

Please pray for my SIL who is also a fellow cyster, she's at the hospital right now. She's 7 weeks pregnant with her second (first took, 9 years and turns 2 tomorrow). She had 4 mc's before she spent her pregnancy with her first on bed rest for 7 months.

She's a strong woman.

-Mrs Red

Insurance...

I've spent the morning crying because I just found out we reached our lifetime max for fertility medication. The lifetime max is only $5k! How I'm grateful I haven't had to spend that out of pocket til now, I am extremely upset that my medication is going to be $1200 this cycle and if, God forbid, it doesn't work, it will be 100% out of pocket in the future, how I let this information slip by me is beyond me! I want to kick scream and cry at how greedy the pharmaceutical and insurance industry is. I didn't choose for my body not to work and to have to go this route, I'm not being greedy trying to play God, we have tried and tried traditional methods and numerous less intrusive means. I was so excited yesterday to find out the procedure will be less than I thought and though "wow now we have money for cryo" but now that money "saved" is going above and beyond what we were expecting for meds. I'm just so... Defeated right now... My loving husband said its ok and we will still do it but it's the principle I'm mad at! I know I should be grateful I have any insurance coverage at all because so many people don't have any, but I'm mad for that too! Why do we have to have a maximum on it? I don't want to get into a political debate, so I'll end there, I'm just frustrated and disappointed. Also, I want to send the warning out to everyone that has insurance coverage to not forget to pay attention to your prescription coverage, it can sneak up on you!

-Mrs Red

Get Congress' help!!!

Read this blog, pass it along! Get someone you know, or go yourself to make congress hear us!!! We need these bills passed to help alleviate the financial strain it can take on families

http://www.resolve.org/get-involved/legislative-issues/blog/i-made-a-promise-i-have-to.html

Some Good Infertility Quotes

“If a tree falls in the forest, can anyone hear it? If an infertile bangs her head against the wall in a bathroom at a baby shower, can anyone hear her?”

 “Millions of couples suffer from infertility, so why the f$ck is everyone pregnant but me?”

 “Nature has got it all wrong: When you are younger, it should be harder to get pregnant, and as you get older it should be easier. When you are so ready, you can’t do it to save your life. And when you are 21, you are so not ready, but you are ripe as could be. The eggs should become more developed the older you get, not die slowly from the day you’re born. That’s one thing God got wrong.” – Halle Berry

Inspirational book title:  - The Facebook Story: I just deleted all my pregnant friends.

 If curiosity killed the cat, than the infertile can shoot eye pistols at the fertile who conceived on her first attempt.

“You know you are trying to get pregnant when: Someone asks you today’s date and you reply “Day 21.” -Melissa

“You know you have been TTC too long when you open the fridge door and immediately get angry at the eggs in the carton…. or jealous.” -Tiffany

 “QUESTIONER: “Wow, I didn’t know you were married that long. How many kids do you have?” ME: “None. They’re on backorder. I ordered them, like, forever ago. I don’t know, they must be out of stock.” -Rachel



Gotten from :  http://www.999reasonstolaugh.com/

Ashley's IVF Results

So after our transfer (3/26/12) I ate LOTs of pineapple! A few fellow IVFers and I also read what helps implantation that fresh pineapple is supposed to help implantation. So I ate 1/2 of pineapple 3/26-3/30! I thought its worth a shot! I love fresh pineapple. I had some mild cramping throughout the week and I thought my bloating (from the retrieval on 3/21) was starting to go down on over the weekend. Monday I woke up and I was really bloated again (I was hoping this was a good sign) we also received our letter from the embryologist that we had 5 embryos frozen- great news! We only lost one embryo :) Most people only get to freeze one or two - we are so lucky. Tuesday I had a little break down before going to bed. I was crying thinking about receiving bad news on Friday. I hadn't had any symptoms or if I did I attributed them to other causes (having a headache for two days 3/29-3/30, vision changes for the past week, breast soreness but I am taking progesterone) I also woke up at 10:44 pm that night with horrible cramping very similar to when I have my period except a little worse. Wednesday I had to be up at 4:00 am to go in for my first bHCG lab. I prayed the whole way there 1.5 hrs. When I got there I asked the nurse if she would be calling me today if the lab came back at 0. She said they still make you come back on Friday so that's when I'd get results. I told her I was just curious because my DH and I were contemplating taking a hpt test even though I didn't really want to find out that way because we would have family at our house as soon as we got home on Friday and they'd be staying the whole weekend and I also would be having my sister's baby shower on Saturday. So I went to work and on my drive home from work I was trying to figure out if it would be best to take a hpt that night or Thursday night, when my phone rang! A the nurse's voice said "Ashley, this is Jean, I've just been dying to call you all day, your labs came back great! Not just good, great!" I said crying "Oh, I didn't expect to hear from you today, thank you so so so very much I can't tell you how much this means to me." She said I just couldn't have you waiting and thinking about this all week and then having to go to your sister's baby shower on Saturday. I didn't want you to worry, and if I had any doubt I wouldn't have called you but your labs are great, with a possibility of twins. Your bHCG is 332 and progesterone is 169." After I hung up the phone I cried, no balled like a baby, to the point I probably should have stopped the car! I was so happy and in shock! A few minutes after I calmed down I called my husband to see when he'd be home. He said he had to work late and would be home in a few hours. So I was trying to think of a way to tell him! We originally thought we'd find out by me peeing on a hpt and we'd both find out at the same time and have it confirmed on Friday by a call from the doctor's office. So I got home and made a sign/card that said "we are finally pregnant". When my husband got home I was trying to act as normal as possible. After a few minutes I said come here a minute we need to talk, so I had him come into our bedroom and sit down at the edge of the bed. I told him Stella and I have something to tell you. (Stella is our lab) I handed him the card, he opened it and a huge smile came across his face and he said "really?" and I told him all the details of the nurse calling. We decided to not tell any of our family until we received our results on Friday to make sure things stayed positive!

So Friday morning my mom road with me (clueless) to my appointment. The nurse asked what my mom thought and I said I haven't told her yet. She laughed and said she's road with you three times now you need to tell her on your way home. I said yes it's been hard keeping it from her. So after leaving the clinic I told her. She is so excited and happy :)

Friday afternoon Jean called and said your labs came back great again today they more than doubled 872 today! She said she thinks we are having twins!! :) (We hope so too!)

Friday night we told my parents and my sister & her husband, I put a little piece of paper saying we are pregnant and candy in a plastic Easter egg for each of them. We also told my husbands parents and siblings at our Easter Gathering on Saturday, and my grandma on Easter. We will tell my other grandparents today or tomorrow. Everyone is very happy. One of the most special parts in all of this is our due date is 12/12/12, which was my grandpa's birthday. He passed away 3.5 yrs ago and I can't help but think he's had a hand in this. We thanked everyone for their prayers and asked them to continue to pray for everything to go well and for us to have healthy pregnancy and baby(s).

We will tell the rest of our family and friends as soon as we know if there is one or two and we see heartbeat(s) which will be in the next week or two and know that everything is going well. I am fortunate that I am a sonographer and can find out sooner than our viability ultrasound that is scheduled for 4/25.

I've been feeling pretty good, bloating, tired, and crampy but I'm enjoying it! We are SO excited and still in shock it's so hard to believe! We are praying for everything to work out and continue to go well - hoping for the best and ready and hoping for twins, but would feel very blessed with one as well! :)

Mrs Red's IVF

March 26, 2012 Was day three of my cycle... This is the one where I am supposed to call the RE to get BC so that we can start the stuff for IVF. I was soooo nervous because OF COURSE my cycle starts on a Saturday! I called the doctor's office as soon as they opened and left a message for the nurse. They called me back at 945 and asked me to come right away so they could get blood work and give me my script. I told my boss I'd be back in a few hours and hurried to the medical center. They took a little blood and told me they would call me with calendar dates of stuff. Said I'd have to have another saline histogram (since I have a history of uterine polyps), my hubby would need to take an HIV and Hep B test, and that he needed another swimmer check since our last IUI was a year ago. I left the office excited and anxious lol
Wednesday, my nurse called and gave me my Estradiol and FSH numbers and said they were perfect! YAY, Nothing is EVER perfect with me!! LOL, and she gave me the dates for my sono's, E2 checks and a round about time frame of when we'll do the retrieval/transfer.
I went yesterday (April 2nd) to the doctor with my hubby and they did the saline histogram (I could be spelling that wrong so forgive me) and to meet with the anesthesiologist. They were concerned with my BMI and wanted to make sure I wouldn't have any breathing problems. Anesthesiologist said that she didn't see what problems I would have but still asked me all the problems and said I was healthy enough :) So then we did the saline test. They do the transvaginal ultrasound first to get a baseline check of everything, then they take that out, put the speculum, which hurt, and then poke a catheter through the cervix and up into the uterus. Then back in the ultrasound thing goes, then they take a picture of where the tip is and then start injecting the uterus with saline, at first it just feels weird, but as it starts filling up, omg it hurt and caused so much cramping. Then I hear them say, oh look, I think there's a polyps at the end there. :( I wanted to cry. Polyps mean surgery, surgery means 2 months before we can do ivf, I got really sad. But they're just nurses. LoL The doctor looked at the pictures and said, I need to see the video, I'll brb. Before he left he showed us what I had last time and it looked different. While he was gone, we talked about what surgery would mean, not just a delay but I don't get paid for days off, and we prayed. The doctor comes back and confirms that the nurse just scraped the inside of my uterus and it was just a flap she made and he wasn't going to do surgery! YAY!!! We will have retrieval/transfer the week of April 30th!!!

-Mrs Red