Hey guys! It has been way too long since I blogged last
time. Wanna come join us on our next fertility road trip? Cause guess
what? Here we go again! Join in on all the fun, wacky, stressful, and embarrassing
details as we gear up for a frozen embryo transfer this fall. Some of you may
recall that through IVF we were blessed with our daughter Molly Joy, another
baby we will one day get to meet in heaven, and 4 beautiful frozen embryos. This process has already had tons of twists and turns!
A little back story...in December our family bought and moved into a new house where we hope to raise our family and build many wonderful memories. Our original plan, was to do a frozen embryo transfer in January or February of this year, but Jamie and I both had bronchitis for 6 weeks. Ugh...it was pretty rough. Between being sick, moving in less than a week before Christmas, holiday traveling and hosting family for New Years, trying to get settled into a new house, and taking care of Molly - we put our plans on hold. Clearly, it was not the right timing. So as the year went by we decided that I would pour my energy into making our new house a home. It has been a fun challenge! I really have enjoyed getting us settled in. Every room is not completely finished, but it doesn't drive me crazy like it use to.
A little back story...in December our family bought and moved into a new house where we hope to raise our family and build many wonderful memories. Our original plan, was to do a frozen embryo transfer in January or February of this year, but Jamie and I both had bronchitis for 6 weeks. Ugh...it was pretty rough. Between being sick, moving in less than a week before Christmas, holiday traveling and hosting family for New Years, trying to get settled into a new house, and taking care of Molly - we put our plans on hold. Clearly, it was not the right timing. So as the year went by we decided that I would pour my energy into making our new house a home. It has been a fun challenge! I really have enjoyed getting us settled in. Every room is not completely finished, but it doesn't drive me crazy like it use to.
One cool thing about our new house is that it is only 1/2
mile or so away from our fertility doctor's office where our little frozen
babies are being stored. Every time I drive by the office, I wave to them and
tell them I love them. Sometimes I tell Molly, "Wave hi to your siblings!" Does that make me a weirdo? Eh ...ok well just blame it on the baby fever.
Then we were going to do a transfer in August, but I ended up needing emergency gallbladder surgery in July and again we realized it clear that we needed just a little bit more time for me to recuperate from surgery. But thankfully, the ball is now rolling and we are super stoked to try to get pregnant again this fall.
This time has been less stressful than IVF in some areas and more stressful in other areas. A few weeks ago I went into our fertility doctor's office to get images of my uterus to make sure everything is okay to have a healthy pregnancy. Thankfully, my test and the images were clear, but we learned some shocking news.
Our fertility office is closing...forever!!! The practice is owned by a huge company and that huge corporation decided to close down this particular practice. Not only that, but my doctor said he couldn't do a transfer until he is settled at his new practice...3 months after our original planned month. Ummm....WHAT? I was definitely stressed and upset. Thankfully, I learned that there is another doctor at his new practice that they suggested I meet with to see if she would be willing to do our frozen embryo transfer for us.
After learning about the closing there were many unanswered questions like... will this new doctor even be willing to take me on so last minute (later we found out yes), where are our embryos going, when are they being shipped, what type of shipping is used to ensure their safety, what if the vehicle transporting the embryos is in an accident, when can our old lab ship the embryos and when can the new lab receive them....this is just the tip of all the questions that have taken weeks to get sorted out.
We quickly learned that the cost to ship them was going to cost us several hundred dollars more ON TOP OF the already $3,100 that it takes to even do a frozen embryo transfer. At this point, I think both practices are working together to try to cut this cost down to something MUCH MUCH more reasonable and still have our embryos transferred in a manner that is just as safe. Fingers crossed.
One thing I am super excited about with this frozen embryo transfer is NO SHOTS and NO EGG RETRIEVAL SURGERY! Alleluia! In fact, here is a picture of the fertility meds that I received for my transfer a few days ago.
Then we were going to do a transfer in August, but I ended up needing emergency gallbladder surgery in July and again we realized it clear that we needed just a little bit more time for me to recuperate from surgery. But thankfully, the ball is now rolling and we are super stoked to try to get pregnant again this fall.
This time has been less stressful than IVF in some areas and more stressful in other areas. A few weeks ago I went into our fertility doctor's office to get images of my uterus to make sure everything is okay to have a healthy pregnancy. Thankfully, my test and the images were clear, but we learned some shocking news.
Our fertility office is closing...forever!!! The practice is owned by a huge company and that huge corporation decided to close down this particular practice. Not only that, but my doctor said he couldn't do a transfer until he is settled at his new practice...3 months after our original planned month. Ummm....WHAT? I was definitely stressed and upset. Thankfully, I learned that there is another doctor at his new practice that they suggested I meet with to see if she would be willing to do our frozen embryo transfer for us.
After learning about the closing there were many unanswered questions like... will this new doctor even be willing to take me on so last minute (later we found out yes), where are our embryos going, when are they being shipped, what type of shipping is used to ensure their safety, what if the vehicle transporting the embryos is in an accident, when can our old lab ship the embryos and when can the new lab receive them....this is just the tip of all the questions that have taken weeks to get sorted out.
We quickly learned that the cost to ship them was going to cost us several hundred dollars more ON TOP OF the already $3,100 that it takes to even do a frozen embryo transfer. At this point, I think both practices are working together to try to cut this cost down to something MUCH MUCH more reasonable and still have our embryos transferred in a manner that is just as safe. Fingers crossed.
One thing I am super excited about with this frozen embryo transfer is NO SHOTS and NO EGG RETRIEVAL SURGERY! Alleluia! In fact, here is a picture of the fertility meds that I received for my transfer a few days ago.
Common Questions
So what is an embryo and how many do we plan to transfer out of the 4 we have? Our embryos are my eggs already mixed with Jamie's sperm (getting squirmy yet?). Our goal is to put back 1 or 2. There are 3 vials. Two vials have one strong embryo in them each and then one vial has 2 weaker embryos frozen together. To anyone going through IVF, share this one tip with them - tell the doctor/embryologist not to freeze any embryos together. This was something that never even entered my mind during IVF and of all the hundreds of fertility blogs I read, no one ever said anything about this and it has worried me a lot. Once a vial with 2 or more has been thawed, they either have to be used or discarded (which we don't feel comfortable with). So two big reasons we are using the weaker embryos first is (A) if we are going to get surprised with twins I would rather have that be now and not a surprise at the end of using our embryos and (B) because they are weaker if they do result in a loss I would rather have that be now than during our last frozen embryo transfer. I know that despite all my best planning, God is going to build our family in the beautiful way he has designed for us, but given the information we have we are trying to make the best decisions possible. So long story short, we will put back whatever embryos survive the thaw from the vial with two. In the end though we will use all of our embryos at some point. However, if in 6 years you are wondering why we didn't have Molly plus 4 more babies it is because not embryo becomes a pregnancy.
So what is an embryo and how many do we plan to transfer out of the 4 we have? Our embryos are my eggs already mixed with Jamie's sperm (getting squirmy yet?). Our goal is to put back 1 or 2. There are 3 vials. Two vials have one strong embryo in them each and then one vial has 2 weaker embryos frozen together. To anyone going through IVF, share this one tip with them - tell the doctor/embryologist not to freeze any embryos together. This was something that never even entered my mind during IVF and of all the hundreds of fertility blogs I read, no one ever said anything about this and it has worried me a lot. Once a vial with 2 or more has been thawed, they either have to be used or discarded (which we don't feel comfortable with). So two big reasons we are using the weaker embryos first is (A) if we are going to get surprised with twins I would rather have that be now and not a surprise at the end of using our embryos and (B) because they are weaker if they do result in a loss I would rather have that be now than during our last frozen embryo transfer. I know that despite all my best planning, God is going to build our family in the beautiful way he has designed for us, but given the information we have we are trying to make the best decisions possible. So long story short, we will put back whatever embryos survive the thaw from the vial with two. In the end though we will use all of our embryos at some point. However, if in 6 years you are wondering why we didn't have Molly plus 4 more babies it is because not embryo becomes a pregnancy.
What are your chances of getting pregnant? We should have between a 45% to 55% chance of getting preggo for each frozen embryo transfer. My mind is already racing with what this will mean. It could be anything ranging from a negative pregnancy test to a positive pregnancy test, could each embryo split and we end up with quintuplets (it HAS happened before), a miscarriage of 1 or 2 babies or a beautiful birth, or so many other things. The one thing I am holding onto through this time of uncertainty is that God is faithful. He sees our family as it is suppose to be and any baby(ies) we conceive through this - He already knows their every detail.
I would love some prayers for peace during this time. Peace for what will happen and peace about the financial side of this fertility treatment. Going through a frozen embryo transfer is an expensive procedure. It definitely is not as expensive as IVF was, but still expensive. I do get worried because the hospital bills from my gallbladder surgery are coming in, we are replacing our broken air conditioning system in our house, AND moving forward with trying to expand our family. Thankfully, I have a husband who reminds me that true security does not come from a savings account, but from Jesus Christ. He also reminds me of all the ways God has provided for us in the past.
Often I ask myself, does anyone even care about this part of our story, but then I am reminded how much reading other's blog stories helped me during times of uncertainty...THAT and I really want God to get all the glory in the story of how he builds our family.
I would love some prayers for peace during this time. Peace for what will happen and peace about the financial side of this fertility treatment. Going through a frozen embryo transfer is an expensive procedure. It definitely is not as expensive as IVF was, but still expensive. I do get worried because the hospital bills from my gallbladder surgery are coming in, we are replacing our broken air conditioning system in our house, AND moving forward with trying to expand our family. Thankfully, I have a husband who reminds me that true security does not come from a savings account, but from Jesus Christ. He also reminds me of all the ways God has provided for us in the past.
Having Molly join our family has been amazing. She is 15 months old now and just brings so much Joy into our lives! We hope next year we can bring her home a sibling (or maybe two).
