Once again it’s been too long since I’ve
blogged. I remember a time when I was
determined to get 3-5 posts out a week, now I can hardly muster 1 post a
month. I’m not sure what has changed,
maybe the fact that I feel as though I never have anything new to write about
because we are still stuck in this same horrible storm of infertility that we
have been for so many years now. Sharing
my favorite stocking stuffers or a new recipe just doesn’t even seem worth it
to me anymore. I wonder if I will ever
be able to make this blog what I had originally intended to over 3 years ago.
On top of my lack of motivation to write, work has
been absolutely crazy. I work for a gas
& electric power company and we have had a couple major storms in the last
few weeks and on top of that we are down a person in the office and she happens
to have the most pressing responsibilities that we can’t let pile up. I also happen to be her back up for almost
everything she does so in her absence, I have been swamped. We don’t expect her back for several months
due to medical reasons so there really is no end in sight either. Between work, traveling for doctor’s
appointments, prepping for the holidays, and everything else life throws at us,
I’m ready for a break!
As most of you know we recently started seeing
another doctor that we are hoping will finally get us where we want to be. This is our 3rd doctor & our 4th
opinion in 2 years. I was very happy
that our new doctor, Dr. Sherbahn seems to be on the exact same page as we are
with what we want for this cycle. Last
week I had a “mock” transfer and hysteroscopy which came back all normal, Joe
submitted a sample which was normal, we had all preliminary blood work done
& my meds will arrive today. We are
all geared up to start our 3rd and final fresh cycle.
When I say final, I not only mean that I hope that
this is the last fresh cycle that I will ever have to do, but for now, this is
the last fresh cycle that I’ll willingly subject my body to. If this cycle (and any frozen cycles to
follow) doesn’t work, then we need to move forward with another option. Of course this is subject to change, but what
I have decided for myself at this time is that I will not let infertility be my
entire life, I won’t give it any more time than I have to. At some point it has to come to an end. I hope it comes to a happy end where I can
carry my own pregnancy with a healthy baby created by both mine & my husband’s
genetics.
Things are progressing very quickly as next Monday the
30th is our baseline ultrasound and stims start on Tuesday the 1st. My first monitoring appointment is the 4th,
& retrieval is slated for the week of December 13th. We decided that we’d like to do the PGS
testing since it’s something that we haven’t tried that will rule out a lot for
us and give us the peace of mind that we are transferring normal embryos. The PGS testing will be costing us $5000 out
of our own pockets because it is not covered by insurance. Having just built a house, this will be a bit
of a challenge for us, but we will make it work.
Because we chose to have the testing, we will be
doing a FET in January after the cells are tested. The way that PGS is works is they retrieve
the eggs, fertilize them, and then biopsy them and send a tiny sample of cells
to a testing facility & freeze the embryos while the cells are tested. The results take about 5 days & because of
this, a frozen transfer is required the following month rather than a fresh
transfer. Because there is a chance that
not enough eggs are retrieved or not enough fertilize to be sent for testing, a
fresh transfer is a possibility. I don’t
expect that to happen since I am a great responder, but we are prepared for
that if it comes down to it.
I have high expectations for this cycle and I
really feel as though Dr. Sherbahn’s protocol for us will get us the best
results. I couldn’t believe how quickly
they were able to get me into their schedule, the time is just flying and I can’t
believe we are already celebrating Thanksgiving this week! I am excited to decorate my new house for
Christmas, go cut down our tree, and enjoy time with friends and family over
the holiday season. It really is the
most wonderful time of the year.
For Thanksgiving we have 3 stops. It usually makes for a long day, but it’s
always well worth it to see our families. One of my favorite parts about this day is
when we finally get home after our whirlwind day we sit down with a couple
mimosas and officially kick off the Christmas season by watching Christmas
Vacation, Elf, and any other Christmas movie we can stay up to watch. It really is one of my favorite traditions of
ours. We will cut down our Christmas
tree over the weekend too and start decorating.
We have an ugly Christmas sweater party to attend and I’ll be doing some
Black Friday shopping as well.
As always, I really appreciate you guys sticking
around for the long haul, and boy has it been a loooonnngg haul! I know that I’ve been practicing terrible
blogger etiquette as I’ve been slacking on commenting and reading as often as I
used to so I really do appreciate those of you who still like to read, comment,
and support us on this journey. I hope
everyone has the happiest of Thanksgivings.
Don’t forget to count your many many blessings. I know that I am blessed beyond measure to
have such an amazing husband, family, friends, dog, home, job, health, support
group, and more! Thank you all again!