I've never been prescribed this much medication in my life, so it's a little overwhelming. But looking at all of it just reminds me that we are just a few weeks away from retrieval and transfer. I can't help but imagine the phone calls we will be getting from Connie soon telling us how our little embabies are growing. I have a feeling I will be in love with them the minute I know they're there! As a matter of fact, I've been feeling frequently on the verge of tears lately. Actually broke into a near sob at dinner with my parents in law tonight just talking about waiting on God and trying to listen to Him. It's just becoming so real and subsequently SO heavy. So soon we will be closer to a pregnancy than we have EVER been. The gravity of that is hitting home so intensely...more intensely every day. And the fact that my babies are so close to being here...just yanks my heartstrings y'all. My eyes are brimming right now actually...
We have decided to do what Dr. Hansen refers to as a split conventional/ICSI treatment. Meaning the embryologist and lab technicians will be fertilizing half my eggs conventionally (that means the eggs go in a dish and they put the sperm next to them and allow them to be fertilized just as they would in my body). The other half will be fertilized via ICSI (intro cytoplasmic sperm injection) which means they will be selecting a single sperm and injecting it right into the individual eggs. Dr. Hansen has recommended this route for us for 2 reasons. 1) Because my ovarian reserves are so high (upwards of 36 follicles or more ready to become healthy eggs), he wants to make sure that all of them get touched by sperm in some way. It's a little unrealistic to think that one "sample" from Jonathan would be enough to go around and fertilize nearly 40 eggs at once..., and 2) Since Jonathan and I have "unexplained infertility" even after all of the tests we've done at OU, there's a possibility that there might be a problem with fertilization. Meaning maybe the shells of my eggs are too thick or something of that sort. So doing the ICSI on half the eggs ensures that even if there has been an issue with conventional fertilization of my eggs all these years, we will have plenty of fertilized eggs to work with...
We feel really good about his recommendation and we are excited to see what happens next. Dr. Hansen and Connie both were very pleased with my body's reaction to the Sonohystogram and to the mock transfer. They've been VERY pleased with my hormone markers and my ovarian reserves. They are perfectly happy with Jonathan's results as well. Both of them have expressed as much confidence in the success of this process as they possibly can. Right now there are seemingly no roadblocks to this being a complete success. The only things standing in the way of us having a successful transfer and hopeful pregnancy is just my body's reaction to the ovarian stimulation medications and our little embabies growth in the lab...
I really can't believe it is already time for all of this to start. We have just been so overwhelmed by all of your support and thoughts and prayers. We've been bowled over by how easy this has all been. All of my fears up until this point have been eased with great test results and pain free procedures. My prayer through all of this is that if at any point God wanted us to to turn around and not do this, He would make it very obvious. And likewise, if He wants us to continue, to provide an easy and smooth path for us to take. So far it has been the latter, and there have already been 3-4 times that I've been brought to tears because of how relieved I am at the results of our tests. Y'all...my cup overflows!
July 27th is the first injection I will take (that's THIS Sunday!!) and I will continue taking injections in increasing numbers all the way up until our retrieval on or near the 20th of August. And then we will continue taking progesterone in oil injections until the transfer and until we find out if we are pregnant. If we are, I will continue those injections until 10 weeks of pregnancy. Obviously we are hoping to be taking those progesterone shots for a long time! Say prayers for mild side effects. I'm prepared for them, but it would be nice to not turn into The Rachel From the Black Lagoon during all this... But I make no promises...
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