Madigan IVF Orientation

Last week, the hubby and I spent the afternoon at Madigan attending our IVF orientation. My anxiety was through the roof, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The orientation process is a group thing with all of the couples that will be cycling at the same time. There were about 10 couples who attended with us.

We had a short informational presentation on the basics of IVF from the doctor who is the head of the IVF program at Madigan. He went over the steps of IVF, risks, and statistics. Stuff that I kinda already knew but they had to go over with us for, I’m assuming, legal reasons. We also received a folder full of paperwork, schedules, instructions, and consent forms.

We, as a couple, had to make some decisions I never imagined myself making at this point in my life. Things like how many eggs do we want to fertilize? Do we want to freeze left over embryo’s “just in case”? What do we want to do with our leftover embryo’s if we don’t use them? How many embryo’s do you want to transfer on the Big Day? ICSI, assisted hatching, PGD testing? A little overwhelming huh?

Well, we had time to think about those things while we got some instructional and hands on time with giving shots. The IVF nurse who helps with the program at Madigan is absolutely wonderful; I have to say she is probably the biggest asset to Madigan’s IVF program. She always returns phone calls and emails, takes the time to explain things, and just generally tries to put worries at ease. She went over each couples individualized protocol: where to keep each med, how much medication and how to draw it up, which needle goes with what, how to inject the med, and just any questions we may have. The best piece of info we got during that session was her work cell phone number that we can text 24/7 when we begin suppression in early October.

Then we met with our doctor who would be doing our egg retrieval and transfer. He went more into depth on our protocol. Which now includes ICSI. ICSI is intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection – the basically pick out the best quality sperm and inject it directly into the egg so that it will fertilize. Normally they will just put the egg into a petri dish with the sperm and let it fertilize normally. He also advised us on how many embryo’s to transfer. Due to my age and being mostly unexplained infertility, they won’t transfer more than 2 embryos. The doctor said that based on the embryo quality when it comes time to transfer, he says we’ll be a good candidate for a single embryo transfer. Transferring 2 embryo’s increases our chances of multiples by about 25% (if I remember correctly). Hubby and I are still discussing this.

It’s an overwhelming process and there are so many things that come up that I didn’t ever even think about. I like to know exactly how things are going to happen. Ask my husband how anxious I get when things are out of my control. Oh well, I guess in this matter, I don’t have a choice.

Wordless Wednesday: A Tribute to Supportive Husbands

Another Opinion

So a few weeks ago I had a saline sonogram done as a requirement of doing IVF. Basically they flood the uterus with saline and do an ultrasound to check for any polyps, adhesion’s, scarring, or just anything abnormal that may cause an embryo from implanting in the uterus. After all, implantation is key with IVF!! My saline sono didn’t show anything out of the ordinary, but I did have some complications…

I had a different doctor (I typically see the same RE) do my saline sono and I kinda think it was a blessing in disguise. There was difficulty with actually performing the test. There were issues with getting the catheter through my cervix — because I have a narrow cervix (first piece of new info) — and being able to push enough saline into the uterus to get a good picture to rule anything out. 3 tries later, the doctor got a good look and by this time I’m quite uncomfortable.

During the actual test, the doctor talked to me about my IF history. I had seen him a few times before in the past year and he had read through my chart so that he actually familiarized himself with my situation (not all doctors do this and you just end up going over all you health history). During my sono he informed me that I have an anteverted uterus (second piece of new info). This means that the top of my uterus is tilted forward. I asked if this created issues with TTC and he said no, but with any tests I have done, he recommends a full bladder as the bladder sits on top of the uterus and will position it better.

No problem, anteverted uterus, that can be overcome. After my saline sono was finally finished, though, is when the real issues started. They sat me up slowly so I wouldn’t pass out, I felt fine and he left the room. Then the pain, nausea, and dizziness hit me. I had to lay back down. I had tingling in my arms and legs and I was brought back to my younger years when my cramps were so bad I would miss school and usually ended up vomiting from the pain. The nurse gave me a shot of Toradol for pain and Zofran for nausea and I laid there on the exam table for a good 45 minutes before I felt well enough to walk and go home. Thank goodness Jim was with me.

Before I left the doctor and the IVF nurse came to see me. I talked with the doctor and he asked if I had ever experienced those symptoms before and I explained to him how my badly my periods were when I was younger and how it still occasionally happens. He thinks I have a mild case of endometriosis (third and most important piece of new info). This is where the endometrial lining of the uterus somehow grows on the outside of the uterus and, in some cases, other nearby organs. The only way to actually diagnose it is through laprascopic surgery. Which I decided against back in May because my RE said “you don’t fit the profile.” And if you don’t get where I’m going with this long ramble of a story — endometriosis is a cause of infertility.

I was pissed at my regular doctor after we left the appointment. I feel like she brushed me off. But at the same time I feel like someone actually listened and there may be a reason why I haven’t gotten pregnant. The doctor that gave me a second opinion said that we were on the right track with IVF and he hoped the best for us. Because of all the complications I had during my saline sono, I will need to have a mock embryo transfer before the actual IVF so that we can resolve any issues there may be before the actual transfer. I pray that this IVF is it for us. If not, I’m thinking about requesting this doctor to do a laprascopic surgery. We’ll see…

An Outsider

Tomorrow I have the pleasure of attending my husband’s company picnic with him. It’s a family function. Which means spouses and kids can come. Which means I get to be around all these people who have multiple kids, usually less than a year apart in age. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that, just that being an infertile in situations like this can be somewhat difficult.

I feel like not having kids already and with us being a military family, we get looked at like we’re some sort of other life form. Anyone who has experienced military life knows that typically young families have quite a few children. I know this from the on-post neighborhoods I have lived in, going to FRG (family readiness group) functions, and even being at the commissary seeing a young woman with 4-5 kids, usually under the age of 7, in tow.

I hate the questions sometimes I (we) get at these military functions sometimes. And they’re usually coming from someone who is currently pregnant or holding a baby or both. Fielding these questions from people you meet (or are meeting for the 2nd or 3rd time because you don’t see them often enough to remember who they are) isn’t fun. “Do you have kids?” “You’ve been married how long and don’t have any kids?” “Why don’t you have kids?” “Why don’t you have kids yet?” — like I better jump on getting pregnant so that I can catch up to these other people who have 3-4 kids already. I feel weird that we don’t have a mid-tour, pre-deployment, or post-deployment baby like most other military couples have.

What am I supposed to say to these people I hardly know? Yes, most of my husbands command know our situation because they work with him on making it to my appointments and knowing that he will need some time off when it comes time to do the IVF retrieval and transfer. Do I just come out and say, “Oh, we’ve been trying for 2 1/2 years and it just hasn’t happened yet, we’re doing IVF in a couple months.”? That’s not really my first choice of an answer, I don’t want to explain this multiple times to every person that asks. I also don’t want a ton of follow up questions about it or “helpful” advice on ways to get pregnant. I would say that I don’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable, but how uncomfortable do you think I feel when I’ve been trying to have

So I’ll probably stick with the tried and true vague answers we typically give to strangers asking us invasive  questions: A plain and simple “Not yet.” And we’ll just stay for the minimum required time that my husband has to be there tomorrow, like we usually do with these functions.

MTV and Infertility?

That’s right. MTV, famous for their music videos reality tv shows like 16 and Pregnant and the follow up of Teen Mom did a documentary on infertility. Their documentary program True Life did an episode entitled “I’m Desperate to Have a Baby.” I don’t normally watch MTV, but word about the episode had gotten around my IF support groups pretty quickly, so I made sure to DVR it so I could watch it later.

I sat down to watch it on one of my days off and I only made it a few minutes in. I decided maybe I should wait until Jim was there with me so he could watch it too and I could get his input. I also felt that if I watched it alone, I would just get emotional and cry the entire time – if Jim was there then maybe I could control my emotions a little better. He was a little skeptical when I first brought it up to him, but I told him it might be a good idea to get a little perspective on what we would be going through in a couple of months.

The episode followed two different couples and their IVF journey. It didn’t go way in depth in terms of the clinical aspect of IVF, but I think it showed just enough. However, the portrayal of emotions that come with infertility and fertility treatments was very on point. These couples were incredibly brave for allowing a very intimate part of their lives be broadcast to thousands of people on t.v.

Each couple’s story is very different, one couple dealing with it for about 6 years and the other for about 2 1/2, but they are headed for the same goal: to hopefully achieve a pregnancy that they, for some reason or another, couldn’t achieve on their own. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail about each couples story, I think you should take some time and watch it on your own. Like I said, you won’t finish the episode with a complete understanding of what IVF is, but you are definitely going to get a taste of what infertile couples deal with on a daily basis.

Enjoy, and I’d love feedback on what you thought of the episode. I will post the link for the full episode on MTV.com or try to catch a repeat of the episode on MTV!

MTV’s True Life: I’m Desperate to Have a Baby

http://www.mtv.com/videos/true-life-im-desperate-to-have-a-baby/1711687/playlist.jhtml