The amazing world of IVF!

Our 3 little embryos!!

One round of IVF drugs-my own pharmacy!!

Well it has been a couple of months-our last round of IUI didn't work, so we did move on with IVF. It really hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be..I am given directions by Dr Werlin, and I follow them-without asking a lot of questions! This is definitely a whole new world from IUI. Shots two, sometimes 3 times a day, all kinds of pills, and drs appointments either every other or every day! The shots that i had to take were all self-administered in my stomach-and I have to admit I was starting to feel like a human pincushion between those and the blood draws every day! The bruises haven't quite gone away on my stomach, and I had a pretty crazy reaction to the last shot I had to give myself, which was the HCG. (trigger shot given EXACTLY 35 hours before egg retrieval). Amazingly though, all of this seems to make the time go by faster. The really good thing about IVF has been that I feel a lot less emotional about everything. With all of this preparation, how can it NOT work?

On Tuesday, I went in for my egg retrieval. Dr. Werlin was able to retrieve 17 eggs; 16 of which were mature enough to fertilize. This was an outpatient surgery, but the scariest part was going under anaesthesia-the last thing i remember in the operating room is my arms being tied down, a burning in my hand from the sleepy juice going in, and Werlin saying "NOT to be DENIED!!"-and then I woke up in recovery. Otherwise the whole thing was uneventful! On Wednesday morning Werl called to let us know that 11 of the eggs had fertilized normally, and that things looked GREAT! We weren't sure if we would be back in Friday or Sunday for the transfer of the embryos back into my uterus-he actually wouldn't be calling until Friday morning to let us know. All I knew was that if we went in on day 3 (Friday) he would be transfering 3 back in, and if we could wait until day 5 (Sunday) it would only be 2. Praying for Sunday then, to say the least!

But as it was, the call that came at 7am yesterday was Werl saying, "honey, your eggs look BEAUTIFUL, BUT to be on the safe side, i want to see you in here today so that we can make this happen!!! So again, I do what he says, and don't ask questions.

We went in yesterday at noon, and it is always such a relief to see Werlin. He always manages to calm me with his loud, obnoxious yelling...SARAH SCHURZ...IT'S THE SCHURZ-MEISTERS!!!" and that's all it takes...I know i'm in the best hands! The process itself is truly amazing. They take the top 3 embryos and grade them on a scale of 1 to 4...1 being best. At this stage, the ideal embryo would have 8 cells. We had one with 8 and two with 7 cells, with an overall grade of 1.2. Does that mean that triplets are in our future? According to Werlin, the chances of that are less than 1%.

We then got an ultrasound picture of the embryos to hold while the transfer began. The embryos are placed in a catheter, and ultrasound helps Werl to guide the catheter to the exact spot in my uterus to place them. Once there, I can see it on the screen!! Three tiny white dots...our future babies?? We then get a photo of the dots, the catheter is taken to be checked (to make sure there isn't one still lingering) we hear an all clear! yelled down the hall, and we're done! Next comes an hour of pretty excruciating cramping...have you ever felt that your insides were in a vice-grip?! But it mostly went away by the time we could leave. A ride home in the car laying down, and straight to the couch for me.

And then the fun REALLY began. I almost immediately realized how helpless I was...and how much I was going to be reliant on poor Eric and Jake (and anyone else brave enough to come through the door!) I do believe that this will be a good learning experience though for my boys...they might just realize how much I do for them every day! =) But the scariest part was starting the MONSTER shots last night...the ones that I can't do myself, because they are HUGE and they have to go in my hips. So when the time came last night, I cried! I was so scared that Eric was going to hurt me...but honestly, those big needles hurt much less than the little ones I was giving to myself! I know it was only the first night, and it won't always be that easy, but if we do end up pregnant, I have to keep these up for 12 weeks!

Fast forward to where I am now-on my back for 5 days-with only bathroom privileges...I can't even take a shower! So now here i am, flat on my back, not quite 24 hours in. AND I'M SO BORED!!! I've already read an entire book today!! But it's all VERY worth it...I just have to keep reminding myself of this as my back aches and my feet tingle!! =) I'm sure these are all just things to prepare me for pregnancy-it HAS been almost 12 years since I was pregnant, so I probably need the reminders!