Moving on...Moving up...Moving along

Well I know a lot of you are asking or wondering what is going on with us. So I said I would blog about it and help put those questions at ease. Be prepared...its a long one....

Well we did have the WHOLE IVF process done. I took the shots for a couple weeks. We had a lot of little follicles  I think I had 21 in both ovaries that were mature enough. We go in for retrieval day they were about to get 9 follicles from the right ovary. My left ovary was not acting as it should. They were not able to get any from my left. Out of the 9, 7 follicles were fertilized. I go in for the transfer day. We did a 5 day transfer. Which means they let the embryos grow and multiply for 5 days under an incubator. We had 4 make it to day 5. They took the 2 best ones and those 2 were the ones that they transferred to me. The other 2 they wanted to watch for another day to see how they develop. The 2 stopped developing so we were not able to freeze any embryos from this round.

Then...we started "the wait". Every night I got a shot in the behind. Jeffrey couldn't do it. I'm glad I have a wonderful neighbor willing to poke my behind. :) We had to wait 10 days for our first blood test to see if it worked. Well...I cheated and took a home pregnancy test that morning of the test. I figured if I would just do it and get my disappointment over with. Well there was a very FAINT line next to the control line. We were cautiously optimistic. We still wanted the blood test confirmation so we waited to hear. That afternoon it was confirmed my beta was 16, which any number above 5 is a positive. I was also only 10dp5dt (10 days past a 5 day transfer).

So we kept going back for blood tests. My next number was 36 which was double. So things were going up nicely. We waited four days and the next test was an 89. My numbers were technically supposed to quadruple. They almost only tripled. I was not happy. Then my next test the numbers went down to 77. In any pregnancy the numbers are NOT supposed to dip at any point. My next blood test was 134. That phone call came from my doctor. I knew at this point it wasn't good.We were told that the pregnancy was most likely ectopic. Which means that the embryo implanted somewhere OTHER THAN the uterus. We wouldn't know anything until they saw me and did an ultrasound.

With a normal pregnancy you can't see anything on the ultrasound until your beta numbers are over 1,000. They day we went in my beta numbers went up to 222. So we weren't surprised when we didn't see ANYTHING in the uterus. During that ultrasound they saw two fluid sacs one in my tube and one in my ovary. She then determined it was ectopic. So on Tuesday we had to hang around Indy and go to St. Vincent's Hospital. I had to get a shot of methotrexate. It is a chemo drug. Basically what it does is helps the embryo detach itself from the tube. If it doesn't work I would have to go back for another shot. If the numbers have still not declined then I would have to go in for surgery. My beta numbers were 304 on Friday. BUT that is normal for the numbers to rise after the shot. Tomorrow's test is the important one. The numbers have to go down or else I will have to get another shot.

I have been spotting and well seeing "stuff". I won't go into detail because you don't need that visual, but I can tell you this round is over for us. We already mourned about it. We cried about it (well I did a lot of it). Those of you who knew what was going on thank you for your kind words and gestures. My school family was very generous, even though they didn't all know what was going on. Jeffrey and I are very very grateful for all the nice things people have done/said. Please don't feel like you need to do anything for us. We don't want a pity party. We are a strong couple and will come out of this with a little one. Whether the baby it is from my tummy or from my heart he/she will be loved unconditionally.

Please realize that this isn't over for us. Ever since we were dating we talked about adoption. We knew we wanted to adopt because every child deserves a chance. We were going to start our own family then adopt. Well since we are having a hard time with the first part we are starting the adoption process. It can take up to two years. We plan to possibly do another IVF round depending on my insurance.

We will have our family one way or another. Don't give up on us...I'm sure as heck not! I am a strong person and I can take what is thrown at me. I may get knocked down but I ALWAYS get back up.