Jun 25, 2011

Conception Update

No, not pregnant yet. We have been asked a lot lately what is going on in this department and we know it's because we haven't blogged about it (or anything else for that matter) in a long time. So here's a quick update.

Recap: Roger ended the clinical trial on January 25, 2011. The chemotherapy drug that causes birth defects will be out of his system on July 25th. After that we are allowed to conceive naturally. In the mean time, last year before he started the clinical trial, his oncologist recommended freezing "some of his boys" as Roger refers to them in the event the chemotherapy affects his fertility, which we did. And we decided to continue trying with assistance. We have used one vial so far so we have eight vials left.

After I had the laparosocpy in early February, I had to wait 30 days to have a cycle then one full cycle before we started the process again of trying to conceive via intrauterine insemination (IUI). That time passed and my second cycle proved to be too short and light to do anything so we skipped that month. The next cycle Dr. K had me take Clomid for cycle days 5-9 then have an ultrasound on day 13. I had a few eggs in each ovary but the largest was only 12mm on the right side. He wanted them to be 17-18mm so we scheduled another ultrasound for day 16. The largest egg follicle had grown to 15mm and we decided to not waste a vial this time as all the conditions were not good. Dr. K said my eggs needed more stimulation and he wanted me to try a hybrid protocol the next cycle which meant fertility pills and shots. So I called on day one which was Friday, June 24th. They scheduled an ultrasound for Saturday morning to make sure there were no cysts from the last treatment. There weren't any cysts so they called in two prescriptions for me. I start Femara today for days 3-7 then give myself a Follistim shot once a day on days 7-9 and on day 10 (July 3rd) I have an ultrasound again plus some blood tests to see if my egg(s) are ready. If they are I will be given a shot of Ovidrel to release the eggs and within 24-36 hours we'll do the IUI. If they aren't ready I will need more days of FSH injections to help them grow.

I do struggle at times with not wanting to do any of this, but obviously I am having issues so it has to be done. I keep praying for God to shut this down if it is not His will for us to become parents this way. So I'll keep going on the journey and asking for Him to give me strength, patience and endurance until I hear from Him otherwise. Roger and I are very much looking forward to July 25th. :) We have decided he should have another analysis to see if the chemo did any permanent fertility damage before we call the cryobank to not renew our frozen contract with them. And I will try to get Roger to post a blog this week about all his amazing improvements in physical therapy.

~Holly