06-22-2022

Treatments to begin

Thank you to everyone who has donated, we are truly blessed by the love and support for us and our journey. This Friday I have an appointment for a baseline sonogram that will confirm that we can begin the medications. Medications should be arriving today so hopefully everything is falling in place. We will then return back to Dallas on July 4th for another sonogram which will help us determine when we come back for egg retrieval day. This will be a very fast moving process. The only part that I\\\\'m not necessarily looking forward to, is the injections and that I will have to take them while I\\\\'m traveling. I hope to take good notes and prepare myself for that process. We will continue to keep you updated as progress moves forward.

07-10-2022

Egg Retrieval

I had my egg retrieval on 7/7 and they were able to retrieve 8 eights. We\\'ve have a slight hurdle to overcome as these eggs are attempting to fertilize. We decided to move forward and load the device and my body is serving as the incubator for 5 days. We go back on this coming Tuesday, 7/12, to remove the device and to see if we have any fertilized eggs. Please keep us in your prayers during this time.

07-13-2022

Removal of Invocell

On 7/12 we traveled back down to Texas to have the device removed and to see if the 8 eggs fertilized. For 5 days, my body served as an incubator for the device that was loaded with the eggs and sperm, just like the traditional Petri dish. I didn\'t ever really feel anything except just bloating which I think was just a side effect for the injections that I was taking. Dr. Kevin compared the removal to opening of christmas presents which really did feel that way. We had no way of knowing what was going on for those 5 days. After about 30 min. of waiting for the lab to take pictures, we were greeted with bad news. Unfortunately none of the eggs were fertilized and so we are unable to continue with this current cycle. We originally set an appointment for a consultation for August 8th due to availability, but I got a call today with an appointment for this Friday. Hopefully Dr. Kevin can help us come up with a new plan during this call.

06-12-2024

Round 2!

Hi everyone! I apologize that we never posted an update since July of 2022 when we had a failed IVF cycle. We felt a little defeated and just needed to take a break from the constant monitoring and the drives back and forth to Texas. So now here we are basically 2 years later and so much to catch up on.

After our last failed attempt, we gave ourselves some time to re-evaluate and ensure that our bodies were in good health. Well, unfortunately June of 2023 I started having several Thyroid issues which led to multiple tests and doctor visits. This luckily was all able to be diagnosed and treated close to home but that meant that we couldn't proceed with another IVF cycle until I could figure out what was going on with my Thyroid.

I was having symptoms of a sore throat, having difficulty swallowing, and the front of my neck was tender to touch around the area of my thyroid. I had multiple tests ranging from blood work to even a iodine scan which resulted in me being diagnosed with Graves' disease. Working with the local endocrinologist, I was opting to have my thyroid removed in December of 2023. I did express to him that most of my symptoms were minimal by late August but he was certain that it was Graves' Disease. Before that surgery, I had one more visit with my doctor who decided to go ahead and do another blood work of my thyroid levels and the next day of that testing, the doctor's office called and said that my levels were normal and that I should cancel that surgery. With so many questions, I quickly cancelled that surgery and the doctor updated my records saying that the diagnosis was in fact Thyroiditis. I had get blood work every 8 weeks to ensure that levels were still normal. By March/April my levels were still normal, so we reached back out to the clinic in Texas.

We schedule the initial consultation with Dr. Kevin Doody and he reviewed my medical records since the last time we were there. We discussed the effortless option again but this time, he started discussing the convention IVF option, mainly due to my age. We booked an appointment to drive down to Texas for the initial tests on May 28th.

We had our follow up appointment just this past Monday and results from our tests were all good. The Dr. was impressed with my AMH levels, although they were good, he is still concerned about the quality of eggs that my body could produce due to my age.

So now we have two options that we must consider in proceeding round two of this IVF journey.

We could attempt another Effortless cycle as he felt numbers were good, but that also comes with some negatives.
– No ability to predict if we will have a successful cycle if either of us has an infection during this timing of the cycle.
– No ability to test the embryos for the quality of the eggs

We could opt for traditional IVF which would allow us a few more testing abilities which could increase the percentage of success. But it also comes at a price. The cost of traditional IVF is almost double due to the increased monitoring of the medications that I have to take and the storage of eggs and sperm during this cycle.

Ultimately we just want to have a successful and healthy pregnancy and baby so we are weighing the pros/cons of each process. We trust Dr. Kevin and his expertise throughout this entire process, even though we have to make the long drive to Texas. We kind of treat each visit as a mini vacation.

Hopefully within the next few weeks will begin to finalize or decision and beginning to plan and implementing the process within the next few months.

I appreciate each and everyone of you who have supported us throughout this entire process. We are holding out hope and keep doing everything we can, to build a family that we both have wanted for so long.