On Friday, July 12th we went to the Reproductive Resource Center in Overland Park.
Going into this appointment, Nick and I pretty much had all of the information we needed. There was only one blood test called the OAR (ovarian assessment report) that we had not gotten the results for, and they were going to do a transvaginal ultrasound on me which I had not had done yet. This was to look at my uterus and my ovaries through ultrasound.
Our appointment was at 9:30, so we had an early morning…leaving the house at 5:45.
Up this point, all of our trips to Tulsa had been fairly quick but as soon as we would step foot into the office my anxiety would take over me. At our latest appointment, I got to the point that I was breaking down in tears and I couldn’t breathe. I was having to walk back and forth in the room to calm myself down.
Yet, as soon as we walked into this office, I felt peace. I am not sure if that is because we pretty much had all the bad news we could get, and I wasn’t expecting more.
Or, if because God was telling me this was our place to start our family.
The appointment started with some paperwork, then after 30 minutes in the waiting room they called our names. We walked back and I was weighed and measured. The nurse (who I fell in love with and wish she could be with us through this whole thing) Ashley, took us into a conference room. It had a round table and four chairs. This was amazing…in Tulsa the doctor always talked to us in an examine room across the table you lay on for a pap smear. It was always a bit uncomfortable.
Here, we had a table, four chairs, charts, tissues, pens and windows! I didn’t feel like I was trapped inside this room, and that feeling was amazing.
She started by going over family history, social history, ect. She then told us she would move us to an exam room and she and Dr. Phipps would be in to do my physical and transvaginal ultrasound.
I had been a little nervous before this ultrasound, but it was super easy. I will say I was a bit uncomfortable while they were trying to measure the follicles in my left ovary, but it wasn’t anything horrible. He took pictures of my uterus and measured it as well as both ovaries. When this was finished he told me to get dressed and he would meet Nick and I in the conference room down the hall.
As soon as Dr. Phipps came in to go over all of our testing, we immediately knew he was one of those super genius doctors. Sometimes they are kind of awkward and hard to talk to because anything you ask, they answer as scientific as possible and it goes on for 15 minutes. So, I will say there were some things we asked that Nick and I would look at each other and raise our eyebrows, like uh….i have no idea if he answered our question or not. LOL
Pretty much all of the information we knew about Nick was the same. He said every lab measures things differently so if we did another semen analysis the results may chance slightly but not anything drastic.
Dr. Phipps started to go over the results for my OAR test that we had been waiting for. This was the first time in this whole process that I have felt the weight of having something “wrong” with me. My test was low for my age. Meaning, he was worried about my ovarian reserve.
During my ultrasound, my right ovary had about 10-12 follicles that we could see. A follicle is what holds our eggs in our ovary. So the more follicles, the more eggs. The less follicles, the less eggs you are likely to have. However, my left ovary was very hard to see. They were unsure if I had just ovulated and that is why there was one dominate follicle and they couldn’t really see the others. So on my test result there is a 4 with a ? on my left ovary.
Most women my age will have over 20 follicles in each ovary.
I don’t have under 5, so that is a positive. But this means I will probably grow less eggs during stims (shots) and egg retrieval.
Just to give you an insight on egg retrieval. The “average” number of eggs they get from someone would be 10. Out of that 10, only 1 or 2 will make it to day 5 of fertilization and be a blastocyst. My “score” on the OAR was a 7. So if the “normal” score is 10…i am already down to a 7.
Our goal is to have as many blastocysts as possible. If they make it to that stage, then they can be frozen and used later for a frozen embryo transfer.
After 4.5 hours later, we left the RRC with our hearts full of hope. Every single person we met there was full of joy and made me feel so comfortable. This was the first appointment I have not cried at.
Nick and I have decided to start our IVF journey in August. I will go on birth control to “calm” my ovaries before they go crazy. I will have an appointment the first week of August for a saline ultrasound and then go back the second week of August for a “trial transfer”. This is where they take a catheter and mark on it exactly how far it goes in and where exactly our embryo would need to be implanted.
After all of this, if all goes according to plan and nothing pops up to delay the start of meds, then I will be starting stims (these are the shots) around the 3rd week of August. I will stim for 10-14 days, going in for frequent blood work and ultrasounds. I could potentially be in Overland Park every day the last week of stims for ultrasounds.
During these ultrasounds they are measuring the follicles. A follicle needs to be a certain size for an egg to be mature, and obviously we want as many mature eggs as possible.
Things to remember. Not every egg retrieved is a mature egg. Not every mature egg will fertilize. Not every fertilized egg will make it to day 5 and turn into a blastocyst.
Once they think everything looks good, they will tell me to “trigger”. This is a shot that tells my body its time to ovulate. I will go in for our egg retrieval surgery 36ish hours later.
After egg retrieval, we wait. Patiently.
They will call and let us know how many eggs we got and the next day we will find out how many fertilized. Then we wait as they watch our little eggs to see who is growing.
Our goal, if everything goes perfectly, is to have eggs to freeze. Which means we can do a frozen embryo transfer about 6 weeks later (or more if we choose to wait longer…frozen eggs can stay frozen a long time). However, if we have embryos that they aren’t sure will make it to day 5 and be strong enough to freeze, we will be doing whats called a “backup fresh transfer”. This is not our ideal scenario, but this is what we will do if we need to.
So in the next few weeks/months we will be praying for the doctors and nurses who are helping Nick and I become parents. We will be praying for my body and that it does the best it can do during this crazy time and give us all the eggs possible. We will pray for our future embabies, that they will grow, grow, grow and know that we love them so much. Even before they are here.
We will pray for Nick and I to be strong during this hard time and to trust that God’s plan is far better than any we can imagine.
We ask for you to do the same if you have time. To pray for us during this hard road we are about to go down. The future could be so bright, but the future could also be full of heartbreak. Please pray we are able to handle whatever comes our way.
Thank you for following our journey. I hope to be an inspiration to anyone struggling with infertility. You are not alone.
Blessings,
Nicole
Journey To Baby Gneiting 