Summer Updates

I have taken a lot longer to update than I had hoped. Summer has been flying by and we are keeping busy with camping, jeeping trips, and work. Plus, my last post hit me hard. I want to share our story because I think it is important to let others know that they are not alone, but writing that story was exceptionally hard. I needed some time. Don’t get me wrong, this has helped me a lot and like I have said in the past, this is my therapy. I have also had people reach out to me for help who are also suffering from infertility and I am thrilled (in the humblest sense) that I am able to help them. After all, that was one of the main objectives of this blog.

One last try…

In May we attempted another egg retrieval in the hopes of “banking” more embryos. I spent about four days in Denver and we ultimately cancelled the cycle due to poor follicular growth. To give you some perspective, in our previous cycles we had 10 or more follicles by day 10 and this time we had four. Of those four, two follicles had completely stopped growing and the other two were not growing fast enough. Realistically, it didn’t make any sense to move forward with retrieving two eggs (at best) due to the heavy attrition rate with IVF. I had a regroup with the nurse during that cycle and everyone agreed that we should cancel.

Next steps…

After coming home from Denver we started working towards the transfer of our last frozen euploid (normal) embryo. One thing you learn about IVF, is that you can forget about following a perfect timeline or having things go your way. So, on July 1st I had a hysteroscopy to evaluate my uterine cavity and during the procedure they found a polyp. Unfortunately, because I wasn’t in a true operating room for the procedure, they were unable to remove it at that time. So now we wait. The surgery is scheduled for August 9th in Denver.

I have undergone some additional testing since we want to make sure that we do everything possible to make sure that this embaby sticks. Last week I had an Emma & Alice test done. This test evaluates the biome of the uterine lining to see what kind of antibiotics/probiotics I will need to be on during the embryo transfer. Since I had an infection earlier this year after the first D & C, we thought it would be a good idea.

Our feelings are all over the place right now. We have been frustrated with the poor communication during this whole situation and receiving setback after setback. Due to my schedule at school, we were really hoping we could have the transfer completed before I go back. Now, that is not a possibility; we are looking at a September or October transfer.

For our last transfer I was excited and this time I am just scared. I know we are doing everything we are supposed to be doing, it is just terrifying that we have one last shot with a euploid embryo that is biologically ours. The last egg retrieval attempt was a reminder that my body is done. It can’t produce anymore eggs. It is just frustrating and scary.

As of right now we have opted to keep the last aneuploid (abnormal) embryo frozen. I have gone down several rabbit holes lately and we just feel like we should keep it for the time being.

Next step after surgery is prepping for the actual embryo transfer. We haven’t decided yet if we are going to share when that happens. But we are hoping that in several months we will have some good news to share!

In the meantime, I want to keep the blog alive. I will start brainstorming topics to post on or if anyone has anything they would like to hear about (infertility or not), maybe I can put together a post on that. Just send me a message.