Growing Up Rasmussen: Journey to the First Shot

November 2013--We decided that it was time for a family of our own.

Basically this year was a roller-coaster ride. Any little sign or symptom that I had meant I must have been pregnant (cravings, frequent peeing, nausea, etc.). This would lead me to hoping that each pregnancy test would bring good news only to be let down after seeing the negative result. It was quite heartbreaking and I cried, a lot. It was worse when I would be several days late. I always found myself asking, "Why is this happening when we would make such good parents?"

November 3, 2014--I decided that I finally needed to get some answers, so after talking with my doctor, we went ahead and ordered some tests. After doing an HSG test, I found out everything was normal for me. But much like this whole experience, every bit of good news was tempered with something not-so-good. A few days later we got the results of Seth's testing and learned that we had less than a 3% chance of conceiving naturally. It was surreal to think about. We certainly were sad, but felt that we could keep our heads up still, because at least there was a small likelihood of it happening naturally. "So you're telling me there's a chance?!"

Another year--another emotional roller coaster. Throughout it all, I kept looking forward to the time when we'd move to Houston and I could start finding an IVF doctor and finally get this show on the road. At the same time, I ALWAYS thought (somewhere in the back of my mind) that despite the steep odds, I would magically get pregnant since I wasn't "worrying" about it anymore. FALSE. Sometimes crappy things happen and that is just the way it goes. Just gotta keep carrying on.

November 2015-- Post-graduation; post-awesome-Bar Trip. We were finally settled in our new place in Houston. Seth starts work and with that comes great insurance (much better than the amalgamation of my stinky teacher's insurance and Seth's insurance through the school). Over the course of several weeks, I researched the heck out of fertility clinics. If they had a phone number, website, or Yelp page, I probably knew what those doctors ate for lunch on a Tuesday. Luckily enough, I found a male infertility specialist (also a urologist) and an amazing (and well-renowned) IVF clinic with great doctors and nurses. It seemed that the tides of luck finally started to shift--we found out that Seth's doc and my IVF doc have a great working relationship, so it's been a breeze working with them both as we had to have some extensive testing and procedures done. Again, we're fortunate that Seth's got great insurance for us, plus a relatively flexible schedule. And we're totally fortunate that we're in a position where I don't have to work full-time and I can pick and choose how much and when I work (yay for tutoring, subbing, spin instructor training, and make-up work filling up my days rather than spending hours making lesson plans for a sub teacher who doesn't even use them).

December 23, 3015--I finally started feeling confident about things when we set up a plan of action with our IVF doctor. We had a direction and I knew what to look forward to. Sometimes the key to having hope is knowing what's at the end of the road. When you know how far you've come and how far you have left to go, it's a little easier to keep slogging along. I know this process means having to endure some uncomfortable and painful situations, but at the end of it all we have the hope of creating a baby together.

January 2016-- The new year brought on the barrage of new medicines/pills. For Seth, that meant a 3-week antibiotic to kill some bacteria to improve his specimen. For me, on January 22, 2016, I started birth control (ironic, huh?) so that all my follicles would stay the same size and not have my body self-select one during my period (since you don't want just one egg to develop when you go through this process). One and half weeks passed, and it was finally time to go and check my follicles and see if birth control did the trick.

February 2, 2016--I was very nervous for this "follicle-checking" procedure since it would tell us if we could move forward or not. It was also quite painful (they use water, a camera, and an ultrasound to check everything out). Thankfully, my follicles and everything else looked good! We could see about 9 follicles on one side and around 11 on the other. Since each follicle creates one egg, this was fabulous news! The more good follicles, the better chance I have to get more healthy eggs at the same time! (As an aside, our nurse told us that at each stage of this process, it's natural for only 60-70% of stuff to make it to the next step. Follicles --> eggs --> embryos --> freezing --> etc.)

February 3, 2016--Before we could move forward with anything else, we had to meet with our nurse to go over our calendar and how to administer all the meds. Boo for shots!! It didn't seem overwhelming until the box of drugs arrived at my doorstep on Saturday. (Also, I got super upset when the people at our apartment office didn't call/email when the package arrived--it contained several drugs that were supposed to stay refrigerated, and plus all the drugs turned out to be super expensive--so luckily I stopped by to check before any of the drugs thawed out).

Here's the basic recap from the meeting:

Start shots on Monday (2/9/16).
The trigger shot will be done at the end of February and my eggs will be harvested the first week of March.
They will take a fresh sample of sperm and pick the best to inject into my eggs (a procedure called ICSI).
Hopefully a dozen or so embryos will form.
They will grow for 5 days and have a few cells removed to be genetically tested.
Once the cells are removed they will be frozen. I then have a period a week or so after retrieval. Once the period starts, I start birth control again for 2 weeks which puts us at the end of March.
After that I take 2 weeks of estrogen patches which puts us somewhere between April 11-15th.
Finally, I have 6 days of progesterone shots so April 18-22nd would be the week of transfer. This is all approximate as it depends on my period.

Basically, this will turn out to be a couple month process (but what's a few months when we've waited almost 7 years?!), but everyone--doctors, nurses, and us--are feeling positive and hopeful. And it is kind of funny to think that all our children could be conceived in 2016, but some may not be born for a few years (they will literally be old souls...ha). Because of the way this whole process goes, we have the chance to basically choose when our kid will be born (assuming everything goes as planned). If everything works out, we'll have an almost Christmas baby--a fitting present.

February 5, 2016--It was then time for Seth's variococele procedure. Seth's been limping around and is definitely "saddle sore" (and is still left with some pain), but he should heal up nicely since the procedure went "as expected" according the urologist.

February 8, 2016--Today was finally THE DAY! I had to take a dexamethasone first this morning. Apparently it helps my follicles be more receptive to the medicine that I have to INJECT in my body. Seriously, who came up with the idea that it's a good idea to prick myself in the stomach every day (sometimes multiple times). Boo for shots! Anyway, today was the first day that I had to take my first shot of Lupron this evening. I was kind of nervous--it being the first time and all, so I had Seth get me an ice pack to numb/chill my stomach, and then made sure he and I both watched the instruction video (and I made Seth double and triple check everything was right--what can I say, I'm a perfectionist). After a lot of anxiety and anticipation, I plunged that little sucker right on in. Turns out it wasn't nearly as bad as I had built it up to be. Ask me if I feel the same after doing it 100 times more.