Hello Everyone,
What a week! After our delightful weekend together relaxing and enjoying each others company the information we received in our follow-up appointment began to sink in and actions were formulated. New discoveries have been made as a result of recent testing we both had done. Eric's results were MUCH BETTER than the last testing. Praise the Lord!
My Ovarian Assessment Report showed that my hormones are causing some issues. Specifically, my anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) is low. What this means is that what they use to judge my ovarian reserve is reduced. This indicates that my Egg Retrieval Score is reduced and that compared to other women 31-35 years old I am below average. UGH! definitely not what I wanted to hear. The good news is that my actual age (32) is a BIG bonus. Because of my actual age my chance of good egg quality is... Good. My feelings specifically about this... crummy. Please pray that my outlook and my guilt surrounding something that I can not change or affect in any way diminishes with reflection and prayer.
During our follow-up appointment Dr. Khan advised us that my hormones indicate that the outer shell of my eggs may be hard which could be preventing pregnancy. Due to these results Eric and I have chosen to have the doctors perform intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI, (pronounced ick-see)).
To help you understand this procedure I got the following information off of about.com :
In normal IVF, many sperm are placed together with an egg, in hopes that one of the sperm will enter and fertilize the egg. With ICSI, once the eggs are retrieved, an embryologist will place the eggs in a special culture, and using a microscope and tiny needle, a single sperm will be injected into an egg. This will be done for each egg retrieved. If fertilization takes place, and the embryos are healthy, an embryo or two will be transferred to your uterus, via a catheter placed through the cervix, two to five days after the retrieval.
This procedure makes it more expensive for us to have our IVF done. Praise to our Great Provider in Heaven! Our insurance covers most of this cost! Eric and I are paying out of pocket about 20% of the total cost! There is a financial strain, but we felt like the Lord was leading us to save money aside for about 2 months. Because of these savings we are able to pay these added expenses without concern!
Some dear friends and family that have gone through IVF gave me some wonderful advice. They told me to take this step by step and not focus on what was next. Their advice has been remarkably helpful. So, I am focusing on the current step. Payment and Medications. I should here from the pharmacy today about the cost and delivery of upcoming medications. Eric and I have also sorted out payment of IVF as discussed above.
A momentous occasion also happened at the appointment on April 15th; I got my IVF Calendar! This is the calendar of events that helps us follow what we will be doing. Here is an outline of dates:
April 11-April 26th: Birth Control
April 27th: Pre-IVF Evaluation Appointment 8:00AM EST (bloodwork, and ultrasound. will get results in the afternoon of the same day)
April 28th: Injection Class- 10:00 AM EST (eek! They are going to teach my how to inject myself without fainting.)
April 30- May 2nd: First doses of the medication
May 3rd: Follow-up Appointment and monitoring of fertility medication results 8:00AM EST (they will review medications and the results. At this appointment they will determine whether or not the drugs need to be reduced, lowered or are working as intended).
I will have more appointments in the next e-mail and as things progress. These are the dates and appointments that I am focusing on at this time. Please pray that my nerves are steady through the first injections and that the anticipation of these appointments does not make me an unbearable person to be around. :D
Thank you all for your prayers and support!
Eric and Nikki
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