A trip to Dr. French--the Male Urologist

Today Glen & I made a trip to the urologist, Dr. French, to talk about our options for obtaining sperm. What they will have to do is locate the tube that carries the sperm, then from the epididymis which is the part they will be retrieving it from, they will insert a needle into that tube and extract the fluid within which should contain LOTS of sperm...which we're all hoping and praying for both Glen and all parties involved that this tube does contain millions of sperm! :-)

So..these are both the positives and negatives we heard today from Dr. French. The positives first!

Positives

• He will get sperm NO MATTER what.

• Before we could even ask...he told us that we did everything right with the reversals and that  regardless of the doctors we chose Glen was just one of those few that fell into the irreversible category and unfortunately vasectomy reversals just aren't 100%. Which made us breathe a sigh of relief because so many times you go to a doctor and they say...."Well if you would have come to us first we could have prevented all of this and saved you a lot of money."  Which only makes you feel like  complete crap!  Also I think we REALLY needed to hear this because deep down... I think BOTH of us have really been beating ourselves up for years now....because we have spent SO much time and money trying to have this damn vasectomy reversed instead of going straight to IVF with sperm aspiration which we knew was a option when we started down this journey 3 years ago...when we decided we wanted kids together....and we started saving for the first reversal....when we were so sure it would work...when we thought we would be able to have kids the wonderful, natural, fun, AND... well....the almost free minus the cost of the reversal, way! LOL  Little did we know then what journey this would entail....

• When he examined Glen he could feel the tube on the left the most so he is going to try that tube first to find sperm and then proceed to the other if he doesn't get enough. But he thinks he should definitely get enough for this IVF and maybe enough to freeze for future IVF's.  

• Dr. French said he felt we were in the best of hands and that the lab director at SIRM is one of the best when it comes to dealing with sperm that has been aspirated and that he will find the best ones out of the bunch to inject into my eggs to fertilize them!

• The IVF clinic let us know that the partner of Dr. French is good at sperm aspiration as well

Negatives:

• The cost!  We are looking at an additional $3,000 on top of the $16,000 we are paying for this two IVF cycle plan we paid for!  YIKES  We just keep telling ourselves it's just money and we can make it back, it will all be worth it in the end when we are holding our baby or babies...Twins would be awesome!  Two for the price of one!   We swear if this child(ren) ever back talks us or says we didn't want them or love them we will got postal on them...LOL

• The doctor will be out of town from June 9-11, so hopefully my eggs won't be ready for egg retrieval during that time.  He said if I did have to have egg retrieval during that time then there was another doctor in their practice that could perform the surgery. 

• If they can't find sperm in the tubes they have to go to the testicle and it will be very painful for Glen after the surgery, but he doesn't think that should happen. Please cross your fingers and pray the left tube has lots of sperm so they don't have to poke around much!!!  

So all in all it was a good day!  IVF is still a go and we still have the 60% chance the doctor gave us of getting pregnant this time around.  I start the Lupron which suppress everything May 18.  I can't believe how soon that is!!!!

Hope you are all doing well and thank you all for your support and following our blog!  Thank you for your comments we LOVE them!!!

S & G

Bitter Sweet

So we had all of our tests yesterday.  Here are the results:

Saline Sono of Uterus: Was told my uterus looks perfect

Mock embryo Transfer: Went great no problems

8+ Vials of Blood Drawn on Me: Didn't get Woozey, Dizzy, or Pass Out

2 Vials of Blood Drawn on Glen: Did great

Semen Analysis: BIG FAT ZERO!!!  Our second vasectomy reversal is now a failure AGAIN!  For those just now tuning in, this second reversal has been a complete roller coaster. It was a success, then a failure, we grieved, accepted we would need sperm aspiration, got to Turkey there was sperm (not much, but sperm, so success our hopes are up, and now failure again. Hopes crushed again!  We just can't catch a break!!!

So we have an appt on Tuesday at 1:30 to talk about sperm aspiration with a urologist that our IVF clinic uses name Dr. French.  I hate that Glen has to go through yet another procedure but this one won't be anywhere as painful.  On a positive note: This procedure could actually work out in our favor, because they take them straight from the testicles where there is a much better chance of them being of better quality then those that were trying to squeeze through those scarred tubes.  But we will know more on Tuesday.

Now for the rant:  THIS SUCKS!!  We will NEVER conceive on our own. There will NEVER be any surprise pregnancies. There will NEVER be any option other than IVF and lots of $$!  I'm just really hoping and praying that this IVF cycle works or if God forbid it doesn't than they are able to get enough sperm during the aspiration to freeze some for later IVF cycles. We have paid for the two cycle program. And if that doesn't work then we are just going to be child-free for a while and then look into adoption later on down the road.

On a positive note:  We will NEVER have to use any kind of birth control in the future. LOL  We will not have any oops at 40.  LOL

I think we should send a plaque to the urologist that did Glen's vasectomy for performing the most permanent vasectomy on the planet. Maybe we should start referring him clients who REALLY want to be fixed for life!

So now we wait for the blood test results and the appt with Dr. French the Urologist.

Tests are Scheduled--Still no period

So my period is still not here and I'm actually hoping it will stay away until after Thursday. I called my nurse, Jane, today at the Sher clinic, left her a message, and she called me back within an hour!  I SO love her! She is awesome!   I told her my period still hadn't started, but were there any tests I could go ahead and do while we were waiting for Congress to pass the bill through to allow my period to start. LOL  She said that I could do all the blood work for immune testing and that  I could do the saline sono of my uterus so long as my period hadn't started. Along with the test for me, they could do hubby's blood work and first semen analysis and sperm banking. So we are scheduled for 2:00 pm on Thursday for blood work for both of us and then saline sono for me and sample for him.

I also received a jury summons for next week, April 24 through possibly May 6, which I petitioned to be posted due to all the IVF stuff. I hope they will allow it. I don't want anything getting in the way of the testing and planning for this cycle in June.

More about the tests....So this Thursday....4/21....I will have have all the blood work done for immune issues that might be keeping my body from letting the embryos implant and a saline sono of my uterus to check and make for sure I don't have any polyps,  fibroids, or any alien stuff growing in there. I'm really crossing my fingers that I haven't been housing any illegal aliens of any kind in my uterus. No bueno!  If that is the case, then I would have to have a surgery that would then serve them an eviction and a deportation notice. Then I would have to post-pone IVF for another 3 months at least!  Which if that were the case then that would put us doing IVF in Sept, and I learned my lesson last time. I refuse to do IVF during my birthday! That's just abuse!  So please cross your fingers I do not have any little creatures growing in my oven!

Glen will be doing blood work, and then they will take a sample which they will then analyze and freeze for a later date. They want to make for sure they have plenty of good sperm come the day of our egg retrieval. Please pray and cross your fingers that he gets the best analysis yet! He has been SO good about giving up all bad things like diet cokes, etc and he has been taking an arsenal of 10 different vitamins since our failed IVF to make for sure his swimmers are in tip top shape for this one!!

Ah, oh....Glen is reading over my shoulder and just said, "I'm getting bloodwork?!?"  I guess the sample part doesn't bother him! LOL  Now he just called me a STINKER, because he read what I just typed!  Who me?  Never!  Love you sweetie!

So that is the latest update with us!  Other than that.... we have just been doing our usual.

Thanks for reading our blog!  We appreciate all your support and prayers!

S & G

The Elusive Period

Of course the test was a BFN.  Much expected, no tears, and no apologies needed.  ;-)  I didn't ovulate, so no egg to be caught and fertilized. I was shocked on Monday when the nurse beat me to calling.  They had told me to take a test on Monday and if negative and no period give them a call. I was giving my period a little more time to start that day, but I was thinking I would call in the later afternoon!  By golly, they beat me to it!!  I got a call at 3:00 from the nurse asking if my period had started. I was MEGA impressed. I have NEVER had a nurse call me to check on that.  It's always been me having to do all the calling when I start, when I'm in the middle of cycle, blah, blah, blah.  So she told me to take some medicine to start it up, and to give her a call when it started. Which I think this time I will be doing the calling first!  LOL  As of today, it still hasn't started!  She also called me in some birth control pills, which speaking of I need to go and pick up. Maybe I'll do that tonight or tomorrow.

So that's about it for me!  I've been busy planning our infertility support group meeting and the bowling event that we will be doing during National Infertility Awareness Week which is April 24-30!!

Hope you are all doing well!

Still waiting....

So I called the doctor's office this morning to talk to them about what to do since my period is late and all. I had to leave a message for the nurse but she called me back really quickly... like in 5 minutes quick!  I was really impressed!  That's unheard of!

What I found out....is thankfully my period being late and not showing on time IS NOT going to throw anything off for my testing or starting my IVF in June.  WHEW!!!  She told me to give it until Monday to start on it's own and if it hasn't started then take a home pregnancy test.  HA, HA, that's just freaking cruel...really... I know what I will see or better yet NOT see!  LOL  BUT... she was really nice about it  and said from what you have told me you and I both know the odds are very low of you being pregnant, but we always have to have you check just in case you are one of the lucky cases! (It would be very awesome, but definitely not getting my hopes up or holding my breath!) After taking the pregnancy test on Monday, she told me to start the prometrium and I would get on birth control immediately upon my period starting so they can high jack and control my body at their will!  So Houston or should I say Dallas, all systems are still a go!! 

So yeah...it's still all about the waiting right now! Grrr.... Oh, well! I think it's the story of any infertile's life! But... I know the pay off in the end will all be worth it!  ;-)  

And while I'm waiting...I'm going to steal a quote from one of my friend's blog she just posted and  take the advise of Buddha:

"Be where you are. Otherwise you will miss your life."

It's always about waiting....

That's the thing about infertility it's constantly waiting for something!!  If it's not waiting to save enough for the next treatment cycle, it's waiting to see if the treatment cycle was a success. Right now....it's waiting on a period! Once my period starts then I can start all the tests needed for our IVF cycle in June, and then I can get on birth control pills so I can regulate my cycles and hormones.  Of course, for the past couple of months my periods have been coming like clock work, but of course the month that I need it to be on time.... it's late. The story of my life!  Nothing unusual about it.  My body never has liked to cooperate when it comes to having regular cycles.  I know some might be thinking, OMG, you could be pregnant. The chance of that is VERY slim in fact  none.  We have been told we just don't have what it takes to conceive naturally.  We've been given a 0-1% chance of it happening on it's own. So yeah, it's 99.9% likely we ARE NOT pregnant.  LOL  If my period is not here by Thursday, I will take some medicine to start it up and then we should be able to move on to the testing part of this whole process.  Until then I will...well of course...I'll be waiting.....sigh....

It's time to face the music

I have not been back here since our failed IVF in October. It was just too gut wrenchingly painful to come back here where we had documented all our hopes and dreams, just to have them crushed by a simple blood test. But I feel it's time to start blogging again.  I think it will help me clear my thoughts and get me a little more right in the head as we gear up for this next round of IVF.   Right in the head, LOL, what the hell does that really mean anyways?  What about left or center in the head?!?  LOL  I don't have a whole lot of time to post right now, other than to say.... I'm coming back, baby!  So be prepared!  The insanity is about to be unleashed....