in vitro

I've started off my blog with a bang. Right in the middle of in vitro therapy. For those who don't know, Shaun and I have had a very loooooooooong struggle to have children. It's been emotionally, physically, mentally, finically challenging. Whew!!
I wish I would have starting my blog a long time ago so the whole journey could have been better documented. I tease with Shaun that our children's time out will be at the computer reading all about how hard it was to get them here, and they better start being good!
This infertility stuff has been such a roller coaster, and me, being an extreme roller coaster lover, you know the higher the better, But not with this ride. I've wanted to jump off the tracks many times. I'm so thankful to have friends and family who pray for me daily. Thanks for all the support, I could not have done it with out you.
Back to being in the middle of in vitro. This might not make a lot of sense to those who might not know the process, but I'll try to just say what's going on right now. I've been giving my self injections in my stomach to stimulate my ovaries to produce multiple eggs. I've been going to my doctor every other day to be monitored. They have found that my ovaries are more than happy to work overtime!! They have produced 24 egg follicles just on one ovary, and 19 on the other. Yikes!! It's like a hen house in there. And, she stopped counting!! So there could be more!!
unfortunately, this does not come without concern, My Estiodial level is very high (as you can see with how many follicles are growing.) My ovaries are at least 3 times there normal size.
This cause's me to be at high risk for hypo ovarian stimulation. (OHSS)
They have grown so fast, that I have to go in early for my egg transfer. That is to go and suck out all the fluid in the follicle and the embryologist will then sift through it and find the eggs and start to harvest them. (inject the sperm into each and watch them split and grow) The whole process really is amazing!!!
We really could use all of your prayers at this time. They will not know how bad the OHSS will be until after transfer tomorrow, and I follow up for labs and ultrasounds. If it gets really bad I will have to be in the hospital and my stomach could swell up and it causes a lot of problems for my body, so they might have to go ahead and harvest my eggs, and get as many as they can to the blastacyst phase (day 5 of splitting) and then freeze them until my body comes down and brings it self back to normal. Otherwise, If They put the eggs back in, it could be a long time before my body comes down, and that could be dangerous. So we may have to wait another month.
Whew! Are you overloaded with too much information? It's a lot to explain. That's the quick version. I might try and go back and give tidbits of this process, But just trying to write it all is exhausting.
After tomorrow's transfer. We'll call the embryologist and get an update on the quality of the eggs, how many eggs we have, because not all the follicles will contain a egg. He'll let us know step by step the process of the egg and sperm split and how they are doing. Amazing stuff!!