Follow Up

Today was our follow up with Dr. Houserman regarding our failed IVF cycle. Overall it was a good appointment. They haven't given up on us yet! The first thing she said that all the doctor's, nurses, and embryologists discussed were things that went wrong. She said everything looked great up until our Egg Retrieval and it was a huge disappointment for everyone and she said that was even a understatement for what happened that day. She said no doctor wants to give up on a 25 year old doing IVF.

One thing that could've gone wrong was the HCG trigger shot. This is the shot I took 2 days before my Egg Retrieval. This injection is given in the muscle. It is taken to help start the process of ovulation. This helps the doctor's retrieve the eggs the day of the retrieval. There is a possibility that I needed more units or that the needle did not go deep enough in my muscle so my body did not recognize all the medication that had been injected. This was a surprise to both and Jonathan and I because we have done the HCG shot 2 other times with IUI. I'm pretty sure it was injected correct, but whether or not by body recognized it or not is a mystery.

The second thing is that I may have empty follicle syndrome. This is really scary to think about. The only way we will know is if we do another IVF cycle and I only have a few mature eggs again. This is the hard part there is NOTHING they can do for this. The only option she mentioned is if money was endless for a couple for them to keep trying over and over again and them lucking out one time and it working. Who has money for that? I'm pretty sure the only other thing they can do, and she did not mention this is using donor eggs. This is something I'm sure she does not want to talk about at this point and neither do we.

So our next step! We will be trying the "old fashioned way" while taking my injectable medications to help me produce at least a few healthy eggs each month. We will also have a post coital test coming up soon. This is a test that just makes sure my body is not fighting with Jonathan's sperm. If this does not work for us we will be doing IVF again after the first of the year. This will give both of us time to get healthy,time to enjoy the Holidays with our families, and just focus on all the blessings we already have in our lives.

Overall we are feeling OK about our appointment. Some great news that we received today is that Jonathan's semen analysis from our IVF cycle was normal. Praise The Lord! This is the reason we won't be doing IUI with our injectables. It won't make a difference from us doing IUI or the Old Fashion Way.More good news we got today is that we had a 100% fertilization rate. It is usually at 70%. Fertilization means how many of my eggs were fertilized with Jonathan's sperm.

Please continue to pray for us to blessed with a beautiful miracle. We know in our hearts it will happen. Like Dr. Honea said at my Embryo Transfer we may not know how or when it happens, but just that it does!

Please pray for all of the doctors, nurses, embryologists and the entire ART staff for all the work they have done for us and all the other couple's that have been blessed enough to meet them.