Please Pray for Eve

Remember Eve? If you would like the full backstory, please see my post Backstory: My Crazy Idea to be a Surrogate . I posted an update on GP a couple of weeks ago, but felt compelled to update my readers as well.

First, Eve and her husband successfully adopted twin boys last summer; Noah and Nathan. In their first pictures, you could tell they were as different as can be! One has blond hair and blue eyes, the other dark hair and dark eyes.

I will occasionally send them care packages with clothes and other goodies, and I am shocked to tell you that the boys aren’t quite 9 months old, and are wearing 12-18 month clothes already. They are both doing well,  but goodness they are growing like weeds!!

Eve did find out that Noah has many albinism-like traits. His hair is blond, not white, but he is suffering from the near blindness that often accompanies albinism. The doctors are concerned that his impaired eye sight may impact his learning and cause some delays as compared to his brother.  Also, his skin is very sensitive to sunlight, and they have to be very careful in what he wears, and that he always has on sunblock.

Now for an update on Eve. Through all of her reproductive issues, Eve’s OBGYN has encouraged her to have a full hysterectomy. After adopting, she reluctantly agreed but needed to build up her time off after her leave of absence when they first got the boys.

On April 3^rd, Eve was scheduled for her hysterectomy. Of course she was emotional, full well knowing she would never bear a child of her own. Just prior to the procedure, they did a routine pregnancy test and lo and behold it was POSITIVE! Eve is pregnant, after all the years of torture and heartbreak.

She is of AMA (advanced maternal age), and with all of her previous losses she is very high risk; but she is pregnant! Her bloodwork has all been positive and she has all of the early symptoms. I will continue to pray for her every day, and hope this is the baby she will finally be able to carry and take home, after 23 years of infertility.

Yesterday, Eve texted me to tell me that she had some cramping and a little spotting. Her doctor took additional blood yesterday and although it is increasing, the doubling time has slowed. Sometimes that can be completely normal, being that her numbers are well over 1,000 now, and sometimes that can be a very bad sign.

I can only hope that God has blessed her with this baby at such an unexpected time for a reason, and pray that he continues to watch over her throughout her pregnancy. If you pray, please pray for Eve.

Answers .... FINALLY!!

We received the results from my insanely expensive (17 vials worth) of blood work I had tested about a month ago. Guess what? They finally found something wrong with me!! Most people would be sad that something is wrong. Not me! I’ve known something was wrong, but no doctor has even been able to determine what. They did a very specific test for Anti-Thyroglobulin Antibody. Normal levels are below .4 and mine were 1.7 (more than 4 times normal). This has been linked very closely with infertility. Women with high levels of anti-thyroglobulin antibody who are trying to become pregnant can miscarry or be infertile. Anti-thyroglobulin antibody can interfere with implantation of the embryo in the uterus.

They are putting me on a medicine called Synthroid immediately at 25mcg. I do not know how long it takes for the medication to take effect to help prevent all of the things my body is apparently doing wrong, but am hoping that this little pill will be the answer to my prayers and fix my broken body!  

I've been shot

We began treatment this cycle (including injections). Last May my doctor at the time, prescribed 50mg of Clomid, and I overstimulated.  Therefore, I began 25mg of Clomid on CD3; half the lowest normal dose.

I began to have pretty significant cramping on CD5-8, and ended up going in for my CD10 ultrasound (u/s) on day 9. On day 9, I had one mature follicle, and two nearly mature follies (measurements: one 17 and two 15s). The doctor gave me the choice of taking my Ovidrel trigger injection on Friday evening, and only having the one mature follicle, or waiting until Saturday morning and potentially having three.

Although the thought of triplets is a bit overwhelming, we opted to wait until Saturday morning. Our thought was, with our history the chances of having all three follicles release eggs, have all eggs mature and fertilize, have all three implant and survive were extremely unlikely. However by waiting, we figured that it would give us three chances for success this cycle and also the possibility of multiples which we would welcome with open arms.  

We woke up Saturday morning and I got the shot out of the refrigerator. The needle wasn’t that big, but it was still scary. Mr.A ended up giving me the shot about 2-3 inches below my bellybutton. In case you aren’t familiar with trigger injections, they have HCG in the injection which gives your body a signal much like that when your LH is surging, causing you to ovulate. HCG is also what increases in your body when you are pregnant. Therefore, after taking the injection, you will test positive on pregnancy tests for 5-6 days. I promised Mr.A I wouldn’t test, although seeing those two lines would be really nice, obviously it isn’t real. A lot of women will “test out their trigger”, meaning they will test daily until negative, knowing that the result on day 10-11-12-13 are true positives, and not remaining HCG from the injection.   

Per my doctor’s orders, I will be beginning my 200mg three times daily of progesterone tomorrow evening, as well as beginning my regime of 80mg of baby aspirin; these are in addition to the 4mg of folic acid and prenatal vitamins that I am already taking daily. We will wait to test until 2/10. February 10^th will either be a very depressing day, or bittersweet; it will be exactly one year since my surgery.  

If by some miracle I do get pregnant this cycle, I will begin injections to better control my bodies clotting tendencies immediately following the +test, and will be very closely monitored throughout the first trimester.

I am both terrified and excited; praying for a miracle. 

Bad Blogger – can I make it up to you?

Wow, I’ve been a very bad blogger this last month. I am sorry for the lack of updates.

It was such a relief leaving 2011 behind, but the end was very busy. I (of course) was traveling for work, wrapping up my projects and delegating tasks, preparing for my New Year’s visitors and anxiously awaiting the beginning of my new career.

2012 began:  My closest family was here, I bid adieu to my traveling career and began my new career with the promise of change and challenge. I’ve just completed my third week at the new company. Thus far, I love it. The company is focused on positive change within their company, their employees and the world. They have an entire department focused solely on charitable giving and they match employees’ donations to charity (to a specified amount per employee). They have counselors within HR that help you determine your career path, and help you to achieve your goals.

Although there are a few things that may need to change to make the company leaner, they seem to do a pretty phenomenal job right now on most everything else.

In addition to my professional life, my personal life has had some pretty significant changes. Cycle 28 was a bust; no surprise there. I was out of town during the key points of the cycle, and didn’t expect a miracle or immaculate conception.  However, after that, we decided to move forward with treatment; something we’ve put off time and time again.

We met with the RE on the second day of my cycle, went over test results, her concerns, opinions, and then set a path forward. The results were all great. All of my tests, aside from the MTHFR, came back negative, and Mr.As swimmers are of excellent quantity and quality. She said that since we have been able to conceive naturally twice in two years, she isn’t overly concerned with getting me pregnant, just keeping me pregnant. She has a suspicion that my losses are related to my blood clotting when the baby attached to my blood supply, cutting off its life source. 

After our discussions, we decided on a path forward and are moving forward with treatement.