Season With the Best Odds for IVF

• smaller
• LargerAf 

By ANN LUKITS

Infertile couples undergoing in vitro fertilization might have more success if the procedure is performed in the spring.

Research published in July's Gynecological Endocrinology found the rate of fertilization was significantly higher in spring than any other season, though time of year had no effect on pregnancy rates. Natural reproduction also varies with the seasons; it is believed the number of hours of sunlight in the day and temperature variations affect fertility.

When Good Circulation Isn't a Good Thing

Researchers compared seasonal fertilization rates in 1,932 women who underwent intracytoplasmic sperm injection, or ICSI, in Brazil from 2005 to 2009. ICSI involves the injection of a single sperm directly into an oocyte, or unfertilized egg, outside of a woman's body.

Subjects were organized into groups according to the timing of oocyte retrieval: 435 were assigned to winter, 444 to spring, 469 to summer and 584 to autumn. Fertilization, the fusion of sperm and egg to form an embryo, was assessed 18 hours after ICSI.

The rate of fertilization was 73.5% in spring, 68.7% in summer, 67.9% in winter and 69% in autumn. Ovarian response to ICSI hormone treatments, a measurement of estrogen concentration per number of retrieved oocytes, was higher in spring compared with other seasons, tests showed. Following fertilization, one to three embryos were transferred into the woman's uterus.

The procedure resulted in an average pregnancy rate of 33% for all seasons.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303644004577524824251585782.html

A little Infertility Humor...

I love Pinterest ...its one of those sites I forbid myself from visiting too frequently because I'll waste hours upon hours of my life browsing through pages, staring at the computer and laughing at pictures like these below. I couldn't resist the urge tonight so thought I'd post a few on here.  Hope you find some humor in them also....

http://pinterest.com/resolve/infertility-humor/

What Makes a Baby

While browsing the never ending internet for infertility related blogs, articles, forums, etc. (a common occurrence at our house) I ran across a wonderful website, http://booksfordonoroffspring.blogspot.com, featuring a wide variety of children's books as they relate to the various methods of conception and parenthood.

The traditional Father + Mother = Love = Baby Boy + Baby Girl type family is becoming less common as the future norm will be filled with IVF babies, sperm donor babies, egg donor babies, donor embryo babies  that are conceived in labs in petri dishes carried via surrogacy or through gestational carriers and raised by adoptive parents, infertile parents, gay parents, lesbian parents, single mothers, single fathers and co-parents.


I am very excited to have stumbled upon this site and thought it would make a great post to share with my friends and family. Others out there struggling with infertility or living in a non-traditional family know all the "baggage" that comes along with it...just one more added difficulty of something as simple as explaining where our (fingers crossed soon to be IVF) baby came from.

I've listed just a few of the books I found interesting based on the summary provided by the website or short video clips provided by the authors. I'll definitely want to buy a few of these...regardless of how we end up with our baby at the end of this journey.

http://www.what-makes-a-baby.com/



http://www.publishamerica.net/product43663.html



http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/147002991X/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

It's that time again!

Cookie Mania begins.....

I can't wait to get started baking many more dozens of cookies again this month after several weeks off. Its been a whirlwind of a month...with much heartache and loads of stress. I hope that the next few weeks bring renewed excitement and loads of energy so that we can keep up with all of our planned fundraising events.

I can't believe we've been at this for nearly 3 months now! This is probably one of the only times in my life I will wish for time to continue to pass quickly by....I'm just sooooo EXCITED and ANXIOUS for spring to get here already! To date we are only $20 shy of $4,000!!! WOO HOO! Thanks to all our family and friends for their love and support.

I give a HOOT!

Trying to come up with ideas for decals/logos for tee shirts, bags, etc. for a future fundraising event. This is just one of my first ideas...simple, but cute! I'm definitely an amateur, and I contemplated having someone design a logo for us (and I still may), but I think designing it myself makes it seem a bit more personal. 

On the fundraising front we are up to $3,800!!! YAY! Almost a third of the way there! I'll try to update more about all of that in a few days. Talk to you all soon! :) 

Our life on an Incline

Since not much has been going on as far as infertility treatments go and we've been busy fundraising, I thought I'd update about whats been going on in our life in general.

Mike's current love is hiking/camping. He tends to get on what I like to call "kicks" where he focuses all of his attention on one thing, one activity, one idea and it could take months or years before he moves on to the next "kick".  We have visited The Mast General Store, Academy Sports, Bass Pro, Gander Mountain, etc more times than I can count over the last several months and each time he comes home with some new gadget or tool to use on his next adventure.

His current obsession is to get his hiking backpack weight down as close to 15-20lbs as possible. Its currently at 30+ pounds, depending on whether or not I come along on camping trips. Most professional hikers have packs less than 10lbs and some closer to 7 lbs. Although I require very little compared to the norm, there is no such thing as packing light when I come along...lol.

What I've discovered from all of this is that the smaller it is the more it costs. They have everything from light weight hammocks and self inflating sleeping pads to gadgets such as watches, compasses and cooking utensils weighing mere ounces.

My mother actually had a previous co-worker who spent nearly a year hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. He currently works at The Mast General Store and Mike and I enjoying hearing his stories/experiences and gaining some of the knowledge he learned along the way. Sadly, we have agreed that neither of us would ever be up for doing that...Heck I'm exhausted after hiking a couple of miles much less 20 miles or more in a day.

Anyways, all of that just to tell you about our weekend. I took a day off work on Friday and we planned a small relaxing camping trip...just the two of us. Since our weather took a sudden turn for Fall, (which I might add only began a little over a week ago) Mike has talked non stop about taking a hiking/camping trip again. His last trip with a good friend had been nearly 3 months ago and a trip was long over due.

So I actually mentioned the trip and agreed to go as I thought it would be a good way to get away and take a break from it all. I never imagined how exhausting and stressful fundraising could be. It has been more like a second job rather than something to do here and there and although I am extremely grateful by the wonderful response we've had thus far I am plum tuckered out. A long weekend was just want I needed to rejuvenate and jump back on the fundraising bandwagon.

Below are just a few pics from our adventure and what an adventure it was. Mike slept in his hammock, but I opted for a small pop up tent and what a mishap it was. Not being a huge mother nature lover I opted to sleep as close to Mike as possible for protection of course in the event that strange creatures wondered out of the woods. However, sleeping as close to Mike as possible meant I had to slept on an incline as he needed to be at the edge of the woods in order to hang up his hammock.

This incline did not provide for a comfortable sleeping arrangement nor did the oh so rock hard ground...ugh!  I had a sleeping bag and ended up stealing Mikes sleeping pad half way through the night, yet still ended up with bruises on my hips. I also woke up every hour on the hour. All of the noises began to freak me out and once I get a creepy thought in my mind I can't seem to get rid of it.  I would wake Mike up constantly asking "what was that noise." He was not amused to say the least, but was a trooper and ended up getting in the tent with me so that I could finally fall asleep.

This is when the real fun began. I woke up about an hour after he joined me. The tent was collapsing on us and was wet...leaking water through the top mesh. I unsuccessfully tried to wake Mike up to help me fix the tent and ultimately just fell back to sleep. This continued off and on until 5am when Mike finally fully woke up only to realize our tent was collapsed so much that we could no longer sit upright. Once the door was located (very difficult to do when you are laying on top of it) and unzipped we realized we had slid within our tent nearly 10 feet down the hill and rested nearly under his hammock. At that point we decided enough was enough and got up, got packed and hiked back. Hiking in the dark is very difficult and creepy might I add, but so much fun. I laughed the whole way out while clinging to Mike's arm.

We had a blast, mishaps and all. And although I'm not planning another camping trip anytime soon I enjoyed our time together and would love to plan a long weekend again soon...maybe next time we'll choose a bed and breakfast.

The Great Pumpkin!

At the start of the summer we were elated about planting our garden and the start of pumpkin season. However as the weeks passed the sun grew hotter, the ground dryer and the pumpkins fewer.

Our hopes for a great pumpkin season have faded. We are at the mere start of Fall and only one lone pumpkin produced. Although sad I am thankful. I will relate this to infertility. Numerous eggs numerous sperm combined to form numerous embryos all in hopes of achieving that one great pumpkin.

I'll take this as a sign if you will. Much like the path of our infertility journey, our pumpkin patch may have been tried from the start...planted, plowed over by mistake, re-planted, over watered, under watered, fertilized, un-feed, weeded, yet left to grow unruly.

We have ended our pumpkin season left with this one sweet photo...our one lone pumpkin. The fruit of our efforts, our certainties and doubts. Now only hope remains that much like our pumpkin patch we will in the end finally get our one great pumpkin!

When it comes I want to wail! MAIL!

The title of today's blog is for my crazy, fun and sweet friend Ashley who is at Disney right now...without me might I add...I've never been. Hey maybe that could be our next big fundraising project..."Send Amy to Disney"...Lol..okay, yeah probably not.

Anyways, for those of you with children you've probably heard this one on Blue's Clues a time or two and today's post seemed quite fitting for the song.

Just wanted to give a quick update....

It seems as if I completely forgot to make mention of one of our next big fundraising events. Approximately 3 weeks ago, Mike and I began writing letters to local businesses sharing our IVF fundraising efforts and directing them towards our blog. We've written well over 30 letters in hopes of spreading the word about infertility awareness. We are working on setting up an online silent auction, date to be set soon, which will include donated items from such businesses.

Here's the mail, it never fails.
It makes me want to wag my tail.
When it comes I want to wail, MAIL!!!!!!!!

I am soooo happy to announce that we received our first donation as a direct result from our letters!  Wilderness of the Smokies donated 2 one day family pass tickets (each admits a family of four and are valued at $120.00!) YAY!

Mike and I are extremely appreciative of their support. We will be writing a BIG THANK-YOU letter to them and encourage our friends and family to do the same. Its support from people and places like Wilderness of the Smokies that bring about change. It makes me so happy to have been born and raised in East Tennessee...such caring and loving people we are surrounded by. Thank-you so much! Can't wait to share more wonderful updates!

What if...

What if…We never hear that tiny heartbeat?

What if…We have to endure another miscarriage?

What if…We cry for hours, weeks, years, a life-time?

What if…Our character, our faith and our marriage is tested?

What if…We feel inadequate, ashamed and broken?

What if…We feel angry, jealous and isolated?

What if…Infertility has robbed us of our intimacy and we will never be truly “in the mood” again?

What if…We’ve relaxed, exercised, lost weight, ate every unique food in the book, taken vitamins, stood on my head, propped pillows under my butt, legs in the air, preformed in the morning, night, full moon, blue moon, no moon, cut out caffeine, hot tubs, switched to boxer shorts, cotton sheets, timed ovulation, pee’d on opk’s, charted bbt and taken numerous vacations still to no avail?

What if…We told you to do the same thing for your heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, or brain tumor?

What if…Our doctors told us none of that would help?

What if…Infertility was defined as a disease?

What if…On November 30^th, 2009 the World Health Organization did just that…declaring for the very first time that Infertility was in fact a disease?

What if…1 in 8 couples of childbearing age are infertile?

What if…Others insensitivity hurts?

What if…We tried just one more IUI and it worked?

What if…We can’t fathom the idea of one more injection, one more suppository, one more blood draw?

What if…We finally save/raise enough money for one IVF cycle and it fails?

What if…We have a complication from IVF and insurance doesn’t cover it?

What if…1 in 10 patients will experience, OHSS (Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome),  a serious and sometimes fatal complication of IVF which may require hospitalization and is not covered by insurance in Tennessee?

What if…We told you other complications including reactions to anesthesia, bleeding, infection or damage to other organs during infertility treatment and any medications or hospitalization required as a result are not covered by insurance either?

What if…We experience any of these complications and cannot afford to pay the resulting medical bills?

What if…Infertility treatments financially drain us?

What if…It hurts when you say “If you can’t afford treatment you can’t afford a baby”?

What if…You had to come up with $12,000 in one month?

What if…That was nearly half your annual income?

What if…We have to read another pregnancy announcement or see another ultrasound on Facebook today?

What if…I start another cycle only to get news that same day that yet another friend, family member, co-worker is “trying”, has conceived, had an ultrasound, named their baby, given birth?

What if…We’ve been trying all the while they are on their 2nd, 3rd, 4th child?

What if…We have to hear one more pregnant person complain about nausea, indigestion, back pain, swelling or weight gain?

What if…We’ve been to 56 doctor appointments, had 24 blood draws, 21 months of Clomid, 20 intramuscular injections, 14 vaginal suppositories, 11 urinalysis, 9 vaginal ultrasounds, 8 semen analysis, 5 genetic tests, 3 IUI treatments, 2 testicular exams, 1 rectal exam, 1 month of Femera, 1 surgery all of which come with their own not so pleasant side effects and we did it all in hopes of getting to increase our odds from less than 1% to a mear 10% in hopes that we will one day get experience those less than delightful pregnancy symptoms.  

What if…We never let go of our jealousy and resentment because they get to do this naturally?

What if…It hurts when you say “it will happen when it’s meant to be”

What if…We don’t understand why three months is long enough for you while 3 years is still too soon for us?

What if…You can’t understand until you’ve walked a mile in our shoes?

What if…Our hearts ache when you say “just adopt”

What if…We can’t afford to adopt?

What if…We can, but we can’t learn to love a non-biological child?

What if…We can’t bear the intrusive home studies, long waiting lists, the feelings of hostility of applying and being interviewed for a child while others get to freely and effortlessly grow their families?

What if…We have to sit through another dinner hearing our friends, family or co-workers lovingly dote on the achievements of their child?

What if…We never get to celebrate that 1^st birthday, 1^st tooth, 1^st step, 1^st word, laugh, smile, hug?

What if…Our friends get “tired” of dealing with our infertility? With us?

What if…We lose friendships along the way?

What if…We have to learn to live childfree?

What if…We lose ourselves along the way?

What if…We can’t get back to the place we were at emotionally before all of this began?

What if…we get pregnant?

What if…We can’t stomach the thought we had to buy a baby?

What if…Our identities change and we lose who we have become?

OR

What if…We realize that our friends and family are trying the best way they know how to be understanding and supportive?

What if...When another IF couple conceives instead of feeling pain, we are encouraged and given renewed hope that one day the same will happen for us?

What if…We stop hiding behind our fears, our doubts, our pain?

What if…We accept our diagnosis of Infertility?

What if…We stop defining ourselves by it?

What if…We redefine what it means to conceive, to be parents, to be a family?

What if...We become advocates for infertility awareness and research?

What if…You visit Resolve.org and get involved in legislative issues by sending a letter to the U.S. Senate & House of Representatives concerning the Family Act of 2011?

What if…Resolves goal of sending 10,000 letters is met by the end of 2012?

What if…Every state passed a law mandating insurance companies to cover infertility treatments?

What if…Our story, your letter, can help one person, hundreds of people, thousands of people?

What if…We are forever changed?

What if…You are forever changed?

What if…Society is forever changed?

What if…Infertility ceases to exist?

What if…

101 Days til Christmas Fundraising Party!

Well, we did it! We hit the $2,000 mark! YAY! I can't believe it...I'm just hoping we can keep the momentum up for September.

The next big fundraiser we have planned is a 101 Days til Christmas Party. My goal for the party is to earn $500 in donations or an average of $100 per consultant. These consultants so kind and generous to donate a portion of their profit to Mike and myself!

Head Count: So far we have 12 ladies attending and 11 maybe's!  I think we're off to a good start!

I've pasted the invite I sent out to all my Facebook friends last night and I wanted to share the event with my blog friends as well......

"I'm very excited about our upcoming IVF Fundraising Event! This fundraiser will be geared towards early Christmas shopping and will include consultants from Premier Designs Jewelry, Pampered Chef, Party-Lite, Mary Kay and Thrity-One.


Each consultant has graciously offered to donate a portion of their proceeds to our IVF Fund! This will be a great opportunity to beat the holiday crowds while enjoying a fun filled morning of fellowship and shopping. 

We have set a goal of 50 guests and hope that we can exceed that number. Each guest who attends will receive a ticket to be entered into a drawing for special door prizes. 

Door prizes will include free shipping on products purchased at the event, gift cards, free products and more!

To increase your odds of winning, a ticket will be given for each additional guest brought with you to the party! 

Mike and I have been so touched by the outpouring of donations and support we have received thus far. We appreciate all of the kind wishes and prayers from our friends and family. 

I look forward to seeing each and everyone of you. If you have prior plans or can not attend, we have catalogs available for pre-orders."

We've set an overall goal to work towards $2,000 in fundraising and donations for the month of September. Besides the 101 Day's til Christmas Party, we've got another yard sale in the works and my dad has also graciously donated a set of wheels and tires from his Jeep Wrangler for us to place on Craig's List and sell.

My mom and I will also resume Cookie Mania next weekend, which helped tremendously this month. I'm also trying to find some ideas online for items to sell related to our city's college football team. The first football game of the season begins this week and as a result of living in a college town people around here go crazy for anything UT related! Hopefully I can come up with something.

Well, I should get back to browing the web for ideas...chat again soon!

Amy ;)

Test Tube Sperm!?!

Another interesting article concerning male factor infertility. It's just amazing how far science has come in such a relatively short period of time and to think that I am living through all of this.

 I often think of what it may be like for couples facing infertility in the future. There will only be a memory of those things that once seemed impossible to us as they will become reality to them. IVF w/ICSI for male factor infertility is still considered new technology as it was only beginning to be used in the 1990's. Prior to its discovery couples facing male factor infertility we simply out of luck as no other options existed as a method of producing a biological child.

 I also have a heavy heart for those couples now who may be too old to conceive and in a sense missed their window of opportunity and for those couples now that will miss their opportunity when new technologies arise in 10 to 20 years to solve today's infertility issues.

Hope you all enjoy the article and learn a bit more about male factor infertility as well, as I have.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8400927/Test-tube-sperm-grown-in-lab-could-cure-male-infertility.html



This is human sperm (spermatozoa), the male sex cells Photo: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / BARCROFT MEDIA

Researchers removed stem cells and cultured sperm in the laboratory in a breakthrough that could lead to new treatments and drugs for men currently unable to have children.

The development raises hopes that young boys undergoing chemotherapy for testicular cancer will still be able to father their own children when they grow up.

The sperm was produced in a test-tube from the cells taken from a newborn mouse testicles and then injected into eggs to produce to twelve healthy babies, four male and eight female, which were all fertile and able to reproduce themselves in adulthood.

Dr Takehiko Ogawa, an urologist at Yokohama City University in Japan, said the production of sperm in the testes is one of the most complex processes in the body.

It has never been reproduced in a test tube in mammals before.

They achieved the feat by providing most of the cellular components found in the testicles in a dish and watched as the stem cells grew into sperm cells.

They then used IVF (in vitro fertilisation) techniques to produce male and female offspring that were themselves fertile.

The researchers, whose findings are published in Nature, said: "The obtained sperm resulted in healthy and reproductively competent offspring."

The testes tissue was still worked after being frozen in liquid nitrogen and could still be used several weeks later – suggesting it may be possible in humans to produce their own biological offspring years later.

Dr Ogawa and colleagues said: "We have demonstrated that the organ culture conditions, without a circulatory systems in vivo (in the living body), can support the complete spermatogenesis (sperm production) of mice.

"Therefore, extending the present results to a wide range of species by refinements and the individualisation of culture conditions to each of them seems promising."

Professor Shahin Rafii, a geneticist, and Dr Marco Seandel, an oncologist, of Weill Medical College in New York, reviewed the study for the journal and said it offers hope for young boys with cancer who, unlike men, cannot freeze their sperm before treatment.

They said the blueprint for producing mature sperm in a laboratory dish has eluded reproductive biologists for decades and the researchers "meet this challenge in mice."

Prof Rafii and Dr Seandel said: "The preservation of fertility is a major concern for patients requiring therapy, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, that can inadvertently destroy germ cells.

"In men, this problem can be mitigated by banking sperm before treatment. The solution is less straightforward in prepubescent boys.

"In this scheme, boys would undergo testicular biopsy before chemotherapy or radiation therapy, to obtain tissue for cryopreservation (freezing).

"If infertility occurs, the testicular fragments could be thawed and sperm obtained from organ culture for IVF."

Dr Allan Pacey, an expert in infertility at the University of Sheffield, said it was "a small but important step".

"This is a very interesting study," he said.

"There have been several attempts to create or 'grow' animal sperm in the laboratory by various different approaches.

"However, none have been wholly successful and when the sperm have been used, the pups born have not been healthy and have soon died.

"This could help discover new drugs or treatments to stimulate infertile men to produce more or better sperm. It also may help preserve the fertility of some males.

"I think this study is a small but important step in understanding how sperm are formed which may, in time, lead to us being able to routinely grow human sperm in the laboratory."

The Roller Coaster of Life

Ever had one of those days where your body is at work, yet your mind is elsewhere? Of course! Right? We all have those days and sometimes we have them several times a week!

Just so happens today was that day for me and it was a weeks worth of days rolled into one. I'm feeling just plain drained at the moment as it seems as if I've been on an emotional roller coaster all day.

Even as I type, the coaster continues as I anxiously check my phone for word from Adam, my friend Whitney's husband, with an update as to how she is progressing and if their precious little one has made it into this world yet...can't wait to meet her! I know they will make wonderful, loving and fun parents!

Rewind back to early this morning, crazy traffic, running late to work, radio playing in the background. I pull up to a red light and am reminded by the ever so helpful Facebook of a birthday of a long lived yet missing friendship. Its days like today in which I would normally take comfort in our friendship knowing that I could confide in her and that she would inevitably be able to cheer me up. Instead, I reminisce of our past friendship and wonder if we'll ever be able to get that back as so much has happened between now and then.

Once to work, I find it difficult to concentrate as my mind wanders during my fourth day of training. I was just recently promoted and will be starting my new position on September 1st. So much new stress, so much to learn, so much to see, so much to do and practice...too bad we can't telepathically transfer all that information from her brain to mine...it sure would make things a lot easier. Lol.

My mind drifts to fellow IF's, former co-workers, friends, a sweet couple whom I have a heavy heart. Infertility is a lonely disease and I find comfort in their encouraging words, wisdom and strength.  As I know they too have fought this unfair disease and won! I pray for comfort and healing for them as she has been in a medically induced coma for more than a week after undergoing an emergency cesarean section. My heart breaks more for her each day she remains sedated and unable to hold her precious child, as I know how hard she fought, how much she's endured, how many up's and down's she struggled through in order to have those first few hours, days, weeks, those priceless moments of motherhood.

I've shed more tears than I would like to admit today. Candice had the pleasure of witnessing one of my moments and so kindly offered to give me an after breakdown hug if needed even at the risk of going over her allotted lunch break time...haha!

My mom called late in the afternoon to share news of another great blessing headed our way. She meet up with a family member whom unknown to us had struggled with infertility herself and graciously gave a $100 donation to go towards our IVF Fund with only a mere dozen cookies in return. I am so overwhelmed with emotions and so grateful to her as well. My heart is full of cheer and I only hope that once day I can pay forward the kindness she has shown to us. Thank you so much.

Well, for now the roller coaster has ended. Until next time.

Amy :)

Yard Sale!

Today's yard sale, our 3rd fundraising event, went well! Thanks so much to all of our friends, co-workers  and family for all of the yard sale donations! We ended up with a GRAND TOTAL of $180.15! YAY! 

Our morning began at 8am and ended around 2:30pm. We still have so many great items left for our next sale (date yet to be decided) so there is definitely more money to be made! 

We ended the sale a bit early because we all had a bit too much sun and fun for one day...Lol :) I know one thing for sure, I will definitely will be bringing sunscreen next time! 

I also wanted to make quick mention of a few donations we received this week. We received a $100.00 donation from one of my aunt's co-workers. We were so surprised and extremely appreciative! 

Also, I wanted to give a big thank-you to Rebecca and her mother/sister for helping with the Premier Party Fundraiser. We had a wonderful night enjoying the company of sweet friends, great food and beautiful jewelry. Thanks to Lisa as well for her kindness and support! We love you all! 

Let the mowing begin!

Because its YARD SALE time! Our 3rd Fundraiser is already in the works. We will be having a yard sale this Saturday, August 18th and we are asking all of our friends and family to dig through their basements, storage rooms and junk drawers! Anything that you have been wanting to get rid of and would like to donate would be much appreciated! :)

If anyone is interested feel free to email or message me on Facebook. We will be happy to meet up or come pick up donated items.

$1,000 Baby!

Good afternoon!

I'm here in the kitchen once again making cookies and I wanted to take a few minutes to update everyone as I take cookies out and place more in the oven.  Over the last week I have become quite the efficient little baker...lol :) I've got 9 minutes and counting so I'll try to make it quick.

I have very few words to express how I feel at the moment. I can simply say that we are so very grateful for all the love and support we have received since we began this new chapter of our lives only 2 short weeks ago.

We have been blessed beyond belief by the success of our first fundraising event. Thus far we have received a GRAND TOTAL of $932.00 in cookie sale orders! Yes, I said $932.00!!! We are only 13 dozen orders away from $1,000!

We definitely owe a huge THANK-YOU to all of our friends and family! We could not have met this goal without your help!

My mom especially deserves credit for all of her help baking cookies. She spent several late nights and early mornings baking away, delivering cookies, shopping for supplies and did it all without a complaint and with a smile.

My parents also graciously offered to donate all of the cookie baking ingredients for any future bake sales and provided the majority of supplies used this last week as well.

Thanks to my sweet uncle Mike who donated dozens upon dozens of eggs to help with our baking needs and offered to supply anymore that may be needed in the future!

Also, just this week we un-expectantly received an donation of $100 to put towards our IVF Fund. It is hard to fathom the out pouring of love we have received on our behalf. We will forever be grateful and only hope that one day we will be able to pay it forward. Much love for you and your family!

One last big THANK-YOU to a dear sweet friend who has been through many of the same struggles as Mike and myself. We appreciate the support and encouragement you have provided over the last few years.  I definitely let my emotions fly when I opened up our mail and saw that check for $100! We are sending much love and baby dust your way!

Well, the oven is now beeping and cutting me short on my awards speech. Stay tuned as we still have many more fundraisers in the works and updates to follow.

Amy :)

Double D's Please!

On Tuesday, August 7^th, I went for a follow-up appointment with my urologist to review my current medications and to set up a game plan during the next few months leading up to our IVF procedure. One of the main questions I had for my Urologist was the long term effects of my use of the fertility medication Clomid.

Clomid is a fertility drug marketed towards women to help with ovulation disorders. However, it is occasionally used off-label to help treat hormone imbalances and low testosterone in men.

While taking normal testosterone replacement therapy might seem like the obvious answer, it actually causes sterility in men, the opposite of what we are trying to achieve.

Many doctors do not advise women to stay on the medication for more than 3-6 months, and we were originally told I should not be on it for more than a year due to possible side effects.

Common side effects include but are not limited to; vision issues, male breast tissue enlargement, swelling in the extremities, weight gain, mood swings, etc.

My Urologist must have had an inkling of my concerns, because he started right off the bat citing a study done recently on the long-term effects of Clomid use in males. While the study said that long term use of Clomid is safe, he did take care in checking me for swelling and enlargements. Hmm, I’m suspicious Lol.

To be honest the appointment was rather uneventful and in the end we decided that for us the benefit of Clomid for the time being seems to out weight the possible side effects, as we do not want my sperm count to drastically drop during the next several months it may take to save for IVF.

On a side note, I have scheduled a bra fitting at Victoria’s Secret on Monday. Just in case.

Mike 

To Commemorate the 2012 Olympics...Just a Little Fertility Humor

http://www.facebook.com/AttainFertility

Events Update

Upcoming Fundraising Events:

Thursday, August 16th 7:00pm

-Lisa Littleton Deal and Rebecca Sue Napier Forgety have graciously offered to turn Rebecca's Premier Jewelry Show into a Fundraising Event w/25% of sales going towards mine and Mike Durham IVF Fund!

Mike and I are very appreciative of these ladies generosity and would love for all of our friends and family to attend.

However, if you have plans or are otherwise engaged we will be planning another Fundraising Event on.....

Saturday, September 15th Time to be set

101 Days til Christmas Event will include the following vendors;
Premier Jewelry, Pampered Chef, Party-Lite and will be themed towards early Christmas shopping.

101 Days til Christmas Event is still in the works so more details will follow.

Hope to see everyone at one of the events and don't forget Lisa and Rebecca both have catalogs if you would like to place an order and can not attend.

Thanks again for all the support!

Amy :)

Making A Lot of Dough!

The last few days have been a whirlwind of baking, packaging and delivering so I've only now had the chance to sit down and update everyone. 

Our first IVF Fundraiser which I have now dubbed "Cookie Mania" began on Wednesday and in three short days it has grown from what I thought might be a good way to earn an extra $100 towards our IVF fund into a HUGE success!

Thanks to all of our wonderfully supportive and loving friends, family and co-workers we have raised $229.80 to date after expenses and baked well over 50 dozen cookies (some of which we're eaten by Mike and myself, but strictly for quality assurance of course...lol)!

We still have approximately 15 dozen worth of orders in the works and a few IOU's to collect on so by my calculations we should be close to $350 when all is said and done.

I hope we can keep the momentum up....and for those still interested we will continue to take orders next week as well. My sweet mother who also deserves a shout out for graciously helping me bake, package and deliver cookies has yet to tell her work about Cookie Mania thus I see at least a few more week nights of baking in my future.  :)

Mike and I are overwhelmed by the out pouring of love and support shown to us by everyone. I know I was hesitant at first to open up and share such a personal aspect of our lives, but I am so thankful we did. The emotions I feel can not be expressed by words alone. I love each and everyone of you and will continue to keep you updated throughout our journey with infertility.

To Blog or Not to Blog

This blog is definitely a work in process. It is proving quite difficult as I am an amateur to say the least when it comes to writing or rather blogging.

I have so much more work I would like to complete on this blog before just putting it out there. I know its already out there so to speak, but its so much different telling our story of infertility to the world versus sharing with those I know.

I've gone back and forth, said yes and no, do it and don't, blah blah blah a million times. Even as I type I'm second guessing myself, but as personal as this is I want to put it out there. So here it goes.....

Please bear with me and I will try to update as much as possible and provide a better more detailed background to those who may be interested in our story.

Commence "Operation Baby Maker"

I would first like to give a BIG shout out to my wonderfully supportive, understanding, and ever so helpful friend, Candice, who decided that we must have a fun and catchy name for our fundraising efforts...thus Operation Baby Maker was born!

Our first fundraising effort will involve the special baking skills of yours truly. Luckily, baking is one of my favorite past times, unlike cooking.

My homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies will go on sale Friday, August 3rd! For those willing to support our cause please feel free to contact me on Facebook or via Email. I'll be willing to met anyone locally to drop off cookies. Our goal for this kick off to fundraising is $100.00. Thanks in advance!

Price: 

2 Cookies for $1.00
One Dozen for $5.00

Artificial Testicle: Say What?

I ran across this article while trying to work on our blog some tonight. Its crazy to think how far science has come in such a relatively short period of time. I mean the world's first "test tube" baby was born in 1978 and IVF only became mainstream in the 1990's. I can only begin to imagine what they will be doing in another 10 years or so in regards to infertility. Hope you all check out the article below as we can relate being that we suffer from Male Factor Infertility as well.



http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/01/18/10182511-artificial-testicle-could-treat-male-infertility?lite

Update on 3rd IUI attempt

Well, sadly things didn't go as planned for our 3rd attempt at IUI. I ended up responding poorly on the all injection cycle with only 5 mature follicles. Dr. H was expecting 8-9 good follicles, but we still ended up with quite enough to try the IUI. I took Wednesday June 13th through Friday June 15th off work for a much needed break.

The IUI was scheduled on Wednesday June 13th and went as planned. At approx 7:30am the morning of Mike "produced his sample" at home and then we drove to the clinic. Its funny watching Mike tuck our precious cargo into his undershirt (keeping it nice and toasty) while I lovingly caress the bulge in his shirt trying to give his swimmers a peep talk on our way to the clinic. "Now boys you have a BIG job to do....but I know your up for it! You've been practicing for quite a while now...so its all up to you...when you get in there just swim, swim, swim!" All the while, Mike is starring at me in a way that makes me laugh. We arrive at the clinic around 8am, drop off the sample and are advised to go get some breakfast and return around 9am.

We visit what has become our usual breakfast spot, McDonald's, mainly because its of its convenience in location. Mike gets a sausage biscuit to go with his biscuit and gravy I on the other hand get only water as usual...."Breakfast? How could I even begin to think about eating as nervous/anxious as I am." So I sit and watch Mike eat...both of us almost silent as we sit there starring at one another....both just anxious, a million thoughts running through our heads, wondering if this will be the day it works, the day we conceive.

We returned to the clinic at 9am and sat in the waiting room until around 9:45am when we were called back. I made a pit stop by the loo on the way to empty my bladder and met back up with Mike in the IUI/IVF exam room just a few mins later. The room is dark because it is attached to the room where embryo's are growing...so it provides a very romantic atmosphere...haha! I undress from the waste down and then hop on to the table and place my feet in stirrups. Dr H comes in and begins.....she tells us that Mike's after wash count was 2.5 million up from 2 million last time, but still very low. She adds that our odds of this IUI working are about 5-10% and that we will probably need to re-group and discuss IVF w/ICSI again if this one doesn't work.

Fast forward one week, its June 20th and I've been on progesterone vaginal suppositories for a week. Not as bad as I expected, but not exactly fun either. I am re-visiting the clinic to have my progesterone checked. Just a short visit to have blood drawn and then back to work. I received a call later that afternoon from Dr H advising me my levels were 19.  Dr. H tells me anything over 15 is good.

Fast forward 4 long days and AF arrives and the dreaded BFN! And it seems as if the suppositories have only lengthened my  luteal phase by one day from a 10 day to 11 day luteal phase. Our 3rd attempt at IUI has failed. I called the clinic to let them know CD1 began and I set up an appointment on Monday July 9th to re-group and discuss IVF and any other options we might have at this point. We'd discussed IVF over 1 1/2 years ago, but just needed to refresh since so much has happened between then and now.

I have to go for now, but I'll post more on how our appt on July 9th went and where we're at in the baby making process now.

Cycle #31 TTC=IUI #2 or is it IUI#3?... Lol

Its been a few days since I lasted posted. I had my follow-up appointment on Thursday May 31st at the Fertility Clinic. It was pretty much the same ole same blah blah blah. I got myself all worked up that morning stressing about the U/S and blood draw. However, It wasn't as bad as expected...I've wised up the last few weeks and I've been taking an aspirin before each appointment to make it easier for the nurse to get blood from me (not sure what took me so long to figure this one out...lol).

My appointment was at 9am (on the last day of the month at work no less..bad idea when you work in the mortgage industry...ugh!). These appointments have become routine...walk in, sign in, wait a bit, go to the bathroom (vaginal ultrasound so peeing before hand is always a good idea hehe!), wait a bit more, get called to a room, get my tattoos (nurse draws a circle on each butt cheek/hip so Mike knows where to to give the injections a few days later), undress, wait some more, dr performs ultrasound....and JACKPOT! NO cysts! YAY!

We got the green light for IUI #2....I even had a few small follicles/eggs ready to start growing. Last day of BCP was that night. Dr advised I would start on Sunday June 3rd (CD1) and on Tuesday June 5th (CD3) I will start the HMG injections. No Clomid/Femara this cycle....only injections. I wrill continue with injections (2 powers 75IU for 150IU total) until CD8. On Monday June 11th (CD9) I go back to the Fertility Clinic for a follow-up ultrasound and blood work. What happens next will depend on the results!

So thats where we're at now....I'm on CD3 sitting here in bed trying to hurry up and type this so that Mike can give me my first injection of the cycle....He's sitting beside me acting a little too eager for me to get finished. I think he secretly enjoys getting to play doctor and inflict pain on me...haha! (After all he did have varicocele repair surgery last year 4/4/11 in hopes of improving his sperm count...poor guy).

Well, thanks for listening to me....its nice to have a place to share my thoughts and to document everything going on.

Hurry up....and wait!

Soooo yesterday's appointment didn't go as expected...I got myself all worked up and pumped about starting IUI #2 as an all injectable cycle. Turns out the ultrasound revealed that I have 4-5 cysts left over from all those follicles produced during last month's cycle.

Dr. H once again gave me more options....(I'm so tired of options at this point...never thought I'd ever want someone to just tell me what to do..haha!) She said I could wait one or two natural cycles for the cysts to go away on their own OR she could prescribe a birth control pill that should help the cysts shrink in size.. The BC option should only take approx 2 wks to 4 wks. Well that's pretty much a no brainer! Option #2 please! ....so ironically I stopped on my way home this afternoon to pick up my birth control pills....I just had to laugh when I read the warning label "This product (like all oral contraceptives) is intended to prevent pregnancy. It does not protect against HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases." Isn't that the opposite of what we're trying to accomplish!?! Lol. 

Anyways, I go back to the fertility clinic on Thursday, May 31st for an ultrasound to confirm the cysts have disappeared (atleast thats what we're hoping happens). If so, I will discontinue use of BC and we'll start our IUI#2 cycle beginning on CD3 (i.e. shots in the rump begin again). 

FX the next two weeks pass quickly!

Chat again soon! Amy :)

IUI #1=FAIL

Well, I'm not really sure where to begin....

Sadly, our first IUI ended with that dreaded BFN! AF showed her ugly face yesterday afternoon :(  I can't say that I was surprised. My BBT has been slowly decreasing over the last 4 or 5 days and even though I was hopeful...I knew based on my previous BBT charts that AF would show up soon.

 I called my doctor's office this morning...first at 8am (not open yet) then again at 9am (still not open). I was just really anxious to get updated on how we should proceed with the next cycle. So at 10am I called again...ring ring..."If you need to speak to Dr. H's nurse please leave a message...all messages left in the morning will be answered before noon...all messages left after lunch will be answered by 3pm....all messages left after 3pm will be answered the next morning." So I left a message....lol!

To my surprise an hour later my cell phone rings and its Dr. H...not her nurse!?! Dr. H says...(I will be paraphrasing as I was too distracted/excited/anxious to remember her exact words) "I was a bit surprised/disappointed to hear that you already started!?! Ideally we would want your luteal phase to be 14 days or longer....(mine was 10) so I definitely want to put you on Progesterone this cycle to help lengthen your luteal phase. Also, we need to talk about how we want to proceed this cycle. You should have approx 16 HMG injections left. Therefore, you have two options: #1 combination cycle-Clomid (CD3-7) and HMG injections (CD8,9,10) again much like last months cycle or option #2 straight injectable cycle- HMG injections (CD3-10)."

Dr. H went on to advise that option #2 would probably be our best bet at this point in time due to DH's low sperm count. Option #2 should yield us 8-9 good follicles/eggs (i.e. more targets for sperm). She also advised that with such a high number of targets and the IUI giving DH's sperm a much needed boost into the uterus...we are providing the "ideal situation" for pregnancy. If it doesn't happen this cycle odds are it isn't going to happen in subsequent IUI cycles. So more or less a waste of time and money. Dr. H advised the decision was ours...I agreed that option #2 made the most sense and I set up an appointment for bloodwork and an ultrasound the following morning at 8:45am. Dr. H also advised that we may need to re-group and discuss IVF w/ICSI again if this IUI does not end in success. I agreed.