Egg Retrieval

I am so far behind on these updates! But better late than never! I started this blog so that I could remember my thoughts and feelings as we were going through it all and be able to look back on it later. If it helps someone else going through the same thing then all the better. So because I'm so far behind I'm going to be a writing fiend the next little while to get all caught up!

September 7, 2017
My egg retrieval was scheduled for 7:40 am. The drive there was not comfortable at all. Any way I sat hurt. When we finally arrived it was such a relief to stand up! At least for a second. Then I was uncomfortable and in pain again in a whole different way. We got inside and got all checked in and then the waiting for my appointment began.

This picture shows the way I had to sit in order to be comfortable, to some it may look uncomfortable but it was the only way I could find relief!

 For those who do not know what they do during an egg retrieval, here's a very good picture showing exactly what they do. They basically stick this big long needle through the walls of your vagina over and over into the ovary and into an egg sack. They then agitate the egg so it releases from the egg sack and they suck it out. I was lucky in that my doctor chooses to do general anesthesia while doing the retrieval. Other doctors do not and just have their patients take pain medication beforehand and then do the procedure. Props to those ladies because I can barely handle the pap, I couldn't even imagine having this big long needle stuck into me over and over and over to collect eggs!

It finally was time for me to go back. Randy was there with me and was able to help me stay calm. Unfortunately he couldn't stay once they began the procedure. Another good reason why I was happy to be knocked out! I vaguely remember my doctor asking me to get into position before I was out!

When they were done they walked me to the recovery room where Randy was waiting. This room is basically just a small room with a couple reclining chairs.They sat me down in the chair and got me comfortable with a heating pad. Then they gave me my clothes along with a pad because spotting was expected afterwards. (Duh, you can't be poked with a needle and not bleed lol). They then told us how many eggs they had been able to retrieve, 32! 32 eggs retrieved!! Needless to say I was shocked. I hadn't wanted to get my hopes up too high and thought that we'd MAYBE get 10. So 32 was amazing!! For those who did not know, a possible side effect of Endometriosis is poor egg quality or low egg count. So to have this number was a huge blessing. They then gave us my after care instructions and what to watch for. Once I was dressed we were allowed to leave.

Once back to where I was staying I got settled in with a protein shake. They told me to drink this along with lots of fruit nectar to help flush my body of the fluid that would collect in the empty egg sacks. They also encouraged me to eat fast food as the salt would help soak up the extra fluids as well. Mainly they were trying to help me prevent OHSS which is Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome. This is potentially dangerous and in some cases can become life threatening. OHSS can be mild, moderate, or severe. I did not develop this or if I did it was extremely mild. Though others do develop it and it can cause you to have to wait and do a frozen transfer instead of a fresh transfer. Because a fresh transfer when you have OHSS symptoms can actually cause those symptoms to worsen.

Now we were in the waiting game. They told us they would call with the results of the fertilization report the next day. We chose to do ICSI due to Randy's low count. This basically just means that instead of putting all the eggs in one petri dish with the sperm they would pick out the strongest sperm and inject them into each egg individually. It did cost us a little more but we believe it was worth it.

September 8, 2017
Day 1 Fertilization Report
Of the 32 eggs retrieved, 29 were mature enough to fertilize. 21 made it to day 1.

This was a little scary for us! To see the number drop from 32 to 21 overnight!! But we still held on to our faith and our hope that that number would not drop to 0. Still a fear due to my endometriosis. Since we had lost 11 overnight we feared that we would lose them all by day 3.

September 10, 2017
Day 3 Fertilization Report
On day 3 they look to see which embryos have 6 or more cells.
We had 20!

We were so excited that 20 had made it this far! Some people choose to transfer or freeze their embryos at this point. Our fertility clinic does not offer this option. Partially because studies have shown that day 5 transfers are more successful because embryos that make it to that point are more likely to keep growing into a full term baby.

My recovery at this point was going fairly well. I could sit and sleep better though I still had to use a rubber band on my pants. I blame this on the fact that I was SO SO SO bloated. I'm going to be a little TMI here, I had not yet pooped since the retrieval and it was taking it's toll! So a little tip if you're reading this as you're preparing for your retrieval, start taking colace or some form of stool softener beforehand!!

I was also given my Embryo Transfer time for Day 5. They would give me the Fertilization Report that day while there. I was scheduled for September 12, at 1:30pm.

Stay tuned for the Embryo Transfer! Trying to get these all caught up as quick as I can!

Til next time!
Becca

IVF Baseline/Stims

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this update written!

About a week after my surgery, on Friday, I had what they call a baseline ultrasound. This is basically to measure the uterine lining, check for cysts, and to do blood work to check hormone levels. I had stopped taking my birth control the day before per my doctor's orders.

This is what my calendar looked like. All the medications and appointments were listed on here.

The baseline appointment is really quick. I got in and immediately they took my blood. Then I went back for my ultrasound where everything looked great! Lining was where it should be (and it better have been after just having surgery to correct it!), And I had no cysts! They told me I was good to go and to follow my calendar and they'd see me in about a week for my next check up! This was so exciting for me! I always think the worst and after everything that has happened up to this point I kinda expect it a little.

I was living about 7 hours away from home with my husband's grandma for all of this. So as soon as I was out of the appointment and in my car I immediately called Randy to let him know it was a go! He was just as excited as I was to finally be moving forward!

The following Monday I began what is called, in the infertility world, stims. This is the stimulation medications/hormones that I had to inject into my stomach. I had 2 injections to start. One was 150 iu of Gonal-F and 1 Menopur powder. The menopur powder was mixed with 1 ml of water before being injected. I honestly was a little worried about doing the injections. Not that I don't like needles but I didn't know if I could poke myself with one. Luckily I was able to convince myself to just do it. So I washed my hands, prepped both injections, cleaned the area of my stomach with a alcohol swab, did the first injection (which was Gonal-F), rubbed the area for a second with a sterile cotton pad, then did the second injection (which was Menopur), rubbed that area for a little longer (Menopur does sting!), and then cleaned up the trash and needles (they went into a needle disposal container). It really wasn't as bad as I was expecting! As long as I was quick at inserting the needle I had little to no pain. Except for the burning sensation as the Menopur was injected.

My injections that I did each morning. Gonal-F and Menopur.

I had three days of these injections before my next appointment. So on the third day, Wednesday, after doing my injections, I headed to my doctor's office. They just did bloodwork and told me I'd get a phone call with the results later that afternoon/evening. So I waited. That evening I got the phone call. They told me I was responding extremely well to the stims and that they were going to cut one of them back. So starting the next day, I would only be taking 75 IU of the Gonal-F, and I would continue taking 1 powder of Menopur.

So I did those injections until my next appointment on Saturday. At this appointment, they again did bloodwork, and then I also had an ultrasound. This ultrasound is to check to see how the egg follicles are growing in response to the stims. Mine were responding well! I had tons of follicles in my right side and quite a few in my left. After seeing this and how big they were already getting, my doctor told me to add in a third injection. This was Cetrotide. Cetrotide is a hormone blocker, it's main job is to block the hormone that tells my body to ovulate (meaning release the eggs), which if my body did release them the whole cycle would be a wash. I was to do my first injection of this as soon as I got home.

So when I got home, I prepared the injection and administered it to myself. (I was a pro at giving myself shots by this point!) Then I continued doing the three injections each day until my appointment the following Monday. At this appointment I again had more bloodwork and an ultrasound. The results were great! I had lots of big follicles on both sides! Biggest follicle on each side was, right- 17mm, left-14mm. With quite a few in each side that were close to those same sizes. By this point I was getting more uncomfortable. I was beginning to feel all those follicles growing! Which was exciting and not fun at the same time lol.

My new daily injections with the Cetrotide added in.

The next day I had another ultrasound and more bloodwork done. My biggest follicle at this point was 18mm with lot of others close behind. At this point it hurt to sit in certain positions and to lay on my sides. Standing or laying flat on my back were the only ways I found some relief. I was soo excited that everything was going so well! Later that day they called me with my bloodwork results and with my doctor's orders to trigger that night!

My pants were too tight on my bloated belly, I had to use a rubberband so they didn't hurt.

To trigger means to do an injection with the actual pregnancy hormone. This makes the body think you're actually pregnant and prevents it from releasing the eggs once the other injections are stopped. I no longer had to do injections of the other three stims now that I would be triggering.

That night at the exact time I was told (I honestly can't remember the exact time lol) I did my trigger shot. This injection was a little different because it was not injected into my stomach. Instead it was to be injected into my upper buttock just below the hip bone. After watching (and rewatching) the instruction video, I finally gathered my courage (I had given myself plenty of time to prepare), and jabbed the needle in where I needed to. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt at all! I got the injection done and then rested for a bit. I was a little sore after but not too bad.

The next morning they had me take a pregnancy test. It was to make sure the trigger worked. It was really weird to see my first ever positive pregnancy test and know that I wasn't even pregnant! Since it was positive, it meant that the trigger had worked. So when my doctor's office called and asked me if it had come up positive I of course told them yes.

It was faint but there! You can't really see it in the picture.

I will get my next blog post up about the egg retrieval within the next couple of days! So keep an eye out for it!

If you have any questions or need any tips about the stims, please feel free to ask in the comments! I will try to answer as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Til next time!
Becca

An Unexpected Surgery

So I kinda left you all on a cliff hanger in my last post. Sorry about that, but I had to write a whole new post so you weren't reading a novel! Anyways, we left off waiting for the phone call from my doctor to go over her thoughts on the water ultrasound.

Unfortunately, since we live about 7 hours away from my RE, we missed her phone call because we were driving and did not have service. She left a message saying that my ultrasound did look irregular to her and that she wanted to do a procedure to clean it out a little bit before proceeding with IVF. One of our main concerns was that this surgery would push back our timeline for IVF. If that was the case we would have to wait to do IVF in the spring due to snow amounts and driving hazards.

This is kinda how I felt after hearing that I needed to have surgery. 

We knew we needed to do the surgery in order to have the best chance of getting pregnant. 

We knew if we didn't do the surgery that there was a possibility that whatever was irregular about my uterus could cause IVF to not work or if it did to cause me to have a miscarriage.

Within a couple of days I received an email from a surgical coordinator. The coordinator explained a little more about the procedure and what was to be done. I was to have a hysteroscopy. This is pretty much just a fancy term for the would go in with a scope to look at the inside of my uterus and use different tools to clean out what they found there. She answered our worries and said they would make sure to get me in to get this done before I began my meds and began our IVF cycle. This was great news. She told me I would get a phone call with the day and time for my surgery.

After waiting for what seemed like days, we finally received that phone call. I was to have surgery August 17 first thing in the morning. So we made plans with my mom and some friends in order to get me there. My friends drove me to my parents house (about a 3 hour drive) while they were on their way to a wedding. Then my mom drove the rest of the way to where my surgery was to be. Randy was unable to come due to work obligations.

Leading up to the surgery, I was nervous. I had no idea what to expect and so I did as much research as I could about the procedure. I also did research about the recovery based off of different possibilities that they could find when they got in there. It eased my mind just a little bit. I knew I could trust my doctor and that she wouldn't have me do this procedure if it wouldn't be beneficial to our upcoming IVF cycle.

This is what a hysteroscopy tool looks like. 

It has a small camera on the end in order for the doctor to see what they need to do. 

It also has a place where different tools can be inserted through in order to correct whatever they find while in there.

The morning of my surgery went pretty good. I couldn't eat and I was told to wear comfortable clothing. So I pretty much just rolled out of bed and we went to the fertility center. When we got there we waited for a bit before they took me back. They had me empty my bladder and then change into one of those lovely open back robes. Then the anesthesiologist placed the IV in my vein and explained that he would give me a low dose of the anesthesia and then my doctor would come in and talk to me for a bit and then he'd put me completely out. Well, that little bit knocked me out lol.

When I came to they had just sat me down in the recovery room in a chair. I have no idea how they got me there. I could have walked and I just don't remember but I guess I'll never truly know. They had brought my mom into the recovery room and instructed her and I that I needed to drink the cup of water they had given me. Then they said that my doctor would come in in a bit to go over how the surgery went. The nurse explained that I would probably have some spotting and cramping for the next couple of days but that it would go away.

When my doctor came in she explained that the surgery had gone very well. She said that when they got in there the best way that she could describe what my uterus looked like was that it was very bumpy. She said that I had multiple polyps. She was able to remove them and she said that now everything looked smooth! This was great news because smooth is a ton better than bumpy when trying to get pregnant.

I honestly don't remember much about after the surgery. I know we got breakfast, I got a small smoothie. I also know that we went to a couple of stores and then traveled back to my parents house. But most of that is a blur as I was still recovering from the anesthesia.

The next few days of recovery went like this. Day of- I was mainly out of it due to recovering from the anesthesia, no pain that I remember, small amount of spotting. Day 2- I was bloated but not painfully, little to no cramping, small amount of spotting. Day 3- I traveled home, a little bloated, little twinges here and there, little spotting. Day 4- It was like I got hit by a bus, cramping got pretty intense, spotting increased to almost period like. Day 5- Worst day. So much cramping, nausea, period like spotting, bloating came back Day 6- Started to feel better which was good because we had family pictures done. Bloated, little crampy here and there, and spotting lightened up.

I am so grateful that the surgery went so well! The recovery wasn't as bad as I was expecting, especially after being told I'd had multiple polyps removed. Thank you all for your support and prayers!

Til next time!
Becca

IVF Prep/Water Ultrasound

So, I've honestly been putting off writing about all of this. Don't ask me why, I just have been avoiding it. I realized that if I don't get it written all down soon, that I would forget all the little details. The details that I think would be helpful to others about to embark on this journey.

At our last appointment back in June we were told that we would most likely have to do IVF in order to get pregnant. After our doctor got some results back she called us a couple days later to tell us that yes, we would have to do IVF. She told us that within a week we would get a phone call to begin the IVF process.

Well, a week came and went. Then another. And part of another. I was talking (probably more like complaining) to Randy. He told me to just call them. So I did. The front office lady was very helpful. She asked if we had been in contact with our IVF coordinator. We were like, "Who?" She said that we have a coordinator that sets up everything. Then she told us that she would find out which coordinator was mine and have her contact us via email.

By the next week we had an email. She asked us if we had set up our Plan of Care appointment. We told her no and she asked us when we'd be available to come for that. We told her July 24th would work. Which was a couple weeks away.

During those two weeks a lot happened. I emailed our coordinator multiple times getting all the information we needed. -Which medications I'd need and how much of each. -Total cost of what we'd owe them. -Pharmacy names and numbers. and -What I needed for the Plan of Care appointment.

Once we had all of that information, I started calling pharmacies to get prices in order to price check so we could get the best price for the medications I'd need. Once we knew which pharmacy we wanted to go with we then began to look up places to get loans. We tried one loan place which denied us because we supposedly didn't have a high enough credit score (we checked and we did). Then after crying and getting frustrated we tried again with another company that had stuck out to me in the first place. We were immediately approved.

I seriously feel like Heavenly Father was guiding us throughout this whole process. Things just continued to click into place and seemed to work out exactly how we needed them to. And that definitely did not stop throughout the next couple of weeks.

At the Plan of Care appointment, I had my sisters and my mom there with me for moral support. (Randy had to work) Our coordinator gave us a TON of information that day. All about the IVF process and how and when to take medications, and so much more. Luckily she gave me a folder containing all this info so that I could go over it later. She told me what day to start my birth control and what day to end it. (Birth control is used to line up my cycle with their timeline.) At the end of the appointment she explained to me that I'd need to get a water ultrasound done and that the check out lady would get the appointments for that, for blood work, and for monitoring ultrasounds set up.

The check out lady did just that. She made all of the appointments for the days I'd need them. Then she asked what day would be best for the water ultrasound. She told us it needed to be after I'd finished my next period, while I was still on birth control, but before we began any of my injections. We knew that we'd be visiting family the weekend of August 6th and so we made the appointment for the 7th.

Well, August 7th came and we showed up for our appointment. For those who do not know, a water ultrasound is where they fill up your uterus with water and check the shape and lining so that they know where the best placement will be for when the do the egg transfer. I was a little nervous about this ultrasound because I had heard it was as painful or more painful than the HSG, especially for women who had already had a painful HSG. Well, for me it wasn't as painful, thank goodness, although it was definitely still pretty painful. I was also a little nervous because I just had this feeling that something was going to go wrong.

They checked everything out and noticed that my uterine lining was really thick. I had finished my period about 3 days prior, and I had been on birth control for over a week. So this was unusual to them. The ladies doing the ultrasound told us not to worry and that they'd have my doctor look over it and let us know the results within a couple of days, if not later that evening.

We had to travel back home right after the appointment. When we got home, I of course couldn't sleep and so I started doing research on google. By the way, late night, being tired, and doing research are never a good mix. I read on one of the websites on google that it could mean that I had uterine cancer. So I cried myself to sleep. The next day I confessed to Randy what I'd done and went to show him where I'd read it. Well, it turns out, it said that it was NOT a sign of uterine cancer. Whoops.

Anyways, keep on the lookout for my next update. Where we get a call from our doctor about her thoughts on my water ultrasound.

Til next time!
Becca

The Results

So unlike most people when they get an HSG done, we had to wait 3 weeks to get our results. Usually you are told the results right away by the doctor doing the procedure. This particular doctor didn't really say anything. And so we had to wait for my doctor to get the report from him.

When the time finally came, we traveled down to where our fertility doctor's office is so that we could get the results. We got to the appointment and went back into my doctor's office. She chatted with us for a bit getting caught up since we had last seen her about a year and a half ago. She asked what they did for Randy and we told her that he'd had surgery and that they had recommended we return back to her after his results weren't improving as much as they had hoped. (Although they had improved quite a bit.)

After getting all caught up, she opened up the report in order to read us what the HSG doctor had said. As she was doing this she told us she honestly didn't understand them herself. He had said that there was a small amount of contrast in my right tube but no evidence of it flowing out into my ovary, and that my left tube only had a small amount of contrast right at the very beginning of the tube and none in it or flowing out. My fertility doctor said that she thought that he had done the procedure wrong somehow and pretty much told us that these results were inconclusive.

She then went over our options. We could attempt an IUI cycle with no medication, an IUI cycle with medication, or go straight to IVF. If we did an IUI cycle she said she would want me to have another HSG done just to double check to see if my tubes were actually open and that the HSG doctor I went to had actually done something wrong. If they were truly blocked they would put the money we had already paid for the IUI towards IVF. She said that before we made any decision that we should have our hormones all tested again, since it had been two years since we were last tested, and have Randy do another Semen Analysis. We agreed. So Randy and I went and had our blood drawn and Randy got his semen analysis done. Then the waiting began again.

After the appointment was over we went and filled in Randy's grandma on how things went. When I finally got Randy to stop talking so we could go, we went and got in the car and headed somewhere to get some lunch. On the way there I had a complete melt-down. I could not stop crying no matter how hard I tried. I just wanted to go home and curl up with my fur kids. I knew that the HSG doctor hadn't messed up. He had tried all he could to get the contrast through my tubes. I think the knowledge came as a shock and also as a relief. We finally knew the whole story. I was also kicking myself for not getting a repeat HSG sooner. If I had done it before Randy had had surgery I could have saved ourselves some money as well as saved Randy some pain. It took half the drive to Randy's parents house for me to calm myself down. I honestly didn't really want to see anyone else but I knew we needed to fill all our family in on how the appointment went. And that's just what we did, and I managed to keep myself together both times.

On our long drive home, Randy and I knew that we had a big decision to make. Should we attempt an IUI with an HSG that same cycle? Or should we go straight to IVF? There were pros and cons to both.An IUI is definitely cheaper, though I honestly wasn't sure if I was up to doing another HSG, that thing was PAINFUL. I knew IVF would be painful too, since I'd have to give myself shots every day and that instead of growing one egg I'd be growing multiple. We talked over all the different pros and cons and by the end of our drive we were actually leaning towards IVF.

Luckily, we didn't have to wait long to get the blood and semen analysis results. We got a call from my fertility doctor the next day. She told me that I passed all my blood tests with flying colors. Which is awesome! But that wasn't what we were worried about. She then told me the results for Randy's semen analysis. His numbers had dropped down to lower than pre-surgery levels. They wanted them to at least be 5 million motile sperm in order to do an IUI, his were 600,000 motile sperm. Giving us a 0%-2% chance of us conceiving with the assistance of an IUI. (0% if my tubes are truly blocked, and 1%-2% chance if they were open).

This immediately made our decision for us. The only way we will be able to get pregnant is through IVF. So we are going to begin the process of IVF starting this next month (July). We will first be having a few consults to go over pricing and what the whole procedure will entail. Then we will make a decision on when to do IVF. As of right now this depends on how those consults all go, I plan on documenting the whole thing as we go through the process so that others who find themselves in a similar situation can know what to expect.

I am so grateful to everyone who has been following our story and who has been continuously praying for us! You have no idea how much that means to us and we can definitely feel those prayers at work. We ask that you continue to pray for us and that we will have success when we do IVF.

Til next time!
Becca

Another HSG

After giving Randy's surgery a few months to see if we would be able to get pregnant naturally, without success, we decided it was time for the next step. We weren't exactly sure what that next step should be, and so we began contemplating. We talked about me going to have surgery to remove my endometriosis and then trying another IUI. And we talked about continuing to try on our own.

It wasn't until we opened up to some of our friends about these contemplations that they reminded us that we had wanted to do another HSG. Since my last one was unsuccessful. As soon as they reminded us of this the spirit confirmed to us that this was exactly what our next step should be.

Luckily for us. The day they reminded us about getting an HSG done, was actually day 1 of my cycle. So it being late at night, I proceeded to call my fertility doctor the next day in order to get an outside order prescribed for me to get an HSG done at our hospital. Once that was done, I then called our hospital and made the appointment for the HSG.

The day for the HSG finally came and we drove to the outpatient radiology building. We get there and get all checked in and then we waited for about 20 minutes before finally being called back. I changed into the hospital gown and went into the room where the assistant was waiting to go over everything with us. As she began she asked if I had taken and gotten a negative pregnancy test that morning. I was like no... I didn't know I was supposed to take one. So they sent us home to take one and told us if it was negative to come back, if it was positive to stay home.

I changed back into my clothes, drove the 10 minutes home, took a pregnancy test, waited the 5 minutes, saw it was negative (surprise, surprise), and drove back.

When we got back to the hospital we were able to immediately go back. I changed back into the hospital gown and then went into the room where the assistant went over everything. Once she was done she went and got the doctor. He went over the procedure in detail, telling us exactly what was going to happen. We already knew all this from when we had attempted the last HSG. Then they proceeded to do the procedure.

This is not my HSG! It is an example of possible results!

Let me just tell you. HSG's are NOT FUN! They are painful!! What they do is insert a catheter that has a sort of balloon on it. This balloon they blow up in order to expand the uterus. Once that is done they then inject iodine into the uterus to check to see if the fallopian tubes are open.

Usually the most painful part is the balloon being blown up. Which it was for me, until I was asked to turn onto my left side, and they injected more iodine in, which put even more pressure on my already expanded uterus. Luckily that part was fairly quick and then the procedure was done.

As of right now I do not know my results. We didn't even think about taking a picture of the x-ray at the time. I do go in to see my fertility doctor in a couple weeks to go over them. I am preparing myself for the worst. With endometriosis there is a higher likelihood that one or both tubes is blocked. Especially since I was asked to roll onto one side. I know they only do this when they're trying to get fluid to go through.

I will update with the results once I have them!

Till next time!
Becca

Finally An Update!

So I have to apologize again for being MIA. It's been a pretty crazy past couple of months! Before we get to the update. I wanted to tell you all that I am thinking of writing more about our regular everyday lives. I'll still include the process we are undergoing to have children but I want to include things that have happened in our lives that we want to remember besides the infertility side. This blog is called "My Endo Infertility Life." So I think it's time to include more of the life side of things :) This will mean more posts, more often!

Now for the update.

So as you all know, Randy's last appointment we got some good news! His numbers were up all around and the doctor said that they probably would have been better if he hadn't gotten in the hot tub and he asked us to come back to be tested again in two months. Well that two month mark hit and we returned. This appointment they didn't have his results ready right away like his last one and so we had to go home and wait for two weeks before we received news. We weren't super worried about this appointment because we assumed that he would have much better numbers because he had not been in any more hot tubs.

Then the phone call came.

Definitely not the news we were expecting.

His sperm count had not changed. If anything it had gone down slightly. They told us that there was nothing more his doctor could do for him and that we should return to my doctor to possibly try another IUI.

Needless to say we were shocked, a little bit confused, and wondering what had happened to cause them to stay low. I definitely cried. It was as if the world crashed around me. But I was not ready to give up and give in to what the doctor told us to do. Not just yet.

After about a month, we received the paperwork showing his results. I sat down to compare it to the last analysis that he'd had in July. While doing this I discovered that everything else had improved besides the sperm count! This was great, at least in my eyes. Yes, the sperm count was still pretty low but the health of them had continued to get better. I also saw while comparing that the concentration of sperm was still low compared to his first follow-up and was the same as the last appointment. This confused me even more.

So I started to do some more digging and trying to figure out why. Then one day it hit me. Randy had been super sick with a cold about a week before his appointment. He had had a fever. Fevers pretty much make your body just as hot as if you were sitting in a hot tub. Now it finally made sense! If we had been smart we would have rescheduled the appointment until a later date, but unfortunately we were not.

With this realization, we still knew that there was a small possibility that we were wrong and that the fever did not cause the low count. With this in mind we began to discuss what our next step should be.

We have been praying, studying, and have attended the temple in hopes that we would receive an answer about what we should do next. That is what we have been doing in our spare time the past couple of months since this appointment. We have received our answer that we need to wait a few months. Whether that means we will get pregnant in a few months or if in a few months we will decide to try another IUI we are not sure. We will continue to pray for guidance and we know that we will get a more clear answer in a few months. Our goal right now is that if we are not pregnant by April or May then we will look into another IUI. But for now we are trusting in the Lord and in his timing. :)

Now to just keep Randy from getting sick anymore! Since in the past two months since his appointment he has had 3 colds, and a kidney stone. All causing him to have a fever. Please pray for his health! I'm sick of him being sick and not just because I want children! You wifes all know what I'm talking about!

Til next time!
Becca