Sunday, September 4, 2011

People Watching

I love people watching. Being that I've been through fertility treatments before, I love sitting in the waiting room and watching other couples. (Flipping through a magazine in hand, so I'm not obviously watching.) We all know why we are here. There is like an unspoken awkwardness. Especially for they guys. I giggle to myself if I see a guy in the waiting room by himself...waiting for his "appointment." I know I shouldn't, but come on...It is kind of funny. I joke that the husbands have the easy part. But then my co-worker pointed out they do have the hard part of supporting the wife with her emotions from all the medications.

Yesterday, for my ultrasound appointment, I saw a couple come in for their pregnancy test. It was kind of hard not to over hear what they were there for, since they were the only ones in the waiting room with me. They were very well dressed, the husband in a suit, and the wife in a dress. They must of had somewhere to be afterwards, like a wedding event, or they had just come from the temple...assuming they were LDS. Who knows? They both looked so nervous, however the husband looked more nervous than the wife. His knees were bouncing like crazy in his seat. Seeing them there took me back to a year ago, when we came for our pregnancy blood test, waiting for the results. I wish the fertility clinic would have prepared us more for that day. I don't like how you come in for a blood test, and then they send you away, and say they will call us with the results within a few hours. I wish they would have more resource information regarding help when things don't turn out. It would have been nice to know about www.resolve.org. (The National Infertility Association) Information for online support groups, etc. They do give you a counselor's referral in our folder with all the IVF info. But who wants to pay someone more money? And honestly, I feel like a support group has been more helpful than counseling. It was like we walked away from it last time, after the miscarriage, going "Now what?" I'm truly grateful I found a support group. As that couple left the fertility clinic, I wished them good luck, as they did for me. I silently said a prayer for them after they left.

Speaking of people watching, I probably fell victim to someone else's people watching. I felt so stupid! Like I said earlier in my last post, the injections on my belly cause swelling and redness around the injection site. Because of this, the drive down to Salt Lake to go to the fertility clinic for my appointment was uncomfortable. I had unbuttoned my jean shorts and half way zipped down my zipper so it wouldn't put pressure on my sore stomach. Forty five minutes later, by the time I finally got there, I had forgotten I unbuttoned and unzipped my shorts. I got out of my car, and saw a couple walking out of the clinic, and as I got closer to the door, I saw my reflection in the glass door with my shirt flipped over to the side, and my pants wide open! Ah!!! Yeah! I felt so stupid. Anyway, just trying to keep some humor in this whole situation. I can laugh at myself at least.

So to update on where we are at. We have 9 immature follicles at this point, which the doctors are watching closely as they grow. That's why I keep going in for ultrasound appointments. My right ovary has 6 good follicles. My left ovary looks a little sad, with three follicles. The doctors are concerned that my left ovary is not responding as well. We need at least 6 good eggs, to make this worth while. Last time we had 12 eggs. 8 of those fertilized, and out of those 8 embryos, only 3 survived, 2 looked good to transfer, which we did. And the other was poor quality, so we decided to discard it. I was hoping for more this time, but I knew it was doubtful. It is probably unlikely that we will have enough embryos this time to preserve as well. I think we will transfer as many embryos as we can get! Hopefully, if we are lucky, we will get 3 good embryos to transfer this time. We started the cetrotide injections, which will help prevent premature ovulation. And I will go in tomorrow for another ultrasound to see where we are at. Wish me luck!

2 comments:

  1. Good luck Ra'Chelle! I feel like I'm people watching in a sense with your blog which I'm very grateful for! We have several friends that have gone through this process, unfortunately they are the type of people that don't talk about it, or pretend to their friends and family like its not really happening. Some go on to fight their struggle in silence and others get their miracle baby, but still don't talk about ALL that went into getting that baby(ies) there. They pretend their infertility doesn't exist. Maybe its none of their friends business...well its not. I just think having your friends and family know about what it is you are going through, they would know how to be a better friend and support to you. One sweet friend who did share with me her struggle with infertility has not told her family at all! And still is underfire at every family event with"so when are you two going to get started having kids! Come on already!" I can't imaging life like that and the hurt that comes from that. Breaks my heart. I am so proud of you! You are such a courageous family and I thank you both for letting us "people watch" you while you go through this process. Sending prayers and love and fertility vibes your way!! Keep us updated ;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lots of luck and prayer!! Thank you for keeping us updated and educating us all at the same time! I look forward to reading your blog posts.

    Love!
    SK

    ReplyDelete