Day 5

Praise God!!!!

The embryologist called this morning and reports that all the embryos are progressing today! They are still on track too. He does not know why they seem to stop yesterday, sometimes when checking them at different intervals the observations of the progress can be off. I know it is because God is taking care of things! One of the embryos is in the morula stage and the other two are early morulas. The morula stage of development is between 12-32 cells and is when the inner cell mass begins to develop. From here they will become blastocysts (should be by tomorrow) and will be transferred back to mommy!

The embryo transfer will be tomorrow at noon. We don't know how many we will transfer until tomorrow. Since one of the embryo's is poor quality, we are not sure if it will make it till tomorrow. The embryologist said that he keeps expecting it to drop off, but it is still hanging on! After the transfer, I will be on several days of bedrest per doctor's orders. This will probably be a challenge for me, but I don't want to do anything to prevent those babies from attaching in my uterus. I have lots of books, DVD's, and kntting projects to keep my busy.

Thank you all for your prayers...they are being heard and are working! Please continue to pray that at least one of these little ones finds a good place to nestle in and attach and grow for the next nine months! Praise God for how wonderful He is!!!

Day 4

We have hit a low today. The embryologist called this morning and told me that two of the embryos did not progress today. They have not added any new cells. It is the 4 and 6 cell embryos that were looking so good. It has not been 24 hours since he checked them (he did an afternoon check yesterday) so he is keeping them in culture and said they still may progress. But he said that there is a possibility that they have arrested. The other 4-cell embryo that has been of poor quality is still progressing. We are now scheduled for a Day 6 transfer if the embryos make it to Wednesday.

Please pray like crazy today that they keep dividing and growing!!!

Day 3 Progress

here is the latest update on our little ones...

All of the embryos are progressing. Both of the two cell embryos are now 4-cell embryos and the 4-cell embryo from yesterday is now a 6-cell embryo. The embryologist said that the current 4-cell embryos are a little behind, but it is common for ICSI embryos to be a little slow developing at first. Science does not fully know why this is but it he said that part of it may be due to the trauma of the fertilization procedure. It is like it had surgery when the needle is injected to allow the sperm to penetrate. It just needs time to recover just as we do when we have surgery. He did not seem concerned about those two being behind a bit, he said that what was important was that they were all progessing. He also told me that typically ICSI embryos, because they are sometimes behind, will be cultured until Day 6 before they are transferred into the womb. We will know more after we check progress tomorrow, but it could be Wednesday now before they are transferred. We continue to pray for their development and praise GOD for how amazing this process is! I am blown away by all that happens to bring life into the world. It is an incredible!

Prayer Focus:
Continued development of the embryos
That my body is ready to accept them once transferred
Richard's return from his Walk to Emmaus!

Day 2 Embryos

The embryologist called today to update us on our future Baby Schunkes!

We have two 2-cell embryos and one 4-cell embryo. Both 2 and 4 cell embryos are common for day 2. They look for three things to judge the quality of the embryos...number of cells, consistent shape of the cells, and degree of frangmentation. One of the 2-cell embryos and the 4-cell embryo are both doing well. He said they look average to above average! The remaining 2-cell embryo does not look very good. It has more than 50% fragmentation and the cells are not consistent with each other, one is a little larger than the other. They wil continue to grow it along with the others. I have read alot of the internet about judging quality and we really don't have a solid reliable system for this. Sometimes a poor quality embryo wil still develop into a normal healthy child. We will just see how it does over the next several days. A lot of times they are not developing due to chromosomal mutations and would not survive anyway.

We are still praying and believing that one of more of these will soon be our new additions! The fact that we are this far in the process is a miracle. God is good!

Triple Play

We got great news today! I just got off the phone with the embryologist and he told me that the three remaining eggs from the retrieval yesterday all fertilized!!! Yeah! God is good. We don't qon't know the quality of the embryos until tomorrow, but everything is looking good today. He will call us tomorrow to give another update on how they divide. They are still single-cells at this point. Thanks for your continued prayers...we are praying for three healthy embryos!

Pray, pray and pray some more!

Richard and I went in for the egg retrieval and fertilization today. The day started out great. we were laughing, hopeful, and positive. The procedure was a little rough-painful because the drug did not fully put me out, but I survived it. I was pretty groggy all day.

While I was recovering from the medication, the embryologist came in to give us the report. They were able to retrieve 6 eggs. Unfortunately, 3 of the eggs did not survive the retrieval process. Their shells were basically broken and therefore they were not viable. The remaining three were viable and ready to be fertilized. As we headed home, we got the call that they would have to use ICSI (directly inject the sperm into the egg) in order to fertilize the eggs.

We came home pretty deflated. We were not prepared for the possibility of losing so many eggs right off the bat. With only three eggs, the odds of them fertilizing and making it back into my uterus is pretty low.

I know that God is bigger than that...we desparately need your prayers that we will have three fertilized and healthy growing embryos to transfer. They will call us Friday to let us know how they are progressing.

Richard left for his Walk to Emmaus tonight as well. He was pretty down before he left. The events of today were pretty tough on him. I know he will have a great weekend though. Pray for him and what God will do in his life this weekend.

Ok...I will update again once I hear the latest from the embryologist. We covet your prayers right now!

Almost time for the big release!

I have had three ultrasounds in three days. One of the many joys of IVF! So here is the latest:

The follicles are growing very nicely. In the last three days they have grown from about 15 mm in size to an average of 20 mm in size. My estrogen levels are rising nicely as well. It is fun to see the follicles on the ultrasound this time around. You can see the corpus luteum where the egg is contained inside the follicle. It is funny hearing the doctor and nurse talk about how "cute" they are. We did not see these during the first IVF cycle. I don't know if they were just not pointed out or pehaps the eggs are more mature this tme around and therefore we can see them better. So what do they look like? Well, the best description I can give is like looking at cartoon eyes. A big circle with a small circle dot attached on the inside of the big circle. Are you getting a mental picture?

My daily trips to the doctor continue. I have to go in to have my progesterone levels checked again tomorrow and then we are back Thursday for the egg retrieval! The big day! Just saying that it is egg retreival day does not fully describe it...it will be conception day actually! After they retrieve the eggs, they will join Richard's sperm for the "Party in the Petri Dish." They will call us everyday with reports on how the embryos are doing as they begin growing.

Last night Richard and I had dinner at home and watched our wedding video as part of our anniversary celebration. It was such a joy to watch it again. It is crazy to think about how much has happened in the past two years. Upon hearing and reflecting on our vows again we realized we have pretty much hit all of them in just the past two years..

For better (on vacation, realxing at home) or for worse (working late hours, being apart, discovering our infertility)
For richer (after two teaching awards) or for poorer (after two IVF cycles and expensive meds)
In sickness (with bloated ovaries and the flu) and in health (losing weight and feeling much healthier)

I believe that God will bring us a child through this process. This IVF has been much smoother and much more positive. I see God's hands through it all. Thank you for your continued prayers for us and our future children!

Celebrating two years

Richard and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary on Saturday. Our anniversary is actually on Monday July 23, but how much celebrating can you do on a weekday??? Plus, being near the end of the stimulation drugs in our IVF cycle, we were not sure how I would be feeling by Monday.

We had a great day. This photo was taken at the Double Nickel Steakhouse here in Lubbock. We had a very nice dinner and evening out. The food was fabulous.

Earlier in the day we went to the Clay Cafe to create. It is a ceramics/pottery studio here in town. You pick your piece, paint it, and then they fire it for you. I painted a plate as a memento of our anniversary and Richard painted a turtle. We have a box turtle in our yard that we have affectionately named turtle-roo. When Richard saw the turtle at the Clay Cafe, he knew that was his project.

We had a really fun day overall. Reflecting on the past year, it has been marked as our year of trying to get preganant. How wonderful it will be to see our dream come true in the next week on the heels of our 2nd anniversary!

Friday's update

I can certainly tell that I have follicles growin' up a storm. I am feeling all of the pressure and bloating...it is time for the fun to begin...

Had another ultrasound today. Today we measured 6 follicles on the left and 1 on the right. A little discouraging after seeing 10 on Tuesday, but my hope is in the Lord. It only takes on egg and one sperm! They said that one might be packed in where we can't see it and the tiny ones on the right might still grow up quickly. We will see! My estrodial levels (estrogen) have increased a lot...up to 353 today. Much better.

My next ultrasound is on Sunday...right after church! Everything is full speed ahead now...egg retrieval is right around the corner!

The latest

I had my first ultrasound today since we started the stimulation drugs. I was a bit nervous going in and not knowing what to expect. I was excited when we found 10 follicles developing already!!! I have 7 on the left side. Four of them were measureable and 3 were visible, but could not be measured. I also have 3 on the right side. I could not wait to call Richard and tell him the news. My estrodial level is a bit low, but they did not seem too worried about it. The doctor told me to continue the low-dose ovidrel at night to help get the estrogen levels up. So, I stay on four shots a day and go in for the next ultrasound on Friday morning.

Richard returned from Oklahoma last night. I am so glad he is home! I had to start all of my injections by myself while he was away. I actually gave myself all of the morning shots. I had friends help me with the evening shots. It was hard to stick myself! I was surprising more emotional than I thought I would be about having to do this myself. The first morning, I cried a bit when I injected myself. It did not hurt at all, it was just strange not having Richard there. Through all the fertility treatments, it has always been about all the tests, ultrasounds, bloodwork, etc. that I have had to go through. When Richard gives the injections, it is something we do together and that time has become very important to me as we work to help bring a child into the world together. I am so glad he is back and we are in our regular routine again. Who would have imagined I would get so sentimental over getting a shot!

Family

Some days really catch you by surprise and our family had one of those days last week. On tuesday of last week, my aunt Carole was put in the hospital for heart failure. She passed away the next day. This really took us all by surprise and has been quite a shock. She will really be missed. Carole has always kinda been the "hub" of the family keeping everyone updated with family news. I know that life will not be the same without her here on earth. Thankfully, we know that she is in heaven with the Lord watching over us all.

On Saturday, I attended the funeral in Odessa. It was one of the few times that all of my cousins on my mom's side has been together at the same time. There are seven of us, all girls. I was also reminded that on this side of the family, for whatever reason, many of the women have had children later in life. Somewhat encouraging for me to remember. Funerals are sorrowful occasions, but also joyful as it is one of those few times when we all stop to reconnect with family.

Here we go again!

It seems as if July is just flying by and I have gotten way behind on the blog. Here is the latest in the ever-evolving Schunke Story!

Last week, Richard and I met with the new doctor, Dr. Phy. She reviewed our case and the notes from Dr. Jabara. While there were many things she agreed with him on, she did not think I responded poorly on the last cycle. She feels very positively that IVF can help us get pregnant. She was sooooo positive, that it almost seems unbelievable for us. It is strange to hear one doctor say the odds are not good and another to be so positive. So here we are jumping in again. And very quickly! On our last IVF cycle, Dr. Jabara controlled the start of the cycle with birth control (yes, sounds strange huh?) and had me on it for 5 weeks so that we could stimulate right after school let out. Dr. Phy works off birth control too, but only the normal 3 week time period. She is afraid that staying on it longer might supress my ovaries too much. As I was finishing the third week on Monday, we had to get ready fast. We could have waited a month, but it would have interfered with school causing me to miss the first three days of school. Talk about stress! It would have been to hard to be out that much right off the bat, so we jumped in this month.

We are going to use a different protocol this time. Most of the drugs are the same, but there are some new ones and some new combinations of drugs. Dr. Phy seems to have a lot of experience working with patients who have high FSH. This protocol is designed more for this type of infertility. I took one drug called Cetrotide on Monday. I had my baseline ultrasound and bloodwork today and everything looks good for starting stimulation. I will begin stimulation drugs on Saturday. We are using Gonal-F again as we did last time. We will be combining it with another drug called Menopur. We used this drug last time too, but much later in the stimulation protocol. She has also added one more drug, Ovidrel, in a low dosage. So, to start off on Saturday I will have four shots a day for the next week.

The big adventure is that I have to give these shots myself as Richard is out of town this weekend. Fortunately, these are relatively easy ones, so I think I can handle it.

Going into cycle number two is a lot different than when we first started all of this. There is a certain degree of excitement, but also a lot of fear. I think our biggest fear is of what happens if this does not work. Part of me feels very positive and the other part is just plain terrified. Going through a second cycle is emotinally difficult, financially difficult, and physically difficult. The schedule this time is a little crazy as well and I am worried about our cycle interfering with Richard's walk to emmaus. But, I believe God still has his hand in this and I will do all I can to trust in what He wants to do here. We will see where He takes us!