Cheers to above average ovaries!!

Well, today was a big day!! A big big big big day! It wasn't the biggest day for us in regards to IVF, but it was a huge step.

You know when you go through something and the whole time your sole focus is on the ONE problem you know about... and then all of a sudden you find out about the whole OTHER issue you never anticipated? That was my fear leading up to today's appointment. All I could think was "We've gone three years assuming our only form of infertility is Danny... What if we find out that I'm not fertile? What if I have diminished ovarian reserve? What if I have a wonky uterus? Fibroids? Cysts? What if they tell us IVF won't work for us unless we use donor eggs?" Danny has always said that we can't focus on a problem that may not exist... That didn't stop me. I'm a planner and all. ;)

Last night was not a good one for me. I straightened my hair so that way it wouldn't be crazy in the morning, and by the time I was done I was BEYOND ready for bed. I snuggled up next to my amazing husband and figured I'd fall asleep instantly.
I didn't.
Google. Google some more. I need to do some more googling. How many antral follicles are average? I know I've read it before but I need to read it again so I'm sure I read it right initially. What else can I expect to happen at this appointment? What all could go wrong? What if our doctor is mean? What if he doesn't seem to care about us? What if our nurse is rude? What if she is snooty? These doctors SHOULD care about their patients.... But we've lucked out with every doctor and nurse so far. Will that luck continue?
"Danny?"
"What, babe?"
"What time should we leave in the morning?"
"I'd say no later than 7:30." 7:30?! WHAT?!
"We need to get there 15-30 minutes early, the lady said.. And the appointment is at 10. That's not getting us there early..."
"Okay, then we can shoot for 7. Is that better?" Is THAT early enough?? That's probably cutting it close. We're bound to hit traffic. That isn't early enough. That's just not early enough.
"Ummm... Okay, I guess."
"Babe, what time do YOU want to leave?" Ha, he knows I can't handle cutting it close or being late.
"I would say ABSOLUTELY no later than 7. NONE."
"Okay. That's fine. Whatever you want." Ahhh I love him!

So, cue sleep, right? Wrong. Who can sleep when SO MUCH lies in what happens the next day? Getting to sleep wasn't exactly an issue. STAYING asleep was. I woke up every hour or so, and checked the clock. I just KNEW we'd oversleep (despite having two alarms set on MY phone and one set on Danny's) and not get on the road on time.

Waking up on time didn't end up being an issue, and we were both ready to go around 6:45.
"Are you ready to go?" Am I ready? Do I have everything? The paperwork... The GPS... That's it. Time to go. 
"Yeah, I'm ready..."
Off we went. The GPS said we'd get to our destination at 9:14. I figured we could add about 20 minutes to that with traffic...

There was NO traffic. We just were in the right place at the right time to avoid it all, I guess. We got to the appointment at the perfect time. I checked the sign with the doctors listed and found Dr H on the list.
"Third floor. Suite 300."
"Okay, let's go." Ahhhh HERE WE GO!!!

On the third floor the first door I saw was Suite 300.
"Is our doctor listed there?" Hmmm... YEP.
"Yeah, right there..."
Danny opened the door. I was instantly reminded of Dr Hyder's office. It was warm and comforting, it felt like home already. But I was still nervous. I walked to the desk with my paperwork.
"Go ahead and sign in."
Name, time of arrival, time of appointment, doctor, new patient. Done, done, done.
"Okay, I can take all of your paperwork that you've filled out." You mean the DICTIONARY I've got here?
"Here you go."
"Also, do you have your insurance card with you today?" Ahhh, here is the test. Are they going to suddenly say we owe $1k up front?
"Yep, here you go."
Off she went, while I stood there... Dreading what she'd come back and say about payment.
"Okay Destiny, here you go. Have a seat, and they will call you back shortly." Easy enough...

I sat down with Danny, and got comfortable. We had about 20 minutes until our appointment. We chatted a bit about how they didn't ask for any payment up front, so the insurance must have worked with them on covering the testing.
"Destiny..." AHHHH IT'S TIME!!!
"Hi."
"Hi there! Come on back.... You can come back too!" Yeah Danny, LET'S DO THIS!
"Oh, yeah, okay I guess." Okay, YOU GUESS?
"C'mon Danny..."
"Well it doesn't sound like you have much of a choice... You better come on!" HAHAHA, I love this lady! "Okay, we need to get you weighed Destiny. Step on up..." I need to ditch the purse...
"Here love, will you hold my purse? I don't want to add ten more pounds to my weight."
I handed my purse off and stepped up onto the scale.
Ewwww. That number is way higher than I used to see. Ugh.
"Stay on the scale for just a minute... Do you know how tall you are?" That number really can go away any time now...
"Five foot on the dot."
"Okay... Alright, we've got what we need here, let's go into your exam room. Let's just let him carry your purse there." HAHAHA I REALLY love her!
"Sounds good to me!"

We went into my exam room. I sat to get my blood pressure taken.
"Ooooh, a little high. Is that normal for you? Are you nervous?" AHHH that number IS high! What the heck?!
"Umm no. I mean, it's not normal. But yes, I'm nervous."
"Well that could be why the number is high. Dr H may or may not want that checked again before  you leave...." Ahhhhh. 

My nurse, Connie, then explained to me what the first appointment would consist of. Meeting with Dr H in his office, where he'd explain everything to us in depth. Then maybe bloodwork, if he orders it. And a physical exam that may or may not include an internal sonogram. She said that honestly, MOST of the first appointments consisted of all of those things, so to count on them.
A few minutes later, Dr H came into the room.
"Hi there. Daniel?" *shook Danny's hand, then turned to me*
"And I'm Destiny."
"Nice to meet you both. I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting." Waiting? For like two minutes? Psh.
"Oh no, it's fine."
"Okay, let's go next door to my office and have a seat. We'll talk about everything there."
Off we went, to his super nice office next door to my exam room.
"So, let's see. You're seeing us today because you'll need IVF... I will go over what all that entails, exactly. And I'll also give you some paperwork on it... So Danny," Danny? Are they buddies now? HA! This doctor rocks... "I see you had the MESA procedure done in... 2009?"
"That's right..."
"And you had multiple vials frozen... Good, good." Good? As in, those numbers are good? "Everything looks great here. We really appreciate you having all of the paperwork filled out and ready to go when you got here, it gives us a chance to get to know you before we actually see you." As if that was an option...
"Mhhmm."
"Having the results from his MESA analysis and the post thaw analysis helps us immensely as well." I love that my planning has paid off... Again...
"So, basically here are our success rates at this clinic..." Blah blah blah, believe me, Dr H, I learned all that WELL BEFORE making an appointment here. "So Destiny, it seems like your cycles are fairly regular?"
"Like clockwork."
"So that would put you around.... hmm... ovulation would've been..."
"I ovulated Monday night into Tuesday. I can feel it."
*Looks a bit impressed and writes something down in my file.*
"After seeing all this, I'd say you are healthy and young and I would put you into the higher side of the success rates here. I'd also say that I would anticipate you ending up with enough embryos to use and enough to also freeze. Now the freezing does add some cost to the procedure but..." Oh my GOSH, if we have enough to freeze that would be SO STINKIN' AMAZING!!! That's rare!!! Most people don't have enough make it that far! Ahhh!!!!!!
"At our clinic our rates for frozen transfers are about 40%. Which is lower than that of a fresh cycle...." But still so much higher than so many other clinics! WOW!!! "And I'd say about half of my patients end up having some embryos to freeze." HALF?! Is he serious?! That's fabulous!
"I have a question. Since we're using frozen sperm, then making the embryos, and then freezing what's left.... Is that still okay? The sort of double-freezing?"
"Oh yeah, that's perfectly fine. The sperm is frozen but once it fertilizes an egg it becomes an embryo and THAT has never been frozen before. So it's just like it was fertilized with fresh sperm. No difference." WHEW!!!
"Okay. Great."
"So what we'll do today is a physical exam and..." blah blah blah. The one good thing about this office is they go over everything multiple times, they make sure you know it! "and then from there, we sort of work backwards from your IVF date. Once we have that scheduled, we can schedule the other testing you'll need, Destiny, for the month before. That testing will include a mock transfer so we can see how far up we'll need to go to do the embryo transfer when it's time for that. All of that testing should be able to be done on the same day." Same day? Woohooo!!!
"Now, with your age, guidelines suggest we put in one, MAYBE two embryos. Ultimately that will be your decision, they are YOUR embryos. But, when it comes to that day... We can't really decide now since we don't have the embryos to look at and judge accordingly... But when it comes to that day, if you've got good quality embryos, we will recommend one. Simply because you should have enough to freeze anyway. And you can use those in the event that the IVF doesn't work... Or in the event that you want more than one child. Now, there are reasons for transferring two. Some people want twins so they can be done with their family. Others want to do two because they don't want to ever do this again. But there are plenty of risks when it comes to transferring two, and you need to be aware of them. Most of them will be in your packet, but they include...." One? Transfer ONE?! I don't like hearing that.. But I guess he's a good doctor for even suggesting it... At least he said it's our decision ultimately....

We talked a bit about how we are traveling from Wichita, and why. He seemed to be happy with our decision and how we came about it.
He then asked when we were interested in doing the IVF. I told him that I knew they'd close down for holidays, so to get around that I had in my mind October.
"Hmmm, that will be cutting it a little close. You'll be on birth control pills for about a month or two before the IVF.... But I will have Connie check to see if they can get you in with the lab and then we'll know for sure."
Then it was time for the exams! Dr H told Danny that he could stay in the room during them if he chose to. He said "sure," so Dr H left the room while I got ready.
Danny and I joked about how exams like these work. How women know how they're supposed to cover up with the sheet, or the gown.
"Well there's not really a book on 'how to properly prepare for down-there exams and how to put on the robe and lay the sheet across your lap.' And as you can see, even though the doctor and the nurse will both have quite the visual of my area, I'm still hiding my underwear from them. And don't ask me why. It's just what you do, okay?"
As Danny laughed at me, I got as ready as I could be. And then Dr H and Connie came into the room.
We started with an exam that was much like a yearly pap, only he made sure to say it WASN'T a pap. Ooookay. And then it was time for the sonogram. The part I was dreading.
1. That thing looks uncomfortable
2. He's going to put that INSIDE ME. Ewwww.
3. That thing looks uncomfortable
4. That wand and that screen are going to tell me if I'm running on empty basically. And that's something I just can't handle.

Before I knew it, my insides were up on that screen. All I could think was: I sure wish there was a baby and a heartbeat on that screen.... Not just a picture of my empty body...
Dr H starts spouting off some numbers and I figured I needed to pay attention. He was measuring things. I don't even know what. And Connie was writing everything down.
"She has an anteverted uterus... Destiny that just means your uterus is slightly tilted forward. Totally normal." That's normal?! I've got to google that. That does NOT sound normal!
"Lining is at __. Again, that's normal for where you are in your cycle. That's exactly where we like to see it at this point." Whew! At least that seems like a number that would be normal.... Anteverted. I can't forget that word!
"We're going to start with the right ovary..." I looked up at the screen. SURELY I'd be able to see what he's looking at, I've google it all enough times... Ahh yeah, there are my follies!! I see... THREE. Three? Oh no, not just three. Seven on each side is good... three?
"Okay, right side has fifteen antral follicles..." FIFTEEN?! What?!?! Where did he see all of those at?! Fifteen?! That's almost how many I was hoping for TOTAL, and that's just one side?! GO FOLLIES GO!!!
"Now for the left side... There are at least twelve here..." Twelve?! WOOOHOOO!!! Fifteen and twelve, that's twenty-seven... Oh gosh. That could mean I could get OHSS. That wouldn't be good... But he seems happy with this.
Dr H took a few more measurements and then said I was done.
"That's a great amount of follicles. What that tells me is that I was right in what I assumed earlier. You will respond well to the meds. We will put you on the lowest dose." Lowest dose! HAPPY DANCE, HAPPY DANCE!!! Less money, AND less of a chance of OHSS!

Dr H left us with Connie, who told me she'd be back in when I was dressed to give me the paperwork Dr H had asked her to give us, and to discuss scheduling. She also was in charge of taking some blood from me. Ahhhh I HATE BLOOD WORK.
While I was changing I told Danny all about how "average and good" is around 16 follicles (according to a few resources, some say more and some say even less) which was what I was counting on... And how happy I was that we had SO MANY MORE THAN THAT! His response?
"If they can't get us in for October, you need to be okay with when they CAN get us in, okay? We have to trust their decision and their reasoning for scheduling it the way they do..." What?
"You're the one that wanted it all done now now now."
"I know, but it's only a few months difference... It'll be fine." Well FINE then...

Connie came back in and pointed out the paperwork. We would go over it right after the blood draw.
"Ahhh, I'll just look away and pretend I'm getting a tattoo or something."
"Ha, okay. Imagine I'm tattooing a pretty flower on you... Oh wait, unless you don't like flowers?" HA. This nurse is the best.
"I like flowers... And I don't have a flower tattoo yet!"
"Well there you go!! I guess now I really should get a sharpie out and give you what you want..." Oh goodness! Ha!!
"Eh, there will be many more chances to draw a flower on from now on..."
"TRUE, just imagine this is just the BEGINNING of the tattoo... And by the way, I'm done!" Done?! what?! I barely felt even a pinch! Rock ON, Connie!!

We went over the little handbook together. And then Connie broke the news to me.
"So, really, don't listen to what he told you about scheduling. The doctors and the lab do NOT communicate when it comes to that. I will try to have them squeeze you in as soon as possible, but right now I'm telling new patients it'll be January. The doctors don't like that we are scheduling that far out, because they like to satisfy their patients, but we are just that backed up..." Ahhh JANUARY?
"That's fine. We don't want someone else to get scooted back or messed up because we wanted in earlier. We can wait as long as we need to." What? Who is this man, talking like he's my husband?? We can wait as long as we need to? Really? What about the weather in January?! Driving 2 1/2 hours is long enough as it is, bad weather will add at least another hour to that! I DON'T WANT TO.
"The lab likes to spread them out a bit just so they don't get overloaded there and so nothing bad can happen." Oh.. Makes sense. Like in Inconceivable.... Eeek... January.... Hmmm... That would mean I could participate in Black Friday this year... And that would put the due date nowhere near Faith's which I was worried about... January might not be so bad after all....

Connie said she'd call me tomorrow with my blood work results, and would call within the next week about scheduling the IVF and the testing. I got the paperwork she handed over, and we were ready to go.

I checked out at the front desk and again had the sinking feeling that they'd say we owed $1k or more. The lady was tap-tap-tapping away on her calculator and I just KNEW it was going to be bad.
"Okay Destiny your total is $77." Whew! Really? I guess that is the 20% insurance won't cover. SWEET!!!!
I handed over the money, signed a paper, and we were out of there!!!

We walked back to the car... Where we found that we'd gotten a parking ticket! But really, WHO CARES?! I have AT LEAST 27 follicles!!! GO FOLLIES GO, GO FOLLIES GO!!!! I'm walking on cloud 9 today and  I'm not really sure when I'll come down. Hopefully not for a long long time :)



Thank you for all the prayers, happy thoughts, good vibes, AND ALL the texts and messages/comments on Facebook. We are so blessed with an amazing support system!! We love you ALL!!!!