St. Louis!

Well, things are finally starting to feel real! We arrived here in St. Louis Sunday late afternoon! My mom came with me because Josh was not able to take off the whole time. We love love love the hotel we are staying in. They serve a huge breakfast buffet and even serve dinner at night. They also print us directions every time we need them to.

 

 I had to have an ultrasound and blood work done very early Monday morning (in between 6:45-8:30am) and got my results that afternoon. Dusty, our IVF coordinator, called and said all of my levels are looking the way they want them to. She also said I had 20 follicles on my right ovary. Here were the sizes:

2 @ 1.1 cm

3 @ 1.0 cm

15 less than 1 cm

 

There were 17 follicles on my left ovary:

1 @ 1.0 cm

16 less than 1 cm 

 

So 37 follicles total! She told me to continue taking the same amounts of Lupron & Follistim that I have been. I go again tomorrow morning for another ultrasound and blood work. I am curious to see how they have grown the past two days. I can definitely tell the medicine is working! Ever since yesterday afternoon I have been very crampy and having lower back aches. The cramps even woke me up last night a couple of times. I am also verrry bloated and pretty tired.

 

We met today with Dr. DeRosa for a consultation. He will be doing the follicle aspiration and we just loved him!! He basically told me how it would all go when we do the retrieval. He said he would use a probe kind of like when you get an ultrasound.. except it will have a needle inside of it!! This makes me cringe just thinking about it. Luckily, I will be under IV sedation so I will not feel anything. But he will get the fluid and all of the follicles and give them to Dr. Silber. Not every follicle will contain an egg though. Then, Dr. Silber will inject the sperm into the eggs. We will then do an embryo transfer 3 days later. It sounds like SO much and I am really just trying to take one thing and one day at a time. But I did love Dr. DeRosa! He was so nice and made me feel so comfortable. He was talking about he was pro life and even quoted scripture from the bible. I left feeling so thankful that God led me here to meet these wonderful doctors!!! I know God is in control but I also feel like I am in great hands here in St. Louis.

 

My mom and I are having such a wonderful time together! This has been kind of like a vacation! We have been taking things easy & relaxing but have done some shopping and ate some good food :) We really love the location where we are staying. It is close to the hospitals but also very close to 3 malls! The past 2 days have been beautiful and almost 80 degrees! Tomorrow it is going to drop big time though and will only be 40 for the high. We are going to the doctor first thing in the morning but then plan on coming back to the room to relax and work on some crafts. I am looking forward to it and also cannot wait for Josh to get here!!!