Progress

I know I haven't blogged much about where I am in the surrogacy process since we had the failed transfer so I thought I'd give you an update.
After we got the results of the beta back my IM had to schedule a consult with the Dr. in CO; the earliest appointment was 2 weeks from then, so I was just waiting to hear back from her after that. The news from the Dr was pretty much expected, but was still quite a let down for my IM. He encouraged her to look into using a donor for eggs b/c he said that there would only be a 15% chance of a transfer working if we use her eggs versus an 80% chance with a donor. She called me and we talked about it and it seemed like a pretty cut and dry situation if you're just looking at percentages. She and her husband decided that they were going to look at a donor database and would let me know when/if they found a donor that they liked. No problem, my uterus isn't goin' anywhere. :-)
Long story short, my IM called me last night and told me about their not so cool adventure in looking at a donor database. Without going into too much detail, let me just tell you that my IM is very animated and I would have been rolling on the floor laughing at her rendition of their first experience looking at donors, if it weren't equally as sad. Needless to say, after their traumatization, (yes I made up that word) they really re-evaluated their options and have decided to give it another try with her eggs. I have to say that I don't blame them. If I were in their shoes I would probably do the same thing, for peace of mind, to know that at least I've exhausted all my options and I won't have any regrets later. 15% is better than ZERO!! And my IM has a friend that got pregnant with a 5% chance! So phooey to those doctors! (Sometimes I think they just throw out random numbers to try to get you to do what they ultimately want you to do)
So anywho, my IM has also decided to change clinics and use one that's closer to her, which means it's closer to me too! :-) She's used them before, so we're not going in blind! It's just more economical and really makes more sense. I'm excited again!
Things are on the fast track now. I have an appointment at the new clinic this Friday morning so that I can meet with the Dr. and probably (inevitably) get some blood drawn...my favorite thing. My IM already started her BCP's and I should be starting my cycle in the next day or 2, so who knows, we might be having another transfer mid February if all goes well! ***Fingers crossed***

Hanging my head in shame

Remember my wonderful post about holding myself accountable? Yea, this one...
Well people, I haven't been doing such a great job on that front. :-( I didn't want to post about it, but hey, $h!+ happens, right? At least that's what I'm telling myself.
I started off great. Did (almost) everything I said I would do, go walk/jog on my lunch breaks, re-started P90X; just didn't get to attend my water aerobics class, but that was no biggie.
Let me just tell you, I got sooooooo sore from P90X that I could barely walk. I'm serious. I don't know if I was being extremely intense with it this time or if I'm just that out of shape, but I wasn't that sore the 1st time I did P90X and I know I was way more out of shape then!
Anyway, needless to say I had to lay off of P90X for the next few days, since I was damn near a paraplegic and all. I figured since I hadn't really gotten thru the first friggin' week that I'd start, yet again, after my body came back from being in shock. Well I didn't. I suck, I know.
Here's the thing, I am not a morning person! I don't think I have ever been, so for me to get up at 5am to exercise was a feat in itself. And if don't go to bed at a decent enough hour then I damn sure ain't gettin' up at 5 o'clock in tha mornin', you can forget it! I think I'm just gonna have to go back to exercising after I get off of work, the evening seems to be better even though that's the time for dinner, homework, and any other domestic thing you can think of. I'd rather stay up late than wake up early! Weird, I know.
Well the good news is that at least I'm still exercising on my lunches (although this week has been harder w/ doing some last minute shopping on my break) but doesn't power-walking at the mall count? Lol.
Just wanted to give you all an update. I promise I'll do better. :-) And if I have to I'll post *fat* pictures of myself on here as extra motivation! (AAAHHHHH....just the thought of that makes me want to run 5 miles!)

**Hey! That gives me an idea! I think I'll post my P90X 30, 60, and 90 day pictures on here so you can actually see my progress. Yep, that's what I'm gonna do!**

P.S. Look past the stretch marks!!!!! Lol.

Frustrated!

I just wanna say that right now I'm a bit frustrated! I hope this entry doesn't turn into one of those long a** blogs that no one wants to read, but whatever if it does!

Let me give you the "quick" version:

I got matched with my IP's back in May. Since then I've had 3 different caseworkers, which brings me to a grand total of 4 caseworkers since I've been working with this agency. Now, I might stop to think and wonder if I'm running these ladies off, lol. But in all seriousness, they've just had some crazy a**, unexplained turnover. That's not the problem, my issue is with the non-communication. They obviously don't update each other as to the status of their surrogates and they sure as hell don't let their surrogates know what's going on!Since my last caseworker left, not to long after I got matched, I have yet to hear from anyone at my so-called agency.
No email.
No phone call.
No letter.
Hell, no carrier pigeon. 
My IM and I have literally been doing EVERYTHING on our own. Coordinating travel, negotiating contracts, getting updates from the RE, anything you would think the agency should (and promised to) handle, we have been doing. We both, quite often, wish we had just found each other on our own so that we could have gone independent.
Nonetheless, the agency was also supposed to be having monthly support group meetings of which I have yet to be informed about until....................................................
Yesterday!

Yea, so after my IM got a BS bill in the mail from the agency trying to charge her for support group meeting/setup blah blah, she confirmed with me that the agency has, indeed, not been in touch with me and she disputed the charge! (Way to go, girl!) :-)
So magically on Tuesday I got a phone call from none other than...can you guess...? That's right, the agency! The "Director" of the agency, which is now assigned as our half-ass caseworker called me. Our conversation lasted all of 40 seconds and then her other phone started ringing and she said "oh, I have to take this, it's a fertility clinic, I'll call you right back." Ummmm...ok...
Well thankfully I didn't hold my breath for that call back b/c I'd be dead right now...the beeyotch still hasn't called me!
Oh, but it gets better. THEN I got an email yesterday from the director that was basically nothing but a bunch of forwarded emails that I've apparently been overlooked on. Gee thanks. And whadayaknow? It has a list of all of our support group dates/times. Oh and look! There's a meeting on December 12th....hmmmm....to bad it was DECEMBER 15TH when I got the fkn email! There aren't enough expletives in the English language to convey my irritation right now.
And  then to add insult to injury, I emailed my IM just to vent (she's good at letting me bitch :-)) and she told me that the agency told her "Well Krystal missed last Sunday's meeting." WTF!? You little #&$*$)*%(@#_(%$*)#$(%$*)&@#(&#@_%&#_(%&!! (insert your own words here) Had I been told about ANY of the fkn meetings you know good and darn well I wold have been there! UGH! Thankfully my IM already knows that I'm on the ball about those types of things so she knew that heifer wasn't being truthful.
I'm just disgusted with them right now, and it kinda makes me sad b/c I loved them so much at first, they were really supportive and knew what was going on with me, idk what happened from then to now...

Thanks for letting me vent :-) I promise to be nice now...well, until the next person pisses me off...

I couldn't help myself...

Merry Christmas! :-)

...IDK why it's cutting off some of the vid, but here's the link if u wanna see the whole thing CLICK HERE!

Holding myself accountable

This entry has nothing to do with surrogacy, but everything to do with accountability.

Here's the thing, for those of you that may not know, after I had my (surro) miscarriage in March I was pretty devastated. I guess as an automatic reflex my subconscious decided that I needed to do something to keep my mind off of the loss. I started off going walking at a park on my lunch breaks. Then I progressed to going to "aqua boot camp" twice a week, which turned in to 3 times a week. Then I added in P90X! (And yes, I was doing this all at the same time) I would walk/jog on my lunch, get off of work and go to water aerobics, then leave water aerobics and do P90X at home.

I'm pretty sure I was off my rocker at some point.

Nonetheless, within about a month I was seeing some pretty awesome results, and after almost 3 months of being an exercise Nazi I was down 20lbs and 3 pant sizes! Not to mention I was feeling pretty darn good about myself, especially the fact that I had started this routine on my own and had been sticking to it. You couldn't tell me that I didn't look good! :-)
But for some reason that I can't seem to pinpoint, I stopped it all. First the walks at work, then I cut back on how often I would go to my class, and then P90X ended at the 90 day mark. There's really nothing that I can blame it on except myself. My drive. My will. I think I did what a lot of people do after having success with exercise; I got complacent. Not good.
I would tell myself "Oh, I did so well, I'm just gonna take a break in between starting again." Yeah right.

Well NO MORE EXCUSES! Today I am holding myself accountable. Today I will be the Krystal I know I can be. I will not succumb to the little voice in my head that says "I can't, I don't want to". Today, I will simply do.

I made a plan with one of my co-workers, and she and I will be going to workout together on our lunches at the park I used to frequent. I will also make my butt get up in the morning to start another round of P90X! And I will surely be at my next aerobics class tonight! I'm excited and a little scared that I've called myself out like this, but it's all good, I know if I don't keep myself motivated my hubby will or maybe one of my loyal followers will. :-)

I'll blog about my progress along the way so I will have that accountability, good or not so good. Although at some point I will have to stop the high impact exercises once we start cycling for another transfer, but that doesn't mean I can't still do my walks and some low impact (approved) exercises. NO EXCUSES! There are pregnancy-friendly workout plans too. :-)

Lord, give me the will and strength!

Beta results are back

BFN! (Big Fat Negative) :(

I'll let u know what next steps we will take. This sucks.

Sent from my iPhone

Happy Thanksgiving!

I thought I'd share a little Thanksgiving video with you all. :) Enjoy!!

Apparently I'm a security threat

I'm baaaaaccccccckkkk!!

Not that I was missed or anything, but I'm back from CO just in case you cared. :-) So, as previously posted, the trasfer went well. I was on bed rest for a little over 48 hours and I was pretty sure that I was gonna go completely nuts if I had to stay in the bed for much longer!! Thankfully I have the best IP's in the world and they did all they could to make me as comfortable as possible; brought me food, magazines, word finds, movies, anything I needed!
It was freezing cold there...not that I got to go outside, but at least that's what the weather people said! :-) And it SNOWED!! Only for a little while, but it was so pretty! We don't get to see "real" snow in Texas often, so it was nice to be able to experience that.
Anywho, the real reason I wanted to post today is to tell you about my lovely adventures in airport security...
FIRST....I arrived at DFW, get to the security checkpoint and OF COURSE it just so happens that I'm "randomly" selected to go through an "extra screening process"...whatever...so the guy's like "ma'am please step inside this box"...ummm, ok this "box" is a large clear, plexiglass, kennel looking thing with one door to walk in and another to walk out. So I'm standing in the box and a security lady comes in and says "hold your hands out please", of course I say "why?" and she says "I'm going to swab your hands for explosive residue"...WTF!? What is this CSI or something!?...whatever...so while she's "swabbing my hands" I hear another security guy yell out "BAG CHECK!"...I look over and he's asking people if the bag in question was theirs and then I was like "oh that's mine!" (What a coincidence...whatever) ((mind you I'm still being "swabbed" so I kinda had to talk a little louder so he could hear me through the kennel...)) Anyway, the lady "clears" me of having any explosive residue and then I'm escorted over to the table to go through my bag and all was okay; I had just forgotten to take my liquids out to be scanned separately, so he put my stuff back through the machine and everything was fine. Then I was off to Denver...FML.

Fast forward to today... we got to the A/P in Denver and get to the security point...they of course have those damn body scan machines! I don't know how much you know about those machines, but after 48 hours on bed rest I'm well versed (thanks to the news) on the "unknowns" of body scan machines and they don't sound very safe ESPECIALLY for someone that may be pregnant!
It's supposed to be, once again, a "random" selection for people to have to either go through the regular metal detector or the body scanner, but I guess that my IM and I must have had the look on our faces that we had no plans on going through that damn machine, so OF COURSE the security lady "randomly" selects BOTH of us to go through it! We both refused. Ha! :-) So they get on their little walkie talkies "we have two females refusing the body scan at terminal blah blah blah..." Then they took us separately to get a "pat down" done! I had some lady that apparently didn't find joy in having to pat people down, boy was she Ms. Personality... she informs me that this is not a "regular" pat down, this is a thorough pat down that will go over my "sensitive parts"...WTF!?!? She says when she gets to my "sensitive parts" that she will use the back of her hand...as if that makes it any better. Whatever. So she starts rubbin' me down, and I basically got molested at the airport. Great. Thanks.
Apparently I must look like some sort of terrorist b/c I sure do get "randomly" selected more often than not... I just don't understand how people are still able to get through with dangerous items when they're all but taking you're first born at security! Oh! And speaking of first born, when my IM and I were done being fondled, we passed by this woman and her little baby that were also being screened by security and they had put the poor baby in one of those little bins that you put your shoes and stuff in so that they could check the baby! (Good Lord! Really, people!?) The kid couldn't have been any older than 2 months old. Just to give you a better visual, they put the baby in one of these...
 ...get real geniuses...

Anywho, we got through that mess and I made it back to Dallas...and now we wait!!!!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!!
I'll leave you with a few funny airport cartoons I found...so sad....but SO TRUE...what has this world come to???

Transfer complete!

So here I am chilaxin after the transfer! They have my bed inverted so my feet are up and my head is down  we did acupuncture before and afterward and the Dr. said that everything went as smooth as possible! So now we wait..... My pregnancy test is scheduled for the 27th, fingers crossed everyone!!  I'm off to bedrest for he next few days, lots of word finds and gossip mags 

I hate to be ugly......

.....but the guy next to me on this plane can barely fit in the seat AND he smells like onions. FML.

Sent from my iPhone

Transfer is on!!

The transfer WILL BE on Tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OMG, you have no idea how painstakingly hard it was to wait all the way from 8:45 this morning until 6 o'clock this evening to know if the transfer was still on!!! I think my IM and I must have had several mini strokes during the day just from the anxiety of not knowing...can you imagine how we will be during the 2WW (2 week wait) after the transfer!? Lord help us.
Anywho, I'm so happy! The nurse is gonna call me on Sunday to let me know the time of the transfer and to schedule an acupuncture session. Tomorrow is my last dose of Lupron and on Sunday I start taking Progesterone, Tetracycline and Medrol. Monday I will go in for bloodwork to check my progesterone level and then I fly to CO Monday evening!
I'm super nervous, I really want this to work on the 1st try!!

Just wanted to give a quick update, I'll keep ya posted! I'm off to finally get some rest, I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow! 6 soccer games between both of my girls (tournament)! 1st one starts at 7:30am, last one starts at 7:30pm!! FML.

Update

Had another lining check today...and blood draw...Lord I wish they could just take all the blood they needed at one time and save it for later!!
Anyway, I wasn't very pleased with the ultrasound today; since Friday my lining has on gone up .2mm! That's right .2, not even half a millimeter...Yep, now it's a whopping 7.6...yay. Can you hear the sarcasm?
Ok, enough wallowing...
I'm gonna stay optimistic that by my next check on Friday that I will be at least an 8! The nurse said that they aren't going to up my estrogen anymore b/c my estrogen level is already over 2,000! (No wonder I'm extra sensitive!) So all I can do now is keep taking the same meds/dosages and PRAY that my lining cooperates! There is good news though, the nurse said that the triple stripe is still there, which is a really good thing b/c on some women it can go away and then it's even more of a problem than just trying to thicken your lining. Also that my lining did at least go up even if it was a little, apparently the lining can begin to breakdown and get thinner, so thank goodness that didn't happen!
Thank God for an awesome IM too! I totally felt like a lemon today and she really helped me find the optimism in our situation. :-)
Until next time...TTYL!

Bummed

Had my appointment to check my lining today...it was 7.4 :-( I was hoping that it would be thicker than that, but the Dr. at the monitoring clinic seemed to think it would be okay for a transfer on Tuesday.
Well I got the "official call" from the clinic in CO and the news was not great. The nurse said that they want my lining to be between 8-12 and they are going to push the transfer back a week! UGH!!!!!!!! I'm so disappointed and I feel really bad that my lining apparently sucks! I know there's nothing more I can do other than what the Dr's tell me, but it still SUCKS! I talked to my IM and she was (obviously) disappointed as well...sigh...........I know all things happen for a reason though, so maybe it wasn't meant for the transfer to happen this Tuesday.
Now I will have to up my Estrace to 2xday which should help with thickening the lining more and I will have another lining check on Tuesday morning. (Please keep your fingers crossed!!)
What SUPER SUCKS is that our flights have already been booked and now they will need to be changed which makes me angry b/c of course the dumb ass airlines have change/cancellation fees that are absolutely ridiculous and if you know me then you know I am, ahem, frugal (I don't like to say cheap!) :-) no matter whose money it is, and I just hate unexpected expenses!
And what SUPER DUPER SUCKS is that Kevin will not be able to go. :-( :-( There are other people in his office scheduled off for that week and he has to be there. Damn it to hell!
* BIG SIGH..........*
I'll still go to acupuncture on Saturday, but will probably change the Monday session to a later day in the week...
Anywho, that's all for now. I'm gonna go look up new flights.......

Once Upon a Surrogate: The Stork's Helpers

A few weeks back I won a drawing that allowed me to review a new book about surrogacy that was actually written by a surrogate. I recieved the book a little over a week ago and last night I sat down with my daughters (8 & 4) to read the book to them.

Here's a review from 3 different perspectives:

My review on Jill Hancock Reeder's Once Upon a Surrogate book:

Once Upon a Surrogate is a good book for surrogates to read to their children or for parents to read to their children that were born via surrogacy. It explains, in terms that children can understand, the concept of surrogacy. My daughters really liked the fact that the book was illustrated by Jill's children and they were able to grasp the idea of Mommy being the "stork".
I would recommend this book to anyone going through the surrogacy process, as a means of explaining it so your children can understand.

My 4 year old's review:

2 thumbs up (literally), when I asked her how she liked it :) She also said "I liked the stickers", as she covered her arms in them. Then she added "so you were the stork to deliver us to be your children?" :-)

My 8 year old's review:

She thought the book was "okay", she said that she wasn't that interested in it, but that she did learn what an embryo is, which is something she didn't know before.

Thanks, Jill for giving us the chance to review your book!

You can learn more about the book by visiting:
http://surrogacybooks.blogspot.com/
or
http://mormonsurrogate.blogspot.com/

My 1st Acupuncture Experience

Yesterday was my very first time getting acupuncture done! I gotta say, it was, well...quite interesting, to say the least. Lol.
Why did I get acupuncture? I'm glad you asked.
Acupuncture has actually been a common practice for many years to help a woman with infertility. Although I'm not infertile it still helps the blood flow better to the uterus and will hopefully help in achieving and sustaining a pregnancy. My IM suggested it so I was like why not, anything that could possibly give a better chance at a positive outcome is worth trying, right!?
So anyway, I got to the acupuncture clinic yesterday and was greeted by a petite Asian lady, Dr. Chen. She got some information from me and then walked me into a room. It looked just like a room you'd go in when your gonna get a massage; lights dimmed, instrumental music playing, all I needed was some aroma therapy! So then she tells me to get undressed and cover up with a lovely hospital gown...that killed any daydream I might have had about spa time...she came back in the room after I was lying on the table, now mind you I've never had this done, so she comes in and says (in a thick Chinese accent) "oh, you lay on table wrong, you turn over", I was like "oh my bad", not that she knew what that meant, but nevertheless I felt like a dumb ass for laying on the table the wrong way.
Anyway, after repositioning myself, she started wiping me down with alcohol. At this point I was a little nervous, I mean she was wiping my head, my feet, my EARS! I didn't know what was about to happen! I guess she could tell I was nervous b/c she said "is no hurting you no worry". Um ok.
Then she started placing the needles. First on the top of my head, didn't feel that one, probably b/c of my thick hair, then she placed one in the middle of my forehead...that was weird, but no pain. Then she went to my ears...now that's when it started feeling weird. It didn't hurt, it was just kind of like an annoying little pinch but it was weird to know that you have 2 needles now sticking out of both your ears! She continued down my body and I ended up with 17 little needles sticking out of me! Then she says "ok now I do electricity".
Say what!? 
Awww naw lady, you crazy!
Again, she must have read my facial expression b/c she said "is no hurting". She brought out this little machine and hooked up 2 electrode thingys onto the needles that were in my pelvic area and it started pulsating. It felt weird, but didn't hurt so I suppose she was right..."is no hurting." After lying there for an hour she came back in, took out the needles and had me turn on my side so that she could do my back. She placed 6 needles alongside my spine, 3 on each side, and hooked up the electrodes again. Then I laid there for about 15 minutes and she came back and took them out and we were done!
All in all I'd say it was a good experience. It wasn't what I thought it would be, but then again I've only seen it in movies so that could explain a lot. :-) It didn't scare me off though, I'm going back on Saturday and again on Monday.
I really hope this helps!

Dr. Appt today

Just got a call from my clinic in CO... Everything looks great from my appointment this morning!! :)
Not that these numbers mean anything to you, but my estrogen level was 1258 which is way above ( at this point they normally wanna see it above 500) and my lining was measuring 6.7 with a triple stripe or triple A (something like that lol)... Ok the lining number is awesome b/c in the past it's taken way longer to even get to that point, I have no idea what "triple stripe" means, but in learning a little from some other surrogates it seems that it's a really good thing lol. (I will be googling that as soon as I finish writing this entry) :)
So anyway I'm really excited and I'm getting super anxious! If my levels and lining are any indication of things to come then you can bet in the next few weeks I'll be posting that I'm knocked up! :)
Next appointment is on the 5th so I'll let you know how that goes! TTYL.

Special shout out

 Happy Birthday to my IM!!!!
She's such a wonderful person and hopefully we will have a belated b-day gift for her next month!! :-) 

The Mad Doctor

So I was totally running late (AGAIN!) this morning! I don't know what's gone on this week, but I just have not been able to get up on time!! Ugh! Anyway, back to the point...
Since I was running late, I didn't have time to do my daily Lupron shot in the morning so I decided to bring the stuff with me to work to do it...
10 o'clock rolls around and I still hadn't done my shot and I was about to go into a meeting so I was like "okay, well, let me just do this and get it out of the way before the meeting." Well, my BFF, who just started working with me was rather intrigued with me giving myself a shot and decided that she wanted to "come watch"... so we're off the the women's restroom together! Then I mistakenly said "you can even do it if you want, it's really easy"...well she took me up on the offer! So I gave her a crash course in shot giving...she washed her hands, cleaned off the top of the medicine bottle, etc...when it came to giving me the shot she came at me in this weird position...picture something out of a movie, like a Mad Doctor....kinda something like this...

I know, right!!?? LMAO...well in her defense, she's never given a shot before and according to her she was "doing what I see on TV"...lol! So after I kinda jumped back and looked at her like she was crazy I explained to her that she just needed to " jab it straight in"...I meant it literally, but I guess she thought that "jabbing" would only hurt me more so she SLOWLY inserted the needle into my stomach....um...ouch! Lol. It was pretty funny, I was like um, well you did a good job, but it hurt because you went in slower than a grandma! It was all good though; I like that my friend is interested in what's going on in my life, so if it means takin' a granny needle to the stomach I guess I can endure that! :-) ...And off we went to our meeting!

   

Oh the memories you make with friends...

Just call me Walgreens

Got a package at work today...

...after I opened it I realized "Oh, my meds!"...totally forgot that it was being shipped to my job cuz they required a signature. Anyway, opened the box and...

...BAM! Walgreens Pharmacy in a box! It's a bit overwhelming to see at first, but it's really not that bad. They tend to send more than needed. (I still have stuff left over from last time!) And the best part about receiving this package was that there are no BIG PROGESTERONE NEEDLES!! WOO HOO!!!!! Only those small insulin needles for me to do my Lupron shots with.
Speaking of shots, I also received my calendar and I start the Lupron injections on Thursday (THIS THURSDAY, as in like 2 days from now!) Most may find this weird, but I am so excited! Lol. I'm just so ready to get things going and I'm very hopeful that this 1st time will be the "taker"!
As of right now the calendar is somewhat tentative b/c it all depends on when I start my cycle again (est. for the 21st). If indeed AF (Aunt Flo...if you can't figure it out, I ain't tellin' ya) does show up on the 21st then here's how it will go:
For sure part of calendar:
14th: start Lupron
18th: last day for b/c pills
Tentative part:                   
21st: cycle starts
23rd: start on Estrogen patches and 81mg aspirin everyday
29th: blood draw to check estrogen levels; ultrasound to check lining
Nov 5th: another blood draw to check estrogen levels; ultrasound to check lining

7th: begin prometrium 3xday, STOP Lupron, START tetracycline 4xday and medrol 1xday

9th: TRANSFER DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the IM and I both are getting antsy, but we're soooooo ready!

Well, that's the gist of my update, no real fun stuff yet, but we're gettin' there! TTYL! :-)

We have a date...

...a "transfer date", that is! Woo hoo!!! We will be doing the transfer on November 9th (if all goes as planned). I talked to the IM this morning and she is super excited, and of course, I am too! It seems like it's taken forever to get to this point...and I still have to wait another month! Lol.
I know I haven't "blogged" in a while, but there really hasn't been much of anything going on. I mean, unless you really wanna hear about how messy progesterone is or about starting "cycle day 1". To me, it's interesting, to you, maybe, not so much!
Anyway, I officially ended my mock cycle on Sept. 27th and on this past Sunday I started on b/c pills. See I told you, not interesting. So I'll be on b/c for a little over a week or so and then I'll start Lupron and some other "stuff", I'm sure. I haven't gotten my official calendar yet, but when I do you'll be the 1st to know! :-)
Other than the great news about the transfer date I have nothing else to tell!
*It's never to early for well-wishes though!* :-)
Holla!

Update!

Had my appointment this morning @ 8:30; it went pretty quickly. Didn't even feel the nurse stick me! :) Got in there with the Dr. (he was kinda "different"), did the ultrasound, and we were done! The Dr said my lining measured @ 8.1 so I was kind of bummed about that b/c I was under the impression that it was supposed to be more than that at this point, but about an hour later I got "the call" from my clinic in CO saying that everything looked great! Lining was good, they want it to be between 8 & 12 and my estrogen level was at 1627, they like to see it over 1200. WOO HOO!! So now here's the schedule:
- starting tomorrow I will be on 2 estrogen patches instead of 4
- I will also begin taking Prometrium 3xday for 10 days (Prometrium is a progesterone oral capsule: Progesterone is a female hormone. This medicine is used to prevent the overgrowth of the lining of the uterus in women.) -Thank you Google! :)
- After taking my last Prometrium pill I will take off my patches and 4-10 days later I should start my cycle.
- After cycle day 3, I will begin b/c pills, be on those for 10-14 days
- Start lupron injections (oh joy)
That's as far as I got with the nurse, but I know I will have to do a few more meds leading up to the transfer. So we are tentatively looking at a transfer during the 2nd week in November!!!!!! It seems like it's so far away, but I know it will get here soon enough. My IM is super excited, which makes me even more anxious!! I'm hoping that it will work on the 1st try, but who knows...this first time it will be a frozen egg transfer but if it's unsuccessful we will have to do a fresh egg transfer. We shall see!!!

Back from the Dr

So I'm back.

Well, I've been back from my appointment for about 2 1/2 hours now, but DAMN it was at 8am so when I got home I went back to sleep! Hey, I had to get up at 6:45am on a Saturday, not cool. Ok, not to mention that, AND DON'T LAUGH AT ME, when I left the Dr's office I totally got lost coming home! I know what you're thinking..."Why didn't you just go back the way you came?" Good question. Well, I did. Sort of. Look, it's a long story and if you've ever driven in the DFW metroplex then you know it can be confusing! (We're not even gonna mention that I'm totally direction senseless anyways!) Whatever.

Back to the point. I got my labs drawn and then had my ultrasound. Ouch! to "Tammy" that drew my blood...talk about waking someone up in the morning! My lining was measuring @ 6.9mm and my clinic wants it to be between 10-11 to be "optimal for transfer". So of course my clinic in CO called me after they got my results back (thanks for waking me from the best nap ever!) and they told me that I will need to add Estrace to my "regimen" and continue with my estrogen patches as well. Estrace is just another form of estrogen except I will be inserting it vaginally. (Do u know how long I sat here before I typed that "V" word? lol. It just sounds gross to me. Whatever) Anyway, so I'll have to go back to the Dr on Friday to get my lining checked again. I sure hope it's where it needs to be at that point. I kind of expected it to be "thin" today since on my last surrogacy attempts it was thin at this point, but I was hopeful, so I'm a little discouraged. But I guess that's the beauty of a "mock cycle", you get to adjust your meds accordingly.

So that's my update for today. I'm off to help put together a 25th anniversary party! TTYL!

Well It's About Time!

It only took 4 months, but we FINALLY have the contract done!! I know, I know...you're saying "Krystal, why have you been doing all of this stuff without a contract in place?" My answer to that is...well...MYOB! I have my reasons, but all of that doesn't matter anymore cuz we're done! No more negotiations, no more "I'll have my lawyer call your lawyer", and most importantly no more worrying about a damn contract! Whew! You have no idea, that's such a load off my back! Now I can go on about my day without that lingering in the back of my mind.

Just to recap, I go back to the monitoring clinic on Saturday for an u/s and bloodwork and to be quite honest I'm not really sure what's after that...I did receive some "extra" medication when my Estrogen patches arrived. It was Prometrium and if I were to guess, I'd say that I'll be putting those nice, not so little, pills in my, uh, (TMI ALERT) vjayjay, if all goes well after my next appointment. I asked the nurse about them and she said "oh don't worry about those, we will let you know when you need to start on them." Whatever. I'm just ready to get to the transfer already!!! Can't I at least get a tentative date??! Ugh. This whole surrogacy thing is just a lot of hurry up and wait......and I don't like to WAIT! Sigh. Ok, I'm done being a brat.

Have a good night to all (3) of my loyal followers! Lol.

**Hey! Speaking of followers, if you're getting this thru ur email could you at least take the time to click on that little link at the bottom of the email and go to leave me a comment? I feel like I'm talkin' to myself. I'm just sayin'...**

All done!

I'm back from the RE (reproductive endocrinologist); try saying that 5 times fast! After waiting (impatiently) [okay, yea, I may have been 15 minutes late (thank you I-35), but in my mind I should have still been called back as soon as I got there!], I was called back 30 minutes later and, praise the heavens, only got one stick! Hallelujah to Nina and the nice silver-haired nurse (sorry can't remember your name even though you had a big, bright, blue name tag on!) that drew my blood.
I go back on the 11th for more bloodwork and an ultrasound to check the thickness of my lining. After that appointment I'll know whether or not my meds need to be adjusted and we will hopefully be on our way to setting an actual transfer date! :)

Oh yea! I forgot to tell you the best news... I don't have to take those BIG A$$ progesterone shots!! WOO HOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The clinic I'm going to actually gives you a choice as to if you want to do the injections or the suppositories. Um, DUH!! I can't believe, if given the choice, that people would actually choose to do the shots. It's like "here, Krystal, you can do these shots, that only have a TWO INCH NEEDLE, once a day in your a$$ muscle that hurt like a mofo, and leave you sore for 2 days, oh and by the way, if you inject them too fast you get a metalic taste in your mouth OOOOR you can do a suppository 3 times a day in your (TMI) vjayjay and be done." Hmmm...lemme think....

Sittin' here watin'

...waiting @ the RE ofc. Traffic sucked getting here!! Please, Lord, don't let them make me a pin cushion!
U know u will hear about it...

Mock Cycle Begins

I'm all "cleared" from the clinic! (Guess I fooled that psych test pretty well!) :)

Now I start my "mock cycle"...What is a mock cycle? I'm glad you asked!
In a nutshell a mock cycle is basically a "practice run". I am put on the same estrogen medication that I'd be on if I were going to do a real transfer, I go in for blood work and ultrasounds to get my lining checked and that way the Dr's will know if the meds are the correct dosage or if they need to tweak anything. Once they know what will work THEN I stop the meds and start all over again for the real thing.

Kinda cumbersome, but it makes sense. I mean, why would you go in blind for such an important thing? Anywho, I start on estrogen patches tomorrow and I have a check-up on the 1st and the 11th. We'll see how it goes! Hopefully we'll be having a transfer by the end of October. I'll keep ya posted.

This Is What Persistence Looks Like!

Some of you may know that I have been through the ringer with my insurance situation! United started saying that they would not cover a surrogate pregnancy and I was getting conflicting answers when I would call in to ask. They had previously sent me a denial letter in the mail to which I appealed about a month ago and guess what I got today???? A letter from United stating that the decision has been overturned and they will cover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am beyond excited and can't wait to share the info with my IP's! When we got the denial they just decided to get another insurance so that we could get the ball rolling and they didn't want to wait for an appeal decision b/c they just figured it would be the same answer. This will save them such an expense and I'm glad I took the time to appeal...I guess persistence does pay off...

WOO HOO!!!

The Medical Screening

I'll try to make this brief...

Went to Colorado on Thursday night after work...stewardess, airline hostess, flight attendant, whatever you wanna call her was a TOTAL BEEYOTCH! Talk about someone that hates their job...
Then when we get to the airport and some sleeze-bag a**hole of a salesman is trying to sell us something and apparently we didnt give him the answer he wanted to hear so he proceeds to degrade any person (including us) that doesn't want to listen to his sales pitch. Kevin (LITERALLY) had to hold me back...or else this blog would be coming from Colorado State Prison....
NTWAYZ... got to the hotel around 9pm (10pm our time), took a shower, went to bed...got up at 6:30am! (so we'd have time to eat breakfast)...had to be at the clinic at 8am, we got there at 7:30. The clinic was really nice, unlike any other "clinic" I'd seen before...they were very prompt and didn't keep us waiting for anything. I had 8 appt's in one day!
7:40a - Got an ultrasound 1st (that was deemed "okay")
8:15a - Had a hysteroscopy done (interesting) (also "okay")
8:45a - "Formally" met with the Dr....which is kind of weird b/c you'd think the "formal" meeting would come BEFORE he was all up in my stuff....anyway.......
9:30a - Psychologist Consult....(again, interesting...amazingly enough I was still deemed "okay") lol
10:30a - Nurse Consult...the IM came for this part, it was nice to have her there...we got A LOT of information and questions answered.
11:30a - Labs for both Kevin and I...this time Kevin was the pin cushion! :) He got stuck 3 or 4 times! YIKES!
12:00p - MMPI...(Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), in layman's terms, I had to take a long ass 597 question "personality assessment!" FML.
12:45p - Just when I thought I was done....I had to take ANOTHER FRIGGIN test!!!! (called a PAI; Personality Assessment Inventory) Oh, but this time it was only 396 questions. FML.

Let me give you a little example of a few of the crazy a$$, random questions that were on these tests:

T/F:  I often contemplate what I would write in a suicide note.        WTF!?
T/F: I would like to work as a mechanic                                            Really?
T/F: I oftentimes find myself angry for no reason at all                   Hmm?
Some of the questions were understandable, but 98% of them were absoulte BS! And then they throw in words like "often, seldom, mostly" (and sometimes all in the same sentence!) i.e. I often think about seldomly killing animals most of the time (not a real question, but u get my drift)... and you're left totally confused...I think the test is made to make you look like a loon!

Well, we finally got out of there at about 1:30. I swear I was about to change my mind about everything if I would have had to take ONE MORE FKN TEST! I felt like I was taking the SAT all over again.
Anyway, then we went to this yummy Italian restaurant for lunch and went to the airport. So, no, not a vacation; for those of you that may have been disillusioned.
Plane was delayed by an hour and a half. Didn't get home until about 11pm.
Now we have to wait 2 weeks for the labs and looney tests to come back, for "clearance". After that I will start on all the fun meds. Lol.
I'm hopeful that will be by the end of this month.
...that wasn't very "brief" was it.... :)

Let the fun begin

http://www.babyfit.com/mypage.asp?id=KRYSTALW4 - So here's the link to my former blog on Babyfit just in case you need to catch up on what's going on.

For those of you that know what's up, here's the update...

After I had the miscarriage (at 7 weeks) on March 25th, the couple decided that they no longer wanted to pursue surrogacy as an option (at least that's what the agency told me). So after many visits to my OB for check-ups he determined that I didn't need a D&C (Click here if you don't know what a D&C is) and he cleared me. On April 26, I contacted the surrogacy agency letting them know that I wanted to be put back on the "available surrogate" list. On April 29th I had a potential match! I was a conglomerate of emotions. I couldn't believe that this was happening so fast. I was on the list for over a year before I got matched with my first couple.
Anyway, the new IP's, Kevin, and I had a "meeting" over the phone on May 13th which went very well and we all decided to meet each other! They came over to our house on May 19th and we talked for a few hours, they met the girls, and it was a really great "first meeting". We decided that we both liked each other (thankfully) and wanted to move forward to the next step.
Contracts. Ugh!
This is one of the most important aspects of any surrogate arrangement, but it's also the most boring and tedious! In the middle of contract agreements we were dealt a crazy blow. The agency called me and said that my insurance would not cover the surrogacy...without going into a rant about how the insurance company is a piece of sh!t, I will just say that it is being handled. And in the meantime the IP's have elected to get their own coverage for me. (Thank God)

So now here's where we are: We (Kevin and I) are going to Colorado on August 6th to get our medical screenings done. (The IM might come too!) The IP's are local to us, but they chose a clinic in Colorado b/c of their wonderful statistics and reputation. (They are rated #1 in the nation) I know it's just the "screening" process, but I am super excited!! The IM is too, we are just so ready for everything to be started already! After we are cleared by the clinic in Colorado I'm not too sure of their specific process, but if I base it off of my last time I will be starting meds pretty soon. I will assume that we will probably have a transfer done in late September, early October, but I don't know for sure yet.
I'm sure I have much more to say, but this is already longer than I anticipated, so I'll TTYL!