Well, it’s official!  I’m pregnant!  The IVF worked!  After some discussion, we decided that it would be best that I stay at home and raise our baby.  It will be hard to give up school, but it is only for a while.  Rob’s looking at getting an appointment to the Naval Post Graduate school in Monterey, CA and he will be starting school in less than a year.  It isn’t practical for me to continue school while he’s in school.  Someone needs to raise our kid!  So, anyway, it looks like I will be leaving school at the end of this semester.  School will always be there, but there will only be one time to raise my baby.

I thought this day would never come, but it did…it came today.  We got 42 eggs from our donor.  ICSI was performed on the eggs and we will know tomorrow how many of the fertilizations took.  I’m very excited.  Hopefully the little embryos grow out to day 5 and that we can transfer 2 and freeze the rest for later or for a friend of mine who may end up adopting them.  We’ll see what happens! 🙂

Well, it’s going to happen.  And happen soon.  We are now on donor #4 and she is starting to take her medications and I am going to start putting on my patches pretty soon.  Transfer will be the week of June 13th.  I’m pretty excited, but nervous at the same time.  It will most likely be on that following Saturday, but can’t say for sure until we get closer to that time.  Based on past experience, she will have the retrieval on Monday the 13th.

Well, anyway, probably need to get some stuff done around here and get busy studying.  Trying to enjoy my day off as much as possible!

Well, it’s official!  I started Nursing school this past week.  Didn’t do a whole lot, just got through orientation.  Start classes on Monday!  Hubby’s home for RnR.  Too bad I won’t be able to spend a whole lot of time with him while he’s here.  We’ve already lost 2 days due to orientation and I have to study all weekend.  He’s being really good to me.  Fixing stuffed bell peppers…yummy!  One of my favorite meals!

Well, I’m off to finish some math/conversion problems and start reading the next three chapters.  Perhaps I’ll be pretty close to done today so I can spend tomorrow with the hubby!

Okay, so I just wanted to blog a little bit about what’s been happening in my life for the last couple of weeks and to fill in some of the holes.

I had originally registered with a website to find an egg donor.  I have Premature Ovarian Failure (POF) and I am unable to have a child of my own without the assistance of an egg donor.  My doctor and nurse have steered me in an anonymous donor situation.  I have had 2 failed referrals.  The first donor that was referred backed out before anything ever started.  She had been referred and then abruptly changed her mind.  I was heart broken.  So, a few weeks later, we received another referral who was medically unfit.  She was over 30 BMI and blood work wasn’t within acceptable ranges.  So, I was told that I would need to get another referral.  The same day that I was told I needed a new referral, a friend of mine from high school offered to be a gamete donor for my husband and I.  I had already been thinking that I would maybe ask her if she would be willing to donate for us (she’s offered in the past) before she offered this time, but still beat me to the punch.  Then, I posted a video about known vs anonymous donors on facebook and it turned out that it was her BOSS talking about it.

I actually really love the idea of a known donor.  I will get to know her and ask the silly questions that I had for the other donors, but was afraid to ask.  Like, does she like black licorice? and what is her MBTI or enneagram type?  or can she roll her tongue and does she have a curved thumb or straight thumb?  I know these questions might seem trite to some people, and it’s really not “important” stuff, but it’s stuff that I find interesting about people.  Did you know that MBTI is considered heritable traits and enneagram types are how a person learns to deal with the world.  I would venture to guess that enjoying black licorice is a recessive trait, as I know more people who dislike black licorice than do.  My grandmother and I both like it, but no one else in my family does.  The curved thumb thing is also a recessive trait and the t0ngue thing is a dominant trait.  Here’s a whole list of traits http://faculty.southwest.tn.edu/jiwilliams/Human_Traits.htm and I just find it interesting, plus I’m studying Genetics this term, so, it’s on my mind.

I love the fact that a kid that will come out of this will have a very large family.  My lucky number is 3.  And that’s the number of families this kid will have.  I don’t even know my child yet, but I do know that I love them already and so does my husband and they will know how much my donor loved us to give us a precious gift.  They’ll live with me and my husband, but just as you are connected to your grandparents and aunts and uncles, this child will so be connected with this other group of people and it’s not really fair to take them out of the equation.  The kid should have the opportunity to decide later on what kind of relationship he or she chooses to have with this extended family, if any at all, but my donor and I have not made that decision for them at the outset.  Access to medical history, is of course a concern, but also my friend also has 6 children of her own and a surro-son, through traditional surrogacy.  Her own children are of the age that they understand the wonderful thing she is doing, providing something that someone else needs, selflessly.

I like the fact that my child will know where they come from, as so many donor-conceived children don’t.  I would venture to say that the vast majority don’t know that they are donor-conceived.  I like the fact that my family can be involved with this process and that they are so very supportive.  I like that once the retrieval is done, the process isn’t over between my donor and I.  The Chinese believe that there is a tiny, not quite visible, red thread, that connect people who belong together.  I love that thought.  What N & I didn’t know all those years ago, was that there was a little red-thread that connected us.  Funny where life leads you, but you have to go where you’re lead, right?

My all-time favorite author is Richard Russo.  He wrote Empire Falls, my all time favorite book.  He says, “Lives are like rivers: they go where they must, not where we want them to.”

I come back to school next week with three exams to look forward to.  Hum, look forward to?  I’m not sure about that, but will be glad when they’re done.  I kind of have myself into a little routine for my weekly exams in pathopsy, but completely unprepared for the next two which are both on Thursday.  Professors are cruel beings.

Update on my donor.  We had to get a different one because the first one freaked out and decided not to go through with it.  In a way, I’m glad that she decided she didn’t want to do it when she did and start the meds and THEN decide that she doesn’t want to be a donor after all.  My hubs and I found a new girl and she seems very excited about the process.  She’s got three kids and a husband.  Got a call from the agency and she went in for her day 3’s and had an ultrasound which made us very hopeful.  Will try and call my RE and see if they can let me know how the blood work came out and when she goes in for her FDA blood work.

In just a couple of months, hopefully, there will be teeny tiny embryos to implant!  It’s all very exciting.  Just wanted to give you a quick update!

UPDATE:

This donor was found to be medically unfit for egg donation due to abnormal blood work.  See the next post for a full update.

I come back to school next week with three exams to look forward to.  Hum, look forward to?  I’m not sure about that, but will be glad when they’re done.  I kind of have myself into a little routine for my weekly exams in pathopsy, but completely unprepared for the next two which are both on Thursday.  Professors are cruel beings.

Update on my donor.  We had to get a different one because the first one freaked out and decided not to go through with it.  In a way, I’m glad that she decided she didn’t want to do it when she did and start the meds and THEN decide that she doesn’t want to be a donor after all.  My hubs and I found a new girl and she seems very excited about the process.  She’s got three kids and a husband.  Got a call from the agency and she went in for her day 3′s and had an ultrasound which made us very hopeful.  Will try and call my RE and see if they can let me know how the blood work came out and when she goes in for her FDA blood work.

In just a couple of months, hopefully, there will be teeny tiny embryos to implant!  It’s all very exciting.  Just wanted to give you a quick update!

>One of my professors passed away this week.  I didn’t know him very well.  I wish I had.  For some reason, his death has really hit me hard.  He was about the same age as my dad.  My dad has some health issues, as well.

>What a hell-of-a-long-semester.  Forever busy and I can’t stop playing around on facebook.  I am going to have to stop some of those games that I play because it is all time consuming and wasteful.  This week is midterms and then Spring Break.  If I can make it through this week unscathed, it will be a miracle and a half.  I’m doing really well at this point, but I have a feeling that this week’s exams are going to kill me.  I’m worried about my Genetics and Pathophys exams.  Not worried at all about my First Aid exam…the instructor already gave us all of the questions and answers for that one…yeah, wow!  I don’t care for that class, but I need my Red Cross certification for the Nursing program…speaking of, I need to get some titers done and TB tests done and blah blah blah.

Nothing really new in this world.  Hubby’s still deployed and it’s just me and my dogs and cat hanging out, enjoying the ride.  This weekend starts daylight savings.  As if I wasn’t having enough problems getting up in the morning, this ought to make it easier…lol…that was sarcasm, just in case you hadn’t already figured that out…

Alright, then, I’ve set my clocks and damn it’s getting late.

>Well, my husband and I have selected a donor and we’ve done most of the legal things that need to be completed.  There are just a couple of more things that we need to get emailed and then we’re set for a bit.

Our donor will stop her birth control pills this week and  in about 30 days, she’ll go in for genetic testing and hormone level checks.  After that, the following month, we will start the cycle.  I’m a little excited for this.

My husband will be home for mid-tour leave in May and by that time, I should be pregnant.  He might even be home to find out the results with me!  That would be pretty neat!  🙂

Back to school and aced the 1st Pathophys exam on Tuesday.  I couldn’t, to this point, say that I’ve ever aced an exam before!  I lost my confidence last semester, but I think I’m getting it back now.

Everything is going really fast in school right now; I’m not sure I can keep up with everything!  Gotta stay on top of things, that’s the important thing…

My to do list for the next week:

1. Study for Pathophys exam #2 for Tues
2. Homework for Genetics
3. Lab report for Anatomy Lab
4. Homework for Med. Terminology
5. Start working on my journal for Micro

Not to mention that I need to clean my house.  My kitchen table has become the dumping ground for all sorts of things and I have no place to sit in the kitchen.  My kitchen counters have become the place for books, papers and old shoes.  I have laundry that desperately needs to be washed, although, I do have an awful lot of clothes.  I need a plan…I don’t even a have a “pl”

I think it’s about time that I close my facebook, turn off the TV and get to work…I think that’s what I’m going to do…