Today's Ultrasounds

I had my baseline and water ultrasounds and it looks like we wont be starting our injections tomorrow. When it comes to our fertility Jeremy and I are always a hit and miss, its like if one thing is going right there's one thing that's not. Its never smooth sailing so I guess we should have expected a tiny speed bump so here it is.

On the baseline ultrasound they checked my ovaries and the outer part of the uterus. My right ovary already had 12 follicles forming on its own which is good. My left ovary had a least two cysts on it. "Funny thing is all through treatment last year I never had one cyst and now boom two like I said road bump" and then the outer part of the uterus (the lining) was measuring a 6 which isn't to bad needs to be below a 4 which it would have gotten to within the cycle. 

On the water ultrasound they fill the uterus with water to check for any abnormalities in doing this they did find two masses that they are calling fibroid's (meaning)- its around "knot" of uterine muscle growing on the uterine wall. Which makes its very difficult for an embryo to grow in the uterus. So in order to move forward with treatment we will need to have them removed through a procedure called Hysteroscopy where they will thread a small camera though the cervix up into the uterus for the the Doctor to observe the growths and then remove them by something they call scrapping the uterus. This will help remove the growths and thin the lining making it a little easier for the embryos to stick to the uterus for implantation. 

So after all that said here's the good news. We are doing a freeze all cycle. Where they are just growing the follicles/eggs and then fertilizing them like I've stated in past posts and since we wont be transferring the embryos into the uterus right away we will do the hysteroscopy sometime after the retrieval  date and before transfer date. I'll go in for another ultrasound on Monday August 1st to recheck the lining of the uterus and draw blood to check my estrogen levels to see where we stand with the two cysts and we'll go from there .

All of our dates will change from what we thought they were going to be. The thing with infertility is that its totally unpredictable and can change on a day to day week to week bases. We'll keep you all updated as we continue down the bumpy road of journey this is just one road block. There are sure to be more we still have a long winding road ahead of us but we are staying optimistic. 

Thank You for all your continued love and support 

A little quote I found to get me through hearing this today.

Medication Arrived Today

We finally have all of our medication, all of our fertility injections arrived today in that big box below. Oh my we're so ready for this. I just wanted to do a quick post to show everyone
whats ahead of us for the next couple weeks.

This is all the medication we are both on

All the injections are for me (Shalamar)

The second picture shows all the medications Jeremy and I are on (Orally & Injections). The calendar on the left side of the picture is our treatment plan. Its use is to help us to know when to start and stop medications. The other paper on the right has all of my doctors visits for the next three weeks.

So to go over the medications real quick in the third picture. 

• Top left side is the Gonal F its the FSH hormone that stimulates the ovaries to grow follicles/eggs. I will take this medication for 10 days straight. 
• Next to the gonal going right is a medication called Catrotide its the ovulation suppressant
• Next to that is all the syringes to be used 
• Bottom Left side starts with Lupron and next to that is the HCG injection they are used together to induce ovulation 24-48 hrs before egg retrieval.
• Next is just the alcohol swabs, gauze, the sharps container, and the needles
• last on the row is Menapor which will be used with the Gonal for 10-11 days 

All these medications are on top of all the oral meds we are already taking. except the birth control that ended today and the z-packs that end tomorrow. 

We are due to start the injections on Saturday. Woooohoooo bring on the shots and the hormonal roller coaster. My poor hubby!!! I do love him so!!! He is so strong!!! He will be the one who gets to endure the brunt of this wind of emotions he is my rock and although he doesn't have to go through all the shots, doctors visits and pain he is going to go through his own wave of emotions. This treatment is going to be an amazing journey and I am happy to be going through it with this wonderful man. 

I have my first official IVF appointment on Friday. Where I will meet with the anesthesiologist to hopeful get cleared for egg retrieval. Then I'll have the baseline ultrasound to check for cysts on the ovaries and check the lining of the uterus. As well as a water ultrasound that will check the uterus for its shape and if there are any polyps and they'll draw some blood. If all goes well we'll start injections. 

HERE WE GO!!!

Here We GO!!!
On Friday we turned in all of our consent forms and received our final calendar. It's official we start treatment now... So from this day on I'll start taking a prenatal vitamin (which I've been on forever now), Baby Aspirin 81mg low dose, & CoQ10 to help with healthy egg quality. These medication along with the Metformin, and two other medications will continue all the way through treatment. Below is roughly how our calendar will play out.

• July 20-27 I'll start the birth control
• July 24-28 Jeremy and I will both start a z-pack to clear any infection that may or may not be in our systems.
• July 29 I will go in for a baseline ultrasound & water ultrasound along with blood work
• July 30 MY BIRTHDAY!!! :)- August 8 I'll start two separate inject-able medications  
• Blood work days will be Aug 1 & 4 
• Ultrasound days to count and measure follicles Aug 4-6-7-8
• by Aug 4th We should have mulitple follicles and they say by Aug 6th my ovaries will reach the size of oranges. So by this day its pretty much try and stay as comfortable as possible and take it super easy.
• On Aug 4th we could possibly start a new medication to stop early ovulation like I stated in a past post we don't want my body to start ovulation early it will mess up the whole treatment plan. So this medication will stop it and then when all the follicles are ready they will do a shot of HCG and that will trigger ovulation.
• Aug 8 is the day we mostly will use the HCG to trigger 
• Aug 9 Jeremy will take another antibiotic 
• Aug 10 RETRIEVAL DAY-  on this day we will go to the our Dr. office and they will put me under lite anesthesia and go in and retrieve all the follicles surgically. Its about 45 mins or so then I'll be sent home to rest. on this day Jeremy will give his sample and they say about 4 hours after the retrieval they will inject each egg with a sperm through a procedure called ICSI Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection. 
• Aug 11 We will receive a fertilization report on how many eggs were fertilized.
• Aug 13 they will call us with a day 3 embryo report to let us know how our little embryos are growing and what their cell counts are.
• Aug 15 One last embryo report on how many made it through the 5 day incubation period in the lab and then they will be frozen. 
• Here is a link to our clinics webpage about the IVF fertilization process if your interested https://www.utahfertility.com/infertility-diagnosis-treatment/in-vitro-fertilization-salt-lake-city-utah/

After the IVF process we will be doing a Frozen Embryo Transfer (FET) which will take place 4-6 weeks after the retrieval day which is Aug 10. At this time I will be put back on the birth control to control my hormones. When its time I will be taken off the birth control and it will start all over again with a cycle day 3 baseline ultrasound but instead of the medication to grow follicles we will start medication to get my body for the Transfer of the embryos back into my uterus (ideally we are wanting to transfer two embryos but that is all upon contingency that we are able to freeze mulitple embryos on Aug 15).

Oh My Gosh we are so excited for this but totally scared. We have been staying positive and staying completely stress free. After such a long wait we have so many conflicting emotions from "Yes!!! We're doing this" to "CRAP we're really doing this" to "What if this doesn't work" to "Oh My what if it does". We can't really describe all the emotions we are currently feeling but we can tell you this we feel your love & your prayers. Your support is making this journey so much easier then it would have been if we would have done it alone.

We are truly blessed and so grateful for every single one of you who keep sending your love, support, and prayers. Thank You We can't wait to keep you all updated on our progress and as always keep an eye out for updates they will be coming more often now.

Love Jeremy & Shalamar 

Please if you ever have any question about stuff that's going on feel free to ask us. We seriously don't mind answering them.

Exciting Update

So we know we said we would be starting treatment in September, But we are happy to announce that we are starting early. We have an appointment tomorrow with our IVF coordinator in Pleasant Grove. We will go and take all of our consent forms and talk to her about our IVF calendar which will map out our whole treatment plan from day one to transfer day. We will also be getting another semen analysis done to make sure we have no problems on that end since my body is giving us trouble already Cycle Day 1 for me suppose to be July 3 and I was suppose to start the birth control when I started, well here we are almost 2 weeks late "Nope we're not pregnant" my body is just being stubborn meaning I didn't ovulate last month so that means no cycle. So most likely tomorrow at our appointment our coordinator will prescribe me a medication called Provera which will force my body to start. Once I do, I will call her and start the birth control for about 3-4 weeks then once I stop taking it, cycle day 1 should come shortly after where I will call her again to set us a cycle day 3 baseline ultrasound which measures the lining of the uterus and makes sure there is no cyst's on the ovaries. They will also perform a water ultrasound which will measure the shape of the uterus and make sure there is no polyps any where within the uterus. On this day will start our fertility medication at this time I'm not sure what they will be or how many I'll be on until I get the calendar tomorrow.

But what I do know is that we are beyond so excited to start our first IVF. Its been such a long road   6 1/2 years and we are completely ready to go full force into this treatment. We have high hopes and are truly blessed to have so many of you praying for us and supporting us through what can a very stressful and rewarding experience. We know this treatment isn't 100% promised and know that no matter the outcome we have been blessed with such amazing families and friends. We are eternally grateful for everyone and everything you all have done with helping us with our fundraiser and continuing to help us with you love, support, and prayers

 Thank You With Love 

Shalamar & Jeremy 

Pre-order Your Tamales Now!!!

We will be doing ordering a little different, by having you place a pre-order first that way we are not over making and having to many left over.

• Orders will be first come first serve, your name and number will go on the order list and we will let you know where your order falls on that list and we will contact you with a date and time for delivery when your order is ready. 
• Tamales are a minimum of $12.00 a dozen and are only sold by the dozen
• You can order how many orders you'd like. Please keep in mind that you will be pre-ordering so please make every effort to keep your order once its placed.
• Our Tamales are bomb.com, all the reviews we have received from people who have order them Love them! on that tiny note we are by no means professionals and our tamales do vary in size, we try to keep them within a certain amount of oz.'s but again we're not professionals.
• Tamales are homemade with Pork & California red chili they are mild so everyone can enjoy them 
• We will do delivery but we will only be dedicating two days out of the week to do so.
• Last day to get your order in is July 8, 2016

We'd also like everyone to know that this is for a fundraising cause all proceeds raised are going solely to helping us have a baby through In-Vitro Fertilization. It will help with all doctors visits, medications, blood work, ultrasounds, and the IVF procedure its self. This procedure is NOT covered by our medical insurance and Its very expensive for our first round we are looking at around 13k or more depending on how my body responds to the medication.

ORDERS WILL BE READY SUNDAY JULY 10th If you'd like your order delivered please try to be available on this day the only next day that we will be doing delivery's will be July 15th after 5pm

Ordering is easy Text us 385-313-4365 or private message us on facebook 

You do not have to pre-pay only pre-order
We accept Cash or Check
Checks payable to Shalamar Graham

We are super excited to start making more tamales because they are so yummy and we love sharing a little piece of our family with yours.

Thank you
Jeremy & Shalamar