Facation 2011

"Honeymoon or facation?," was the question we were asked our entire vacation. We spent 5 days in the Riviera Maya at Royal Hideaway, a couples resort. I would say 25% of the guests were honeymooners so being younger we were asked that question over and over. "Facation," is how the natives say vacation....and we thought it was so cute! We had a wonderful time and this trip was planned for relaxation purposes only. We got a couples massage and spent most of our afternoons at the pool and beach. Neither of us had been to Riviera Maya and I have to vouch that these are the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen in Mexico. The locals and resort staff were so accommodating and so happy to have Americans visit their country. Though it is an iffy time to go with all we hear on the news; I feel the deeper you go in to the country especially in to resort cities the safer and more accommodating the people are. Overall a great trip and much needed relaxation time for us before the new school year starts.
This week I have workshops; I always save them for the later part of the summer to pump me up before the school year kicks off. I also got the news today that in vitro round 2 injections start next Tuesday! This snuck up on us....and we're very excited to start this again. It was nice to have July off to catch my breath and do some of the summer stuff I enjoy -- i.e. mojitos....so this weekend marks the last whoorah....alcohol-wise for me. Soooo I'll have to come up with something -- I'm sure we'll try to head out to the lake for a couple of days.
Yesterday was round 1 of acupuncture. I have read a lot of articles correlating acupuncture with increased success rates for in vitro and hey for 80$....that's practically free at this point! I can't describe acupuncture in words....it's different for sure and certainly more relaxing the second day than immediately following the treatment....I don't know if this is something I will continue in my regular life but hey my Dr. said it couldn't hurt me and if does nothing more than raise my spirits, attitude and confidence with this round then it is worth the time and money. I'll do one more long treatment and 2 shorter treatments the night before the embryo transfer and one immediately following the transfer when I leave the Dr.'s office and before I begin the bed rest stage. (The transfer is expected to take place the last full week of August). So summed up it's a new approach, new types of drugs, a new regimen and I'm a problem-solver type of person with a scientific mentality....I need new variables in my equation when doing something for the second time. : )

4th of July!

We spent the holiday weekend in Ruidoso with Dustin's dad, Lisa, Dallas, Katie, Ashley, Amber, my mom and dad and a slew of other Levelland-ers. I got to meet Kyna and Nate's sweet baby boy, Gage, while we were in Ruidoso --- aka Jimmy Martin Junior. He is absolutely adorable and is such a good baby.
We went to the horse races, did some shopping in town and spent our evenings / early mornings in the casino. This was the first time ever I had been to Ruidoso and practically everyone won!
The weather was cool and at night COLD....a great change of pace and scenery for us! On the 4th we watched the Brooks' horse run, Chochaluco (spell check!) -- pictures above.
Dustin had to return to San Antonio to work on Tuesday morning and I stayed for an extra day to see my friends. We had a great dinner catching up with each other and got to see Finley all grown up (from the last time I saw him). He's beginning to say a few words, very active, walking and curious.
This morning I had my Saline Test to check for polyps and I am perfectly healthy and polyp free!
We've been yearning for a break from it all... a getaway of sorts so last night we booked The Royal Hideaway for 5 days in mid July. http://www.royalhideaway.com/index2.asp It's adult only and well we hope this is the last trip we make that we can book an adult only resort.
: )
Hope you all had a wonderful 4th with your friends and family!

A new day & plan

We went to consult with Dr. Neal again this morning. We needed some answers, suggestions and a plan. He was just as disappointed as we were with the result because everything through the embryo transfer was "perfect," in their words. We looked at the embryos that we froze and found that the 7 that made it to the blastocyst stage were all "fair" or "good" in grade (another words they were "B's" and "A's"). We're going to thaw two embryos and do the transfer the week of August 29th. This time it will not be near as exhausting as I have already done the egg retrieval portion. I will have three sonograms & blood tests prior to the transfer and they begin on August 2nd. Next week I am scheduled for a Saline Hysterogram (FCSA) for them to ensure nothing is going on such as polyps. He didn't feel there was a need for this but suggested it as a peace of mind and another "rule out" tactic. I am nervous about doing this all at the beginning of school but I am just going to have to prioritize things. He said the percentages were a little lower doing the transfer with the frozen embryos but nothing majorly significant and he also reemphasized that everyone reacts to everything differently. He has had patients not ever get pregnant after the egg retrieval but has gotten pregnant with the frozen embryos -- so really it's an unknown game and we need some luck this time! I will be using hormone patches and Lupron injections prior to this transfer so less shots! We will still be transferring 2 embryos. We were one of the fortunate few that insurance picked up the costs of our drugs and we have a lot left over from the stimulation portion and we're going to donate them to our clinic to use at their discretion with patients in need. Our nurse, Kris, told us today that they have a lot of newly diagnosed cancer patients that come to their office for quick stimulation and egg retrieval so they are able to preserve fertility through chemotherapy and Dustin looked at me and said...."wow at least we're not in that boat." And that is so true -- we're healthy and that doesn't have a price tag. If push comes to shove in this process we can always adopt, and for now we feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to continue with this costly process. We're so very thankful we live in San Antonio and now see the reason behind Dustin getting his job here...I don't think we could find such a caring clinic and Dr.'s that are well respected in this field if we lived anywhere else. If we still lived in Levelland/Lubbock I don't even know if we would have these options and opportunities...so everything does happen for a reason.
For now -- we get to enjoy July. We're busy every weekend this month so time should fly by. We're going to Levelland Thursday and then on to Ruidoso Friday through the 4th and then Dustin is going to fly back to San Antonio to work and I am going to stay in Levelland to catch up with friends...but will return to San Antonio for my Saline Hysterogram that is scheduled for July 7th. I am no longer bound to San Antonio and feel I need to exercise this right! The following weekend we're going with the Adcocks to the coast and this gives us two fun weekends to look forward to and help us "move on." Thank you all for your calls and texts...we're doing ok. On the bright side of things...the anxiousness has been lifted from our shoulders and we got a good solid night's rest last night that I think we both really needed!

It didn't work...

Well as many of you know by now the June cycle of In Vitro did not work.... we are in shock and are of course extremely upset. We have a Dr.'s appointment tomorrow morning to figure out what our next step is and hopefully answer some questions. It has not been a good day at the Brooks' House, but we thank you all for your wonderful support and prayers. We will pick ourselves back up but need some time to heal. We don't understand this -- everything as you can read from previous posts went perfect and we do have 7 embryos frozen and are going to figure out our options with them. We will keep you posted! Love, - D & H

Anxious

4 days to go! We have been overall pretty calm and relaxed these two weeks but it certainly is always on our mind. I'm ready to know and hope these next days fly by! I have had headaches and acne...blaaa. Hope these are good signs??!! Guess we'll wait and see.... Monday is the big day. I will go in for a blood test only and they will call with the results. Depending on the result will depend on what our next step is. For now....we're cautiously optimistic!

4 years

This past Thursday was our 4 year anniversary. Time has flown! It really does seem like only yesterday.... We went to Grey Moss Inn for dinner between Boerne and Helotes. It was a very quaint and romantic place....and it is quite amazing how cheap your bill is when you don't have wine on your tab!
This weekend The Brooks (after 4 years as a Brooks I'm still not sure how to make our name plural: Brookses?? Too weird...) came to San Antonio for a weekend Father's Day celebration. We had some wonderful food and went to Boerne to shop on Saturday. But overall had a relaxing weekend catching up with JoeDee, Lisa, Ashley and Amber.
7 days and counting.... I have planned lots of evening outings and dinners for us this week to keep us busy. We got the news on Friday that 7 of our embryos made it to the blastocyst stage and were frozen for our later use if need be!

Embryo Transfer

The embryo transfer went perfectly yesterday. I had my relaxation medication they preferred me to take and I certainly believe that aided in yesterday's success. We had all 13 embryos grow to greater than 4 cells and the lab director literally told us it was a random pick they were making because they all looked so good. All of our embryos were graded "B," with "A" being the best and they rarely see all embryos be in the grade of "B," often times the grade is much lower. The grading system has a number of things they take into account but for our case the "B" was awarded because not all of the cells in the clusters were the exact same size. Seems a little picky to me...
We transferred two embryos that had 8 cells each simply because statistically the 8 cell embryos have more data of successful implantation. Still not quite sure why we wouldn't have transferred the 11 & 10 cell embryos but those will likely be frozen for future use if need be. We will know how many of the remaining embryos made it to the blastocyst stage and can be frozen, tomorrow.
Above is a picture of one of the embryos we transferred. The sonogram picture is of the embryos after the transfer is complete. Don't worry we can't really see much either. The arrow is pointing to an identifying liquid so that the Dr.'s know the embryos left the tube.
Dustin cried the entire day yesterday, he has just been filled with emotion. We both cried on the way to the appointment and he was able to stay in the room while the transfer was being conducted so as soon as I was left to recover he cried some more.....very sweet! It has just been a long road for us and we're both overwhelmed with joy for the opportunity!
I have felt exceptionally well which has made it that much harder to be on "bed rest." Daytime TV is just terrible! And who knew Regis and Kelly were canceled from the networks in San Antonio....rrruuuurrrr. Tomorrow I have an outing for a pedicure and lunch with Leslie so something to look forward to!
Today I have been a little emotional with the thoughts of: what if this doesn't work, etc., but I am sure that is natural to be questioning everything, but I am quick to remind myself of how well the transfer went, how pleased the Dr.'s were with the embryo and my body's reaction to my drugs.....so for now I am trying to stay positive and sane! 13 days....until the pregnancy test = torture! Thank you all again for your wonderful support and prayers!