In-vitro update (on follistim) 3-23-09

“Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is infinite.” Psalm 14:5
‘Our finite minds cannot grasp God’s infinite ways of answering prayers!’


Hey prayer warriors! While I have not been able to update you in a while (too long!), I cannot thank you enough for your continued faithfulness in interceding for me and Brad. What a precious blessing you are to us – we are so grateful! Our days have been, well, nothing short of crazy lately. Every time I start to send an update I’ll think, “oh, there is SO much I want to say and share… I better wait till I have enough time to write it all.” That’s just not going to happen at the moment so I better just send out some shorter updates with the ‘highlights’ for now and try to write in the ‘extra’ on our blog or a later update.
As you guys know, we are smack dab in the middle of the in-vitro process. February we were taking birth control pills to suppress the ovaries and prevent cyst production; finishing any additional tests, and taking the potent antibiotics. March 10th we started our Lupron injection (an antagonist that suppresses your hormones and prevents spontaneous ovulation – it’s basically a menopausal drug). Then March 19th, we added the Follistim injection (a follicle stimulating hormone). We take the Lupron in the morning and Follistim at night. During this time we have also had ultrasounds and bloodwork (during the stimulating time, ‘now’, you go in for bloodwork and ultrasounds every 2-3 days for monitoring and adjusting the dosages). Sunday morning (yesterday) we had our latest bloodwork/ultrasound. On that day of this process, they expect your estradiol to be about 100-200 and mine was 461! Whoa! A little much ;) From the get-go, we have known well that my ovaries are ‘polycystic’ and ‘very sensitive’. Interesting how they won’t do a cotton-pickin’ thing by themselves, but give them just a hair too much of stimulating and they go crazy (as in multiple big cysts and hyper stimulation)! Ha! The ultrasound showed 18 follicles – alright! So here’s the deal, b/c of my sensitivity and my estradiol levels, they halved our dose of Follistim, and I’ll go back for bloodwork and ultrasound Tuesday morning instead of Wednesday. We will have to monitor very closely. We really petition your prayers with this. Hyper stimulation would be no bueno (major no bueno) – it could mean canceling the whole in-vitro cycle. We are committed to ‘Be anxious for NOTHING!’ We are not worried about all of this, but it is a legitimate concern… so what better to do then throw this concern up to our Father, Who loves us, hears us, comforts us, Who is in control, and Who knows my body better than anyone. We trust that He will fulfill His purpose in this. We are just trying to be diligent to do our part and set things up the best, for Him to best move and be glorified!
Basically we will have another week (approx.) of the Lupron and Follistim, with monitoring. When we have at least “2 @ 20” (2 follicles at 20 mm), we will do the ovidrel injection to complete the maturation of the follicles and precisely 36 hrs later do the egg retrieval. The egg retrieval is a surgery (IV sedation) where they go in with a needle aspirator and remove all of the follicles (the doctors say “it is not as bad as a laparoscopy, but worse than a dnc”. The estimated date of the egg retrieval, assuming everything goes well, would be around March 31st. I can explain more in the next update or two about the process after that. Quite an amazingly intricate, complex, and intense process! It is truly an incredible blessing to see so much of the Creation process that our amazing Creator designed, and just marvel at how He has woven us together and how He brings about life. Wow! I think the moment we begin to think we have just ‘got God figured out’, we minimize Him to about the size of a grasshopper and show our vast expanse of ignorance and limitations.
We would greatly appreciate your prayers and praises on the following:
- Praise: that He is ABLE. That He loves us b/c that is Who He is. That He IS able to immeasurably more than we can ask for or imagine, whether that is with or without children!
- Praise: for my health and how well everything has gone so far. Thank You Jesus!
- Prayer: for safe travel. It would be quite a different story if we lived where our doctor practiced, but we are 2 ½ hours away from Austin/Texas Fertility Center. So what would take up part of a morning is literally a day and a half deal (have to go in the night before b/c bloodwork must be completed by 8am following morning; then have ultrasound b/t 8 and noon, then usually have another appt or errand, etc and head home that afternoon).
- Prayer: for my body – it is handling the meds well, but I have had some unpleasant side effects (nausea, headaches, night sweats/heat flashes, etc) – please pray that the Lord would continue to protect my body from harm and that He would work in and through these drugs to bring about what they are designed to do, without the harmful side effects.
- Praise: I have the most amazing husband on earth!! (I’m really convinced of that ;) I cannot tell you how sweet, encouraging and strong he has been. He gives me all my shots (except for the ones I give myself when he cannot make it to Austin with me), and does a great job. He is so gentle and careful.
- Prayer: no hyper stimulation! No cysts!


Okay so here are a few more highlights (which will make more sense as to why things have been so crazy ;) as if in-vitro is not enough, eh?!):

Way back in the fall, my parents approached us, unexpectedly, with a job offer. I have been managing BSAK part time for 3 ½ years (while Brad has been the Wildlife Manager/Biologist for 4K). My parents offered Brad a full time position as head Ranch Manager of BSAK. It was an exciting opportunity but not an easy decision, by any means. It was tough to decide not b/c Brad didn’t want to work for my parents or manage BSAK (I know I’m a bit biased, but I would testify that my dad is the best boss in the whole world!) – but because we do love 4K, respect Luther King and his family, and this job and home was such an incredible blessing to us. After months of deliberation and prayer, we felt a peace that the Lord was leading us in the direction of the BSAK job and that He was orchestrating something very special through all of this. There will be some bittersweet in leaving this job, but we are grateful and excited with what the next chapter will hold.
With this meant that we needed to find a home! We have been searching for months for a home with a little acreage (we love the country so much and still desired a little bit of land… but not way out in the boonies like we have now (where others are reluctant to drive to and trips into town are quite a chore)). There’s a long but neat story as to how we landed on the home that we now have a contract and are due to close in about a month, but I won’t go into it all now  It is just outside of Brady city limits (but only minutes from church, schools, etc), is on a little over 4 acres, and we LOVE IT!!!!!!! We are SO excited. It has taken a lot of time and grunt work to come to this point (as the place we almost purchased was quite complicated and held some serious issues)… but well worth it. So right now we are in transition (with jobs, with home, and with life!).
You know God just continues to blow us away with the way He provides. He has been faithfully reminding us through the trenches of infertility to be anxious for nothing (tough lesson that I believe you surrender to daily) – with the issue of finding a house and the ‘timing’ of everything, coupled with in-vitro… He has allowed us a lot of practice in walking out what He has been teaching us ;) It has been good! Our God is a Good Shepherd… He knows His sheep well!
There are several other ‘smaller’ things going on, but any prayers on the above would be really really appreciated.

One more thing!!! I have updated our blog: http://milenineteen.blogspot.com
Yay! One thing I just have to mention on the blog – on the left hand column you will see some different websites and blogs. If you have the time, please click on Chad and Lana’s link. This will take you to their webpage and from there click on ‘Lana’s Journal’. She is the one I have e-mailed you about before petitioning your prayers. Her journey with cancer continues, but what an incredible hero of the faith. You WILL be strengthened, inspired, and broken through her updates. She is amazing! Please continue praying for her!


“God is good, and everything He does is good.” Psalm 119:68