Last post I wrote about the important and sometimes insane role my family has played in our family building process, but as we get closer to finding out if this last IUI worked, my sister may end up contributing in a much larger way.
What started as a joke a year ago now seems to be a reality. When I first found out about my diminished ovarian reserve, I teased my sister about being held captive to be harvested for eggs in a Young Frankenstein-like dungeon (sans Gene Wilder). We never thought we would get to the point where we are scheduling blood tests and appointments to start seeing if she is able to donate. Getting to this point clearly doesn't come over night. It's been a long process of trying other things and reassessing our options after failures. What at first seems like a wild idea or a total long shot, can suddenly become the best choice.
After our three good eggs fertilized beautifully, then fell apart in the petri-dish, I panicked. Why would that happen? Is it a fluke? If we had more eggs, say seven eggs, would those three have been the bad ones and the rest have been good? I couldn't get many answers because often there are none. We don't know why my embryos died. I took various blood tests to rule out a chromosome problem, and everything checked out fine. So what happened?
At our follow up meeting with the doc, he began immediately discussing donor eggs, but I wasn't there yet. Though he felt doing IVF again with my eggs was a fine idea, he also knew our financial situation. We would have slim chances with my diminished reserve, and we would have no funds left if it didn't work. Some people can do IVF multiple times until something works, but we can't. We have to not only assess what we have left physically and emotionally, but we have to weigh the options against our bank account.
IUI has been a good option for the last two months, because it's a much cheaper option. This last cycle we upped the dose of meds and I got six ripe follicles, my best set yet! My feeling is that if this didn't work with six eggs, it may never work. It may be time to move on. Noah is out of town for the next two weeks, so we can't jump back into another IUI as I still can't get a shot with my eyes open, let alone give them to myself, and my sister has a limited time frame. She would need to donate sooner than later.
So what's a gal to do? How do you decide when it's time to move on?
Here's a short clip of a conversation we had with my younger sis (almost 30) on New Years day. I know I'm so lucky to have her and appreciate her willingness. Also, she's a doctor so my kids would probably end up way smarter and more even tempered if we used her eggs! I really just hope she never needs a kidney!
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