Vials of signatures

In the 2 days following my surgery we had to finish up some additional testing and get all of our 30+ pages of paperwork completed and notarized before moving forward with treatment.

Surgery Day

We woke bright and early to get ready for my procedures. I was told not to eat or drink anything past 10pm the night before. I was uneasy about being put under (the last time I was given anesthesia I was 16!). We got all checked in and sat down to wait, and wait, and wait (always feels so much longer than it actually is). They always have HGTV on in the lobby so it was good that we also brought our ipods to take advantage of the wi-fi.

The nurse called my name and I said see ya later to Paul then followed her into the back. I was asked to change into one of those adorable hospital gowns and then to go empty my bladder. They got me all set up in the procedure room and the anesthesiologist  found a vein right away and got my IV all hooked up. Once Dr. W came in I was told to take 3 deep breaths -- and that is the last thing I remember.

As I slowly came out of it I shifted onto another bed that was wheeled in next to me and then taken to recovery. I was still quite groggy but awake enough to realize how insanely dry my throat was. I was offered some water or apple juice and I drank it down fast. I was parched! It was like I couldn't get enough liquid in me fast enough. Paul was brought in to sit with me for awhile while I woke up a bit more and they made sure my vitals were stable. Because my fingers were so cold the alarm on the heart rate monitor kept going off saying my heart wasn't beating enough.

Finally I was given the all clear to head home with pain killers and some individual heat packs. We got home and I sprawled out on the couch for pretty much the remainder of the day other than getting up for a drink or some food.

My soreness lasted a few days and the bleeding continued on... as I was beginning a "new" cycle since I stopped the BCPs the day before, even though I had just gotten my cycle a couple weeks before. Fun times :/

We were told everything went well and even given some photos of the procedures.

Prepping

As I mention Dr. W said at our consult that our best chance to conceive meant I should have a Hysteroscopy and a D&C to clear everything out. To prepare for these procedures I began taking Doxycycline an antibiotic twice a day for 3 days.













The day before the procedures I also took 2 Misoprostol in order get my body ready for the procedures. I stopped taking my birth control as well.

Consultation

A couple weeks later we headed back to HRC for our consult with Dr. W. He reviewed our chart with us, talked about options, told us he felt we had a good chance at becoming pregnant and then did an ultrasound to check out my innards. Since Dr. W was so positive about our odds, had all the correct credentials and great statistics we decided to move forward with this clinic. 

Dr. W said that my ovaries looked good but that I had ‘debris’ and tissue in my uterus. He explained that if we wanted to become pregnant that we would need to take care of this issue. He said our best chance was for me to have a Hysteroscopy and a D&C to clear everything out. I was instructed to call the clinic as soon as my next cycle started. I was given prescriptions for an antibiotic and birth control pills. We were also given 30 pages of legal paperwork and some orders for tests that would need to be completed before beginning the IVF process. 

We have been at a stand still for so long that it felt like we were boarding a bullet train with all of the information and instructions we were given. 

Kinda like car shopping

We have begun to attend seminars at our top fertility clinics. It is somewhat overwhelming and exciting with a splash of nerve-racking throwin in for good measure.

We attended our first seminar this past Thursday and felt comfortable with the place and liked the doctor. Since we attended their informational session they will do our initial consult for free. Once the doctor has had a chance to review our files and any new information he will decide if he feels he can help us or not. If the doctor doesn't think he can get you pregnant he won't take you on as a patient (intense!). This clinic does have "low cost" options and we would really like to qualify for one of those, if we don't we will check out our other top choices and see if we can get into any of their programs.

Here is the packet that was handed out at the seminar.

Please pray for the Lord to guide us in this decision making process

And the winners are....

For our online campaign one of the options was to be in a gift card drawing

  

Monica M- Starbucks

Sandi F- movie ticket

Sunny - Jamba Juice

Christie Ch- Jamba Juice

Juanita - Lowes

Toni T - Cold Stone

Taniguchi - movie ticket

Spencer/KJ - Subway

Maria - Starbucks

The grand prize winner of the $100 Best Buy gift card is...

Johnney C

Full Hearts

Our online campaign has come to an end and we surpassed our goal by a few bucks! Words fail me when I try to convey how much love and support we feel from our loved ones. It has been amazing to read all of the comments online, the cards we received in the mail and the well wishes given to us in person. 

For those who have participated in the online fundraiser we will be in contact with you in regards to your perks. All 5 of the 'Knowledge is Power' perks have been spoken for! We have done the gift card drawing, (witnesses to insure fairness) those who participated will be receiving their prize in the near future. 

We still have a bit of money to save up but we are so close to being able to start IVF treatments, because of our friends and families generosity and Gods faithfulness! There is still some leg work to be done in order to decide on a clinic, we will probably have to have some testing re-done since we have been out of the treatment world for a couple years. 

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we finish up saving, find a clinic and go through treatments. Pray that God would bless us with children through these treatments. One of my biggest fears is that we will have walked this road all for naught and have empty arms. Pray that my fears would be calmed and that together we will continue to travel this road being a rock for one another. 

And if you missed it... here is the video we created for the campaign

THANK YOU!!!!

Spread the word!

My husband and I have started a campaign to help our fundraising efforts for IVF treatments. You can visit our site at www.indiegogo.com/hutchins .

Please help spread the word, the more people we have visit the site the better chance we have to meet our goal. Facebook It, Tweet It, Blog It, Google+ It.

There are also some fun perks you can get if you are able to donate.

3 years, 1095 days, 26280 hours, 1576800 minutes...

...since we were labeled as infertile. Some of those minutes still feel like that very first one. It is harder to breath, I feel tears falling but am unsure why, I am encompassed by so many emotions (anger, sorrow, frustration, loneliness...). At the same time I had hope during all those years. I was hopeful that we could get some answers. That we would be moving forward on a path to help us have the family we were longing for. 

If you have not been reading my blog from the beginning please take the time to go back and see all that we have walked through from 2009-2012. At the very least if you are not someone who has struggled with infertility I ask you to READ THIS because chances are someone in your life has. 

We endured numerous tests, I have taken a countless number of pills and received more injections than I care to recall during those 3 years. Each month I would remain hopeful. I was given good reports each time I went to the doctors office. Never was there an issue that said WOAH STOP! Nothing was ever found wrong. That is still the hardest part to me, I wish there had been a problem. Something to fix. 

Since I maxed out the number of treatments I could do with Kaiser we knew it meant that it was time to bring in the heavy artillery IVF. We have been discussing the morality issues regarding this treatment as well as saving up the money to pay for it. Over the last year we have been blessed beyond belief through friends and family. The donation of items and recyclables will never be forgotten. It has been difficult to remain hopeful during this time, but I do trust we are moving down the right path. 

I have learned a lot about myself and my marriage through infertility.

Strength

Courage

Unconditional Love

Partnership

Communication

Please keep us in prayer as we begin to meet with clinics, that we would find the best Dr. for us. That the clinic would be understanding and willing to work with us within the morality parameters we have discussed. Pray that we would qualify for a special program in which we can get a discount on the cost per treatment and a portion of our monies back if all of the treatments are unsuccessful. 

Acupuncturing Infertility

Many infertile *friends* have written of doing acupuncture while undergoing treatments (IUI, IVF, ICI) but I really never gave it much thought. I have read numerous books that scratch the surface of explaining what acupuncture can/can't do for you. Now I am researching it for myself...

So far there is no conclusive evidence for or against acupuncture. It has been said that acupuncture improve circulation of blood, might help follicle production, can improve the lining in the uterus. This is not a one time deal and I am not sure how I feel about 100s of tiny little needles in me.

Sources vary on the amount of time that acupuncture should be done -- most say 1 or 2 times a week -- and for 2 to 6 months before beginning your treatment and continuing till you are 12 weeks along in your pregnancy. Also once you are pregnant the acupuncturist should not use needles on certain points including Gallbladder 21, Stomach 12, Large Intestine 4, Spleen 6, Bladder 60, Bladder 67 and any points on the lower abdomen.

Depending on if your insurance covers any treatments it can cost between $50-100 per visit. In most states acupuncture is a licensed profession and should be board certified. Also if you are undergoing infertility treatments it is important to find an acupuncturist that specializes in dealing with women who have reproductive issues.

Acupuncture is something that we will consider because there doesn't seem to be a medical downside to it. Of course we will discuss this with our RE once we choose a facility to do our IVF at. It does bother me that we would be spending an additional $1600-4000 to have someone stick needles in me and know that there is no strong evidence that it indeed helps increase the odds of an IVF working.

Epic Sale of 2011

Almost immediately after we finished out 1st yard sale I was getting emails, texts and calls from friends who had more items they wanted to donate. I am not sure we ever thought we would be able to do this more than once. But once we saw that so many were willing to give us more there was no question, we would be having a 2nd sale it was just a matter of time.

Once again we were overwhelmed by the generous spirit of our friends and family. It was quite an incredible sight to see the garage go from having only 2 SMALL boxes left over from the previous sale to being packed. Then I was offered up some awesome furniture! Which meant moving everything that was in the garage into the house. Lucky for me there was a room that was easily transformed to be storage space. It was at this point we HAD to schedule another yard sale. Which is incredible. I figured eventually we would just decide it was time to do it again.

The February sale was going to be a bit different as Paul and I were on our own to get everything out of the house and garage. This time we set the sale to start at 7am figuring we would need that extra 30min to get as much as we could out front. We devised a plan to not open the garage right away and to just move everything out of the spare room and the living room. That way we hoped it wouldn't be quite as insane with people rummaging through things before we were ready.

HA! Joke was on us van after van paraded down the street with hoards of people jumping out. Everyone started grabbing any and every thing. Suddenly there were piles all over the yard and driveway, people claiming their territory. Then a few of the men started inquiring about the furniture we claimed we had, where was that? So I reluctantly opened the garage and then the insanity really began. The garage was so full that it wasn't really possible to walk inside so people started picking up items and pulling things out of the garage into the driveway so they could get inside! One guy bought almost all the big furniture and it was quite a sight to see him fill his van then start stacking everything else on top, and lucky Paul go to help him.

- This photo is from Sunday -
After all the furnature was bought and almost every kids item was sold...

Friends and family kept asking so how much do you think you will make this time. I replied that I did not want to get my hopes up, that last time may have been a one time deal. I was really hoping that even with all the furniture we would hit $500 and that I would consider that EXTREMELY successful. As I have said before the sale in September the most we had ever made was $100-200 and that was a good day. However we were blown away again. The final tally for our February sale was $1327! I truly feel as if this is God saying you are on a difficult journey but you will be blessed as you are on it. The success we have had gives me reassurance that we are doing the right thing.

Paul and I feel that Thank You just isn't enough to say to our family and friends who have been such an incredible support, but it is all we have. So THANK YOU! Without your help we would not be anywhere near the monetary amount that we need in order to pursue our dream. We love you all! Your prayers, love, support, and time are all appreciated immensely.

Huge Yard Sale

Over the past few months many of our dear friends have been donating items so that the Mr. and I could hold a large yard sale to raise money for IVF. We were overwhelmed by the kindness of our friends we were given more than we could have dreamed of. Items piled up fast and our 2nd bedroom was filled to the brim, items were then taken to SD by the truck load (about 7-8). Everything was photographed and put online so that other friends could get a shot and buying the best of the best items.

The big event was this past weekend. The ad in the newspaper and online said Sat/Sun from 630am till noon. So the Mr, Amy and I woke at 445am to prepare. The garage opened at 515am and within 10 minutes vans were pulling up and men with flashlights were ripping through the bags. For the next 8 hours there was never a moment where we didn't have a customer. Amazing! Every sale we have ever had making $100-200 is a good sale. This weekend however was a VERY different story. When all was said and done over $1400 was taken in. We were blown away.

Thank you everyone who prayed, donated (time or items), and bought items for our sale. You are all amazing and I am grateful.