Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Holding Off on IVF

After March 6 turned all my family's lives upside down, I've been trying to put as many pieces back together as possible. Today is my day to actually write a new blog post. I figured it was as good a time as any to update you all on what's been happening over the past month.  Let's start with my sister and then move on to fertility and other things.

Almost immediately after my sister's diagnosis, she had a port put in so that she could receive chemo easily and can also have blood draws done without a million sticks. She loves her port already, and I'm sure that the feeling will only get stronger as the treatments continue.

Last Monday, Ellen started chemo and the first treatment went really well. She has a 4 hour chemo followed by a 48 hour chemo every 2 weeks. The first treatment usually goes pretty well for people, but the effects of chemo are cumulative so we will start to see more side effects as the treatments continue.  Other than just feeling extremely tired very easily, she has been feeling well so far!

Obviously, we've all been under a completely overwhelming amount of stress. I've done decently well handling the stress (better than I thought I would actually). I can easily say that the week of March 6th was the worst week of my life to date, but I managed to weather it without getting sick. I lost about 5 pounds total, but I've been gaining it all back.  I also am starting to feel sick now, but I think it's mostly allergies. My eyes are burning/itching, and I'm coughing much more from tickles in my throat. Again, I think it's allergies. As I expected, The one area that was definitely affected by the stress was my cycle. I ended up having a 29 day cycle last month....normally my cycles are 36-40 days! It was QUITE odd to have a "normal" cycle for a change, but I think the stress caused it to start early.  We'll see what this cycle does.

Again, due to the stress and the situation, we've decided to put off IVF treatments for now. We realize that we have a time-frame for having children, but if we're both stressed a pregnancy won't go well.  We are going to continue TTC naturally, but we'll see if I end up getting anywhere with that method.  I've also decided to try IUI prior to IVF as long as we can do it with a minimal risk of multiples (unmedicated IUI cycles).  So, I'll definitely keep you all updated when we decide to go along with IUI.

I will say that my sister's diagnosis allowed me to feel grateful not to be pregnant for the first time since we started TTC.  I was so glad I wasn't pregnant because I know I wouldn't have weathered the diagnosis without something bad happening. I probably would have wound up in the hospital on IVs. It's crazy when you look back at things and see God's hand in everything. I love that feeling.

So, as we end the month, we're hoping and praying for successful chemo treatments which shrink the tumors very quickly, and we're hoping for a natural pregnancy! My birthday is on Saturday so we'll be celebrating that, and that's the start of David's spring break! It should be a great upcoming week! 

4 comments:

  1. I hope you end up being able to conceive naturally!!!! Yay!

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  2. Thank you so much mkg! I hope so too! :)

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  3. Happy Birthday, Megan!
    Praying for your sister and following her CaringBridge.
    Also praying for your hope of pregnancy.
    Mildred (Jesse's Mom)

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    1. Mildred, thank you so very much for your sweet thoughts and prayers. I meant to comment on your previous post, but everything kind of happened around that time. Thank you for reading, following, and of course praying. Your comments have been so appreciated, and I am so grateful for your son's (and his wife's) friendship as well. :)

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