On the Road Again

This has been such a busy week I haven’t had a chance to post an update so I’m finally making time to do that. Tuesday I made the trip to Lubbock by myself. Justin is taking a Conflict Resolution class all week so I lost my travelling partner for the week. It was actually kind of nice to just crank up the music and sing along and enjoy the time to myself. They did a sonogram to see how my follicles were developing. In case you don’t know ovaries have several follicles in them of which usually only one releases an egg each month. The follicle that is growing the most is typically the follicle with an egg. However in my case since I’m taking shots to help me produce more eggs I have several follicles that are growing. Each appointment I have been going to is to measure the size of the larger follicles to be sure they are growing and they watch for them to reach a certain size before they go in and retrieve the eggs. My sonogram showed that I had several follicles that were growing as they should be. They also did some bloodwork and found that my Estrogen levels were going a little crazy so they took down the dosage on one of my shots. Thursday I had to make another trip to Lubbock and so my mom went with me. My acupuncture session was scheduled for Thursday as well so we had to make a very early appointment on Thursday. Mom was a real trooper in getting up so early. It is so nice to have her and the rest of my family here to go through all of this with us. We left my house a little before 6am and arrived in Lubbock right at 8:30am for my appointment. We only had to wait about 5 minutes to get in this time and they did another sonogram and more bloodwork and again found that my follicles were continuing to grow and my Estrogen levels were continuing to climb. I told Justin as much as my Estrogen levels are increasing I’m surprised I haven’t been anymore difficult to live with than I have. After the appointment we hopped back in the car and rushed back home so I could make it to my acupuncture session. When I arrived for my appointment the acupuncturist asked me how things had gone at my doctors appointment that day and then she asked me if Justin and I had a church family. I told her yes and she asked if they were praying for us and I told her yes we have lots of family and friends praying for us. She said well I have been praying for you two everyday as well. I thought that was really neat to know that this woman who had only met us once had been praying for us. It really is overwhelming and awing to me to know how many people there are praying with us through this journey. Justin and I both really cherish those prayers. We head back to Lubbock tomorrow for another check up and will drive back tomorrow so we can make it to a wedding. We will probably be going back again either on Sunday or Monday and staying in Lubbock until the night before the retrieval. We will come back to Abilene for another acupuncture treatment the night before our retrieval which at this point will most likely be either Wednesday or Thursday. By this time next we will most likely know how many embryos we have to start with of course they usually don’t all make it to the final stage. Today is the first day I have started to feel swollen and bloated from my rapidly growing ovaries. They are also feeling very tender today. Fortunately it is summer so I can wear sundresses everyday because anything with a waste band on it does not feel very good. Please continue to pray for us as we travel and as I start feeling less like myself. Please also continue to pray for hope, peace, rest and strength.