Vacation: New Orleans

Hello all! We're back from vacation and what a fabulous time we had! For an entire week, I completely escaped the daily trials of work, college and infertility. Let me tell you, it was nice to fully live again.

Here's a photo blast of our family in New Orleans for my niece's wedding. (Dear family, if you want any of these photos, click on photo to enlarge and then right-click, save as)

Day 1:
We arrived in New Orleans on St. Patrick's day. It's celebrated similarly to Mardi Gras. Our family walked around Bourbon St., watched the parade and dodged beaded necklaces flinging through the streets.

Me and tall dude
My sister-in-law Sheree and niece Rachel (the bride)
My niece Lyndsay. We share the same birthday and are exactly 10 years apart. She's the older one! Just kidding, I'm older...
My mother-in-law (sweetest person alive)
Sporting our Paddy-Bling
Kerry and his pub
Day 2:
The day before Rachel's wedding.

Getting a pedicure with my 2 favorite nieces. This was wonderful!!! Well except for when they sanded the bottom of my feet, OMG, ticklish! I think the entire building could hear me laughing.
Heading to the rehearsal. This is a rare moment as I'm totally NOT a dress type of girl. Kerry had taken me shopping, played dress-up with me and I agreed on this one.
The wedding location. You may recognize this if you've seen the move "Ray" as many of the scenes were filmed here.
I'm going to be fruitful! New Orleans has a traditional cake called King cake. There's a plastic baby Jesus hidden in the cake and whoever gets the piece of cake with the baby in it, supposedly will have a fruitful year. My niece made sure I got that piece (thanks Lyndsay!). God knows I need a fruitful year before I go insane, and apparently from this photo, a new hair do, yikes!
Baby Jesus surfing
Day 3:
Rachel's wedding.

The bride
The matron of honor
Kerry and his 16 yr old son Austin (my stepson)
My very funny dh
He managed to get me in another dress, but I snuck some pants on underneath. Hey, maybe he won't notice.
Kerry and Austin
Me and the boys. Yes, I'm really that butt white, I glow in the dark.
My sweet grandmother (well she's really Kerry's grandmother, but I claim her as my own, love her to pieces!)
The newlyweds... Congratulations Rachel and Joe Cool
The rest of the evening was spent dancing the night away. A good time indeed.

The vacation doesn't end here as we spent the next 4 nights in California, but I will save that for the next post.

7th Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 7th Wedding Anniversary. I giggle when I see this photo. The photographer was trying to get a romantic photo of us kissing but everytime Kerry leaned in, I bust out laughing.


Real romantic kiss, huh! I think I was laughing so hard I was about to wet myself.


We leave for New Orleans tomorrow for our niece's wedding. Then Friday we're heading for Laguna Beach, CA to celebrate our anniversary and Kerry's birthday. I'll post an update and photos of our trip soon. Wahooo, I'm going on vacation!!!!!!

E-tegrity Results

I called the lab in CA late Fri afternoon to get a status on my e-tegrity results. Turns out they were ready Thur but no one had faxed them out. They would not give me the results due to Hippa laws. That still urks me; I requested the test, I paid for it, I had half my uterus ripped out for it, and I can't even get my own results? While on the call, the lady told me she just faxed the results to CCRM and my ob/gyn. But what good would that do, both places were closed and I would have to wait till Monday, ugh. I emailed CCRM right away hoping that maybe someone would call me Sat, but no word. I find out today that neither CCRM nor my ob/gyn has rec'd the results, double ugh! So CCRM called and got the results for me.

Here are the result possibilities from e-tegrity's website:

There are three typical patterns:
1. Beta-3 integrin POSITIVE with an “in-phase” endometrium is a normal pattern of expression.

2. Beta-3 integrin NEGATIVE with an “out-of-phase” endometrium occurs in a patient with Luteal Phase Defect; following treatment the patient is advised to undergo a repeat biopsy to confirm diagnosis.

3. Beta-3 integrin NEGATIVE in a patient with a normal “in phase” endometrium is associated with unexplained infertility, minimal or mild endometriosis, or hydrosalpinx.

The E-tegrity test:
Identifies endometrial quality
Determines Beta-3 integrin presence
Provides a histologic evaluation of the endometrium

My results came back positive and in-phase!!!! Wahooo!!! I am so so so so happy!

[Click photo for larger view]


So what I conclude from this is that my implantation failure was due to either abnormal embryos (all 8 of them) or more probable my crazy e2 levels during stims, which btw were IVF#1: 6867 IVF#2: 9029 IVF#3: 6045. During a natural cycle, e2 peaks at 200-600, so it would totally make sense that that high of an e2 level could definitely disrupt the uterine environment. So no more fresh transfers for me again, ever!

I also conclude that my inability to conceive naturally is most likely due to very weak sperm that are attacked by antisperm antibodies. Kerry developed ASAs from having a vasectomy.

Now I feel free to finally make a plan... though at this time, I have no clue what that is.

On a completely different note, I'm miserable. I got food poisoning last night. I had sour stomach all day Sun and by bed time, as I went to brush my teeth, I become violently ill. I dropped to the ground, was instantly drenched in sweat and was shaking uncontrollably. I drug myself to the toilet just in time as I knew something was going to explode, I just didn't know which end. I had bad diarrhea, sorry if that was TMI. When I leaned forward, I was about to throw up, so I had to lean back, but then I was slipping off the toilet because my legs were so sweaty. Kerry came in, held me up and put towels under my legs so I would stop sliding. My body was spasming really bad so I had no control over myself. My entire body tingled like it had fallen asleep, my wrists and hands painfully locked up. Kerry tried to straighten out my wrists and separate my fingers, but they wouldn't release, it was like a massive charlie horse from hell. Then my feet and face went numb and caused my speech to slur. I had to get to the ground, fast. Kerry insisted on wiping my butt as my hands were useless. He said, "now it's front to back right?", gotta love him! He helped me to the ground, covered me in towels and put a heater on me. He layed there on the bathroom floor with me for a half an hour massaging my hands trying to get them to release.

Anyone ever experience their wrists/hands locking up? It was so strange! Kerry thinks it was from the chemical that causes your stomach/intestines to convulse to get rid of the bad stuff.

I'm doing much better today, but feeling really weak, exhausted from no sleep and running a fever. I just have to say, do I not have an amazing husband or what! I teared up knowing that he will always take care of me and I know I can always count on him. I can't wait for him to help me through labor and delivery... someday... someday...

PS... thank you MLG for the sisterhood award, that was very sweet of you!