Ahhh, success.

So the bachelorette party for Lucky went swimmingly... the cabin we stayed in was FABULOUS. I have a ton of pics, so I'll get those up shortly. It was just an all-around great weekend. It ended up storming most of the time we were up there, but we had planned a girls' night in for the main event, so it worked out well. The rain was actually a bonus. Lots of laughs, a ridiculous amount of food and booze - a lot of which we brought back with us - and TONS of fun.

But I gotta say, I was worn out once I got home. It's not like we did anything crazy. We did stay up late (OK "late" for me is like midnight) and got up early both mornings, but it was still a very chill weekend. Though I did get up at 4:30am Friday to get everything pulled together. I was on my feet ALL day Friday. Literally, the only time I sat down was while I was in the car. So all that combined makes for a very tired girl come Sunday afternoon. But the event was a huge success and kuntry bride and I had a total blast putting it together.

Also last week, which I've yet to catch y'all up on... we met with my doctor on Wednesday. To save myself from typing the same info over again (cuz it's rather exhausting), I'm just going to copy and paste the email I sent to my parents Wednesday afternoon after we got back from the doctor. I gotta run out the door, but wanted y'all to have the latest. Back soon with pics and more deets! Here's the email...

Well we had a very lengthy information-filled appointment! Long-story-short, Dr. T wants to do one more IUI cycle on Femara and then move to IVF if that doesn't work.

He wants to first do one more Femara IUI cycle since my lining did show improvement. He thinks it's definitely worth one more try since all our numbers were good last time. We would pretty much do the exact same thing as last cycle but he'd have me start taking estrogen earlier. During this cycle, he wants me to have a SHG (I think that's what it's called - [the hub] has the folder!) - it's a type of ultrasound - to see if I would need to have a 3rd surgery if we had to move to IVF.

So if that test is abnormal or shows enough residual septum that concerns him, and the IUI is not successful - we'd do a 3rd surgery - but it would only need to be hystereoscopy (probably spelling that wrong) vs. hystereoscopy AND laproscopy (spelling that wrong too I'm sure). So, less invasive than my others.

Learned a lot about IVF and that there are ALL different kinds of "protocols" as far as medications, so it's very tailored to your situation and needs/issues. Like several people I know or have read about had to go on birth control or take other meds before their actual IVF cycle to do whatever... but I won't have to do that. I basically would go on injectable meds right when I start my cycle, be monitered that first half (much like IUI) and then they would do egg retrieval around day 12ish - just depends. That's an actual surgery, done at RBA, but much less invasive than what I'm used to. [The hub] does his thing and they put the boys and girls in a dish. They let some try to fertilize on their own, but then others they'll actually inject the sperm into the egg, forcing it to fertilize. Lots of info...

Once fertilized, they give the embryos 3-5 days to mature before implanting back in the uterus. After implantation, you're just on the 2-week-wait to see if it worked. He did bring up the whole issue about what if we get pregnant with more than 2, are we OK with having to remove the extra embryos. Again, I forget the terminology - it's all in our folder. I said I do not want to be put in that position... so it may be that we end up only putting in ONE egg if it comes to that, b/c they can split. It's a slight chance, but it can happen. And he does not think I could carry more than twins. The success rate is significantly higher when you put in two eggies, but it's something we have to think about. Because there's like a 20-30% of twins when you put in two. And if they split? Dear me.

ANYway... we can worry about all that if and when we need to. Just wanted to give you the gist of what we learned today. :-)