Our IVF Journey

Sorry it has taken so long for us to post anything. Here is the beginning of our story.

It took a 5 1/2 hr drive, 3 planes, 2 trains and 2 taxis for us to arrive in Zlin, CZ. We were so exhausted. We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and went to bed. 

We went to the zoo the next day after our appointment. Neither Michael or I are zoo people, but, I wanted to place my order with the storks. It is a lovely zoo. We only had 3 hours. I recommend having 4 to 5 hours. I was so excited when I found the first two storks. I placed my order and than we were on our way. We then found an exhibit with about 16 storks. At this point Michael reminded me that I wasn't the only woman in Zlin trying to have a baby. We saw over 20 storks and 4-5 varieties. As we were leaving the zoo there were 2 storks that we ran into that were not in an exhibit. I took that as a good omen. 

On September 13th was egg retrieval.  My placing the order with the storks plus many prayers worked. 13 eggs were retrieved on September 13th. They all fertilized!!!!!

Transfer is on the 18th. GROW embies GROW!!!!

We went to Prague while the embies were growing. It is a lovely city. Shortly after we arrived and checked into our hotel we went to the Prague Symphony that evening. The music was so relaxing. I was so tired I thought I was going to fall out of my seat. After that we decided that we needed to rest and that we would get up and discover the city  when ever we woke up. We both woke up at the same time. It was 1PM. We couldn't believe it!!! Traveling is very exhausting. We went to the grocery store down the street to get some fruit and snacks for breakfast. The hotel breakfast was $15 per person. Not in our budget. We checked email and then it was dinner time. We went to a gluten free restaurant that I found on line. It was delicious!! It was authentic Czech food which is normally loaded with gluten. I ordered 2 desserts a cheese cake and an apple strudel that I had for breakfast the next morning. Michael is such a good sport to eat gluten free with me. We also found an all you can eat pizza and pasta restaurant that served gluten free pasta dishes. Mine wasn't all you can eat. Michael however was in heaven sampling all of the different pastas and pizzas. We ate there 3 times.

We truly only had a day left in Prague since we slept one away. We both agreed that being well rested was the main priority. Getting to see Prague was just a bonus. With our day left we did a 6 hour tour of Prague. We thought it was a bus tour where we would get off and on and walk short distances. Well it wasn't. It was a walking tour with a 10 min bus ride. My broken toe was doing well until after that. We were both exhausted but I still managed to find some Christmas ornaments and decorated eggs. My great grandparents on my mothers side are from the Ukraine and I was determined to get some painted eggs. It's a very Eastern European tradition. I also wanted a set of stacking dolls. Now you wouldn't think Michael would find anything to add to his Steelers collection in Prague, CZ but he did. We both ended up with stacking dolls but Michael's was of players from the Steelers. AMAZING!!! 

On Sunday we were able to go to church. We had been riding past it on the trolley for the last 2 days and didn't recognize. It happened to be district conference that day so we ended up at  a theater that could seat everyone. It was a great meeting. Some of the speakers spoke English and the talks were translated into English so we knew what was being said. It was interesting to me to listen to the translator. In our last ward there are several people who speak Spanish and sometimes I would have to translate the meeting. It's quite the mental workout.

On Monday it was back to Zlin to get ready for the transfer. Tuesday was the transfer and our appointment was at 12:30 pm. We learned that out of 13 embies only 5 had made it to day 5. Of the 5 we had 4 grade 1 blasts and 1 fragmented grade 3. Usually only 20% make it to day 5 so to have 4 grade 1 blast was excellent. We made the decision to transfer 2 blasts and freeze the other 2. The grade 3 wasn't healthy enough to freeze or transfer. Once the decisions were made about the embies we had to go and pay for the remainder of the treatment before transfer. That is when the problems began!

Renae making baby wishes on the Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic.

Our IVF Journey Part 2

Heading down the stairs to the financial department I'm just praying that the payment will go through. I had called our bank 3 times prior to leaving to make sure it would work. The bank warned me that Visa might flag it as fraud and that I would have to call in. Well sure enough the card would not go through. The financial clerk asked if there was a limit on the card. I said, "No, not that was mentioned to me." Then we tried to call the bank on Michael's international phone that we had just for this type of situation. Of course his phone wouldn't call an 800 number. We headed back up to our room to use Skype to call the bank. I had double checked everything on my Skype account before we left just to make sure I had everything in working order. Well I couldn't remember my password. Ugh!!! Then I went through the whole password retrieval ordeal. Finally I got the bank on the phone Visa had flagged the transaction and there was a daily limit on the card. REALLY!!!!! The bank could mention the limit the previous 3 times I had called. At this point I wished that I had taken a VALIUM!! The bank verified for Visa that it was me trying to make the purchase and then the agent was trying to get our limit raised for 24 hrs. Now mind you this is not a credit card. This was a bank card and our money was sitting in the account. Before they could raise the limit they needed to know the exact amount in US dollars. That required Michael to run back down stairs to the financial department to get the amount which was being charged in Czech Kronas and the doing the conversion to US dollars. Michael forgot to take the room key but luckily remembered before he left the floor. There is a lock out for the hotel part of the building and he would not have been able to return to the room without hunting down the hotel staff. Michael returned within a few minutes and we had the conversion done. We padded it a few hundred dollars just to be safe. The limit increase was finally approved! We went back down stairs and the card worked!! Hooray!!! It had only taken an hour. : (

When we arrived back upstairs where the transfer was to be done the nurse asked, "What took so long?" We gave her the short version. We were sent to a waiting room to get ready to go to the OR where they do the transfers. Michael kept reminding me to breath and that the bank card incident is just how our life goes.We went into the OR and I saw those beautiful embies on the screen and all my worries melted away. The transfer was super quick. After the Doctor wanted to know about my middle name Myrna. I said it was my mothers name. He wanted to know the origin of the name. I told him I don't know. Now I'm going to have to look the origin up. I was wheel back to my room. Where we started the laugh fest with, What About Bob? Laughing is suppose to help the embies implant.