What's Next

I’m just about one month post-op and in much better shape than I was the last time I posted. I’m up moving around, and back to my normal life and routine-apart from exercising, which, let’s be honest, I didn’t do a ton of anyway.  But I plan to change that once I’m healed enough.

I’m also eating solid food again with little to no problems. I do get crampy some times and have to back off for a few hours, but I’ve been loading up on probiotics and gut soothing herbs, which I believe has helped my recovery. I have yet to add meat back into my diet though, and have developed a slight aversion to it. I don’t know if it’s my body telling me I’m not quite ready to digest it or if I’m just going through a phase of being grossed out by meat. Either way I’m listening to my body and re-falling in love with some vegetarian dishes from yonder days (I was a vegetarian for 10 years)-but also struggling to get enough protein in.  Eggs, another staple in my diet, are also grossing me out.

 I am whipping up some delicious gelatin gummy snacks with grass-fed gelatin- which is packed with protein and amazing for gut health, and also making protein smoothies with a paleo protein powder from Designs for Health. Surgery pretty much wipes out your protein stores so finding as many tolerable sources as I can has been a fun challenge for me.

Okay…enough about food. I had my post-op appointment on Wednesday and for the first time in the last few years we were able to see my ovaries on the vaginal ultrasound!! We were all so excited, and relived. My doctor brought my ovaries down and sutured them to my uterus, but because they have spent so much time extended upwards there was always the small chance they could pop back up after surgery. But there they were, in all their glory!

We also discussed next steps and Ryan and I were both shocked and thrilled about the timeline our doctor laid out for us. We had no idea how fast the egg retrieval process would be.

A few days after I start my period (which is scheduled to arrive between 2/17-2/18, I will begin 3 weeks of birth control to rest my ovaries before starting the injections to stimulate them. For those of you that are unfamiliar with egg retrieval, welcome to the club! Haha!! I’m still learning too, but this is what I know: I ovulate normally and do not need assistance with that, but because we are retrieving multiple eggs for a future IVF, we need to stimulate my ovaries to produce more than just the one I would drop naturally every month. This gives us a better chance at multiple healthy embryos, as not all eggs will be good enough quality.

I will be monitored closely to see how my follicles are developing and, Lord willing, I will be scheduled for egg retrieval at the end of March! Insane! 5 days later, after weeding out the “bad eggs” and pulling out the picks of the litter, the embryologists will make embryos with my husbands “goods” and we will freeze them until our dear friend and gestational carrier can logistically get the IVF (more about that to come later).

If you know me, you know I go to great lengths to take care of my body and live a very natural and clean lifestyle. Taking birth control and a few other medications that I can’t pronounce the names of does not thrill me, but I have made peace with it. I am working with an incredible naturopath to ensure I am able to metabolize and excrete these medications and hormones as quickly and effectively as possible, and also utilizing what I know about health and nutrition to make sure I’m as best prepared as I can be. And what I can’t do, I’m trusting God to take care of for me.

So….we are really excited!!! We grabbed dinner at an organic pizza joint close by afterwards and just stared at each other wide eyed…”is this really happening?!” “Are we really here, at this point in the journey?!” You guys…this place where we stand once seemed light years away, too far to even touch. All of the details that once crowded by head and weighed on my heart and kept me up nights are falling into place seamlessly. We are so grateful and not taking a single moment of it for granite.

We would love if you could pray with us:

• For my body to respond extremely well to the medications-with NO side effects, and for my ovaries to produce the perfect amount of healthy eggs

• For the egg retrieval procedure to be smooth and easy (I will be put to sleep, but it’s only a 10-20 minute procedure)

• For provision to cover the financial costs without a large amount of debt

• For Ryan and I to have lots of fun and enjoy this leg of our journey!

Thank you!! A million thank you's!