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    In-vitro Fertilization: The Ultimate Reality Game
    In-vitro Fertilization: The Ultimate Reality Game
    In-vitro Fertilization: The Ultimate Reality Game
    Ebook122 pages1 hour

    In-vitro Fertilization: The Ultimate Reality Game

    By Karen Daniels

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    About this ebook

    Review: This book speaks to the emotions and trials of in vitro (IVF) procedures. It is a personal journal of one woman who writes for a boatload of all of us having gone through or going through this difficult time of a woman's life. This story is not about the end result but the journey to motherhood taking the path down the IVF road...as arduous as it is (was) for those travelers. -Sandra Ballard

    What is it really like to go through IVF? If you, or someone you love, is faced with in-vitro fertilization this true story is a must read. If you want a baby and haven't been able to conceive in the usual way, it can be one of the saddest things in your life. This book will give you hope. Many want-to-be parents who experience infertility and are unable to conceive turn to IVF to help them have a family. The most important thing to know is that you are not alone. No matter how bad it gets, no matter how many emotionally induced roller coasters you must ride until you become a mom or dad, be proud of who you are – even when you are at your worst. This is not a story for the faint of heart. This is the author's journal – verbatim – raw - uncensored. The only things changed are, as they say, names, to protect the innocent. Prepare yourself for the blow by blow ordeal of one IVF veteran who lived, survived, and overcame the ultimate reality game, in her quest to become a mom.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKaren Daniels
    Release dateOct 26, 2011
    ISBN9781466016538
    In-vitro Fertilization: The Ultimate Reality Game
    Author

    Karen Daniels

    Karen Daniels is unconventional in her life and writing. She had her first child at age 46, and at 52 went back to school for her M.A. in Educational Psychology (while wrangling 3 under age-4 kids.) Her friends consider her renegade, spiritual, and a bit odd. A copywriter, creativity and content specialist, her versatile writing skills have led to publication in everything from online to offline, social media, blogs, curriculum, scientific journals, poetry, fiction and nonfiction books. Her published books cover a broad range of subjects from Creativity, to In-vitro Fertilization, including titles such as Your Creativity: From Ordinary to Extraordinary and In-vitro Fertilization: The Ultimate Reality Game. Fiction titles include The Zaddack Tales trilogy; Dancing Suns, Mentor's Lair, and Mindspark - adventures in spiritual scifi - and The Baby About to Be Born, a story for families created through IVF/adoption. See more at karendaniels.com

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      Book preview

      In-vitro Fertilization - Karen Daniels

      What people are saying about In-vitro Fertilization: The Ultimate Reality Game

      "This book speaks to the emotions and trials of in vitro (IVF) procedures. It is a personal journal of one woman who writes for a boatload of all of us having gone through or going through this difficult time of a woman's life. this journal is not about the end result but the journey to motherhood taking the path down the IVF road...as arduous as it is (was) for those travelers. I laughed. I cried. I picked up the phone and called a girlfriend who shared the experience of IVF and told her to buy it." S. Ballard

      "This book really does feel like a reality game...up and down, roller coaster, honest. Having people close to me go through years of infertility treatments The ultimate Fertility Reality Game really allowed me to have insight into the trials and tribulations of IVF. I really wish this book had been around when my sister went through years of infertility treatments." SMbyC

      In-Vitro Fertilization: the Ultimate Reality Game

      a true IVF story

      by Karen Daniels

      SMASHWORDS Edition

      Copyright © 2011 Karen Daniels

      All rights reserved

      This book is available in print at most online retailers

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Dedicated to all Moms - wanna be and already there.

      Keep moving forward. You’re awesome.

      Acknowledgements

      Thank you to my fellow PPSers and other IVF journeyers, brave women all. To C – who was there from the beginning and held my hand. And to S.G.B. for support and editing in all areas of my life.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1 – Introduction

      Chapter 2- In the Beginning

      Chapter 3- Intermission: IVF Superstitions

      Chapter 4- My Real Emotional Journey Begins

      Chapter 5- Intermission: A True September 11 Story

      Chapter 6- Lost Hope

      Chapter 7- Intermission: A Poem Damn it, I want a Baby

      Chapter 8- Donor Eggs?

      Chapter 9- Picking a Donor

      Chapter 10- Intermission: Prayer and IVF

      Chapter 11- Donor Cycle

      Chapter 12- Intermission: Picking an Egg Donor

      Chapter 13- Pregnant

      Chapter 14- Pregnancy Lost

      Chapter 15- Intermission: The Lady’s Guide to IVF Lingo

      Chapter 16- Between Cycles, Surgery

      Chapter 17- Intermission: Infertility Resources

      Chapter 18- Post Fibroid Surgery

      Chapter 19- We Cycle Again

      Chapter 20- Embryo Transfer and the Dreaded Two Week Wait

      Chapter 21- My Baby is Born

      Chapter 22- Conclusion: Final Thoughts

      About the Author

      Chapter 1: Introduction

      You want a baby. And the old tried and true, wham bam, pregnant ma’am, didn’t work for you. You’ve even tried what you thought would be the magic bullet: in-vitro fertilization. And even that didn’t work the first time.

      I’ve been right where you are. No one wants to become an in-vitro Veteran. But here you are. I can tell you, you’re in good company. Many a fine woman has stood right where you are. Unfortunately, there are lots of us out here. The up side is we’re a pretty cool group. You will get through this, and you will be the stronger for it.

      I offer my journey to you as a form of saying you’re not alone. No matter how bad it gets, no matter how many emotionally induced roller coasters you must ride until you get to the end of your journey, be proud of who you are – even when you are at your worst.

      I would also like to offer you a little hope because often there are happy endings – children at the end of the long dark IVF tunnel; your children. I connected with a group of about 20 women early on and out of that number, all but 2 are now moms. The other 2 women called an end to their search for children. Some adopted, some used donor eggs, donor sperm, both, neither, and any permutation you can think of. We all came to be Moms in our own unique way. And so will you.

      I began my IVF journey when I was 44. I had my first child at age 46. What happened in between those points of time are contained in this book. This is not a story for the faint of heart. This is my journal – verbatim – raw - uncensored. The only things changed are, as they say, names, to protect the innocent. So prepare yourself for the blow by blow ordeal of one IVF veteran who lived to tell the tale.

      So, if you’re ready to begin accept the insanity because you are about to enter the ultimate intimate reality game: In-vitro Fertilization.

      Chapter 2: In the beginning

      From my journal February, 2001.

      Yesterday we got the news that one of the measurements of my husbands sperm, the morphology (shape), was a much lower percentage than normal. All along I was prepared for something to be screwy with my system. After all, I’m 44 and as a woman there’s just so much more that can go wrong. So, I’d prepped myself emotionally, at least as much as you can, to get news that my eggs, or my something, weren’t performing as they should. And in fact, that still may be the case. But now we know at least partly why, after several years of unprotected sex and more than a year of really trying for a baby, we have not met with success.

      But sperm issues I was unprepared for. I was home alone when I called for the test results and the nurse who was looking at it for the first time, said, Let’s see, the Kruger is at 4 and we like to see 14 which means if you’re going right to IVF you’ll probably want to use ICSI and … I stopped hearing for a moment. What was the Kruger? I couldn’t remember. And what was ICSI? Again, no idea. Oh, I’d read the papers they’d sent home with us after our initial pre testing consultation. But all the high tech terms, well, they weren’t going to apply to us anyway. I have a natural scientific curiosity about things as does my Chemist husband, but I just didn’t want my mind to go there. We’d had those what if conversations but that was merely intellectual exercise with no emotions behind it. Some part of me tuned back into the phone conversation to ask, How much would a round of In-Vitro Fertilization cost?" They’d have to have the money person call back. I had no real reaction yet, but immediately got online and went to my doctor’s website to at least understand the terms. Kruger—the test to see how many normally shaped sperm there are. ICSI, Intracytoplasmic sperm injection. They could retrieve my eggs and inject some of the good sperm right into the egg…

      Suddenly I was faced with the concept of going from simple mild assistance, you know, a little clomid to increase my egg production, maybe going so far as to wash and concentrate my husbands sperm and having it turkey basted into my uterus at the right time, to the ultimate high tech solution for reproduction.

      I looked up IVF on the site, this time reading it as if it applied to me. The simple, we stimulate your ovaries to produce more than one egg, retrieve the eggs, fertilize them, and put them back into the uterus, sounded not so bad. The details were more daunting. 21 days of the pill, then on day 21 start 10-12 days of Lupron shots, then another approximately 9 days of intra muscular gonadotropin shots, the next day a hCG shot to stimulate ovulation. Two days later, egg pick up, an out patient procedure with anesthesia. Eggs are fertilized with ICSI. Some days later the embryos are transferred into the uterus. After all that I’m ordered to bed rest for 2 days which I’m absolutely sure I’d have no objections at that point. Progesterone is injected up until pregnancy is confirmed and if yes, then continued for a total of six weeks following embryo transfer and then for another 4 weeks by vaginal suppository. And then the possibility of more than one baby at a time….

      My mind was reeling. I wondered if I really wanted to put myself through all that. Even while I was voicing my concerns deep inside I knew I would because the alternative was no children or adoption (problematic with our ages. I was already in my 40’s and my

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