Rodrigo and Joy » Fertility

Our Willow

Rodrigo — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:53:47 +0000

One week ago Willow Nerys was birthed at home by my amazing wife Joy. We embarked together on a journey of family almost 3 years ago, it has taken determination, courage, hope, and love, as well as a huge number of our friends, family and strangers holding us, supporting us, loving us, and rooting for us. To each of you, thank you!

Willow was born at home in a 4.5 hour labor sprint, that flew by in a wink of an eye. She entered our home via warm birth tub, where Joy had labored most of those 4.5 hours. Willow weighed in at 7lbs and measured 21”, and is healthy and beautiful. Loved ones and our midwives have been taking excellent care of us through out this entire journey, and it simply rocks! We have been staying home, and basking in what i call the “Baby bubble”

Joy is the most amazing woman! Seeing her as she birthed life, has been the most deeply moving part of my life. I am so proud of her, so in love with her, and so ready to continue to deepen our love/life together for ever.

Words just can’t capture the vastness of the experience for us, best I can do right now is put together a short video from the last week.

Motion is magic

Rodrigo — Sun, 03 May 2009 06:03:18 +0000

I got the digital data from UCSF from our ultrasound this past Monday. They sure get lots of data from ultrasounds, after finding some good software to look at DICOM files i was able to pull out the images and some AVI files. Here is sample of what we got. I intend to put together a fun video of them at some point.

Ultrasound @ 17 weeks

Rodrigo — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:24:02 +0000

This Monday we got an ultrasound done. I thought it was going to be a short visit, and it turned out to take well over an hour. I always thought it was like in the movies where you go in and in 30 seconds they are done. Am I glad it is not like the movies. It was such a treat to see the baby from so many different angles, so many different shapes, arms, legs, heart, kidneys, brain, feet, hands. The little nugget was sure moving around a lot, and it was soooo amazing to see the in real time movements. I really could have spent another hours just looking. They took well over 100 stills, we got a few printed I will include them in this post. We got all great news, baby is doing just fine, developing right on schedule. We also met with a high risk OB. It was good to his perspective and have more information to make our choices about the birth of our child. Joy’s tummy is really starting to show, and it just makes me happy happy! To say that I am grateful does not quite capture it all, and that is the only word that really fits right now.

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Ultrasound video

Rodrigo — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 18:56:50 +0000

For the first ultrasound I was in El Salvador visiting my parents, and I was not able to be in the exam room. Becky, who’s generosity is beyond words went with Joy and took my brothers camcorder and took some video which i was able to watch a couple of hours later with my parents some 3000 miles away. When the next ultra sound came along I was here and I wanted to get some video of it to send to our parents. Every ultrasound and exam has yielded excellent results. Now nearing the end of the first trimester, and looking forward to all that awaits us.

So here is the movie I put together.

More good news

Rodrigo — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:42:39 +0000

More good news yesterday. Got word from the embryologist. They froze 2 of our embryos on Monday, and another 5 on tuesday. These are the embryos we will use when we want to get pregnanat again, so having good healthy number makes us very happy.

Transfer complete

Rodrigo — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:11:39 +0000

A few things going on these last few days. Last week we did an egg retrieval from Becky. We got 12 great eggs, and all 12 fertilized. On day 3 the eggs looked great, the doctors said we could do a transfer on day 5. Day 5 is today. We did the transfer today, all went great, and Joy has bee resting at home all day. We both have been very excited about all this, and it has been going really great.
Here are a few pictures.

The day of the egg retrieval

And of the transfered embryo

What has been happening

Rodrigo — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 18:05:00 +0000

A lot has happened since May of this year. We entered may with high hopes that the surgery in February had succeeded. Through June and July though we came to the painful conclusion that it had failed. We don’t have a certain reason why it failed, but hormone level test indicate that the ovary transplant did not work out. This was a hard fact to face for both of us. We both had fully believed that this would work out and we would be well underway to conceiving this year. At the same time we knew from the start that this was an experimental procedure, and there was little data to really have any certainty on the outcome.

It took us some time to get complete with that phase of our journey and start looking ahead to the next phase. Sometime in the summer we started to look for a fertility clinic in our local area, San Francisco. We finally came to UCSF Fertility center. After our initial visit and the orientation we both really felt this was an excellent fit for us and chose to enter their IVF program. Using IVF was something we had talked about prior to starting to look for ovarian transplants, so the choice to move forward with this was rather easy. Joy’s sister Becky generously jumped onboard as our egg donor. We started the first round with all the tests, forms, meetings, doc appointments, and by end of September we had a schedule that would lead us to end of October for an implant.

The egg retrieval was great. Then a day later came news that non of the eggs had made it past the first day for fertilization. This was some of the toughest news to take, as it was really unexpected. Of all the ups and down, this really was one of the most down! for me. a few days later we met with our doctor and we talked over what happened. We then took some time to think about what to do. We now have made the choice to do another round of IVF with the same center, some changes will be made to the protocol, and now are scheduling the when of it all.

When we started I didn’t expect such a long journey, or more like I hoped for a shorted one. Today I am glad that we have so much support so that this longer journey is not done alone.

I just love her so much

Rodrigo — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:27:36 +0000

Just got an email from Joy (she is traveling at the moment), her second period started this morning.
We had a long conversation this morning while i drove to work, she has been gone for some 10+ days now and i miss her. This morning i woke up missing her tons. Being away from each other is hard, and i don’t really like it and i know she is having a great time traveling.
Getting the news just now that her period started for the 2nd time, just makes me so happy. Even with all the thoughts that race through my head about “what if… its stops happening… what if…. …” i am still very happy.
I am filled with love for Joy. She is an amazing woman, manifesting in every aspect of her being.

I love you

I also wanted to say thanks to everyone that has continued to support us is so many ways. We are privileged to receive so much love and care.

the big red dot

Joy — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:21:52 +0000

Today, Saturday April 26, 2008

I started my first natural period in over four years

As many of you have been following and supporting me on this crazy ride I wanted to share with you all the news

This means that the ovary is working and we can start trying to get pregnant for real!!!

Transplant photos, and an update

Rodrigo — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:28:56 +0000

Close to a week since the operation and Joy is doing well. It has been a time to get rest, and stay close to home. The incision is healing well, and the pain is going down every day. It is now again a waiting period. Waiting and getting regular monthly blood work to see what the hormone levels are, so that we can figure out if it is all working as expected. As we settle down back at home, it all feels very right, and hope for success is in the air
It should be right around the 1 year mark of the first attempt/transplant that we should have some confirmation that it is all working as expected.

Dr. Silber took some photos of the operation last Monday, and was kind enough to pass them along to us. I have uploaded them and wanted to share them here.

PLEASE NOTE THESE ARE GRAPHIC IN NATURE. IF THE SIGHT OF BLOOD MAKES YOU ILL, DO NOT CLICK TO SEE

This one shows the ovary exposed and ready for the graft.

TThis one shows portion 1 of the graft in place and stitched up, on the right had side of the photos, the white part.

This one shows portion 1 and portion 2 of the graft stitched up and in place, the second portion is the one on the left hand side of the ovary, next to the white portion.

This is the work complete. All portions have been grafted.