God is Sovereign!

As I write this, I am sitting here in my Elmo pajamas which I had to buy because Gracie absolutely adores Elmo. I slept in until 8:15am and then got up to a quiet house and sat down at the computer. No, Ken did not get up with the girls so I could sleep in and then write. They are just getting older and more independent and are perfectly happy to watch TV, a great electronic babysitter, until I tell them that they can come upstairs. Ahh, life is good and much easier than those by gone baby and toddler days when the girls depended on us for EVERYTHING. We have a good dynamic going here and we are hoping that that will change in 2010? That question has gone through my head several times, but the answer is yes!

So the last month has been a bit crazy with my health. About a month ago, I woke up and my jaw was swollen, a type of swelling called angioedema. Throughout the course of the day, it continued to swell and spread through my mouth. By the end of the day, it looked like I had stuffed a golf ball in my cheek. Apparently, it was some kind of allergic reaction. I was put on some steroids to calm everything down and didn’t think anything more of it. The next week we were in Puerto Vallarta (beautiful!) and I finished the steroid pack I was on. I woke up the next morning to a swollen lip and a swollen eye. What was going on? Taking some ibuprofen brought it down a bit and I didn’t think anything of it. The next morning I woke up to huge welts on my stomach. This is no joke. They were about a foot in diameter and puffed out at least a half inch. I also had smaller welts up and down my legs. I wish I had taken pictures of them. So to get them under control we went into town and got another steroid pack. That brought the swelling down over the course of the next few days. As I was tapering the steroids but not completely off them, the other side of my face started swelling! So after talking with the clinic, we ramped the steroids back up plus started Benadryl and a couple other antihistimines. This brought the swelling down, but now we really started to rack our brains of what may be causing this allergic reaction. I have never had ANY sort of allergy in my life. There have been no changes in diet, lotion, detergents, or anything. After researching the internet, I discovered a medicine I had been taking a few years now can cause angioedema in very rare cases. I felt great relief at finally finding the “cause”. I immediately stopped taking that medicine and finished the taper of steroids. Because I was so sure that this was it, I also stopped taking the antihistamines and Benadryl. The next day after finishing the steroids, I got a tingling in my lip and it always starts with a tingling. Oh great! Through the course of three hours, my cheeks and lips swelled. My lips looked like sausages and the bottom one actually cracked open in a few places! What was going on???? So I went to the doctor, they did a couple blood tests. An autoimmune disease was ruled out. I am back on the Benadryl and antihistamines for 6 weeks or so. Another blood test was drawn for food allergies and I am waiting for the results of that. I will be seeing an allergist next week. We still have no answers.

So this was the dilemma. I was supposed to start the medication in preparation for the embryo transfer, but do we wait until we figure out what is going on with my body of go ahead with it and see what happens. It would not be a big deal to wait a couple months. But the other factor for us is insurance. Because our deductible is so high, we would like to have everything done in 2010-transfer, pregnancy, birth-we really don’t want to spread this out over 2 years of deductibles. This leaves us with only the first couple months of the year to do the transfer. After weighing the costs, doing more research on angioedema, talking with the doctors, and prayer, we decided to go ahead with it at this point. It is not ideal conditions, but we feel comfortable with proceeding. So, I had a baseline ultrasound done (looked good) and started the medication yesterday. Assuming everything continues as planned, we are set for a January 21 transfer date! Over the course of the next 3 weeks, I will have a blood test and ultrasound to determine if my body is responding appropriately. Then, we will be going out to California for the transfer of hopefully 2 or 3 embryos. Then, we wait two very long weeks to see if any of them survive. Thankfully, we have a sovereign God that He has already ordained whatever is going to happen. We are resting and find peace in that!