Here We Go!

Today is Day 1! I've never been so excited for my period to start ;) I start my birth control pills today as well as my baby aspirin. I notified the clinic today is Day 1 and they are getting my calendar ready. The calendar is like the bible for my IVF cycle and will tell me when to start and stop what meds.

I also got my injectable meds delivered today and my kitchen is being taken over by drugs! I am a little nervous about the size of the needle for the progesterone injections but those aren't for awhile so maybe I can find something smaller before I need that...

Can't wait to get my calendar and get a little more organized!

IVF Class

We had IVF Class yesterday! There were 6 other couples in our class and basically it was a Powerpoint presentation about IVF/Infertility and then a discussion of how to do the injections. So, for anyone who wants to know, here is how IVF works...

The first day of my next cycle I will start Desogen - a birth control pill and a low-dose aspirin daily. Before starting Lupron (which I'll talk about in just a minute) I will take a weeks worth of antibiotics (Doxycycline and Metronidazole twice a day) and Jeremy will take Augmentin twice daily for a week. This will clear up any infections we don't know about and protect against any possible infections (from the procedures or that we might develop otherwise). Then after I finish my Desogen (how long I take that is decided my the Dr.) I will have a baseling ultrasound.

Then I start taking Lupron injections every evening to "quiet" my ovaries which prevents the spontaneous release of eggs prior to retreival.

Next I start Follistim injections in the mornings and Repronex injections in the evening (in addition to the Lupron) to stimulate the ovaries to produce several eggs in one cycle. During the stimulations injections (stims) I will have multiple ultrasounds to monitor how many eggs are developing and their size.

Once, there are the appropriate number and size of eggs, I take two injections of Ovidrel to mature the eggs. Then 35 hours later we'll have our retreival!

So the retreival is done in the fertility docs office under light sedation (Fentanyl and Versed). They use an ultrasound guided needle to "suck" out the eggs :) Then they fertilize them that day. They grow for 3-5 days and then we go in for our embryo transfer. Then we wait...

After the embryos are transferred, we have to wait 12 days to have a pregnancy test to see if all of the above worked. I think that's going to be the worst part since I am so impatient ;)

Last night I was feeling pretty overwhelmed but I am doing better today and just telling myself not to worry about what I can't control. There are so many things that have to go right it is so hard to imagine that this could work but I want to stay positive so I am just trying to take it one step at a time.

Oh, and after the transfer, I have to do Progesterone injections which are IM and have to be given in my butt - Jeremy is excited he gets to do that one since I told him I was doing all the shots ;-)

Thanks for reading!

~R

Getting Started

Well, we really aren't getting started. We've been at this for about 17 months now. Long story short - I have Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (herein referred to as PCOS). I had surgery in March 2009 to remove cysts from my ovaries and check my fallopian tube function. Turns out that I have lots of scar tissue and adhesions in there (possibly from some infection I had but don't know about). Oh, and some of my organs were in the wrong place - like part of my intestine was adhered to my uterus... So, they fixed that as best they could. Then they shot dye through my tubes to see if they were working and one was, the other was blocked.

I have taken a drug called Femara which is technically for breast cancer but works like Clomid to make women ovulate. I took that for 3 months and did ovulate...but didn't get pregnant.

So now - our next option was either Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) or In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF). We decided with our Fertility Specialist (Dr. Y) that IVF would be a better option than IUI because of all my scar tissue and the fact that it is really best for women who have ovulation issue. I ovulate just fine - the little boogers are just a little reluctant to be fertilized.

So, decision made. Now what? Well, we have to set up a meeting with the financial specialist at the Fertility Clinic. We have to have some bloodwork done. I have to have a "Mock Embryo Transfer." This basically entails filling my uterus with water, using the same catheter they will use to transfer the embryos (the same type, not the exact same one of course ;) and pretending to do so . This lets them use ultrasound to look at my uterus and make sure there aren't any problems with it, they measure it, and can determine exactly where they will place our embryos. Kinda cool... Then we have to take a class to learn everything you could ever want to know about IVF including how to give myself the hormone injections.

We are feeling very excited to get this started and relieved that we know what we are doing next. So far this whole process has been a whole lot of hurry up and wait. And those of you who know me know that I'm not the most patient person...