Finally-Some Good News!

I've ovulated! I know it's not HUGE good news by any stretch of the imagination, but I was getting a bit worried that I wasn't going to ovulate and then be pushed back a month!

I got up bright and early (before the big snow storm hit) and drove up to the RE's office. I just love the girl that draws the blood at the north office...she is so sweet! Anyway, the blood draw was a cinch....took just seconds!!

Then, I waited for the call from the nurse...more waiting, yes. She called at about 2pm and said my progesterone is high enough to start the Lupron! Woopee! It looks like I ovulated only a day or two ago, so I won't start he Lupron until Saturday the 1st.

I realize that starting Lupron isn't even yet actually starting the IVF cycle, but it just makes me feel like we are FINALLY getting somewhere and DOING something! My actual IVF cycle won't start until day 1 of my next cycle which won't be for another 2 weeks or so. Let the side-effects begin!

Lupron Update

I've been anxiously awaiting the call all day……I have a feeling I’m going to be “anxiously awaiting the call all day” many more time before this process is over, so I better get used to it! I got a call from the IVF nurse at about 4pm today (I was starting to wonder if they were going to call!) She reiterated that my progesterone was low, so I have not ovulated yet. I have to go back for another blood test on Thursday to see if I have ovulated yet. If I have, I can start the Lupron injections on Friday, the 30th. I am praying that I have ovulated and my progesterone is above a 5, so that we can get the show on the road! I do think this cycle would be cancelled if we can’t get my progesterone above 5. I don’t know what the next step would be, but I definitely would not be able to start the Lupron until they can confirm ovulation has happened. Please pray that I ovulate this week and that my progesterone is above a 5! I know us PCO’ers don’t ovulate on our own, so I’m not sure how this is going to play out. I may need to do birth control for a month to get things regulated, and then try again next month. That would be a bummer!

Luckily, the closer north office is open on Thursday, so I don’t have to drive all the way down to the far away office. I have the day off work and was hoping to sleep in. But, the infertile does not get to sleep in (as usual.) We are supposed to get 3-7 inches of snow on Wednesday night through Thursday night, so should be an interesting drive! Wish me luck! I need ALL the luck I can get!

Just trying to get my progesterone checked......

Well, I had a bit of a frustrating morning, but all seems to be okay now. I had to get my cycle day 20 progesterone check this morning. This is my first day back at work after 10 days of vacation, so I got up early to drive to the clinic so that I wouldn’t be too late for work. My RE has two offices, one north of us about 30 minutes from home, and one south that can take an hour to get to. Most procedures are done in the larger south office, but we’ve been able to go to the smaller north office for most testing thus far (except for all of the appointments on the 17th.) The IVF nurse that we met with on the 17th told me that I could get my blood draw at the north office this morning, so I showed up (after 30 minute drive in opposite way of work) at 7:30am only to find out that they are closed for the week! AGH!!! The door said that the large south office was open until 10am this morning. The nurse must have forgotten, because both DH and I heard her say that I could go to the north office today. So, I jumped back in my car and rushed down to the south office (about an hour drive.) I showed up at about 8:30am…..there was someone there to take my blood but the place was pretty empty. The person drawing blood was a man and I don’t know if he was new, if I made him nervous or what the deal was, but he was very nervous and couldn’t get the needle in to save his life! Poke poke poke……I just kept thinking “what the heck are we going to do if this guy can’t find a vein and get some blood out?!” Well, lucking he found a vein and got the darn blood! I jumped back into the car and drove into work…got in at about 9:30am….oh well, at least I am here!

Next, I wait to hear back from the IVF nurse to see if we are ready to start Lupron tomorrow. If I’ve already ovulated (they will know if I have because my progesterone will be above 5,) then I can start my first Lupron injection tomorrow. I’ll update again!

Update: Well, I got a call from the office and unfortunately I HAVEN'T ovulated yet, so all of the effort this morning was for nothing. I won't be start Lupron tomorrow afterall. The IVF nurse will have to talk to my RE and then give me a call tomorrow with further instructions. More than likely, this will mean another drive down to the far away clinic for another blood test on Wednesday or Thursday to see if I've ovulated and can start the Lupron. So, everything will be pused back now....since I won't be starting Lupron until later on in the week. Oh well....such as the game of fertility!

Cures for Nausea?

Okay, I know many of you out there have dealt with pretty intense nausea (from pregnancy, medications, etc)...if this is you, please give me some advice! I tried taking two doses of the metformin for a few days and it made me very nauseous. I scaled back to one a day and it is still making me nauseous....I threw up my entire dinner last night....barely made it to the bathroom! Oh Lord!!

DH seems to think I may be able to take something with it, but I don't know what....ginger ale or something? I really want to stay on the metformin, but I certainly can't be sick everyday. If you have any advice, home remedies, etc.....please share!!

As a side note, I've been on the Metformin since early October...I took a half a pill for a few weeks, then worked up to one pill for a month or so, but I haven't been able to get past more than one pill without getting sick! I take it with food too.

Thank you for any advice!

OMG!!! It's ALL here!

OMG! Okay, so I'm sure many of you have had this feeling when ALL of your meds show up on your doorstep at one time, and I know I keep saying this, but now there is REALLY no turning back! It is happening! We now have all of our stimulation meds (follistim and menopur,) our lupron, our trigger shot and all of the post-IVF meds. Now, I just need to pick up all of my prescription strength vitamins. When I opened up the big box of meds and saw everything that was in there I honestly didn't know if I was going to laugh or cry!

I plan to set up the meds in what I am calling "shot station" (which is actually the guest bathroom.) On Tuesday, I'll be doing my first shot of Lupron (for those that don't know, Lupron basically shuts down your normal hormone cycles so that the doctor can control your hormones, it is pretty much like going through menopause...sounds like fun, right?) I will do Lupron injections until my trigger shot, which will be towards the end of January (an entire month....e-gads!) I will start the actual stimulation meds once my next cycle starts (I am estimating somewhere around January 10th.) At one point during this cycle (for about 10-12 days) I will be giving myself 3 shots in one day! This IVF process is definitely not for the weak or faint of heart! I'm not sure there has been anything in my life to prepare me for this....but I'm doing it anyway! I don't know where I will find my strength....but I will!!!

On other news, I've been trying once again to get up to the right dosage of Metformin. At my appointment last Friday, the nurse recommended taking the two doses at different times (morning and evening.) Well, I tried that and am still getting intense nausea and tummy aches. I don't know if I'll ever be able to get up to the recommended dosage....honestly. It makes me too nauseous...to the point where I can't even function. I might just have to cross my fingers that one dose of Metformin does the trick for me.

Will update again on Monday after my blood work and once I hear that I will for sure be starting Lupron on Tuesday! We are getting so close!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

P.S Pic is what $4k worth of meds look like!

We are on our way now!

Well, we are definitely on our way now. It is really starting to sink it that we are really beginning IVF. No turning back now!

On Friday, we were at the IVF clinic ALL DAY! We had a meeting with the business office at 8:30 where we went over the financial obligations and just what the financial damage was going to be. Later, we met with one of the embryologists, a lovely, friendly girl named Jen, who is my age and clearly LOVES what she does. She explained what they are looking for in a "mature egg," how they fertilize the eggs, how we hope the eggs will develop over the next several days in the lab, how they need to look and what criteria needs to be there before the eggs can be transferred into my uterus or frozen for future cycles. We then met with an IVF nurse where she went over my treatment plan. For anyone that is curious, I've updated the calendar on the left side of my blog so that you know when to really pray hard for me!

We will start Lupron injections on December 28th (if my blood work on the 27th looks good,) and I will continue those injections until egg retrieval. My next cycle should start sometime during the first week of January. I will start some prescription strength vitamins at that time. I will have a baseline ultrasound and blood work on cycle day 2. On cycle day 3 if everything looks good, I will start stimming (stimulation injections,) of follistim and menopur. I will be monitored with blood and ultrasound along the way. When, my eggs look mature (usually 10-12 days,) we will trigger with an ovidrel shot, exactly 36 hours later, I will go in for my egg retrieval (under general anesthesia,) and then we wait.... We wait to hear from the embryologist to see if the eggs fertilized, how/if they are developing, etc. If we have some good eggs, then 5 days after the retrieval, we go in for our egg transfer (the easiest part of all this.) The nurse showed both DH and I how to give injections, we both practiced. We then both had some blood work to see if either of us are carriers of cystic fibrosis.

We then went to lunch and prepared for the afternoon appointments. I had to have a full bladder, so I drank a lot of water at lunch! We came back at 1:00 and our first procedure was the trial transfer. This is basically exactly what it sounds like....a trial transfer of the eggs. They put a catheter inside you and then an ultrasound on top; they are measuring your cervix and your uterus so that when they are doing the "real" transfer, they know exactly how far to go in. The only real painful part of this was that I had a full bladder and they had to push on my belly with the ultrasound.

After that, I had the saline sonohysterogram. This was really a difficult procedure for me. They put another catheter inside of me...the catheter had a balloon on the end. They used the balloon to "blow up" my cervix, so that they could get saline inside of my uterus. Immediately when the doctor blew up the balloon, I was in intense amounts of pain. It was like the worst cramp I've ever felt in my life. I screamed in agony and she let some air out of the balloon. Unfortunately, this caused the balloon to fall out and they had to start from scratch. This time, she didn't blow up the balloon quite as full, but it was still extremely painful. I fought through the pain, so that the procedure would hurry up and be over. It took all I had not to cry. They were able to get the saline into my uterus, and look inside with the ultrasound.....the doctor said everything looked beautiful and perfect....thank God! On the way home, I was still having an agonizing cramp. It was like the worst menstrual cramp I've ever had, intensified by 100, and constant. It finally subsided after about 30 minutes, and became bearable. That evening, I pretty much had to lay around....moving a lot hurt my cervix and uterus, and I was still bleeding a lot. By Saturday I was feeling MUCH better! I'm so glad I only have to do that procedure once....I would NEVER do it again!

We also bought all of our meds.....$5k worth...yikes!!! The meds are being mailed to us and will be here on Wednesday. I think this will be even more real to me when the meds arrive....especially when I start them on the 28th.

So, that's where we are at now. If ALL goes well and we are able to get some mature eggs, then we have an 80% chance of conceiving, with a 60% chance of conceiving twins. Please please please continue to keep us in your prayers....we need it! We still have a long road in front of us.

Life on Hold

I know I have mentioned this before, but I will mention it again. There are MANY MANY downsides to being infertile. I think I spelled things out pretty well in this post. Now, that we are starting IVF, I’m sure there will be EVEN MORE downsides to look forward to…yay! One of the biggest things that is bugging me right now is just not being able to plan my life.

For those of you that know me, you know that I am a planner. I LOVE to plan things! I love to plan events, parties, my weekends, vacations, my life…..I know, I know…..I am in the wrong profession, I know this. In high school, I planned all of the dances, in college I planned numerous events. As an adult, I’d plan a party every month if DH would let me. Since he doesn’t, I have to settle for planning our life. I plan our weekends, what we are going to buy at the store, his Christmas gifts (oh yeah….mine too!,) what we are going to pack for vacation, appointments, who is taking care of our dog the following week, okay…the list could go on and on and that’s not even the point I am trying to make here.

The point is…that since I have started fertility treatments, my planning of my life has really go downhill. This is not to say that I have stopped trying to plan my life, this is saying that it is nearly impossible to plan your life when you are going through fertility. First of all, you have to plan everything around your cycles so that you can be under the same roof at the “right” time. Then, if you are having treatment you have to plan appointments, pharmacy runs, medications, etc. Then, you are always thinking “what if”….what if we conceive this month, or next month, or the following month. We shouldn’t plan any big vacations because I COULD be pregnant and I COULD have morning sickness or something else that would hinder me from being able to enjoy a vacation.

That brings me to today….we are right smack dab in the middle of starting IVF. We have our trial embryo transfer, our sonohysterogram, our appointment with the embryologist, our IVF nurse consult to learn our protocol, the business office to pay, etc. etc. We have our estimated start date to start stimming (shots) of January 8th….about 3 weeks away. Because of all of this, we basically have to put our entire life on hold.

This brings me to what I really want to say……we can’t do anything that we’d love to be doing because we are going through infertility. We would have already bought a different home, bought me a new car, an RV, planned a few vacations for 2011 (DH is DYING to take a Caribbean cruise!.) DH is constantly looking at home, cars and RVs that we both want and can afford, but we both know will not be bought anytime soon. Not only do we have no idea how much $ we’ll truly be spending on IVF, but we have no idea how long we’ll be at it, and how it will affect our marriage and our life. I’ve had to turn down really exciting adventures with friends and co-workers in January because I have no idea what to expect once we start IVF….what will my stress levels be like, how much time will it take, how I will feel, etc.

I’ve had people tell me that I should just live my life normally while going through fertility treatment/IVF but what they don’t understand is that fertility treatment, IVF in particular is all-consuming. For those 6 weeks, you basically concentrate on nothing else…that IS your life. In addition to that, it would not be smart to buy a new house, or a new car, or plan a vacation when we have no idea if IVF will be 30k or 60k.

I guess I’m just having a moment of feeling sorry for myself. We had planned to buy me a new car this year, we had planned to sell our current home (of 6 years) and buy the “dream home,” this year, we would love to plan some vacations. But, instead we are going through…….this. I know in my heart that it will be worth it in the long run….when I am holding those babies in my arms. But, right now….I am frustrated with the whole thing. Frustrated that I have to put my entire life on hold for something that may or may not happen.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers!

IVF Appointments are scheduled!

Just as I predicted, today is cycle day 1 for me. Yes, this means our last ditch effort before IVF did not work out, but I was 100% prepared for that, so not a shocker at all. It was a tough night for me, I woke up in the middle of the night with HORRIBLE cramps, I usually get pretty intense cramps, but not like this. It was completely awful! I woke up at about 1am and took 3 ibuprofen. I laid there for a few more hours waiting for them to take effect….they never did. So, at about 4:30 I got up again and rummaged through the medicine cabinet looking for something stronger. I found a bottle of darvocet from an old surgery and popped one of those. I also found my heating pad and plugged that in. An hour later, I finally fell asleep. This was after being awake from about 1am to 5:30am. Needless to say, I pretty tired out today, and the drugs just took the edge off the cramps….so not feeling great there either.

On more positive news, I finally got all of my IVF December appointments scheduled. The appointments are with all different people at the clinic, but ended up falling all on the same day…the 17th. This actually works out well for DH and I because that is the first day of our Christmas breaks, so we won’t have to take any time off work. Our first appointment is at 8:30am, and we’ll be at the clinic until 4pm. We’ll have our appointments in the morning with the IVF nurse (she’ll go over what we can expect, our IVF protocol, our IVF calendar, etc.,) the embryologist and business office. Later in the day, we’ll have our sonohysterogram and our trial embryo transfer. I’m an unsure as to whether we’ll have to have another Hysterosalpingogram….my nurse needs to find out.

This should hopefully be all the appointments we’ll have in December, except for some blood work on the 28th. I am glad to be getting most of the appointments out of the way before Christmas. This way I won’t be worried about my appointments over Christmas and can enjoy the holiday. The calendar I put up on the left side of my blog is still current……but I’ll update it as I know more. Please check in on me once the process starts in January!