{Stimulation Meds}

Last night was my first night starting my stimulation meds. I now have to give myself 3 separate injections each night. 1 injection of Lupron, 1 75 IU injection of Menopur and 1 150 IU injection of Follistim. Overall it went well, I mixed the dosages and got the Follistim Pen all set up and ready to inject. After getting it all ready it didn't take long at all to give myself the injections. These ones take longer to inject, thus there is more discomfort, but I just keep reminding myself that this IS our cycle and it will all be worth it in the end!!! I noticed some slight bruising and tenderness on my abdomen this morning, so I can just imagine how much worse this will get with my next week of stims daily...eek!! Anyways, just a brief update, we go in for our first follie check tomorrow morning at 8 to see how the progress is going and whether or not I will stay on the same dose for the next few days :) It's going to be a busy few weeks full of needles, dr appointments and ultrasounds!

Suppression Check U/S

I started my first injections last Monday with the Luteal Lupron. I take 10 units of this nightly. The shot hasn't been too bad at all. It isn't very painful and has only caused minimal bruising. So that's a relief..and it makes me realize I can do this!!! I CAN deal with these shots and it will all be worth it in the end when I'm pregnant and we're bringing home our new baby :)

And after my appt today, it's official, I get to start my stimulation meds on Friday night! I went into the Dr. this morning and had an ultrasound to confirm I had no cysts and that my ovaries were 'ready to be stimulated' I guess. Unfortunately my normal dr. wasn't available so I had a different nurse do my u/s. She was really nice, but had a little trouble finding both my ovaries (they were hiding behind my uterus..) so she had to move the wand around and then press on my abdomen which was a little uncomfortable, but overall it went well. She ended up finding both ovaries and from what she could see both looked good, 20 follicles in one and 15 in the other. After the u/s I met with my nurse and we confirmed my schedule and the meds dosages I will be starting on Friday. She said it sounds like the u/s was fine and will call back with any changes. So..next on the checklist: stimulation meds! :)

Injectibles...

Well, the reality of starting our first IVF cycle is beginning to set in. Wednesday was another day in Seattle. I picked up my husband from work and we went together to the 'Injectible Instruction' appointment. This appointment was an hour long and the nurse went over all the meds I will be on, how to measure each one (they are all different...) and how to inject them. I have to admit I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of meds I will be on, I'm just hoping and praying that all this hard workand stress will pay off in the end with our little miracle :) The hour long instruction was pretty straight forward and I don't think I will have any problems with the SQ (Sub-cutaneous) injections, the only ones I'm worried about is the IM (Intra muscular), but I won't start those until AFTER the ET (Embryo Transfer). So at least I have a couple weeks to get used to the idea!

After the Injections training my husband and I went to a nice lunch on the marina and had the rest of the afternoon off together which was very nice since it doesn't happen very often! :)

Thursday I received my medications in the mail. It came in a HUGE box and I was amazed at the amount of medications I received (I don't even want to know how much they would all cost if it was OOP (out of pocket). Praise God for our insurance coverage.

Next on our IVF 'checklist' is to start Luteal Lupron tomorrow! Wish me luck with my first type of injections (it's only gonna get worse from here though ..moving up to more than 1 injection per day..)

Here's my meds for IVF #1...and we may possibly need more depending on how my body responds to the dosage....crazy!!

Consents and Bloodwork

Appt #2 for our IVF cycle was this morning. We met our Dr. in the Seattle office and he went over the consent forms that we had to initial and sign. These are basically precautions for the office/dr. and explain some of the complications and risks associated with ART (Assisted Reproductive Techniques) that may arise during our cycle. After going over these and talking about what the doctor thinks our success rates and complications may be, my husband waited for the nurse to get his blood drawn and I went in to have a quick pap smear. When I came out from my pap smear, my husband was just going back to get his blood drawn. When he came back out from the blood draw area his face was GREEN ...the same color as his shirt. The poor guy nearly passed out! Luckily this should be the only blood test he has to take throughout our infertility journey. If he was the one in my position having to do daily shots, I don't think we'd ever have our own children together!! After we were finished we signed the consents and turned those into the front desk and confirmed our next appointment for tomorrow: Injections Training. Things are moving right along, and we're getting anxious to get through this cycle!

Starting IVF #1

Well, our first appt. with our RE to make our treatment plan for IVF #1 was Tuesday May 26th. Unfortunately my husband wasn't able to make it to this appointment with me as he had just taken a day off a couple weeks before to attend a '2nd opinion' appointment with another doctor, that ended up being a complete waste of both of our time.

The appointment with the RE went great!! I sat down in his office and we went over the timeline for an average IVF cycle and payment options. We have been very blessed with amazing insurance through my husband's employer, so for this IVF cycle we will mostly likely only end up paying about $1,000 out of pocket!! We have some money in savings and it's nice to know that for now we can keep it there instead of having to use it for IVF or other treatments. After talking with the Dr., the next step he needed to have accomplished was an ultrasound and saline check of my cervix (not sure of the actual name for that ...). Since we both had some time, he took me to the exam room and had this accomplished. He said my cervix, uterine lining and ovaries look great for IVF. This wasn't the most comfortable experience, but I'm hoping it's about the same procedure as the embryo transfer will be. He said this should be a very easy procedure for me, so that was a relief (as long as the rest of the cycle and procedures are the same)!! After this I had my final blood work completed to get the cycle started. And to end my 'marathon appointment,' I met with the financial advisor and spoke with her about our insurance benefits and what the best approach will be for us to pay for our IVF cycle.

It was such a relief to get so much done at the first appointment and feel like after 20 months of 'trying' we're FINALLY making some progress that will hopefully lead to our miracle child. Since this first appointment I have been in communication with my nurse and have set up several appointments.

Please keep us in your prayers as we have our next appointment Tuesday June 9th at 8 a.m. At this time we will go over all the consent forms with our doctor and sign these off. My husband will also have his blood work done (he's super nervous about this, as he HATES needles..), then I will have to get an up to date pap-smear done by my Doctor. So...it will be another marathon appointment for us, but so nice to get these things done in groups so that we don't have to make multiple trips to the clinic. We also have an appointment Wednesday afternoon for "Injection Instruction" where I will learn how to use and take all the medications I will be on this cycle (which is a HUGE list by the way ....I'll wait for another post about this!)

We have the IVF calendar pretty much planned out and as long as my body responds as planned we should be done with this cycle and know the outcome by the end of July.

My History...

I created this blog to anonymously blog about our IVF and ttc journey. I will start by adding a little bit of my history. I'm a mid 20s female married for just over two years and trying to conceive since going off bcp's in Oct 2007. Since that time I have not had menstrual cycle that wasn't medically induced-therefore making it very difficult to conceive our first child. After about 6 months of no cycle and no explanation from my OB/Gyn, she recommended we see an RE (Reproductive Endocrinologist) when we were ready. Not wanting to waste any time and hoping for some sort of explanation, we started seeing our RE in May of 2008. After b/w and ultrasounds, my dr originally thought I had PCOs (due to the poly cystic appearance of my ovaries) but after the results of my blood work, he determined they did not match this diagnosis and diagnosed me with 'hypothalamic amennorhea.' He said this was due to my past history of caloric restriction and extreme exercising. Although I haven't done this in 2 years, he still thinks it may be part of the cause of my amennorea (lack of a period). Before starting with my RE I tried Clomid, Provera and acupuncture for amennorhea and no luck with any of these for getting my cycle started. After starting with an RE, he increased my clomid dosage (with no luck), then we tried injectible medications (Menopur), which finally got my follicles to stimulate, but unfortunately as we slowly increased the dosage, my ovaries stimulated TOO much and the cycle had to be cancelled with my dr recommending our best option in this situation to be IVF. We were hoping we wouldn't have to go this route yet (even though my husband's insurance pays $10,000 for 1 lifetime ivf cycle). So we took a few months off as I tried acupuncture and herbs with a specialized women's clinic as well as took on a 'fertility diet' with mostly organic meats/dairy and produce. Unfortunately after 3 months of this, we were still not making any progress towards starting a cycle, and all my acupuncture benefits were used up, so we've finally come to the conclusion that IVF will be our best option.