IVF Diary Vol III begins!

March 12, 201617 Comments

Here we are again. It’s like deja vu, right? Seriously, Christmas seemed like ages ago, but somehow IVF round 2 only felt like a week or two ago. It’s all come around again quickly for us. I don’t feel quite so ready for it – mentally, my mind has been at work, physically, my body has been at work (hahaha!) what I really mean is – I need to do some exercise!!!

I started my Birth Control Pills on Thursday evening and phoned the nurse who is covering for my nurse whilst she is on leave to schedule in my IVF cycle. She gave me the important dates and told me she would order my medications. I put down the phone with dates in my hand, excited…then a little later realised that she hadn’t asked me what meds I had left over from my last cycle! Aghhh! And it was very late friday afternoon so I knew there was no chance of catching her in time. Also, I haven’t received notification from the Pharmacy yet that my prescription has arrived with them and I need my Lupron by Thursday morning! I am in Washington DC for two days next week, so my only real day to receive by FedEx my giant box of medication goodies in time would be Monday. Aghhhhhh!!!!! I hate this last minute panic thing!!! I am sure it will all be fine and the script will be with the Pharmacy today. Zen Dani……Zen.

I had my last alcoholic beverage last night – a wonderful glass or two or red wine. Bye bye alcohol! Although this cycle has creeped up on me, I am feeling excited. This is it. It’s all or nothing now!!!! Wish us luck!!!!! Eeeeeeek….

IVF cycle 3 Calendar

Chris told me I was too graphic in my last post about my period, so here is a Too Much Information Warning…….!!!! Don’t read past here if you don’t like reading about periods! I’ve been popping the painkillers for my period and surviving OK, the short sharp pains have gone, thankfully, it’s just the typical period pains now. But I did have something happen to me that I’ve never had before. I passed a ball of old thick dark black blood about the size of a large grape. It wasn’t clotty, but thick and sticky, kind of like a truffle! I got a little freaked out, but then remembered that putting a camera into your uterus and taking a biopsy from the the uterine lining 9 days before your period is probably not a normal every month occurrence; so I should not be surprised my body is doing some weird things. I have a post-op appointment next week, so I will mention it just to be sure. (Things I never thought I’d write about and share to the public world – my period!)

IVF Vol 2 begins!

December 30, 2015April 3, 201611 Comments

Yesterday my period arrived, just one day later than anticipated, but that’s all good. I called my nurse and started with the Birth Control Pills (Reclipsen).

Birth Control Pills (BCPs) – YEY!!!!

I will be on Birth Control Pills for 14 days (1 day longer than last time), then 3 days later we go into the Clinic for my Cycle Day 3 baseline ultrasound and blood tests – this time we won’t need to have all the lessons on injections – but we will need to sign some paperwork and sort out the finances. Then the next day I get my instructions for injections…and we are off on IVF/ICSI cycle 2! Here is a calendar of our cycle…

Planned Dates for IVF Cycle 2.

It is all happening a week later than I expected, which puts me in a conundrum about work travels. This would mean travelling for work almost the day after I take my first beta blood test. If it is positive, then I will be flying transatlantic to the UK just 4 weeks pregnant, and have to figure out how I’m going to do these progesterone injections. Or if it is negative and I am not pregnant, then I will be away from Chris at a sad time. Either way, it kind of sucks. If I don’t go on this work trip then I will be a real let down to my team. I’m hoping Chris might be able to come with me on this trip, but it is really hard for him to get the time off work.

Anyway, I am genuinely excited to be starting this cycle, but I had a little cry yesterday. I think it was all the period hormones running around. I cried because of the whole situation of fitting everything in life around this IVF cycle. I’m trying to make it easier for myself by taking some leave off work, but it is a busy month for my team, there is lots of work to be done, I have already had to pull out of one work event (in Switzerland :-|) and so I feel guilty. Despite feeling like this….I still have hope for 2016 🙂

2016 is the year I will be stronger, braver, kinder and unstoppable. This year I will be fierce!!!

For those of you who are new to the whole IVF process or want a reminder of how IVF works you can find a summary on my “What does it all mean?” page here. Currently I am in Step 1 of the process!

We have a start date for IVF!

July 9, 20156 Comments

Today the nurse called me with our IVF schedule…wooohooo!

It looks roughly like this:

Our rough schedule

So our first day of stimulation injectibles will be Friday 24 July. Chris and I both go in to the clinic to fill out the rest of the paper work, pay the $$$, get a lesson on how to do injectibles, receive our medication plan and I will have my first monitoring appointment with ultrasound/ blood work.

I also asked the nurse about the vivelle dot (estrogen patches) and why insurance only covers 8 patches and not the whole 24. Apparently the use of the patches is “off label” so it is not covered under infertility coverage, therefore I would need to pay for the rest out of pocket. BUT she did say that usually insurance will cover 8 every 30 days, so I can refill the prescription in 2.5 weeks and the insurance will cover 8 more patches, then I maybe lucky that by the time I need the last 8 it might be another 30 days. But either way, now we know why and will expect to pay out of pocket for the patches if needs be!

So….just another 11 days of Birth Control Pills! I really hope these don’t mess my hormones up too much :-s