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!

First meeting with our IVF Nurse Coordinator

May 22, 2015September 24, 201510 Comments

On Tuesday Chris and I met with our IVF Nurse Coordinator at the fertility clinic. She had asked us to set aside about 1.5hrs for the session, so we both took the afternoon off work…and I’m glad we did! I left the meeting with that type of headache feeling you get after you have just sat a 2 hour exam. I felt completely awash with new information. Fortunately, we were given a nice homework pack to take home and read so we could absorb it in slow time.

We discussed the IVF process, basic biology and advanced cell biology. Schedule and timings of events. Medication and blood tests for both of us. We also talked about insurance issues, consent forms, checklists and calendars. Our nurse has been doing her job for 15 years, she knows everything there is to know. I was seriously impressed.

Unfortunately the embryology lab is closed for a few weeks in June/July. We thought this would be OK, but when we actually sat down with my period dates we worked out that we were going to have to wait another month. The nurse is not allowed to start anyone on a cycle that starts from the 29th May to 20th June. As my period started yesterday my next period is due around the 16th June. We were hoping I would two 28 day cycles to push me to the 20th June, but it now looks like that won’t happen. I was very frustrated. This means we will be expecting a retrieval date around either 3rd or 10th August, right in the middle of my mum visiting us in the US. Which I am sure she won’t mind, but it means we can’t plan any fun sight seeing trips until we get closer to the date. At least we will have time to get medications sorted and August is a nice quiet time at work so that will be good but Grrrrr, July would have been so much better for us. Oh well.

It looks like our insurance will cover Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI). Great news! We now need to sort out purchasing our long list of medication (by all means, I have a very short list compared to some other ladies) and choosing a pharmacy that our insurance accepts (we discovered we can choose what ever pharmacy we want and what ever brand of medication we want too).

My list of medication will be:

Birth Control Pills – yup, it’s ironic! I’ve never taken these before so I had a lesson on how to take them! This will help controlling my cycle so we can start the IVF stimulation at a certain time.

Gonal-F or Follistim – this is a Follicle Stimulation Hormone drug, adminstered by a subcutaneous injection. Oh great! Needles! This helps stimulate the ovaries to grow lots of follicles, more than I did for the IUI where I had 2-3 follicles, the goal is 20 or so! Yikes.

Menopur – A Follicle Stimulation Hormone together with a Luteinising hormone (were you paying attention in GCSE biology??!). Another subcutaneous injection.

Ovidrel – The trigger shot. Been there, done that. Although this time I will be taking this injection at a very precise time just before my egg retrieval surgery.

Ganirelix or Cetrotide – this will prevent me from ovulating on my own so the eggs are ready at the right moment for retrieval. Another subcutaneous injection. Wow. Four different needles already.

Progesterone in oil – I’ve heard about this one before and the needle terrifies me! It is an intramuscular injection. Just google progesterone in oil and look at the images page. This is instead of the progesterone suppositories I had with the IUI. Chris will have to give me this injection every night – in the buttock muscle! Have you seen the size of that needle????!?!?!

Vivelle patches (transdermal etrogen) – An estrogen hormone patch. YEY something that isn’t an injection!!!

Doxycycline – antibiotic for my egg retrieval (so I don’t get an infection after inserting the big needle they are getting to use to retrieve my eggs through my vaginal wall) Chris also gets to take doxycyline because we are doing ICSI, this drug affects the sperm and makes them less ‘sticky’ so it’s easier for them to select just one sperm to inject into my egg for fertilisation. That was something I did not know! Rather cool.

It was an intense session, but I was very excited that we are actually starting this and moving a step closer to becoming pregnant. We came home in a bit of a daze afterwards. The emotions running around were definitely mixed. Interesting times ahead.