As promised, here is my new set of protocol that I need to follow. Look at all the pretty colors! Somebody used every color in the highlighter pack…Anyway. It’s 5/29, so I began taking the Doxycycline which is an antibiotic that I will remain on until my egg transfer. The purpose for this is obvious, after any procedure they will prescribe antibiotics in order to ward off any possible infection. Tomorrow, I will take two tylenol with a small sip of water (this was stressed several times) at 7AM, and we will arrive for the appointment at 8:15AM, actual procedure will...
We had our final appointment before having the egg retrieval. Dr. Cass is very excited for us, and was happy with the growth on both ovaries. My Estrogen level yesterday was 1763, and today it is 1890. Doctors estimate that a mature follicle produces ~200 pg/ml of Estrogen. Meaning, that as of today I have about 9 follicles that would be considered mature. Personally, I was hoping for a higher number than that, but as I understand things, even after the trigger shot my follicles will continue to grow 1-3mm per day. Here’s to hoping that some of these smaller ones turn...
So here we are, on day 10 of stims, and HAPPILY – tomorrow morning is my last day of injections! They told me to take my Gonal-F tonight as normal, and then tomorrow to only take the Ganirelix and Menopur in the morning. Dr. Cass came in and very happily and said we are ‘on our way’! She then told me how her arm gets tired after doing my ultrasound because I have so many follicles on the right hand side. “I cant rest my arm while performing the ultrasound, and there’s so many!” She is now affectionately referring to my...
Another day, another appointment, another ultrasound, another blood test. I feel like I should be walking into the clinic with no pants on, and my shirt sleeve rolled up at this point. Though, I am pretty sure that there are laws against that… Anyway, I finally got to see Dr. Cass! I’ve been having appointments with other doctors because she has not been available each time I am in for monitoring. It was so nice to see her. The other doctors are nice enough, but she really has such a wonderful way about her. Dean and I both feel...
I had an appointment on Friday as part of my monitoring while taking my stims. They monitor my Estradiol (Estrogen – E2) levels to make sure that my follicles are developing on track. On Day 3, my E2 level was 156. My doctors were very pleased with that number, and told me to keep taking my meds at the same dose that I have been and that I would need to come in on Sunday for an ultrasound as well as another blood test. We currently have 15 follicles that they can see, ranging from 5mm-10.6mm. Here are : Right:...
So, my period decided to be even more of a jerk and elected not to show up when it was expected, and because of this, I was not able to start my stims on Sunday as planned. I had an ultrasound and appointment on Monday, where the nurses and Dr. Cass were both disheartened that I had not started yet. My lining was 11mm thick, which was apparently indicative that my period should have been starting at any minute. They scheduled me for a follow-up appointment for today (5/18/16), in the event that I did not get my period on...
Today was my follow-up appointment, after almost 3 weeks on birth control. Dean and I arrived at the appointment this morning for my ultrasound to see if the cyst has resolved. Well… The cyst is gone! Everything looked “perfect” according to Dr. Cass. I take birth control for another 2 days, and then on Friday we have another appointment. I will have another ultrasound, and then Dean and I are both going to learn how to administer the injections. Then on Sunday, I begin the stims. Everything is moving much more quickly now! We also pay the full price for our...
JUST KIDDING. Turns out, the spotting that I am having is definitely not my cycle. Fun, right? So, after not experiencing my normal period, I became concerned and decided to call the RE’s office. I was concerned that I had missed my window of opportunity for the blood work to begin the birth control medication. They scheduled me first thing this morning, and told me they were going to do an ultrasound. Dr. Cass was not in today, so I was seen by a different Doctor. Hooray for another instance of, “Hi, nice to meet you! Here’s my vagina.” I...
In case anyone has forgotten, and I haven’t said it in a while – IVF is really, really, really expensive. Even more so, because our insurance does not cover any of the prerequisites that we needed to have done to proceed with IVF. In one week, between our consult, Dean’s semenanalysis and my sonohysterogram, we’ve spent $1,230 of our modest personal savings. We knew from the beginning that we would need to get some sort of financing, because we (like most people) dont have $17,200 just lying around. Oh, I’m not sure if I mentioned this – in order to begin treatment, we have...
Hi everyone, Today Dean and I went in for my Sonohysterogram, as well as submitting Dean’s sample for his semen analysis. We cant help but joke and wonder if anyone has been in a rush to the IVF clinic with their semen sample and been pulled over. “Sorry for speeding officer, but I needed to get to the RE in under and hour to make sure that my sperm doesn’t degrade. It’s riding shotgun, right now.” I digress. Let’s get back to the serious stuff: I went into the procedure room and was told that the sonohysterogram would be similar to...
