Our Medicine Is Here!

Here it is! I wonder if the UPS man had to make two trips. This seems a little excessive to me!

And this, my friends, is what $4,500 of medication looks like. Luckily, our insurance covers most of these medications. Our total copay was $327.86. Thank God for good insurance! 

Suppressing My Cycle

While I'm still taking birth control pills through January 8, the first medication I'll start is the Synarel nasal spray. Beginning January 3, I will spray this nasal spray into alternating nostrils twice a day and will continue it until the night of my Ovidrel trigger shot. Synarel suppresses ovulation. I start it while I'm still on birth control pills to ensure that when I stop the pills my body does not start selecting follicles for ovulation. That would prevent me from making lots of follicles and eggs for retrieval. 

Stimulation

I'll start stimulation on January 13 by taking daily injections of Bravelle and Menapur. Right now my protocol is for 3 vials of Bravelle and 1 of Menapur each evening, but that could change after my first ultrasound which is scheduled for January 17. Hopefully these drugs will make me produce lots and lots of eggs!

Ovulation, Egg Retrieval and Embryo Transfer

When my doctor determines that my follicles (with an egg in each one) are mature, I'll stop stimulation and take my Ovidrel shot to trigger ovulation. My egg retrieval will be scheduled for 36 hours after I take my  trigger shot. I'll start a Z-Pack of antibiotics the day after my Ovidrel shot to prevent infection from the egg retrieval. The day after my egg retrieval I'll start a medication called Medrol. It is a small dose steroid that prevents the body from rejecting the embryos that will hopefully be transfered 5 days after the retrieval. I'll also take a baby aspirin each day (not pictured).

Implantation Support

After the transfer I will take several medications to help support the implantation of our transfered embryos. I'll wear a Vivelle dot, which is an estrogen patch. I'll also take Prometrium and Crinone, which are progesterone supplements. 

Now that we've got the goods, we're just waiting for our orientation on January 10 and our ultrasound, mock transfer, and medication teaching class on January 11! It's finally starting to seem real. :)

Protocol

Our IVF Stimulation Protocol is here!!!

On Your Mark...Get Set...

Well, we're not getting our wish for a Christmas baby this year. Our round of injectable treatments were not successful, so we'll be moving forward with IVF after the holidays. While it's disappointing, it was expected.

I've talked with our IVF coordinator several times this week to get our ducks in a row for our January IVF cycle--and I must say, I'm getting excited! Here's what we know so far:

• I will take birth control this Saturday through January 8. 
• We will attend a mandatory IVF orientation meeting on January 10 with the other couples doing IVF this month. Our doctor will talk for about an hour about the process and we'll have a question/answer session at the end.
• We will start our injections on January 13. They will monitor my follicle growth every few days and that will determine how long I will take the injections. It will probably be about 8-12 days.
• I'll have my egg retrieval sometime the week of January 21-27 (depending on how quickly my follicles grow) and an embryo transfer 5 days later. 
• As soon as I send in our $100 deposit, our spot will be secured for next month's cycle. Then I'll get a packet of information that will include my personal protocol.

I'm glad to have a general idea about how the next six weeks are going to go. We both know there can be all kinds of hiccups and problems that could pop up along the way and change our course of action, but it's comforting to me to have a plan. (That would definitely be the J part of my ISFJ personality coming out, right Aunt Marilyn?)

January is going to be a whirlwind for sure. But for the next few weeks we get to enjoy the Christmas season, spend time with friends and family, and celebrate the arrival of a new year. Adios 2011. I'm not so sad to see you go. Cheers to baby making in 2012!