Today Geno and I went for our first big step for our September cycle! It was crazy being there again, and doing those same familiar steps. The feelings were all so much alike the ones I had 3 years ago, but so very different at once...
This was the day for my saline sonogram. Let me tell you how fun these are NOT. However, they are very important to an IVF cycle, as they will tell the doctor the state of your uterine lining. This was a good gauge for them to see what mine does over time, as by the time a person's body is ready for the embryo transfer, it should be between an 8 and a 12. You can stop reading now if you are easily grossed out. Or if you're my brother for example. Or if you don't like hearing about uterus's and vagina's. In a nutshell, the nurse practitioner uses a speculum so she can get a good look at your cervix. Then she inserts a catheter into the cervix, which has a balloon on the end. The balloon, once it's all the way inside, is filled up with water. The speculum comes out, and in goes the sonography probe. Yup - you get to have an internal sonogram, all the while holding onto a bunch of water up inside your cervix. And a balloon. The first time the balloon wouldn't inflate. So she got to do it all twice! It hurt. It was uncomfortable. And I was afraid to look at the screen. The last time I had one of these exciting little tests performed, they found out I had too many cysts to continue on with a new cycle. This time though, we had good news! The lining of my uterus is right as it should be for the point in my cycle. Woo-hoo! To top it off, that's the only saline sonogram I will need for this cycle! Double woo-hoo!
Geno was fully prepared to have to give them a specimen... but he lucked out today, and gets to do it at another appointment. I'll be sure to tell you all about it when the time comes :) After the sonogram we sat down with our nurse coordinator to do a "teach". She went over all the meds I will be taking, injecting, and depositing. Although we've done this all before, I wanted to be completely sure I am comfortable with everything before my box of meds arrive and I freak out! We got our calendars, so we know tentatively what days we will start meds, add new meds, and the date for the egg retrieval and embryo transfer. These dates are all tentative because you don't know how your body will respond to all of this. I could stimulate really quickly, and they would have to move up the egg retrieval date, or could take longer to stimulate and have to push the date back. Then if our embryos look amazing, we can wait to do a 5 day embryo transfer (which is great, because if your embryo's are surviving 5 days outside the womb, they are strong ones!) or a 3 day transfer. Which is what Neisan was :). Still with me? Okay, there's more. So on September 7 I will start the first medication. It's called Lupron, and I give myself one shot of it a day in my stomach. On the 17th, I start 2 more injections, both of which will start my eggs growing away! Depending on how fast they grow, and how many grow, will determine our retrieval date. Right now we are looking at September 27. On the 22nd I will start going in to the office daily to have internal ultrasounds and blood work done so they can see how I'm responding to all the meds. By the time I'm done with the shots, I will have given myself 4 a day!
That's a lot of info. But I wanted to kind of lay it out there so my friends and family who are joining me on this journey kind of understand what's happening, and why it goes a certain way. During our first IVF cycle I didn't really talk about it to anyone. During our frozen embryo cycle I didn't tell anyone - until we found out we were pregnant. It took a lot of stress off of me to not have people asking a million questions, and it was great not feeling like I had to tell people about this very personal part of my life. Having said that though, I feel like this time around, I want the people who care about me, and the people I care about, to be completely in on this. I feel like blogging about it, on my own terms, will take off the pressure of having to tell people individually. Plus, I know a lot of my friends don't like to ask too many questions, because they don't want to pry - but I know they want to know. So this is a great way for that to happen too. And, in the end, I will always have this to look back on for years to come. I will get to recall everything, from the procedures, to the feelings I felt. I think this will be an amazing thing to look back on one day, no matter what the outcome.
There it is! Our first tiny step in this next HUGE leap we are taking! Right now, at this moment, I do not want to press pause. I want to fast forward to the good parts.
Oh and for a little tidbit about Neisan - he pooped in the potty yesterday! I'm 99% sure it was a fluke, but I'll take it!!
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