Our kitchen has now become a pharmacy

We added a new drug to the mix tonight, it's called Cetrot.ide. This drug is used to suppress my body from trying to ovulate on its own. The other two meds have come in a vial and cartridges that were premixed, but the Cetrotide is a powder and liquid that has to be mixed right before the injection. Thank goodness this is a one-time injection because it makes me a tad bit uneasy to have to mix my meds on my own. Everything has to be so precise and I'm always afraid we're going to screw up. We took a picture of the needle that we had to use to insert the liquid into the vial filled with powder. Look at the size of this needle! This is NOT a nice needle! Thank goodness this did not have to go inside my abdomen. Chris would have had to chase me down and force it in me! :-) The other pic is of Chris filling the HUGE syringe with the mixed solution.

As I type I am officially having my first reaction to a fertility drug...a small, red, itchy rash at the injection site from the Cetro.tide. Oh my gosh it itches!! Chris keeps giving me ice cubes to put on the rash so I won't scratch it. He's such a good Dr. hubby! Apparently, this is normal and should go away in awhile. I sure hope so because man am I itchy!!!

Our next monitoring appointment is tomorrow morning, wish us luck!

Meltdown #2...only a mini one, though

I'm having deja vu today. About 5 weeks ago I had my first IVF meltdown and it was on a Monday morning. Today I had my second one, but thankfully it was minor compared to the first one. I didn't have to take a personal day today. I went in for my monitoring appointment this morning. Dr. G did an ultrasound to see if my follicles had made any progress over the weekend and surprise, surprise on average they had only grown about 4 mm since my appointment on Friday. They are now measuring at 10-13 mm (I think 1 or 2 were at 14 mm) and I really should have been closer to these numbers on Friday. My estrogen level was fine on Friday but for some reason they can't seem to light a big enough fire under my ovaries to make the follicles grow. Dr. G said that it would be a sprint for the follicles to grow enough by Friday so now we're looking at possibly having our egg retrieval on Saturday or Sunday. But still, no guarantees.

I was obviously discouraged by my appointment this morning and unfortunately no one in his office is the warm fuzzy type so I didn't get any words of encouragement from the nurses. It's just a wait and see game. Sounds like fun, huh? After the u/s, I had to go downstairs for my blood work. Not only did I have to wait forever for them to get to me but I also had to sit in a room full of cute, little pregnant women. To make matters worse one of the pregnant women was having a really loud conversation on her cell phone with someone who is apparently throwing her a baby shower. She proceeded to yell at this person about how she didn't like anything they were doing, including the invitations and that if they didn't get it right it would make her cry. Let me just tell you how much sympathy I had for her. NONE!!! I really wanted to go over there and slap her and say, "Do you have any idea what I'm going through just to GET pregnant? You should be grateful just to be pregnant you selfish, little brat!!" But I didn't. My mom would be so proud of me!

I will get another phone call from the nurse this afternoon to let me know if they're increasing my dosage. I think it's a pretty safe bet that they will, it's just a matter of how much.

I was so upset when I got to the office this morning but I was trying really hard to not let it show. That held up for about 10 seconds. As I walked in the door my good friend, Kim, asked how it went this morning. Yep, that's all it took. I lost it. So, she decided that I needed to get out of the office and that we were going to run over to Jamba Juice and get a smoothie. For those of you who don't know me that well, Jamba Juice is one of my favorite treats. So, I am so thankful for Kim and her kindness. She knew that I needed to get some air and just breathe for a bit before I came back into the office. Thank you, God, for my wonderful family and friends. I couldn't get through this without them.

After 4 days of stims...

I had my first monitoring appointment this past Friday. The RE did an ultrasound and found 13 follicles growing. They were all between 6-8 mm and I asked him if this was ok. He said they might be about 1-2 mm below average but he didn't seem concerned with this. I also had blood work Friday morning and then the nurse called that afternoon to give me my new dosage. I am now taking the Micro Ovi.drel every other night and increasing my Follis.tim to 450 IUs each night. The nurse told us last Monday that my doctor NEVER overstimulates his patients and that in the 14 years that she has worked with him she has never seen a patient develop OHSS (ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome). This made me feel good. So, I wasn't too terribly concerned with the report on the size of my follicles because I already knew that my doctor is more conservative and likes to increase the meds as needed.

I have my next appointment on Monday morning for another ultrasound and blood work. Please pray that my follicles have grown some more by then. I hope we have at least a few more in there too! If everything progresses normally our egg retrieval is still set for this coming Friday. I'm excited and nervous!

A big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to my blog friend at Where's Baby?! She just found out that she's pregnant from her first IVF cycle!

Ouchie!

Ok, the Folli.stim is living up to its nickname around here too...Follisting. Chris just finished giving me my injections and all I have to say is Ouchie! The Micro Ovi.drel is a piece of cake. I can't even feel that injection. But, no pain no gain, right? I sure hope it's doing its job and growing lots of follicles for me. Only time will tell. Our next appointment is tomorrow. I'll have another ultrasound and blood work to monitor how my body is responding to the meds. I hope I get a good report!

Now, all you ladies on this IVF journey who have taken or are currently taking Folli.stim...did it make you feel super bloated? Sorry to those of you reading this that didn't want to know this tid bit of info. :-) I'm only 4 days into these injections and I already feel like I might be outgrowing my clothes. What the heck? Too bad I can't wear my super comfy cotton pants to work tomorrow. I'm taking 300 IUs of Folli.stim a night. I don't know if this is a normal dosage or not. I'll update tomorrow night after our appointment.

Please pray for my blog friend at Once Upon a Time. She is having her embryo transfer tomorrow! Also, my blog friend at Where's Baby? is anxiously waiting to find out if she is pregnant! Her embryo transfer was last Sunday. Please keep these girls in your prayers!!

Day 1 of Injections...God Bless My Sweet Husband!

Today is day 1 of my injections. I'm taking Micro Ovi.drel and Follis.tim. All I have to say is God Bless my sweet husband! I got everything ready for the injections, had my skin pinched and cleaned and just stood there pinching my skin and holding the needle in the other hand. I must have stood there like this for at least 5 minutes. I knew it wasn't going to be bad at all, but at the same time I just couldn't bring myself to jab a needle into my skin. So, I had to give up on trying and let Chris do it. He had absolutely no problem. He is my hero! Of course after it was all over I realized what I already knew...it was no big deal at all.

Above is the picture of what we picked up from the pharmacy today. I have my two meds and a ton of needles and alcohol swabs. I will also have to take two other meds but not until this weekend or early next week for the one and then the last one will be my trigger shot which probably won't be until next Wednesday.

Overall, today was a good day but at the same time I have felt overwhelmed. After the appointment this morning, Chris and I began to think about all the things that can go wrong between now and the time we have our embryo transfer. This, of course, is a stupid thing to do because as long as we follow the instructions given to us it is all out of our hands after that. Each time I start to stress over a new phase of this journey I have to stop myself and remember that this is not in my control...God is in control and he won't let us down. He has proven His faithfulness time and again through this whole process but yet I still can't stop stressing at times. Ugh. Old habits are hard to break!

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts and prayers. We couldn't make it through all of this without all the love and support of our wonderful family and friends (and of course this includes all my blog friends). :-) I have found such a wonderful support system in all of you girls and it's so comforting to know there are other people out there who know exactly how I feel and what I'm going through.

Our next appointment is this Friday. They'll do another ultrasound and blood work to check my follicle growth. So until then...grow little follicles grow!!

Answered Prayers

Woohoo! We got some really awesome news today. The nurse who coordinates the IVF schedules called me this afternoon and said for me to take my last birth control pill tonight and then they want to see me first thing Monday morning for an ultrasound and blood work. Yay!!! I will get my prescription for the meds on Monday and will be able to pick them up at their pharmacy that day as well. I have to call the nurse Monday afternoon for the results of my blood work and if my ovaries are sufficiently supressed then I'll get to start the Micro Ovi.drel AND the Follisti.m Monday night. I'm so excited!!!!

Tentatively, if everything goes well our egg retrieval is scheduled for July 17th. That is only two weeks from tomorrow people!!! Ahhhhh! I didn't expect the ball to start rolling this quickly, but don't get me wrong I am NOT complaining one bit. :-)

Thanks so much to everyone who has been praying for us. God really answered our prayers today. Please continue to pray for us and please specifically pray that my ovaries are nice and suppressed by Monday so that I can begin the injections Monday night. If they're not, then I would have to start the birth control pills again and they would check me in another two weeks. That would not be nice. So, we'll be thinking positive thoughts and doing lots of praying this weekend!

We're finally moving forward again

I FINALLY got a call from the RE's office this evening. The nurse didn't call until around 6:00 PM and needless to say I had already given up on them by this point and was not expecting a call. My test results finally came in and everything looked good. YAY! Now I just have to wait for the nurse who actually schedules the IVF cycles to look at my chart and call me back with our treatment plan and tentative procedure dates. Not only does she have to coordinate with their office schedule but she also has to coordinate with Chris' doctor as well. He has to be on standby that day in case Chris has to have a biopsy. Please pray for us that these schedules are coordinated without any hitches and that we're still on track to have our IVF cycle this month.

The nurse gave me this website to use that will verify my pharmacy benefits for me. She gave me a list of the 4 main fertility drugs that my doctor uses and told me to put those into the online verification system. I've already taken care of this tonight and will hopefully get some feedback from them this week. I had only heard of one of the drugs she name - Folli.stim. Please let me know if any of you have taken or heard of these other three: Ovi.drel, Cetro.tide and Micro Ovi.drel. I looked them up online and have a pretty good idead what each one is used for, but none of these seem to be in place of Lupr.on. Has anyone else gone through an IVF cycle without being on Lupr.on? Maybe the nurse just forgot to mention that one. I wouldn't doubt it seeing as how I had to speak with the rude nurse. I had to laugh to myself when she told me at the end of our conversation that "I can always still call her if I ever have any questions." Yah right. I don't think so lady! :-)

Well, I sure hope we get our treatment plan before the end of this week. I would love to have a grasp on things before the long weekend. I am so grateful, though, to at least know that all of my tests are back and that all the pieces of the puzzle are there for them to work with.

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July!!!