Well, today was the day! I went in this morning at 7:00 to have my baseline done. I walked in to the clinic and it was full of women waiting for their blood to be taken. So I opted to get the ultrasound done first. So here is our little friend again. --even ribbed for my pleasure. Sorry mom. Haha.
I got a good look at my ovaries, and they looked like chocolate chip cookies, which I guess is what they are looking for. I had 10 follicles on each ovary which pleased the doctor, so I did my job. They said they like to see 3-10 on each side, so she said I was high normal. Very exciting news. Plus, it looked like I was not ovulating any time soon, so good timing. Next, I saw the nurse who explained my drugs and what to take and in what doses, and also when to come back for more blood work and ultrasounds. They gave me a nice spreadsheet so that I wouldn't forget, plus I even got her cell phone number in case of any questions. They have been so nice!! I am sure they deal with a lot of crazy emotional women in there, so a cell phone number seems a little dangerous to me. But I took the number and ran. Haha. I got in line for my blood work and was told if that came back that my hormones were out of whack, then they would call me to cancel the drugs. So, no news meant good news. I kept my phone near me all day thinking, there is no way I am actually starting this today. I was wrong!! Today is definitely the day. So exciting and scary at the same time. Here is my instructional video of my first injection. This injection is easy!! The intramuscular ones, I can't imagine. It just burns a little afterwards. I will keep you guys updated most days I think, just so you can see if I go crazy or not. I will also show pics of the bloating. That would interest me anyway. I'm so excited! And so happy! Have I said how much I love my surrogate? Cause I do!!! This is really happening Andrea! You are amazing!!
First thing in the morning is my baseline test. I seriously can't wait!! I know it is weird, but I am really looking forward to this whole needle process. It fascinates me, but pretty sure that is only from the deranged mind of a former phlebotomist. I am really looking forward to seeing ultrasounds of eggs, embryos, and hopefully it means soon, a little baby ultrasound. Awesome!
Here is a picture of the drugs and needles:
So the only possible hold up could be if my blood work comes back saying that I am about to ovulate or just ovulated or if the ultrasound shows a large follicle that looks too mature. If that is the case, than I will have to wait 2 more weeks before I start the meds. This is the one (and only) time I wished I had a period to help out. Never said that before! I know my brothers are all gagging right now. hahaha I am so impressed they read all this, what good brothers I have! I will come back on here tomorrow night to either say we are waiting two weeks, or a video of the first injection. I am so beyond thrilled this is starting. It is beginning to feel real now.
It has been such a long wait!! Last week I was telling friends how incredibly frustrated I have been and emotionally spent with the whole process already. It hadn't even begun!!! There has been so much confusion and wondering and phone calls, but finally today we are on to some exciting stuff. I had an actual appointment with the fertility clinic again today and we are moving ahead.
We started with a meeting with the doctor to figure out what we all had to do to start this process. Not having a period makes life a little complicated for IVF and we discussed several options. Usually in my case they would put me on birth control for a few weeks to help predict a cycle for me and when we could start the hormones for retrieval. This is pretty typical, because they want to start you on around day 3 of your period and birth control would help them predict this. I am sure I have mentioned before how much I hate birth control, but let me just reiterate this, I HATE BIRTH CONTROL. It makes me a crazy person and it never has gone super well for me emotionally. I am trying to keep myself and my husband as sane as possible during this all. haha
Well, as we talked about this, he remembered that I have PCOS (Poly-cystic Ovarian syndrome). It causes your body to not ovulate regularly, but the nice thing for IVF is that PCOS causes you to produce more follicles than a normal woman would in a single cycle. So they say that PCOS patients have some pretty good chances of success with IVF. This is good news for me because this means I wont have to use BC. It all sounds a little confusing, Im sorry if I am terrible at explaining it all to you. The explanation is that it really doesnt matter when you start the drugs on a person with PCOS because they tend to not ovulate anyway, so their cycle is a little irrelevant, and when you start the drugs they respond well and really produce follicles. So wahoo!!
The next step was getting my physical done. Gotta love those. So, I cannot believe I am allowing this picture to go out into the real world, be forgiving! hahaha Here we are getting ready for the physical and my husband as usual playing with things he shouldn't.
Gotta love stirrups and the ultrasound wand. A woman's two favourite things.
After the physical, we headed out for the consent forms for ICSI--which we have decided is best for us to do---I will do a blog post later about that. Maybe on the day of ICSI. We then talked to the nurse about the drugs I will be taking. We will probably be starting my baseline next week!! (The baseline is an ultrasound and blood work to just make sure that your cycle is at the proper place to begin the drugs and your hormones are not too out of whack) I cannot even believe it. So, as soon as these drugs arrive, I will post pictures of my injections, what drugs I am taking, and what all these things mean.
Its just so exciting. I could have little embryos in the matter of a couple weeks and we couldn't be happier! Big shout out to our surrogate! She has been such a dream and waits so patiently for all of this to happen. Her needles are much bigger than mine, so I will try not to complain!! I will also make sure she takes some pictures of her needle journey for the blog as well. It is a very good day!
