I've decided I need to rename this blog, "The Process of WAITING". It seems like all I'm ever doing throughout this whole thing is waiting. I wait for blood work, I wait for my period, I wait for results. Wait, wait, wait. (I also feel like I've discussed this before....but I'm too lazy right now to go back and look)
Well, right now we're waiting to test. We just finished up our first month of super duper medicines (ya know, as opposed to just the regular medicines). The first few days were just the oral tablets of Letrozole (Femara). Then after that it was the three days of Gonal-F with the shots.
On day 10 I went in for my 10 day ultrasound. Everything looked really good on the ultrasound. My right ovary had one mature follicle and two that were almost there, but would be ready in time for ovulation. She also said I had one mature follicle in the left ovary. Apparently that's a lot. The nurse kept saying, "Please be empty, please be empty" when she started to look at the left one. So basically with multiple follicles it puts me at risk for multiples. She said because of the Letrozole, that really decreases the chances of triplets or quads, but she said, "I can't say you wouldn't have two". This is, of course, if everything goes well and something actually gets fertilized, etc. But it was still kind of exciting to hear.
Joel and I have talked about it and we're fine with having multiples. I mean I know it's more difficult (and I'm not professing to know exactly how hard it is). But I have a hard time thinking that anyone who has issues with fertility would say, "No, we're not really ok with that. Let's spend more money to do it again." But who knows, there are all kinds of circumstances out there.
It was hard to leave there not being excited. She sounded really positive and the most interesting part is she told me to skip the Antagon (Ganirelix) completely! We went straight to the Ovidrel that night (which is the shot that forces me to ovulate). Then 36 hours after the shot is when the "timed intercourse" comes in to play. It was funny that that ended up being the morning of 4th of July (which worked out well since we both had the day off and didn't have to worry about taking time off of work to...well, basically come home and have sex). We joked about the possibility of conceiving on the 4th of July and picked out some appropriate names: Betsy for a girl (you know, as in Betsy Ross) and Jefferson or Sam (as in Uncle Sam) for a boy.
Now I know this is all getting ahead of ourselves. There is still a lot to happen that could not work and we know that. But as always it's so hard not to get excited. This is where the waiting comes in. I can take a pregnancy test on Wednesday, July 18. Fortunately the new school year starts tomorrow so I'll have a lot to take my mind off of it...
...10 days left...
...sometimes anyway.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
A fly on the wall
So we have started the shots...(I feel like I need dramatic music here). Today is day 9 of my cycle and the third day of shots. I feel like every time we start something new in this process it's a pain to figure out. It was a pain to figure out all of the insurance. It was a pain to figure out the timing of when to come to the doctor and what to do for that. Now it's been a pain trying to figure out how to schedule the initial doctor's appointment for the cycle.
With the round of medication we are doing, once my period starts I have to get a baseline ultrasound done on days 1, 2, or 3. Well of course my period started on Friday at like 4:30, too late to go to the doctor. The office said if that happens, count Saturday as day 1 and then come in on Monday for the ultrasound. This would normally be fine, however I was out on Friday for a training and felt really uncomfortable taking Monday morning off too (since it's the last week of school). Also I didn't have my plan book at home and had no idea what to even put in sub plans. It was like the perfect storm of bad timing.
So I scheduled a half day for the afternoon and left a message at the doctor for them to call me back Monday morning. I talked to them Monday morning and apparently they ONLY do ultrasounds Mon-Fri in the mornings. They said they don't do them in the afternoon and I would have to come back on Tuesday morning. I started getting pissed at this point because I had already booked a sub for that afternoon, couldn't cancel, and didn't want to be out for ANOTHER half day during the last week of school. After a long conversation the nurse finally said that the doctor could authorize an exception and I left a voicemail for the doctor. Fortunately she let me come in that afternoon. The silliest part in all of this was that the actual ultrasound took ~8 minutes. Oh well...now I know and from now on I can just get the ultrasounds done before school at like 7:30 and not have to take any time off.
Everything was normal at the ultrasound. My uterus was nice and thin and the ovaries were resting (which always makes me think of Joel when he cooks steak or something and it needs to rest...). So I took the Letrozole, which was just a couple little pills, for days 3-7. Then on day 7 we started the shots.
That first time was pretty ridiculous. My friend Karen said she would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to watch. I think the conversation went something like this:
Joel: Ok, are you ready?
Me: Yes...(needle comes close, how I knew I have no idea since I wasn't looking) Wait! Hang on, ok I'm ready.
Joel: Ready?
Me: Yes....wait! Ok, go.
I think that happened a few times before he finally just did it. And of course it wasn't that bad, just a little prick. Although I think I asked him 4 times if he did it right...
The worst part was last night. We had a wedding to attend. I'm supposed to have the shot between 6-8pm and at approximately the same time each night. Well the first night I got the shot at 7:45pm. So we were trying to figure out how to give me the shot at the same time while we're at the wedding. We couldn't really both go in to the bathroom. We talked about just going out to the car. But of course I was wearing a dress. I had these visions of us in the car in the parking lot with my dress hiked up (the shot goes in the stomach) while Joel is injecting me with something as strangers walk by. We ended up just doing the shot before we left. It wasn't exactly in the right time frame but hopefully it's fine.
So now I just have one more shot tonight and then I go back tomorrow for another ultrasound and blood work. They'll call me tomorrow with directions on what to do from there. If everything looks ok, then I start the Antagon for a few days and then the Ovidrel. So we'll see!
With the round of medication we are doing, once my period starts I have to get a baseline ultrasound done on days 1, 2, or 3. Well of course my period started on Friday at like 4:30, too late to go to the doctor. The office said if that happens, count Saturday as day 1 and then come in on Monday for the ultrasound. This would normally be fine, however I was out on Friday for a training and felt really uncomfortable taking Monday morning off too (since it's the last week of school). Also I didn't have my plan book at home and had no idea what to even put in sub plans. It was like the perfect storm of bad timing.
So I scheduled a half day for the afternoon and left a message at the doctor for them to call me back Monday morning. I talked to them Monday morning and apparently they ONLY do ultrasounds Mon-Fri in the mornings. They said they don't do them in the afternoon and I would have to come back on Tuesday morning. I started getting pissed at this point because I had already booked a sub for that afternoon, couldn't cancel, and didn't want to be out for ANOTHER half day during the last week of school. After a long conversation the nurse finally said that the doctor could authorize an exception and I left a voicemail for the doctor. Fortunately she let me come in that afternoon. The silliest part in all of this was that the actual ultrasound took ~8 minutes. Oh well...now I know and from now on I can just get the ultrasounds done before school at like 7:30 and not have to take any time off.
Everything was normal at the ultrasound. My uterus was nice and thin and the ovaries were resting (which always makes me think of Joel when he cooks steak or something and it needs to rest...). So I took the Letrozole, which was just a couple little pills, for days 3-7. Then on day 7 we started the shots.
That first time was pretty ridiculous. My friend Karen said she would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to watch. I think the conversation went something like this:
Joel: Ok, are you ready?
Me: Yes...(needle comes close, how I knew I have no idea since I wasn't looking) Wait! Hang on, ok I'm ready.
Joel: Ready?
Me: Yes....wait! Ok, go.
I think that happened a few times before he finally just did it. And of course it wasn't that bad, just a little prick. Although I think I asked him 4 times if he did it right...
The worst part was last night. We had a wedding to attend. I'm supposed to have the shot between 6-8pm and at approximately the same time each night. Well the first night I got the shot at 7:45pm. So we were trying to figure out how to give me the shot at the same time while we're at the wedding. We couldn't really both go in to the bathroom. We talked about just going out to the car. But of course I was wearing a dress. I had these visions of us in the car in the parking lot with my dress hiked up (the shot goes in the stomach) while Joel is injecting me with something as strangers walk by. We ended up just doing the shot before we left. It wasn't exactly in the right time frame but hopefully it's fine.
So now I just have one more shot tonight and then I go back tomorrow for another ultrasound and blood work. They'll call me tomorrow with directions on what to do from there. If everything looks ok, then I start the Antagon for a few days and then the Ovidrel. So we'll see!
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