IVF #4: IVF Calendar has officially arrived

It feels like such a long time to get this IVF cycle started... and here I am -- ALMOST there!

Since the last time I wrote: 
  1. I stopped birth control on 9/17/18, as directed from my RE. 
  2. AF arrived on 9/20/18. I called my RE's office and my next directions were to start birth control again on 9/22. 
  3. TODAY I received my IVF calendar. 
Some random things I forgot: 
  • I tend to spot while I'm on birth control. So, it was kind of hard to determine if I was having the start of my period or just spotting from the birth control. 
  • The WAITING for everything feels so very long... like insanely long. I thought I'd get my IVF calendar right away. Nope, just got it. 
  • I have to give up caffeine during stims.... oh no... what ever will I do without my one cup of coffee in the morning... I feel total sadness over this, which is silly. LOL. But man, I love my morning coffee! 
  • My mood swings on birth control are so bad. I swear, I hate being on it. I know it's going to get worse when I start stims. 
Things I didn't know: 

Apparently I needed to register with my insurance for something called the "Women's Health Program." I don't recall having to do this before. Maybe I did? Maybe I didn't? Maybe it's new? Who knows... But, this has to be done in order to get my insurance fertility benefits to kick in. So they asked me all these questions like, "have you been trying long to have a baby," "Do you have irregular periods?" etc etc. It takes about 5 days before they approve it. I'm waiting for the call back from a nurse to see if they'll even approve my fertility coverage... which I think is odd since I don't believe my employer has any stipulations on the lifetime max fertility coverage. 

My response: "I have not been trying long as I'm single and will be using donor sperm, so not like I could be trying." Then: "I've also been diagnosed with unexplained infertility, which should be in my records." Because umm, my insurance provider has not changed. Man... insurance companies annoy me. Jump through hoops, I swear. I'm concerned they're going to deny coverage or something, say I need to try 6 times before coverage kicks in or something like that. But I'm not going to stress about that at the moment and cross that bridge if it comes. I have low AMH, so I believe I can also use the "diminished ovarian reserve" argument as well. Will see. 

Medication Order: 

My medication order was submitted to a different pharmacy... which I thought was weird. I had to call them to request them to send it to my normal pharmacy. Which means I should be getting my BOB (aka Big Box of Meds) either late this week or early next week... When I receive that... it'll start feeling extremely real to me. 

IVF Calendar: 
  1. 10/10/18: Injections Training and Cycle Pay Day 
  2. 10/13/18: Stop Birth Control 
  3. 10/16/18: Start Microdose Lupron 
  4. 10/18/18: Start Stims - Protocol: Microdose Lupron Flare Protocol  
  5. 10/22/18: Stim Day #5 - First monitoring Appointment 
  6. 10/29/18: Estimated Day of Egg Retrieval 
Thoughts: 

Everything with IVF is so completely unpredictable. I have no clue if I'll respond well to the protocol or not. If I'll even make it to egg retrieval. I want to say I'm optimistic... and I am, in a way. However, with everything that I went through before - I know I need to be real with myself. I'm trying not to have too many expectations and just go with the flow. So far, I've managed to do that and just roll with it. But at the end of all this... I really want another baby. I feel totally invested in adding to my family. 

So... fingers crossed and baby dust sprinkling all around that there's at least one good egg in there. 





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FET 2 (Cycle #11): Baseline Ultrasound + FET Calendar

Image
It's so weird to jump from cycle to cycle! It's been a long time since I've done that... since my IUI's really. Yesterday was my beta test for Cycle 10 and today I had my baseline ultrasound to start my FET#2 Cycle. I had my ultrasound and everything seems to be well with my ovaries. Although my left ovary was hard to find (again).  The cyst from Cycle 10 is gone. Yay for that! My ovaries seem to have recovered from the stim meds and I officially start Birth Control tomorrow. My clinic has moved quickly and I already have my FET Calendar! Crazy. I have it listed at the bottom of this entry. A few things: My RE wants me to do another Saline Ultrasound (Sonohysterogram or SHG). I hate those things! I did the last one in November and I guess they recommend doing them every 6-9 months. Really hoping no polyp is found, like at my first Saline Ultrasound . If they find any polyps or fibroids, I'll have to make a choice to move forward with the FET or do another hystero...
Read more

My Induction Story and my Son's Birth - Day #2

Here is the continuance of my induction story. For how the first day of induction went, please see my entry on  Day #1 . Here is what happened on Day #2. Sunday, May 28, 2017 6:30am : They take the Cervidil out. The cervix check HURT LIKE HELL!!! The nurse didn't tell me what she was doing... but she decided to stretch my cervix while she was in there. She stretched it from a 1 to a 3! Ouch and ouch and ouch!!!! Argh. Not to mention she stretched it during a contraction -- so it was double (triple/quadruple) ouch. Effaced: 70% Dilation: 3cm  Position: -2  10:30am : We get the green light from the OB to start Pitocin. This means no more eating real food and I would be on a strictly liquid diet. The Pitocin goes through the IV and they would up the dosage every 30 minutes. What was also kinda cool is they switched me to a wireless baby heart rate monitor, which allowed me to get out of bed more and I could wonder around the room. I couldn't go too far though because I neede...
Read more

FET #2 (Cycle 11): Monitoring Appointment #2 - Transfer is a GO!

Image
I'm at the point in my cycle where I'm obsessively thinking about my FET. Doesn't matter how busy I am, it's on my mind - constantly. Non-stop. 24-7. I don't remember if I was this intense or not on my last cycles. I've been trying to keep busy, but it doesn't matter - my mind and heart are "all in" about this FET. All in with my last two embryos from IVF #2 . I remember feeling so optimistic and happy with the results of that cycle and thinking I was just so much closer to having a baby. My very last 2 embryos, my day 6-ers that trudged to the blastocyst stage, is all that's left of that cycle and of all my IVF tries thus far. It feels like a huge deal to me. If this doesn't work, I have to start over. All over. Do it all again. My mind just can't wrap around that concept just yet...  I'll know in 14 days if this cycle works or not. My beta is on 9/30. Crazy. Two more weeks until I can know what my next few months are going to loo...
Read more