So it begins. We left class with our detailed calendar in tow and began the IVF meds just two days later. It's kind of strange but the first thing that happens in this process is called suppression so I started off taking birth control pills, seems a little counter intuitive right? In conjunction with the birth control I also started on an antibiotic regimen for a week. That was a rough week. I don't handle strong antibiotics well and taking two of them together made me feel pretty darn sick. Feeling sick was not how I wanted to start this process and I hoped it wasn't a sign of worse things to come. Greg also was taking an antibiotic that thankfully didn't impact him in the slightest.
After the first week of antibiotics came my first shot, Lupron. Lupron overstimulates estrogen production and suppresses ovulation. I learned we basically tell my body to hold off on ovulating until the day the Doc wants it to happen then BAM we load me up with a different set up of hormones to force ovulation within a very small timeframe. So a suppressing we will go. I was pretty nervous. I sat at the kitchen table with all of my alcohol swabs, needles, syringes, gauze and was a little overwhelmed. I would use one needle to draw up a measurement of the medicine, swap needles, clean my skin then INJECT. Eeek! I watched the online tutorial over and over and finally just went for it and it really wasn't too bad. It really was just a tiny needle in my belly, I could do this. The Lupron shots themselves went well but I did get some massive headaches that had me wondering how on earth I was going to get through the next month.
After taking Lupron for a week I added in two more shots. Gonal F would come in the mornings and Menopur would be in the evenings with the Lupron. Gonal F is used to stimulate the follicles and egg production that naturally occurs every month. Typically women ovulate one egg, or two in some instances (that's how fraternal twins occur) and we are shooting for a heck of a lot more eggs. So taking Gonal F helps do that. The Menopur shot essentially helped to do the same thing. I continued with this triple shot cocktail for about nine more days. While on this cocktail of three shots I would head into our clinic about every other day and they would do an ultrasound and check out how my ovaries were looking, how the eggs were looking and do some bloodwork. When everything was reading how they wanted I was called and instructed to take two trigger shots and then we would go in within 36 hours of taking those shots and they would retrieve all of my eggs. If you are lucky you will hit a blood vessel and get one of these sweet bruises as a souvenir for awhile, a small price to pay though I told myself.
Things were looking really good so we stayed on schedule and I triggered Sunday, November, 22nd and had the eggs retrieved on Tuesday the 24th.
Retrieval day was not so much a fun day. I think what I didn't like the most was the type of anesthesia they use for the procedure. This is another outpatient procedure but this time they do not put you all of the way under. While I don't remember anything of the procedure itself other than walking back and laying down on the table, apparently you are responsive throughout the entire thing and able to follow instructions. Weird right? For the actual procedure my Doc inserts a needle connected with a suction device into the follicles and pulls out all of the eggs collecting them for fertilization. It was a pretty quick procedure and I recovered in a small waiting area with Greg by my side.
Apparently I was pretty emotional after the procedure and asked Greg to take a picture of me so we could remember what starting our family looked like. None of which I remember. While it's not a glamorous photo of me by any means I still think it's a great one and I am happy he took it.
What I do remember is being very concerned with how many eggs were retrieved. I thought, "If they got 16 eggs we for sure will get pregnant, I'm going to have a ton I just know it". That's when Greg told me they got 6. My heart sank. I felt like such a failure. 6? Are you sure they only got 6? He was, and I am pretty sure I cried. All this money, all those shots for 6 measly eggs? It was a rotten feeling but like always Greg was positive and not concerned at all about the 6 eggs. By this time I was recovered enough to get dressed and spend the rest of the afternoon on the couch in the basement. I did not get the memo on how crummy I would feel the rest of the day, it was pretty crummy.
At this point I started following some old wives tales and began eating copious amounts of avocado at the advice of my friend Sandy. After consulting the Google I found that there are some studies out there that say eating foods high in monosaturated fats can triple IVF success rates. Triple? I was in!
I also started taking the worst shot in the entire IVF process, progesterone in oil or PIO. This bad boy doesn't go in your belly but in your booty and the needle was fear inducing to say the least. All of my other needles were negligible in size, this one was an inch and a half long to reach your booty muscle and the gauge was huge to allow the oil to flow through it. I was incredibly anxious, really almost sick to my stomach over it all. The nurse in class advised that our partners give the shot so it would go into the correct spot and to numb the area with ice first. If all went well I would take this shot every day for 13 weeks ... 13 WEEKS! Of course I had to start this over the Thanksgiving holiday so we were at my inlaws for the first shot. After watching lots of videos online and taking a big swig of courage I got out my ice pack and iced the area on down ... for about 15 minutes, this was a mistake. Greg and I prepared the shot and I am sure he was nervous as hell as I stood with my weight on one leg (video tip) and he injected the oil into my butt cheek. He could hardly push the oil through the syringe and soon a lump began to form. I had iced myself into oblivion. I froze my skin and the oil was freezing up after the injection as well. Thankfully it didn't hurt but I had a HUGE hard lump and freezer burn on my skin, back to the message boards I went, we had to find a better position and I had to ice less for the next one. Scouring the Google I found out lots of people actually heated their bums for 10 minutes prior to the injection and laid on a bed allowing all of your leg muscles to be relaxed, we tried this the next night and it greatly improved this rotten nightly routine.
Meanwhile back at the lab they injected my six eggs with Greg's sperm and we prayed that they would fertilize. We would find that three of the six eggs fertilized and we began to pray, pray and pray some more that our little embryos would grow and mature for the next five days making it to the transfer stage. Those were the longest five days of my life.
Things were looking really good so we stayed on schedule and I triggered Sunday, November, 22nd and had the eggs retrieved on Tuesday the 24th.
Retrieval day was not so much a fun day. I think what I didn't like the most was the type of anesthesia they use for the procedure. This is another outpatient procedure but this time they do not put you all of the way under. While I don't remember anything of the procedure itself other than walking back and laying down on the table, apparently you are responsive throughout the entire thing and able to follow instructions. Weird right? For the actual procedure my Doc inserts a needle connected with a suction device into the follicles and pulls out all of the eggs collecting them for fertilization. It was a pretty quick procedure and I recovered in a small waiting area with Greg by my side.
Apparently I was pretty emotional after the procedure and asked Greg to take a picture of me so we could remember what starting our family looked like. None of which I remember. While it's not a glamorous photo of me by any means I still think it's a great one and I am happy he took it.
What I do remember is being very concerned with how many eggs were retrieved. I thought, "If they got 16 eggs we for sure will get pregnant, I'm going to have a ton I just know it". That's when Greg told me they got 6. My heart sank. I felt like such a failure. 6? Are you sure they only got 6? He was, and I am pretty sure I cried. All this money, all those shots for 6 measly eggs? It was a rotten feeling but like always Greg was positive and not concerned at all about the 6 eggs. By this time I was recovered enough to get dressed and spend the rest of the afternoon on the couch in the basement. I did not get the memo on how crummy I would feel the rest of the day, it was pretty crummy.
At this point I started following some old wives tales and began eating copious amounts of avocado at the advice of my friend Sandy. After consulting the Google I found that there are some studies out there that say eating foods high in monosaturated fats can triple IVF success rates. Triple? I was in!
I also started taking the worst shot in the entire IVF process, progesterone in oil or PIO. This bad boy doesn't go in your belly but in your booty and the needle was fear inducing to say the least. All of my other needles were negligible in size, this one was an inch and a half long to reach your booty muscle and the gauge was huge to allow the oil to flow through it. I was incredibly anxious, really almost sick to my stomach over it all. The nurse in class advised that our partners give the shot so it would go into the correct spot and to numb the area with ice first. If all went well I would take this shot every day for 13 weeks ... 13 WEEKS! Of course I had to start this over the Thanksgiving holiday so we were at my inlaws for the first shot. After watching lots of videos online and taking a big swig of courage I got out my ice pack and iced the area on down ... for about 15 minutes, this was a mistake. Greg and I prepared the shot and I am sure he was nervous as hell as I stood with my weight on one leg (video tip) and he injected the oil into my butt cheek. He could hardly push the oil through the syringe and soon a lump began to form. I had iced myself into oblivion. I froze my skin and the oil was freezing up after the injection as well. Thankfully it didn't hurt but I had a HUGE hard lump and freezer burn on my skin, back to the message boards I went, we had to find a better position and I had to ice less for the next one. Scouring the Google I found out lots of people actually heated their bums for 10 minutes prior to the injection and laid on a bed allowing all of your leg muscles to be relaxed, we tried this the next night and it greatly improved this rotten nightly routine.
Meanwhile back at the lab they injected my six eggs with Greg's sperm and we prayed that they would fertilize. We would find that three of the six eggs fertilized and we began to pray, pray and pray some more that our little embryos would grow and mature for the next five days making it to the transfer stage. Those were the longest five days of my life.
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