IVF this month!

Wow... what a crazy week!

So, basically, Colin and I procrastinate.

A lot.

... it's bad.

We pretty much did it to ourselves, but on Monday we came to the realization that our next big appointment was in 7 days!!

Within those 7 days, we had to ...

-finalize our loan since our money was due BY that appointment

-send in an application for financial aid for my meds

-wait for a quote on my meds after the application was processed

-then we had to pay for my meds (which are not cheap)

-AND wait for them to deliver the meds to me because I have to bring them with me on Monday

...aaand it was our 4 year wedding anniversary on the 25th, right in the thick of things...

best four years of my life!

(we went to red lobster and had strawberry lemonade and tons of delicious seafood)

but yeah... like I said, it was a crazy week.

Well, today is Friday...

...and I literally just finished getting everything with my meds taken care of.

I had to pay extra to have them shipped overnight (boo!),

but payment is taken care of and they will be here tomorrow!!

Colin and I are meeting with our loan officer tonight to finalize our loan,

and then we're REALLY set.

Holy cow, we're SO close!!

I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of freaking out.

This is something that we've been planning out for the past year

(well, technically longer than that)

and now it's finally happening.

They're going to teach me how to inject myself with a needle on Monday!

Ugh!

A lot of people have their spouses do it, they say it's easier.

I may have Colin do it.

If all else fails,

I've been blessed with a sister and a mother who are both RN's.

I'll just visit them every night at the same time for my daily injection. :)

Haha

Anyway, tomorrow is what they are calling Stim Day 1

Along with the injection instructions,

I will be having another ultrasound to see where all my little eggs are hanging out.

Then I believe I'll have another blood draw.

(I'm pretty much pro at those by now)

I think Colin is having one done as well, actually.

 I'm about to start a very long series of appointments.

The staff at ICRM actually works 7 days a week during this part of the cycle 

(which is why they keep everyone on a schedule, I understand that now)

I don't have my calender in front of me at the moment,

but I believe I have appointments on

-Monday

-Thursday

-Friday

-Saturday

-Sunday 

(yes, Easter. That'll be weird. I feel like I should dress up or something.)

-The next Monday

-Tuesday

-Wednesday

-Thursday

all of those consisting of blood draws and ultrasounds.

They have to monitor my eggs really closely.

I'll be injecting myself and taking the baby aspirin throughout this time.

And I'm gonna be CRAZY hormonal.

They also asked that I stop exercising or doing anything strenuous after this Friday.

(easiest thing they've asked me to do yet! Haha it's terrible!)

Apparently my uterus lining gets SO incredibly thin, they are trying to prevent it from tearing.

Kind of freaks me out, I'm probably going to walk funny all next week.

"don't mind me, I'm just trying not to tear open my uterus."

After those appointments are all finished, they'll decide when I give myself that lovely "trigger shot".

I hear it's pretty painful, but I'm trying not to think about it too much.

So basically what the shots are doing...

the reason I've been taking birth control for the past month is to kind of "freeze" my menstrual cycle, so my eggs don't move or mature too quickly. Last night was my last birth control pill (yay, I survived!), so I have this weekend to regulate a little bit before I start the next step.

Once I start the Bravelle and the other shots (can't remember the names of the others), we're focusing on developing as many eggs as possible all at once. Normally women ovulate, only a few of their eggs from what I understand, so we are kind of forcing all of them to go for it so we can extract as many of those little suckers as we can.

Dr. Mass kind of described the injections as bringing all of my eggs up to the top of my uterus, and the trigger shot forces them all downward in a horizontal formation so they're close enough for him to snatch during surgery.

At least that's my understanding of it, I could be wrong about the last part.

That's just what I picture in my head, and it helps so I'm sticking to it. :)

The extraction surgery will be in about 2 1/2 weeks from now, once my eggs are in the perfect place and the Dr. decides it's time.

I will be completely anesthetized, so I won't remember anything about the procedure.

I will be incredibly sore afterwards, but the baby aspirin should help.

About 3 days after the surgery, they will bring us in for a consultation about 

how many embryos took and the estimated success rates.

This is also where they ask us how many eggs we would like to transfer.

Kind of a scary decision, because the idea of multiples terrifies me,

but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I don't want to post a for sure answer yet, just because we're not 100% sure how things will go.

(the other embryos we are paying to have frozen so we hopefully won't have to do the extraction surgery again, which will make the next baby SO much simpler!)

About 5 days after my extraction surgery, 

We will go back in for the transplant of the embryo(s)!

I've heard it's a very special experience, because you can watch the ultrasound as those little guys float up there.

I'm probably going to cry, but that's okay. :)

Anyway, that's what's in store for us. 

All of that will be taking place within the next few weeks, which is SO crazy!

It feels pretty surreal.

I will keep everyone updated as this chapter unfolds,

please message me if you have any questions or if I leave anything out.

:)