Too Many Meds

The polypectomy went fine. Here's a pic of the polyp ultrasound image (actually mine this time!). The black spot in the middle, my uterus, is supposed to be a smooth oval shape instead of being reminiscent of a scary pumpkin mouth or the opening of a cave. Hopefully, it is much improved now!

I felt the effects of the anesthesia for a day or two longer this time, I think because I pushed myself a bit too hard, too quickly. Anyway, I'm totally recovered now and hopefully good to go for the transfer.

Not much went on this past week besides trying to get all my medication ducks in a row. I have a list of ten that I will be taking at various points in the process (in addition to prenatal vitamins and a baby aspirin, which apparently helps with fertility ... who knew?!). Some require prior authorizations which is a pain in the ass. Some have to be filled via the mail-order specialty pharmacy, while others can't be filled there at all. It's enough to make my head spin, but I mostly have it sorted out, I think ... I hope!

Next steps are my baseline blood work and ultrasound on Monday, and then I'm scheduled to start stimulation meds the following Saturday.

Rerun

Mike and I spent three and a half hours at the IVF center on Monday. We were both totally exhausted and overwhelmed with information when we got home. And there was one unexpected blip: the sonohysterogram showed that I have polyps again! Two months after having a polypectomy! I have no doubt that they are caused by the fertility medications, but whatever the reason, they have to come out before we can proceed. The doctor said that if I was able to schedule the surgery this week, I would still be able to move forward with an August IVF cycle, so that's what we are doing: I'm scheduled for (another!) polypectomy this Friday. At least I know what to expect this time, so I won't be as anxious.

We also have our tentative IVF schedule!

Aug 1: Baseline ultrasound

Aug 2 - 15: Stim-ing (i.e., stomach shots) and every other day appts for ultrasounds and blood draws

Week of Aug 15: Egg retrieval

4-6 days after E.R.: Embryo transfer

Then we wait ...

4th of July Up North and IVF Update

"Up North" is what Minnesotans call anything north of the Twin Cities. During the summer everyone goes up north on weekends to their respective cabins on various lakes. It's like a mass exodus. We went up north to Mike's parents' cabin for the week of the 4th. We had some rainy weather, the mosquitos were insane, and the fish weren't biting after the first day, but the company was excellent and we had some beautiful sunsets.

Regarding IVF, we got all the blood results and genetic testing back, so we have our official program start on Monday. The only issue found was that I'm slightly deficient in Vitamin D which is apparently typical for caucasian Americans. I started taking 2000 IU of Vitamin D3 but I was experiencing crazy fatigue (I felt like I was wearing a 25 lb blanket) and stomach upset so they dropped me down to 1000 IU. Anyway, the Vitamin D won't hold us back from starting so that's a good thing. 

I did find out today that we are only $500 away from hitting the lifetime max coverage on fertility medication which means we will be paying out of pocket from here on out. At this point, I'm guessing the medication will cost more than the actual procedure. I cried when I found out. The small amount of coverage for infertility is totally ridiculous. And apparently I was one of the lucky ones with my meager coverage! On the plus side, I can now just go to a pharmacy and get my meds and not have to deal with insurance. 

So Monday, our appt is supposed to last 3 - 3.5 hours and will mostly consist of signing lots of consent forms. We had to pre-fill out a few forms that asked us what should be done with our leftover embryos if: I die, Mike dies, we both die, we divorce, or I lose the ability to carry a baby. Strange conversations to have. We joked about leaving the embryos to my brother if we both die. "Surprise! You are the proud owner of Stacey and Mike embryos!" Haha! It makes me laugh just thinking about it (sorry, Brad!). I will also have another sonohysterogram to check my uterus (even though I just had one a couple months ago :-P) and a trial transfer where the doctor practices placing the embryo in my uterus. After the appt, we wait for a call from the scheduler to determine the actual timing of everything: stimulation start, egg retrieval, and embryo transfer. Then things get really real.

IVF Here We Come

It wasn't our month, again. Oh well. We are moving forward and have been busy this past week getting all the IVF paperwork and testing completed before we head to Mike's parents' cabin for the 4th of July. They did lots of blood work on both of us and I think we had about 10 pages of medical history forms to fill out. One option they provide is genetic testing to see if we are carriers of any genetic diseases. We don't have any indicators for genetic diseases, but I feel like this will give me more peace of mind during pregnancy, so we went for it. Goodness knows I don't need anything else to worry about! Once the genetic results come back and all the records have been sent over from this past year of trying, we will be scheduled for our "program start". This will be when we fork over some cash and officially get started. I'm semi-dreading the whole process, but we will get through it and hopefully have a sweet baby (or two!) at the end of it all.