So here I go. IVF. I ask myself how I got here, and I realize its just the continuation on my path to motherhood. Whether that path ends with me giving birth to a healthy happy baby or whether it ends with the adoption of a wonderful foster child, I do not know yet. But I figure its time to start sharing and keeping track of this new experience. 10 iui's have come and gone with 2 miscarriages and 8 BFNs. When I began this adventure, IVF wasn't even an option. I had always told myself, whether alone or with a husband/boyfriend, I would only go so far with medical help to have a baby. That was of course before I saw the tiny little flutter of the heart beating in my uterus of my second BFP. I saw it at 6 weeks old and at 7 weeks old and its something I will never forget. It's also the thing that changed my outlook on what I would do and what I go through to give birth to my own child. At the same time, I have absolutely no problem with heading down the adoption path via fostering, if IVF does not work. And on that note I ordered Nia Vardalos' book about her experience trying to have a baby and finally adopting her daughter from the foster system. I figure it will give me something to read as I wait through the IVF cycle.
So IVF...how does it work? Well your guess is as good as mine. I will be updating regularly as new things occur and I learn new things.
Today is CD3 - so I headed to my RE's office for bloodwork and an ultrasound. Ultrasound showed very healthy looking ovaries, 15 antral follicles at this point. My bloodwork looks great. Estradiol is at 29.2, which I was told means everything is nice and quiet as it should be. And my FSH is 3.8, extremely good. At 40 you hope that your FSH is under 12, so mine is wonderful. When it was 5.6 last year, everyone thought that was incredible for me age, so the fact that its lower, just means things haven't changed in a year, but I was told how fertile I must be last year, and I'm still not pregnant, so I'm taking it with a HUGE grain of salt.
I received a schedule from the nurse today. I started birth control pills today and take those until the 19th, with another ultrasound and bloodwork on the 17th. As well as a mock transfer ont he 17th. This is where they map the inside of my uterus, so they know where to put the embryo's when its the real deal. So the purpose of the BCP and the Lupron that I start taking on the 17th, is to suppress my ovaries, so that I build of some more follicles (hopefully) and they all start at the same size when we start using stims. I start stims on the 27th, with a hopeful egg retrieval (ER) on the 6th and transfer anytime around the 9th of May.
It's exciting to have a schedule, and frightening that I'm actually moving forward with this. I also found a therapist to start seeing while I'm going through this process and to help me through what I think will be the hardest part. The first trimester. After 2 miscarriages, the idea of waiting through the 2 months after finding out scares me more than anything. I'm hoping Jane will help me with that.
I think that's if for now. I'll post another day about the financial bits that face me everyday during this adventure.
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