Since we had already undergone the preliminary testing we were able to start the medications right away. Prior to ordering the medications we sat down with our IVF nurse to learn how to give the shots. I am not afraid of needles but I decided that Jarrett would be the one to administer my shots every night. This was a great way for him to be involved and I could just focus on being relaxed when the medication was given.
One by one we learned what each medication did and familiarized ourselves with the various needles we would have to use. Our IVF nurse even had us practice the shots on a rubber stomach. We left the appointment feeling confident and ready to start. About a month later UPS delivered 2 giants boxes filled with needless, syringes, glass vials, estrogen patches, more needles, pills, sharps collector, and even more needles. Total cost of IVF medication was $3,600. It looked like we robbed a Walgreens. A lot of the medications had to be stored in the fridge. Nothing crazier than opening your refrigerator and seeing vials of baby making meds next to the milk.
Just some of our medications
The first few nights everything went smoothly and I kept wondering when I would start to feel the effect of the medications. I had been warned about the weight gain, swelling, mood swings, hot flashes, nausea, exhaustion, bruising, soreness, etc. The first few days I had no signs of any of this. Then came day 5 and all of the above arrived. This was also the day that we had to add another shot to our nighty regimen. This shot was of a drug called Cetrotide, used to prevent premature ovulation. As the eggs get larger so does your abdomen. Around 8 days into the shots my stomach was extremely swollen. I had bought a pair of stretch linen pants in preparation for this. To give you an idea of how swollen and sensitive my stomach was, I had to hold my seatbelt away from my abdomen because the belt touching my stomach would cause pain.
After about 10 days of treatment I was ready for what is called the "trigger shot." A trigger shot is needed to allow recovery of mature eggs that can be fertilized with IVF. This night of shots was by far the worst. The swelling causes your abdomen to harden. This made the injections tougher to penetrate the skin and the injection site would bleed after reach shot. After 10 days of shots my stomach was covered in several small bruises due to the repeated injections.
36 hours after the trigger shot it was go time. The eggs were ready for a process called retrieval. This is an outpatient surgical procedure where the eggs are removed. Then the eggs are taken into the lab and mixed with sperm. After that it is just a waiting game to see how many will become embryos.
Waiting for our egg retrieval
Each day the embryologist would call and give us updates. (Embryologist are pretty much the first and coolest baby sitter a kid can have.) We ended up getting 3 embryos that were viable. This was a positive step because we now would have embryos to freeze.
About 5 days later we were back at REACH for our embryo transfer. This is where the embryo is transferred back into the body and placed inside the uterus. It takes another 12 days to confirm if the embryo implanted and is a positive pregnancy.
To be continued.....
