We met with the embryologist and we are definitely doing the PGD. My big question was if the embryo's were not doing well on Day 3 that they would be transfered back in without doing the PGD and that is the case. If the embryo's are not 6 cells at Day 3 they will not do the PGD on them. So in other words, if we have a 3 day transfer, there will be no PGD. We will just have to hope for the best.

Today is day 7 of lupron, so far so good, I had a hot flash yesterday, which according to Stephanie I work with, is a good sign. It means I am not producing estrogen and I am probably suppressed.

On Wed. I go for supression check and we will see for sure. I will have an ultrasound and blood work on that day, as well as a trial embryo transfer. They require a full bladder for the trial embryo transfer, can you even imagine!! Everyone who knows me knows that I go to the bathroom about every 5 minutes and cannot hold anything! Should be real interesting with me trying to hold a full bladder. I am just going to tell them in advance that they might get urinated on in advance! How embarassing would that be to pee on the doctor? Anyway, the trial transfer is just so they can use the catheter that they will use the day of the real transfer to make sure they will not have any problems with the catheter. Apparently you have the US probe and the catheter and they thread it right into the uterus to make sure they go right to the middle of the uterus so they can deposit the embroy's right in the spot they need to be. I read an article today, about how important the embryo transfer itself is and that the RE that does it has to be very trained. Thank goodness all of the RE's at NFC are very good, I will not neccessarily get my doc for the retrevial or the transfer, it will be whatever RE is on call on each day as to who I get. Glad they have all done this thousands of times!!

I will keep everyone posted as to how the supression check/trial transfer goes on Wed.

Please keep praying for us, we are very nervous!!

Julie

Sorry I have not posted for awhile, the memorial day weekend was very relaxing and computer free! Coy and I are celebrating our 2 year anniversary today, so we are excited about that.

I started Lupron injections on Saturday, so today was day 4 of doing those, and all has gone well. It stings like crazy, but for the most part is not that painful. I will do these injections up until my suppression check on 6/3. Hopefully at that point, everything will be "quiet" and we can start the stimulation injections.

We go tomorrow to talk to the genetic counselor about the pre genetic testing, where they can pull a cell from the embryo and tell if there is any chromosomal abnormalitites, before they place it back in, of course if there are abnormalitites they will not put it back in. So we will talk with the geneticist at 2pm tomorrow to decide if we want to do that. It is very expensive, but worth it to know you are only putting back the embryo's that would make it and not have any abnormalitites. They test specifically for trisomy 21, and a bunch of other chromosomal abnormalities.

I will post more after the meeting tomorrow.

As always, thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers during this stressful/emotional time!!

Calendar of Events

I kind of have a closer calendar on when everything is going to happen. Apparently anyone doing IVF for the month of June starts stimming at the same time. They only mix the medium that the embryos will be in, in one big batch, apparently it is very expensive and they don't want any wasted, so they want everbody to go at the same time.

So, I will have a suppression U/S on June 3rd, to check and make sure everything is quiet, and then I will start stimming June 7th. Possible retrevial days are June 18th or 19th, with possible transfer June 21, 22, 23, 24. It will all depend on alot of variables, so those dates can change. We just have to be flexible this month and think positively.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, we are going to need them!

Well, yesterday we spent about 3 hours in a IVF class, where they basically showed us how
to do injections, me and another nurse in the class were so bored we could have died. Coy got to play with the pens, so that was cool. We had a chart review and of course met with the financial person. Of course, Coy and I were shocked at all the financial stuff. Basically everyone had their hand out for a payout yesterday, and it was very stressful, thinking about the money. We both agreed that fertility is definitely a business first, and they are going to get their money or you do not go any further in the process. Was definitely different for both of us because we are so used to going to Vanderbilt, where eveyrthing is covered by my insurance. Rude awakening to the fact that this is all self pay!!

Today I had a hydrosonogram, it was supposed to be at 8:45am, but ended up being about 10:30 before they started. And of course I had to hand over $722.00 for that afterwards. Guess I am a little fixated on the money during this blog, but is seems to be all Coy and I can think about, in the last two days we have handed them $1,000.00, I had to pay 100.00 for a chart review, and 116.00 for the IVF class, total waste of money, and then the money for the sonogram. So we are a little stressed right now to say the least.

The good news is that the hydrosonogram looked normal. This should be the last test I need, if they say that I need anything else, they are really going to have to come up with a good reason to do it before I am game.

I got my tenative calendar yesterday, looks like the egg retrevial will be sometime around June 12-15th depending on how well I stim with the medicine.

Please pray for us we are so needing any prayers we can get right now!!

So yesterday I got the call from Metro Drugs, the RE's office is using them, b/c they were offering a $100 coupon off any follistim order. My total for the follistim, lupron and PIO that I needed was $1000.00, should have been more around $4500 if I had not gotten the donated meds, not too bad. The meds will be shipping to Coy's work, there is always someone there during the day, so we decided it would be easier for Fedex to deliver them to his office, than Vanderbilt. They should be here by Tuesday.

Nothing new to report yet, except I have to laugh that I started on BCP's(birth control pills) yesterday, seems counterintuitive when you are trying to conceive to be on BCP's. Apparently they are needed during the time you are receiving the lupron injections, you are more prone to form cysts on the ovaries, so the BCP's keep you from forming cysts while you are shooting yourself up with the lupron! Sounds Crazy. Thank God, literally, that a NP I work with did fertility for years with my doc. Her name is Stepahine, and she gets bombarded by me daily with questions. Her along with my extensive research and I feel like I could be a reproductive NP!!

Today is Mother's day, I wish all you mother's out there a Happy and Wonderful day! Today more than ever I understand just how important this day is and hope that I soon will be able to celebrate this day as a mother as well!

Meds ordered

Ah yes, to blog about my experience with IVF...
Okay, so today is CD1, (for those of you who don't know fertility lingo yet, that means cycle day 1) and I promised I would start posting from day 1 of this IVF journey, so here it goes. I called my NP today, b/c today is day 1 and that is when the doc said to call. Well, this must have got her looking at my chart, because she calls me back and starts saying she is going to order my meds, and that I should be getting a call from the pharmacy and she just starts spouting off all of these instructions. I am thinking wow, this is really moving fast for day 1. Then she says that I will begin Lupron injections next week, and we have IVF class on Wed. of next week, and she said she would give me the instructions with the lupron when we were at our class. So I get off the phone and start thinking, why am I startin Lupron on Day 6 of this cycle, when the template I got from their office says I do not start until day 17?

After talking to a couple of people I decide to call the NP back. Well to make a long story short, Dr. Hill had put in the chart on the day that he saw us for consult that he was giving me BCP's to start on day 3. Well, the nurse thought that meant that CD1 was when we saw Dr. Hill on April 28th. So she was throughly confused, finally I got through to her that just today was day 1 and she was like "oh my gosh I am so sorry", I will be sending you another calendar, I already sent one to you, so that one will be wrong! So I kind of have to laugh that from Day 1 even things are screwed up, hopefully this is not a sign of what is to come....

I guess the good news is that my drugs will be here early!!

Ok, I just have to post that God must be watching out for me, because two different friends that have already done IVF, had left over meds, and gave them to me for free!! I have 2100 units of follistim, so I only had to order a 900IU cartridge, so I saved about $2000 on medications, thanks to my friends, that has to be God working his magic in all of this.

Other Misc. stuff: My hydrosonogram is scheduled on May14th, and our IVF class is May 13th.
Looks like I will begin BCP's on Saturday and the Lupron injections will begin around the 22nd of May.
Very excited to be getting started, Coy and I are both nervous, but excited!!

Thats all I got for Day 1...