Holy Shit It's Happening!

So it's been over a year since I last blogged. Turns out it was too time intensive for me and I just felt like a whiner. But now I have something to write about, even it it's just for me.

Tomorrow I am beginning our first, and only, IVF cycle.

We made the decision several months ago to move forward with In Vitro Fertilization. It's the biggest decision we've made. We've already dropped about seven or eight grand over the last four years and have nothing to show for it. Well, that's not true. I've managed to pack on about 20 pounds. Now we're going to drop another thirteen grand on this last attempt that only has a 50% success rate. But I'm young and the husbands stuff is good, so we've got a really good chance. And more importantly, we are both being very, very positive that this is going to work! RIGHT?!?!

It starts with me taking birth control pills for three weeks. Sounds counter productive, I know, but it's to calm my ovaries down before we stimulate the crap out of them. Fifteen days after I start the pills, I will start injections of a drug called Lupron, which will put my body in a post-menopausal state, thus inhibiting ovulation. This means I get to experience all of the joys of being post-menopausal, including, but not limited to: hot flashes, night sweats, extreme mood changes, irritability and headaches.

After being on that drug for 10 days, I will have an ultrasound and blood work done to ensure that everything is working. Once I get the go ahead, I stop the Lupron and start injections of Folistem, which will over-stimulate my ovaries. During a normal cycle, women produce one or two eggs a month. With this drug, I can produce up to 15 or more! My ovaries are going to look like a squirrel with too many nuts shoved in his mouth!

Once the ultrasounds and blood work say that my ovaries have produced eggs of the right size and quality, (I sound like a chicken!) then I take another shot to release the eggs. The next day I will go in and have the egg retrieval procedure. This involves me being put under 'twilight' anesthesia while they use a very long needle to go in and suck out the appropriate eggs. FUN! But I get some Tylenol with codine to take for the pain afterwords, so that might be okay.

From there, they take my husbands refined 'seed' and combine it with my fresh eggs. Three to five days later, after intensive monitoring by the baby-makers, we're left with the superior embryos that have developed. I go in for a quick procedure where they will take a catheter and gently place the best two embryos into my uterus for them to attach and start growing into healthy little super babies! :)

Also after the egg retrieval, I start taking a few other drugs to prime the uterus to make it warm and inviting for my new super babies so that they'll want to stay a while...like 9 months. More shots and such. Good times! And these shots I can't even do myself bc they go into my buttock. So for 3-12 weeks my husbands sisters, who are nurses, get to inject me because my dear husband is too nervous to do it. But he gets to massage the area. That's supposed to help the absorption of the hormone. Lucky him!

I'm telling you, with all of the hormonal changes that are going on, if my husband even still wants to be around me, let alone touch me, I'll be lucky.

That's IVF 101 for anyone who didn't know what's involved. As the days go on, I'm planning on using this blog as a way to remember this journey. Then again, we'll see how that goes. I might get bored with it. Or, it will be the best damn blog I've ever written!

I guess we'll all just have to wait and see...