Taking the IVF Plunge

June 2010. In mid-June we met with the financial people at the clinic and one of the IVF nurses. We went over, in-detail, all of the costs associated with an IVF cycle, including optional genetic screening and genetic testing in case we may want to one day donate any unused embryos. We committed ourselves to one cycle since they told us the odds were so good that it would work. The clinic has a "shared risk" program where you can pay for two cycles up front, and get three for that price, and if you don't have a baby after the third cycle, you get something like 75% of your money back. We considered it, but chose to just sign up for one. We are so fortunate that we both have good jobs and have been saving since we began working and we were able to even explore this option. Our insurance covers exactly $0 of all of this.
Also in this meeting with the nurse we went over the exact schedule for a cycle and while we could have begun just a few days later in June, our July travel schedule was a little busy so we chose to delay for a month and start in July, meaning all of the big days in the cycle would occur in August. Additionally, the nurse gave us a private class in how to do all of the injections that I would be needing once the cycle began. I also came away from this meeting with a big bag of samples of prescription-strength prenatal vitamins and homework - to choose which one I liked best. I had some bloodwork done this day as well, and ended up testing positive for a mutation of a gene called MTHFR. A few days later I took another blood test, a fasting homocysteine level test, and they determined that the mutation I have hinders my absorption of folic acid, so I was prescribed a drug called Folgard to take twice a day to help me absorb folic acid.
July 2010. Ironically, the first medicine in my protocol was the birth control pill. For 21 days in July I took the pill in addition to the prenatals and Folgard, and about two weeks into taking the pill, the pharmacy that the clinic uses called and said that my meds had been called in and were ready to ship as soon as they had payment. Boy, was that a big payment! But on July 20th I received a huge box of medications that they said would get me through one whole IVF cycle.


























The last 5 days I was on the pill I began taking an injection of Lupron once a day (July 25th was the first Lupron injection). Lupron is supposed to suppress your ovarian activity and prevent premature ovulation of eggs. The shot itself didn't hurt at all, but the skin near the injection site would itch for about 15 minutes or so after the injection.
August 2010
August 1st was what the clinic refers to as Cycle Day 1 in the IVF cycle. The only thing that changed on this day was I started taking Dexamethasone, an oral steroid. It's supposed to augment the response to the ovarian-stimulating drugs, reducing the likelihood of an IVF cycle being canceled.
August 2nd I went in for bloodwork and a baseline ultrasound of my antral follicles. This gives an indication of how many potential eggs I would be able to produce during the cycle. I had 10 follicles in one ovary, and 12 in the other and they called later that afternoon and told me that I was safe to start my "stims" or ovary-stimulating meds the next day.
August 3rd I added 2 more meds to my arsenal. Menopur and Bravelle. Menopur is used to stimulate the development of a mature follicle and egg. Bravelle is a follicle-stimulating hormone and is used to develop multiple follicles during the IVF cycle.
August 6th I went in for bloodwork an another ultrasound to check my follicles. The ultrasound showed about 3 large follicles on one side, 2 on the other, and a bunch of smaller ones. When they called that afternoon they said to come back on Sunday for more bloodwork and ultrasound.
August 8th I went in again and the ultrasound showed the same 5 follicles still way ahead of the rest of the pack. The nurse we spoke to after the ultrasound said that she needed to consult with the doctor regarding my meds and she wasn't sure if he would keep them the same dose or not. Also, I would need to start coming in daily until my trigger, which she now assumed would be about 2 or 3 days earlier than we'd originally planned for. When the nurse called that afternoon they upped both my dose of Menopur and Bravelle and we scheduled another appointment for Monday morning.
August 9th went just as I expected. The same 5 follicles were still growing strong and my meds stayed the same that day.
August 10th on the ultrasound it looked like maybe one of the smaller follicles was catching up to the Big 5 but was still straggling a little. When they called that afternoon to tell me about meds they said I was done with stims and Lupron and that at 7:30pm exactly that night I needed to take my trigger shot, and that on Thursday morning I was to check in at 7:00am at the clinic for egg retrieval. Well, ok then. Here we go!

To be continued...