I feel a little discouraged today. I am not sure if it is the potential that all this we are doing won't matter because we won't get chosen for the Miracle Fund or that we will get chosen and I will go through all the craziness and we won't get pregnant. Ugh! I think once you get to this point, once you have had so much hope and it gets crushed every month over and over, maybe you should expect days like this. ....hmmmm.
I wish I was totally peppy and upbeat continuously, but it just is not possible unless you are on like Prozac or something. Not on those happy pills yet.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Invitro Decision
I wanted to update you on what is going on- what happened today.
A LOT!
We went to our fertility doc who we had to go to in order to submit our names into the fund to pay for the very expensive Invitro. Holy junk guys- there is so much stuff! Once we finally pay all the little things we need to do just to submit our names (YES THERE IS MORE! Probably another $2K) and lets say we are approved, then all this other stuff has to happen.
I have to start my period, on my 3rd day I have to start taking birth control pills. Sounds like it defeats the whole purpose to get pregnant, but it is to take control of the cycle. After at least 12 days I start having to give myself a shot in the stomach every single day for 3 weeks, it is called Lupron. This is telling the body to send the follicles (immature eggs, kinda) to the ovaries and to send a lot. In the second week of taking Lupron, I need to give myself another shot on top of the Lupron, called FSH, Follicle Stimulation Hormone. This tells the follicles to mature the eggs. I take this for 10 days on top of the Lupron. During this time the doctors monitor you each day to make sure that you aren't releasing a ton of follicles (complications could make you VERY sick and making your ovaries swell immensely) There is ultrasounds and blood tests each day for like a week during this time. On the 11th day from starting the FSH the doctors decide if you are ready for the egg retrieval. If they decide you are ready, you stop taking the FSH and Lupron that day. The next day, which is the 12th day after starting FSH they dope you up so much that you are out of it, so they can take the eggs out. They go into your ovaries and go into each follicle and suck out the eggs. I guess it is VERY painful without the drugs. The two weeks prior to the retrieval the male takes 2 pills daily, called Doxy. On the retrieval day the woman starts taking progesterone by a shot in the hip muscle. It is so painful that you are unable to do it yourself, your husband has to do it for you. You take progesterone for 2 1/2 weeks. YIKES!
They take all the eggs that were taken out and fertilize all. After the 5th day, the embryos are evaluated, many will die and will not be adequate. The 2 strongest they will implant into the woman. You can freeze any other strong eggs to use at a later date- this is ideal because you don't have to do all the past 4 weeks of hormonal crap.
17 days after the egg retrieval you should do a pregnancy test. You can also stop the progesterone shots.
I never knew any of this stuff- had no idea that it was so invasive, so unsure and so in depth.
Another thing we found out, if there are 2 embryos implanted there is a bigger chance for babies that are smaller, early delivery and possible birth defects (wide range) they don't know why that is, but with doing Invitro this possibility is obviously higher. When there is only one, the chances of birth defects are less and more of a possibility for a normal pregnancy.
So I left information with the Fund lady so hopefully that ball will get rolling so we can know if I get to go through all of this!
Oh boy!...or girl, or boy and girl...hahahahaha
A LOT!
We went to our fertility doc who we had to go to in order to submit our names into the fund to pay for the very expensive Invitro. Holy junk guys- there is so much stuff! Once we finally pay all the little things we need to do just to submit our names (YES THERE IS MORE! Probably another $2K) and lets say we are approved, then all this other stuff has to happen.
I have to start my period, on my 3rd day I have to start taking birth control pills. Sounds like it defeats the whole purpose to get pregnant, but it is to take control of the cycle. After at least 12 days I start having to give myself a shot in the stomach every single day for 3 weeks, it is called Lupron. This is telling the body to send the follicles (immature eggs, kinda) to the ovaries and to send a lot. In the second week of taking Lupron, I need to give myself another shot on top of the Lupron, called FSH, Follicle Stimulation Hormone. This tells the follicles to mature the eggs. I take this for 10 days on top of the Lupron. During this time the doctors monitor you each day to make sure that you aren't releasing a ton of follicles (complications could make you VERY sick and making your ovaries swell immensely) There is ultrasounds and blood tests each day for like a week during this time. On the 11th day from starting the FSH the doctors decide if you are ready for the egg retrieval. If they decide you are ready, you stop taking the FSH and Lupron that day. The next day, which is the 12th day after starting FSH they dope you up so much that you are out of it, so they can take the eggs out. They go into your ovaries and go into each follicle and suck out the eggs. I guess it is VERY painful without the drugs. The two weeks prior to the retrieval the male takes 2 pills daily, called Doxy. On the retrieval day the woman starts taking progesterone by a shot in the hip muscle. It is so painful that you are unable to do it yourself, your husband has to do it for you. You take progesterone for 2 1/2 weeks. YIKES!
They take all the eggs that were taken out and fertilize all. After the 5th day, the embryos are evaluated, many will die and will not be adequate. The 2 strongest they will implant into the woman. You can freeze any other strong eggs to use at a later date- this is ideal because you don't have to do all the past 4 weeks of hormonal crap.
17 days after the egg retrieval you should do a pregnancy test. You can also stop the progesterone shots.
I never knew any of this stuff- had no idea that it was so invasive, so unsure and so in depth.
Another thing we found out, if there are 2 embryos implanted there is a bigger chance for babies that are smaller, early delivery and possible birth defects (wide range) they don't know why that is, but with doing Invitro this possibility is obviously higher. When there is only one, the chances of birth defects are less and more of a possibility for a normal pregnancy.
So I left information with the Fund lady so hopefully that ball will get rolling so we can know if I get to go through all of this!
Oh boy!...or girl, or boy and girl...hahahahaha
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