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 11
th 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 12
th 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 5
th 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