The Plan

Sorry I didn't get this written down yesterday.  It was just a long, busy day, and we were both exhausted.

We got to UFC a little ahead of schedule yesterday, which, believe me, never happens.  After a few minutes, they called Ryan back for his semen analysis.  After that appointment, we met with the financial counselor and had our blood drawn by Abby, who could be the most awesome phlebotomist I've ever known.

Last we met with Dr. C.  She did both saline and regular ultrasounds on me.  We also sat down in her office and talked game plan.  And this is it, after conversations and phone calls yesterday.  Things have changed a little bit:

*My uterine lining actually looks pretty good.  When Dr. C. is in there for our egg retrieval, she's still going to do a light scraping.  I think this means they're going to knock me all the way out, which is good.  No intubation, thank heavens.

*We are not even going to try a fresh embryo transfer.  Dr. C. just returned from an international conference with world-renowned reproductive endocrinologists.  She said there was lots of discussion about patients with higher BMIs and fresh versus frozen embryo transfers.  The current research, along with advancements that have been made in freezing and thawing embryos, suggest that a frozen embryo transfer, allowing the patient's estrogen levels to regulate, are the best protocol for us.

*Unfortunately, Ry's semen analysis was a little different from the last time we had one completed.  Because of this, Dr. C suggested we use ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection) to help create our babies.  This, and the fact that we are doing a frozen embryo transfer adds significant cost to this cycle, which really, really stinks for us.

*I scheduled several of the required ultrasounds.  During the two-week stimulation period, I will need around five of them.  The one will take all day, because I have other things to do at the office.  The rest I will be getting up really early, driving to the Murray office for my 8 a.m. ultrasound appointments.  I have one day where I have to go to Pleasant Grove, and that is going to stink, but, I guess I'll make a day of it.  It's nice that for most of our appointments, we don't have to go all the way to Pleasant Grove.

*All of my blood work came back pretty good, except for my thyroid.  Dr. C. upped my dosage of my thyroid meds a little bit in preparation for a pregnancy.  Good news---neither of us are HIV+.  I knew you were really worried about that.  lol :)

*For those of you familiar with stimulation meds and dosages, I'll tell you what I know.  This protocol will not have any lupron, thanks heavens.  I'm already taking Ortho-Cyclen to help calm my ovaries, which, according to the ultrasound, have tons of follicles.  Hopefully they'll generally go away before the cycle.  I will be on 225 of Follistim two times a day.  This is about twice the dosage I've ever had.  It's gotta work.  With that much Follistim, our meds are going to be REALLY expensive.  I'm going to ask if we can order them as soon as possible.  We're almost to our deductible, and then everything else is free.  That's always a good thing.  In addition to the Follistim, I'll be doing 1 vial of Menopur (I've never had that before).  On day 6 of the stim, I may begin Ganirelix, which is a drug to keep me from ovulating.  I'll also be taking a baby aspirin every day, and I need to take prenatal vitamins as well.  Both Ryan and I will be taking a course of antibiotics in November, and he takes one really strong antibiotic the day before our egg retrieval, because he has to give his "donation" on that day to make our babies.

So...that's "The Plan" for right now.  It's so weird that in just a little over a month we'll be hard at it.  I'm kind of glad we're not going to do a transfer in December, because it would probably be the week before Christmas break, and my kiddos at school will be nuts.  After the transfer, I have to be on 48 hours of bed rest.  Hopefully we can arrange to do the transfer on a Friday afternoon and I can just take the weekend to be lazy.

Please continue praying, friends!  I'm reluctant to allow myself any sort of hope.  We've got a month before things get serious.  November will be busy, hopefully, and I can keep my mind off of this little glimmer of "maybe..."