IVF cycle #1 Protocol...

Well, after a night of no sleep (for me, not Alex) due to nerves about today...we arrived at the doctor's office at 8:30 this morning. Alex went back first to 'take care of business' and then they took us back together for the IVF class.

The IVF Coordinator was a hoot, really calmed my nerves and was very reassuring that this is going to work. She showed me what all of the shots looked like. The SubQ shots didn't look too bad, the IM...not looking forward to those at all. I'll just remind myself everytime Alex sticks me that this is for our baby! Alex was very confident in his shot giving skills...I believe he compared it to giving Diesel (our English Mastiff) his shots. The nurse just reminded him not to grab me up by the neck like he does the dog...takes a little more finesse than that. (LOL) Do you understand why I'm fearful of the shots now? :)

After an hour or so in class, we signed a bunch of paperwork (reminded us of when we bought our home...lots of initial here, sign there...) and then we both had blood drawn for a few tests that our last clinic didn't run.

Then....on to the mock transfer. All I will say is, it hurt. It reminded me a lot of when I had my HSG. I'm actually still feeling cramps from it and it has been close to 8 hours since I had it done. I'm sure I'll feel better tomorrow though.

Now for our IVF cycle #1 protocol: (of course any of these can change a day here or a day there depending upon how my body responds to the drugs)
March 9th - Start birth control
April 8th - Start Lupron injections
April 12th - End birth control/continue Lupron injections
April 21st - Continue Lupron & add Follistim injections
April 29th - Ovidrel injection
May 1st - Egg Retrieval
May 2nd - Progesterone shots begin
May 4th - Potential day 3 transfer (or)
May 6th - Potential day 5 transfer
Start Estrogen patches on transfer day and continue Progesterone shots...
Pregnancy test (2 weeks from retrieval)

*We should know if we are pregnant the week of Mother's Day*

Side note: Pray our insurance gets their act together...I won't go into it all but they are fighting us on paying for anything AGAIN. We heard this today after getting home from our appointment, so honestly it took my excitement away about the entire process. I'm scared to get my hopes up and then be let down if they come back and say they won't pay and we have to cancel the cycle. Please pray this is resolved so our mail order pharmacy can send me my meds in time to start on the 8th.

Love you all,
Jill