IVF Calendar!

Today was our ART screen with our RE. We got up bright and early to drop Bradley off at my mom's then headed downtown to the doc for our 8:30 appt. First we went over the consent forms and IVF calendar with the coordinator Connie. She also talked about the meds she will be ordering for me soon and answered any questions we had. We saved ourselves $450 by NOT needing an IVF workup on Nick (because we already know we need to do ICSI--where they inject the sperm directly into the egg). Yay! A dollar saved is a dollar earned. We are also saving a bit by not needing the medication administration class--I think I got that one down already :)

Next we went into the lovely exam room where the US machine and it's fallic-shaped probe were waiting for me. Dr. Hansen came in there and first did the mock transfer, then a sonohysterogram. Everything looked great on those tests so we spent the last few minutes with him talking about exactly how the cycle is going to go and answering any remaining questions we had.

After that we paid for the visit (tax deduction adding up!!!$$$$) then I went to work and Nick took Bradley home.

In a nutshell, I will start Lupron on Sunday, stop BCP on July 5, start Follistim and Menopur on July 12, and my HCG trigger shot will be around July 21. We also prescheduled my next few appointments up to July 18. My next appointment will be July 9 for bloodwork, urine sample, and US.

I just hope the next few weeks go by quickly. I remember clearly how uncomfortable I was toward the end of the stimulation cycle when I felt like a hen full of eggs. I also remember well how much pain I was in for a few days after the egg retrieval. We are estimating my retrieval to be between July 22-24 which means by the beginning of August I should know if it worked or not! They said that since we already had one successful cycle that actually increases our odds that it will work again :)

I'm REALLY trying not to get my hopes up too high this early. I have complete faith in the doctor and nurses and I know they are going to do everything with our success in mind. I'm going to follow my instructions to the letter and have already alerted my boss that I will need a few days off that week of the retrieval and embryo transfer. After that it is out of my hands!

My first batch of meds is getting delivered tomorrow and I started injections on Sunday. I'll keep you posted!

Something else I did is got a new hair do! Yesterday I finally found a salon in Norman to spend my birthday money on the popular ombré hair color. I've been eyeballing it for a long time now but was apprehensive because I hate spending money on frivolous things. Thankfully my birthday money was the perfect opportunity to splurge on myself! The great thing about this hairstyle is that it is super low maintenance and will still look cute as I continue to grow my hair out.