Drug Protocol

I was so relieved yesterday when I talked to my nurse. I was really worried that my drug protocol would be different than last time. I responded so well to the protocol last week as far as side effects are concerned. I was worried I would be placed on different drugs and I would start having the horrible side effects I had heard about (weight gain, hot flashes, etc.).

I will be on the SAME drugs (thank you LORD!). The first drug (lupron) will be in a smaller dose in hopes that we don't supress my ovaries as much. This is to increase the number of eggs. This is a good thing because I did not get that many eggs last time for the amount of stimulation medications I was on. I will take this two times/day.

When I start the stimulation meds (2 drugs), I will take those two times/day rather than 1 time/day like the last cycle. The dosage is similar.

After the transfer (pray we make it this far!), I will be on the same drugs as before but adding a patch. The patch will just help my body maintain the pregnancy. Sounds like a good deal to me!

April IVF

Leave it to the cost concious couple to decide to move up their IVF cycle date because of almost expired medications and costly bloodwork!

I called my nurse this morning to talk about the drug protocol and a few other questions I had. During that time, I found out that David would have to take his HIV/Hepititus tests again. Federal (?) law requires that you have this bloodwork done once/year. It is quite costly ($300 plus with insurance) to do this. David was NOT looking forward to doing this again and shelling out the funds!

Then I discovered that 8 viles of one of medications was going to expire in April. I thought no big deal but my cost conscious hubby thought differently.

One of the reasons for delaying the IVF for May/June was my school work and the Fargo Marathon races (I'm doing the 5k and David the 1/2 marathon). David thought it was pretty silly to revolve our IVF cycle around the marathon dates! Good point, honey!

We are scheduled to start the process on Tuesday, February 28th with birth control. I will have my baseline ultrasound on March 23rd and start the medications on March 24th. We are tentatively scheduled for a retrieval date sometime in the week of April 2nd-6th.

We are excited. I'm a little nervous. I'm the most nervous about the spinal. I just didn't enjoy being paralyzed for six plus hours.