Updates to the "Plan"

I got a call from my nurse yesterday. I haven't talked to her much in a while, so it was good to hear from her and get things settled in my head. Now that AF has arrived, I have officially started marking things off my IVF to-do list. Yay! I set up my CD 5-9 saline ultrasound for next Tuesday. This is to check for fibroids and any issues with the uterus that would prevent an embryo from implanting. Also, the nurse told me that Dr. T wants me to re-do my Day 3 bloodwork. That's the bloodwork that checks hormone levels, AMH, and FSH (which helps them determine quality and quantity of viable eggs remaining). I had this done last October, but they wanted more recent results. So, luckily I talked to her in time to get it done this cycle.

I went in early this morning to have blood drawn and damn, they took like 9 vials of blood! It was crazy! I decided to also get my infectious disease labs done since it's one of the IVF requirements. On Tuesday, George is going in with me to the saline u/s and he'll do his inf. disease labs then too. Also, he'll give his sample for freeze. Our clinic requires a back-up sample just in case, for whatever reason, the husband can't "perform" or isn't able to give a sample on the day of the egg retrieval. Hehe. George never is looking forward to this. I can't imagine how awkward that must be for a guy, but he's a real trooper.

The exciting thing is that after next week, we'll be almost through all the major pre-requirements to starting IVF! All we'll have left is the education class where we learn to mix the medicines and learn how to do the injections and such. And, of course, there's the little thing of payment. Ugh. Haha. I know in the end, it will be worth all the money we're spending. Luckily, we also have great insurance that will reimburse a lot of it, but as it stands right now, it's still going to cost several thousand dollars.

Nurse C said that on Tuesday, Dr. T will sit down with us after the u/s and discuss the official protocol we'll be using for our IVF cycle. I'm anxious to hear which drugs we'll be using and how it will all go down. She said whenever we're ready to start the cycle, we'll just pay the money and they will go ahead and order the drugs. Some people on my babycenter IVF forum have already ordered their meds, so I was kind of freaking out thinking I was way behind, but Nurse C said their pharmacy usually overnights the meds, so there's no reason to plan that far in advance. I'm so relieved to hear that! I feel like we're in very good shape for our cycle and I can't see anything standing in our way right now. Definitely good news :).