First, the paperwork. Let me just start by saying you definitely don't know the strength of your relationship until you start talking about it's demise. IVF usually results in many embryos, so you implant a number of "fresh" ones and freeze the rest for another cycle or another child. We had to go through all the different scenarios that could possibly happen (death, divorce or incapacitation of one or both of us) and decide what to do with our little snow flakes in each case. Our options were to destroy them, donate them to research, donate them to medical training, or donate them to another couple. After that, we had to discuss what to do if too many embryos implanted or split into twins ( I have no intention of being the next octomom and our options were to go through with the pregnancy and hope for the best, or elect to have a multi-fetal pregnancy reduction which is where the doctor chooses the weakest baby or babies and stops their heart. My body would just resorb the chosen babies and the others would be unaffected). So many very very hard questions so early in the morning! I have to say that Rye's level of concern and dedication to me and our babies-to-be is amazing and I seriously lucked out when it comes to having someone by your side while you go through something this scary and invasive.
So, after signing a million pages of consent forms and scenarios, we were lead back to a tiny little room with a box of needles on the desk. The Doc's assistant came in and went over all the medications and how to mix them. My main medication is Gonal-F (this is the drug that will stimulate multiple eggs to grow in both of my ovaries) and it comes in a little box with a syringe, a little vial of powder, a huge thick needle (that scared the bejeesus out of me until she explained) that is used to mix the medication, and a little needle to attach for the actual injection. I'm going to be injecting 225units of Gonal-F in my stomach or outer thigh every night between 8-10pm starting September 9th. Then, after they give me the go ahead at one of my many many monitoring appointments I will start injecting Centrotide(prevents ovulation before the egg retrieval surgery) and Menopur (also helps grow eggs) every night as well. These meds will be mixed together in the same way I will have to mix the Gonal-F except the needle is way longer.
Luckily, I didn't have to practice the injections today. So, we were sent off to enjoy the rest of our day and to "try not to stress"... lol. (Fat chance lady! Did you not see the size of those needles?)
The next step is our Baseline appointment on the 8th where they will do a blood test and an ultrasound to make sure the BCPs did their job of "quieting" my ovaries. The idea of quieting my ovaries always puts this image of to organs talking to eachother in a library... yeah, I giggle everytime. I'm going to try to post a calendar so you can see what my IVF cycle will look like as well as some pictures of the needles and the meds... thinking about posting a video of the first injection... but still not sure if I want my wimpery to be posted all over the inter-webs...
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