With our appointment starting at 9am
on Monday we decided to just work from home that day. Since traffic can
get crazy in our area we left the house around 7:30 and stopped for a leisurely
breakfast. I was starting to feel nervous and couldn't eat much. Work
has been incredibly busy and frustrating so I really hadn't had the time or
energy to be anxious about this appointment. I pushed the negative
thoughts aside and ate as much I could, taking the Metformin on an empty
stomach has never ended well.
We got to the office a little before
nine and only waited a few minutes for Nurse V. Once settled in her
office she started to go over the FET schedule. I would finish out the
active pills in my current BCP pack with the last pill being take on 4/6.
The protocol includes a Lupron overlap which will start at 10iu on 4/2.
After stopping the pill we wait for CD1 to schedule baseline. FET
monitoring takes place on a Tuesday and Friday schedule. Once CD1 arrives
my baseline will be whichever of those days comes first. If everything
looks good and quiet in ovary land we will begin.
Lupron will drop down to 5iu once
the estrogen injections begin. I will continue the Lupron daily until
progesterone injections start. The estrogen will be Delestrogen, an intramuscular
(IM) shot. It will be taken every Tuesday and Friday night, the dosage
being determined by that morning's monitoring appointment, until Dr. S is happy
with my lining. Once perfect lining has been achieved the progesterone
stage will begin.
I will start taking IM PIO
(progesterone in oil) shots every morning.
Six days later we will have our embryo transfer. The day of transfer we add in a vaginal
progesterone as well that will be taken nightly. There is no need for anesthesia for transfer
so I will take a sleeping pill the night before and a Valium 90 minutes prior
to transfer. After our little butterfly
is in my ute they’ll keep me for about 30 minutes before sending me home for 24
hours of bed rest. The PIO and vaginal
progesterone will continue daily until beta (blood pregnancy test). If our butterfly has snuggled in and pregnancy
is achieved the medications will continue through the first trimester.
With our preliminary calendar in
place it was time to learn about IM shots.
IM shots are, as their name suggests, injected straight into the muscle. The injection area is the upper outer
quadrant of the buttocks. When Nurse V
pulled out the syringe I felt my heart race.
The needle is 1.5” long and extremely intimidating. Dave will be administering the injections and
we shared a nervous glance. Nurse V
assured us that it really isn’t that bad and gave instructions for icing
beforehand and using a heating pad afterwards.
After going over the shots she took my blood pressure. The number was high and she chuckled,
remembering that she should have taken it before bringing out the enormous
needles.
The last topic we covered was
choosing our embryo. Dave and I had
already discussed it and were ready to meet with Dr. F. Nurse V called her down and she went over our
results. Since the CCS results showed
all four were normal she felt any of them would be a good choice. In her opinion #2 and #3 were best. #2 is a 5bb Day 6 blastocyst while #3 is a 5bb
Day 5 blastocyst. We decided to go with butterfly
#2. Overall Dr. F felt we had a great
chance and was very happy with our embryos.
On the way home Mandell’s called to
confirm my order. I arranged to pick it
up this weekend. It all feels so real
now. Come late April/early May we should
be transferring our little butterfly into my uterus. I’m trying to stay guarded, but the
excitement is starting to build. Our IF
journey could soon be transitioning to a pregnancy journey.
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