DRUGS

The fun is about to begin!! And by fun I mean I start taking lots and lots of drugs. I knew there would be a lot of drugs involved in an IVF cycle, but holy crap, I have a lot of drugs piling up around here! Oh yeah, and I have LOTS of needles. When my last box of meds came via UPS the other day, I pulled out everything I have so far and realized just how much it is. It kind of hit me; holy crap, we are really doing this. We aren't just talking about it and thinking about it and waiting for it; it's here!!

IVF is not for the faint of heart, that is for certain. Thank goodness I am not afraid of needles!! And thank goodness my physician's office is super organized and provides every IVF couple with their own specific calendar listing which medications to take, when to take them, and how much to take. I am a very organized type A sort of person, but I know that even with my neurotic lists and methods of organization even I would get confused about what I am doing with all these drugs. I have come to the realization that for about 2 weeks, my belly will become a human pincushion due to the 4x daily injections and needle sticks I will be taking/doing. Yikes!! Again, very thankful that I am not afraid of needles!

So many drugs!!

Why so many drugs, some people may ask or wonder? My nurse practitioner explained it well at our IVF class. She said that they are no longer boosting my body's natural hormones, as they had during timed cycles or cycles of IUI (intrauterine insemination). They are now providing my body with the hormones it needs and the amounts it needs to prepare for our IVF cycle. My hormones were brought to baseline so that now we can start from scratch to make them increase, decrease, etc. as they are supposed during a "normal" cycle. But we are hoping to produce lots and lots of eggs by overriding my body's "typical" hormones (and hopefully a good one or two at least will be in that batch). Many people have asked as I've mentioned what we are doing as our next step, "what exactly is IVF?" So, for those wondering, I'll give a brief explanation, because until recently I knew very little about it as well. 

 As mentioned above, medications I've been taking for the past month (Estrogen pills) basically baseline my hormones. This calendar was the "Estrogen Priming" phase. We started adding in pills I take by mouth, along the all the vitamins I've taken for the past 2 years. The pills are introducing the hormone progesterone. Soon I go in for a baseline ultrasound and lab work to make sure my hormones are where they need to be and that my ovaries have not started to produce eggs yet. Then we being the "Flare" phase. Sounds exciting, right?! In the "Flare" phase I begin injections that will override what my brain should be doing and directly telling my lazy ovaries to work their asses off to make some eggs. So my ovaries may become enlarged due to what I hope will be LOTS of eggs being formed (actually the follices that house the eggs). I take medications to keep my body from ovulating these eggs until they get to be just the right size (detected via multiple days of ultrasounds and labs). Once they are just right, I take a medication that stimulates my ovulation, or release of the eggs, but instead of letting that happen, the doctor goes in and surgically removes the follices, which hopefully contain the eggs. They won't know until they remove them if there was in fact an egg in the follicle or just fluid. After that, the embryologist closely inspects the eggs under a microscope to pick the best quality eggs (at least from what they can tell). They also pick the best sperm (as the nurse said, "they won't pick the ones with two heads or the ones that are swimming in circles"). They inject them directly into the eggs so there is not much work that has to be done. Then the embryologist monitors them daily for 5 days. We will receive a phone call every morning that tells us first how many eggs can be used and then how many embyros have survived. I am not at all looking forward to those calls. We pray and hope that several survive so that 2 can be put back in me and the rest, if any, can be frozen. So back to drugs...There are more drugs on a third calendar of which the title has not yet been revealed to me, but I guess it is likely "Fertilization" or something of that nature. The drugs on this calendar provide me with the hormones my body needs to prepare my uterus for the embyro and to support the early stages of pregnancy.

Wow! It's so amazing what modern medicine can do, isn't it?!?! I know this may be boring to a lot of people, but I find it fascinating. I also know that many people who care about us want to know where we are in the process and what the term IVF even means. So there you have it. Again I'm left hoping and praying that this will be our solution. We need and are accepting ALL the prayers and positive vibes anyone is willing to extend our way. Be thinking of this human pincushion in the next few weeks as my husband and I continue on our journey to have a baby!!