Information Overload....

Wow.  My head is spinning, but in a good way!!  Our appointment went well this morning.  The ultrasound results were good- no cysts on my ovaries and nothing out of the ordinary.  The injection teaching was a little overwhelming but I'm sure Steve will have a spreadsheet made in no time that will cut down on any confusion, in fact- he's probably creating one as I type this (I love my analyzer). 

So I will try to break down what I learned today...

January 5th I begin taking an injection called Leuprolide (also known as Lupron). Lupron suppresses the pituitary gland (the gland which is normally responsible for triggering ovulation). During the suppression phase, spontaneous ovulation will not occur. I will be injected with Lupron daily throughout the IVF cycle.

January 15th I add another injection called Follistim. Follistim (follicle stimulating hormone) is a man-made form of a hormone that occurs naturally in the body. Naturally, this hormone stimulates your ovary to produce one follicle- during IVF I will be getting a larger dose than my body would normally produce so that my ovaries will develop multiple follicles. This injection will also be daily for 8-12 days.

Depending on blood work (estradiol levels) that I will have drawn about every other day I will add yet another injection called Repronex (in case you weren't keep track- I'm up to three injections a day at this point).  Repronex is another follicle stimulating hormone. 

Between January 22nd and 26th I will be getting ultrasounds to look at how my follicles are doing.  At this time, the doctors in Iowa City will decide when my egg retrieval will be and 34.5 hours before that day and time I will take an injection of HCG to mature my eggs for retrieval.

And last but certainly not least- the final injection sounds like the most fun- I'm being totally sarcastic here.  Beginning the day of the retrieval I start daily injections of Progesterone in oil.  This stuff is thick so of course the needle has to be big...really big.  And these injections continue into the 8th week of pregnancy which I am positive I won't care about once I get a positive pregnancy test. 

The nurse told us today that the embryo transfer would most likely be at the beginning of February and we would know if we are pregnant 9 to 11 days after....maybe a Valentines Day present for Steve and I. 

I've learned from other blogs and from researching side effects that I am going to gain weight, get acne, be moody, and have hot flashes- sounds like fun right??  But I know it will all be worth it in the end.

**I would like to apologize in advance to anyone who may be on the other end of my crazy hormone rages.