Waiting Game....

Waiting game... nobody likes to play the waiting game.... especially this girl! After C and I went to the couples learning session, I knew that it would be another month of waiting to start the process until I had my next cycle. As much as I feared that I wouldn't start my cycle "on time," I just had this hope deep down that I'd start my cycle naturally. Something, anything at least would go right and I'd start my cycle and we'd move on! At least that's what I had hoped for...

Unfortunately, hope was not in our corner this time! Good thing they have medications that will kick start my cycle. I am taking 7 days worth of provera pills to kick start Aunt Flo. For now that's where we're at... waiting for the cycle to start! After my cycle starts I'll have to start a daily routine with a handy dandy little calendar which will tell me what to take (pills or injections) on what days.

• Week 1: Daily birth control pill and a "baby" aspirin

· Week 2: Daily birth control pill, a "baby" aspirin, and 2 types of antibiotics to rid my body of nastiness!

· Week 3: Daily birth control pill, a "baby" aspirin, and start injections of Lupron (Responsible for stimulating the ovaries to develop follicles and has the effect of "quieting" the ovaries to prevent the spontaneous release of the eggs prior to the egg retrival)

· Week 4: Daily “baby” aspirin, Lupron, a baseline ultrasound to make sure everything is developing well and start with injections of Repronex & Follistim (both stimulate the ovaries to produce several eggs in one cycle)

· Week 5: Daily “baby” aspirin, Lupron, Repronex, Follistim, and every other day scans and blood draws to check the progress!

· Week 6: Egg retrieval process should happen sometime at the end of week 5 into beginning of week 6 after an injection of Ovidrel (causes expulsion of the egg from the follicle). Progesterone injections (help maintain the endometrium to help prevent miscarriages) start up until the point of embryo transfer.

· Week 7: Late week 6 into early week 7 will be the embryo transfer day!!! Bed rest the day of the transfer and the day after and Corey will have to take me as I “get” to take a valium tablet before the transfer.

· Week 8: After the transfer I wear a Vivelle skin patch (estrogen), not sure for how long as the information sheet copy was cut off at the bottom of the page.... handy.

Again, the waiting game will occur during these weeks, but I can only expect that hope will be in our corner this time and finally baby J will become a reality. I am still super nervous and anxious as I was after the couples learning event. I don't know that either of those will go away until I can see the reality that baby J is on their way into this world. The clinic provided me information sheets on all the drugs, risks of in vitro, side effects of injections, and a handy sheet on stress and infertility. The nurse at the clinic expressed that if your life was stressful at this time or your job was stressful, maybe you should wait to start the process. Seriously....this entire process stresses me out... I have hope that I'll start to settle down once things get going...

I'll appoligize now that if I act different than normal, act in a rude manner, or disinterested in any conversation/situation with you (my audience), I am truly sorry! No doubt will all these stimulation drugs, the stress of the whole process, and farm related things will cause me to be slightly preoccupied....! Just know I count on you all as my support system and love you all very much!

HAHA now you all get to play the waiting game until my next update.... how you like that?

ALJ