The latest...

Another TTC update - skip if not interested!!

Since I had my consultation a mere 8 days ago... I spent days 2 - 6 of my cycle taking clomid, then day 7 & 9 had to give myself a shot (with Rob's help - I HATE needles, it was so hard for both of us to do those shots! Even with teeny little needles... still, not easy), then today on day 10 I went in for an ultrasound.

The Clomid went fine - I know lots of people have some bad side effects like nausea or hot flashes but following some good advice from a friend I took the pills at night and didn't experience any side effects!

The injections were a drug called Bravelle which is used to stimulate the growth of follicles. Today my ultrasound was to look at my ovaries and see how my follicles were developing. There was one mature follicle on one side and several on the other side that were almost mature. In order to avoid having 5 or so mature follicles (read: RISK OF QUINTUPLETS) they chose to trigger my ovulation today so the one mature follicle will give us the best chance of a healthy single baby and there are 2 or so others that also would have a chance to be fertilized but not likely. As much as I think I'd love to have twins, 2 babies for the price of 1 (to get pregnant with 2 at least), I'm sure Rob will be relieved to decrease the risk of multiples as much as possible.

So I left my apt and went home and needed to give myself a shot of HCG to induce/trigger ovulation. Luckily my sister Taba was coming over and I made her help me since Rob was at work. Seriously, I hate needles! And these are tiny little guys but still it was hard.

24 hours after the HCG shot we do the IUI at the Fertility Center. So that means 11:30 am on a Saturday and yes they are open! After that I will do the progesterone suppositories - apparently that is much more effective than taking it orally via a pill, fyi - for the next two weeks and then I'll find out if it worked or not.

**For the medications, the only one I filled at a pharmacy myself was the clomid. The Bravelle, HCG, and progesterone were ordered through a specialty Walgreen's pharmacy by the Fertility Center. The prescriptions I needed were overnighted to me! It came with the everything I needed to give myself the injections and I thought it was great that they came to my door - or actually I had them delivered to Rob's work since someone needed to sign for them and I didn't know if I'd be home. Another interesting thing about those meds, the Bravelle was really expensive and they said the company that makes it had a program for people who's insurance doesn't cover those drugs - I could pay $10 to join the "club" and then received almost a $100 discount on them. I was grateful for that! The total I spent on this cycles meds were $282 on the specialty pharmacy ones and $33 on the clomid. I had NO IDEA how much they would cost!

I'm sure this is obvious and all but I just really really really want this to work. This time. This cycle. I want it to work. It's hard to be hopeful and at the same time not set yourself up for disappointment. It's always been hard when my period comes but I think it will be crushing after putting in this effort, financially and emotionally... and yet I know statistically it could very well take 3 months, 6 months, or more even with treatments... so it's just a hard balance. I don't know how to explain that to people...

I'm grateful to be doing all that I can do to try to get pregnant and I want this to be successful so much.

Guess I'll find out in two weeks...