A Spoonful of IVF

Let's just take a minute and acknowledge the fact that I've been successfully self-injecting Lupron for ten days now!  The purpose of Lupron, for those that may not know, is to suppress ovulation - or, as I like to think of it, putting my ovaries to sleep.  We want my ovaries on a clock set by the doctors, not the biological clock that's been ticking the 23 years I've been alive (shut up, I'm on drugs, let me be 23). Today, in addition to Lupron, I'll now be injecting Gonal-F. Gonal-F tells my ovaries it's time to go, start making eggs. It's fertilizer with rocket fuel. I'll be taking both Lupron and Gonal-F together for the next eleven days. At about that time I take one butt-directed booster shot of a drug called HCG and then, approximately two days later, it's egg harvest time. 

But how do we really know when to do the HCG thing? That's where today's glorious morning comes in. I had the pleasure of a lovely test called a Transvaginal Ultrasound. (I also had a blood test - an estradiol test - but as a needle pro I'm way past worrying about this.)  I agree, the sound of a Transvaginal Ultrasound alone is just awful and I can promise you, the test itself is worse.  I'll spare you the details and the ridonkulous size of the probe and just cut to the chase.  A transvaginal Ultrasound is an internal pelvic ultrasound used for multiple purposes.  For women going through IVF it's used to monitor the size of the follicles in their ovaries (each follicle makes one egg). As eggs mature, the follicles grow in size - seems there's a target size that says the eggs are ripe and ready to meet their match. We'll use today's ultrasound and blood test to determine my baseline and when I'm ready for that booster shot.  Am I an expert or what?  Not even close and I must give props to one of my favorite books thus far - The Couple's Guide to In Vitro Fertilization by Liza Charlesworth.  Great book for anyone going through IVF.

Before I sign off, I'll just add that this will be my last post before we leave (Geoff tells me he's got one on the way so keep an eye open), but we'll blog while we're away and keep everyone posted.  Only four days to go and come Tuesday, we're on our way to Mumbai!  This weekend, we're running some errands, packing and enjoying the comforts of our home while we still can.  We're going out with our "gang" on Saturday night (gang of closest friends that is) and then after a spa day with the women in my family on Sunday, we'll have a farewell dinner at my mom and stepdad's on Sunday night.  Please continue to send your well wishes, good thoughts, blog comments, emails, love, prayers and support because we need all that we can get! xo