In current IVF cycle news...

We met with the financial coordinator this week and made our payment. It's $15,000 for 3 cycles and everything that entails. We both now have a ton of reward points on our MasterCards. The bummer is that if it works the first time, we don't get the difference back. They make that pretty clear. Oh well.

Anyway, besides the medication, we still need to order sperm also and then we're set. Another piece of good news we learned is that the cost includes genetic screening, which we knew, but that also includes gender screening too. So we'll get to pick! It's not sperm separation, though. They figure out the gender after it has been fertilized when they do a chromosome analysis and we're really hoping there will be some boy embryos to implant! But if we have a girl we will love her just as much and never speak of this again...

After looking at all the medication we got and how many injections I'm going to have to take, we decided to buy some cute band-aids for all of my upcoming puncture wounds.

We might have gone a little overboard, but they were cheap and all really cute! I'm wearing an Angry Birds  right now because I cut my thumb when we got home.  I decided to buy a little container for them so we don't have boxes floating around and getting lost. We found the perfect box at Office Depot.

It's actually called "Really Useful Box" LOL.

I realized today that I'm almost done with the flashbacks, which is pretty good timing because soon I'll be completely involved with the new process.

IUI Cycle #2 - July 2011

This story is very similar to the first cycle so I have left out some of the details that I already wrote about in cycle 1 and focused on details unique to this cycle.

After the first failed cycle, we were ready to try again right away. But you can't do that because after over-stimulating the ovaries they tend to develop cysts. It's nothing serious. They are just fluid filled sacs from the follicles that were released and some that didn't make it. You can't stimulate the ovaries again until they are cleared. You take a pill for a week and then just for an extra treat, the pill brings on another period. And then the cysts are taken care of.

Then you have to wait for your period again to start the next cycle. That's why there is so much time between the cycles. We decided to start with injectibles from the beginning, but we ended up having to pay more because the cycles we paid for were for Clomid only. It was confusing, but my girlfriend is gifted with numbers and she said the amount was ok, so we paid it.

This was the first year my school was 9 months. I jumped at the opportunity to teach summer school for the extra money, to help offset the cost of some of this. Summer school is only in the mornings so it was much easier to get in to see the doctor for all the ultrasounds and procedure work.

During this time my girlfriend and I started staying at more hotels for evenings. We both had the time and the opportunity presented itself to get some rooms for free, so why not! We had one such evening a few days after we started the Gonal injections. It was a really nice hotel, but there was no refrigerator for in-room use. There was one that had soda and beer but they charge you a lot if you take them. And the fridge also has sensors so if you put anything in there, it can tell the weight inside has changed and they will charge you for that also! If you read the medication haul, you know the Gonal has to be kept refrigerated. So we had no choice but to carefully place it in the fridge on top of some sodas and hope it was light enough that it wouldn't set off any weight sensors.

We had a lovely evening at the hotel and the next morning we packed up to leave. The television in the room had an express check-out so we did that. You use the remote to view charges and there was nothing in there for the fridge, so we were relieved. I hit the button to check-out and I heard a loud CLUNK! The damn fridge locked itself after check-out and I hadn't taken the Gonal pen out yet!

I went into full panic mode. There was a $300 medication pen in the locked fridge! I tried every way I could but it was not opening. I tried to call down to the desk but there was no answer. I guessed they are really busy during check-out so my girlfriend said I should just go down there. I did and there was such a long line at the desk that I understood why nobody answered the phone. I got in the back of the line and waited, feeling more and more anxious every minute. I finally got up to the desk and told them what happened and they said it was no problem. He took my room key and re-checked me in so the fridge would open again. My girlfriend got the pen and brought our stuff down so we could re-check-out and be on our merry way.

The rest of the cycle went much like the first one. I did have to take one morning off from summer school for the insemination. They only do it at certain times and its in the mornings. Mine was scheduled towards the end of summer school and we had a field trip planned for the last day of class. So while my students were running around enjoying their last day, I was completely focused on whether or not the swimmers made it this time.

I started to get a bad feeling after the first bloodwork. My progesterone levels were low, so low that the doctor had me use even more of the nasty vagina cream applicators every day. The next bloodwork the levels were even lower and like I said before, that doesn't indicate pregnancy one way or another, it still gave me a bad feeling. And my bad feeling was confirmed on the third blood test. No baby this time either.