If you guys follow me over on Instagram – I’m sure you saw my posts this week about our infertility journey starting back up… but I wanted to write a little more here. We had a little break after our last failed IUI in November and the beginning of our IVF process in April… which is crazy to think it’s now already here!? Time really did fly by between then and now – with the holidays, enjoying a little off-season, vacationing in Vieques, heading to San Francisco for work & fun, hosting our 4th annual workshop, and kicking off our wedding season in Baltimore last weekend!
Before I knew it – Tuesday was here and I had the appointment for my first baseline of our IVF cycle. (Baseline appointments basically mean I get blood drawn and an ultrasound done of my uterus and ovaries to see where we are at the start of my cycle. That gives us a baseline to work from from that point on.) That same day my sister came down to stay with us for a few days with her two youngest kiddos, while her husband and oldest son were traveling to Ethiopia during their spring break. Needless to say, it was a welcome distraction during a week that I could have spent obsessing over the start of treatments (even more than I already was regardless).
Anyway, Tuesday afternoon I got the call from a nurse at the clinic to go ahead and start my injectable medications that night – to which I replied… “What injectable medication?” (I hadn’t received anything in the mail, and as it turns out my regular nurse forgot to order anything for me. Not super awesome.) After spending a huge chunk of Tuesday afternoon on the phone with the one local pharmacy who could do a rush order of these meds for us, and the fertility clinic – we learned that our insurance was going to charge us a penalty ($1,800 penalty to be exact) for going through this local pharmacy instead of the mail-order pharmacy they prefer. (I know… seriously.) Thankfully, the pharmacy was able to use some vouchers and coupons to lower some penalties, and of those meds that had the largest penalties on them – they only gave us what I needed to get through the first few days of treatment and were able to have the mail-order pharmacy ship the rest expedited so I’d have them when I needed them.
All in all between the two pharmacies we ended up paying $1,300 for the meds (which would have been $6,500 without insurance). I have 10 different medications I’m going to be on over the course of the next few weeks – everything from oral medications, to patches, to gels, to my favorite – shots shots shots shots shots shots!!! (Said to the tune of that terrible song… haha.)
I started the injectables on Wednesday night instead of Tuesday – thanks to the great pharmaceutical debacle of 2015 (as we’ll call it… haha) – and things seem to be going well. I’m not going to lie and say it was awesome – because it wasn’t. And I’m not going to lie and say I was tough about it – because I wasn’t. Instead, I got myself super worked-up/nervous before the first night of shots and got mad at James for a million little things (mostly because I had to do these stupid shots and not him, if I’m being honest) and snapped on him big time in front of my sister and her kids. Then, with the help of my sister, we figured out how to mix these crazy meds, got everything set to administer, and I gave the shots to myself. The Menopur was incredibly NOT awesome (it’s a bigger dose and burns going in… eeks), and the Follistim felt like a breeze compared to the Menopur – thank goodness!
Meanwhile, Chloe was keeping a close eye on me the entire night because she sensed something was off about me. She would wander in and out of the room I was in, checking in on me as I figured out the meds. After everything was said and done my stomach was burning a bit and I was feeling generally woozy so I laid down for a minute and she immediately had to come keep me company. ON. MY. FACE.
Yes. See below. She laid on my head and then proceeded to fall asleep. 🙂 It turns out she thought I needed a little calming down and honestly – this did just the trick. I laid there under her and actually started to relax and felt the tension easing out of me. I wasn’t able to get to acupuncture this week with all the visitors in town, so I dare say this Chloe moment came in a close second. 🙂
The second night of meds went smoother than the first, and I sucked it up (no snapping at James… although I did let him know I’d much rather he didn’t give me his usual ‘tough-love’ approach this month. I’d much prefer being spoiled rotten and treated like royalty – pleaseandthankyou). I have another night of shots tonight and tomorrow morning I head in early for a follow-up appointment to see how things are coming along (another ultrasound & bloodwork appointment), and then my doctor will adjust medication as necessary as we proceed.
So – that’s it so far. Really not all that exciting, but rather all-consuming when you’re the one in it. I’m really hoping to educate people through sharing this process – so if you have any questions about anything really please do feel free to ask!
And I promise I will have other things to talk about on the blog and Instagram soon… including our beautiful first wedding of the year coming up next week sometime!! In the meantime, thanks for checking in and for continuing to show us sooooo much love and support throughout this process! You all truly are amazing!!
Have a wonderful weekend everybody! We are off to celebrate a quiet Easter in Wisconsin with family (and of course to cheer on the Badgers)!!! xoxo
