Shoot me up!

Well today is the day. We get to start the injections today to start the process of growing the eggs needed to do the IVF. I thought I would share a picture of all the medications that are needed for one cycle of IVF. Most of the medication came in a big brown box to our door. Some of the medication needs to be refrigerated and some doesn't.

If you look closely at the picture you can see the Follistim, the pen that is used to give the Follistim, Menopur, Ganirelix, Progesterone, HCG, aspirin, prenatal vitamins, Foltx, 2 prescriptions for Z-pak, and assorted syringes and needles. Yes, this is a ton of stuff! All along I have been taking the prenatal vitamins and Foltx. Foltx is just additional folic acid since the prenatal vitamin doesn't have enough in it. 

Tonight I start taking the Follistim and the Menopur. Nick and I both start taking our Z-paks tonight as well. We have to take these to treat for ureaplasma/mycoplasma. Instead of testing for these bacteria, they just treat for them. I also start taking aspirin 81 mg daily. According to the literature I was given the aspirin is believed to help thicken up the lining of your uterus and help prevent certain antibodies that contribute to miscarriage and pregnancy loss. 

So for the first four evenings I am giving myself Follistim 225 units and 1 vial of Menopur. If you recall the highest Follistim I was on for the IUI was 150 Units. I am on so much more medication because we want to produce many more eggs for the IVF. Menopur contains LH and FSH. Both of which help to produce eggs and aid in ovulation. I take both of these medications between 6pm and 8pm each night. The picture below is all of the stuff I need for medications tonight. This doesn't include the prenatal vitamin and foltx. I'll take those when I go to bed. 

One of the other big things that happens today includes not having to park at the bottom of the hill at work anymore. Since we are producing more eggs, my ovaries are going to be getting bigger and strenuous excercise would not be a good thing. I get to park in the garage! YEAH!!! 

Where do we go from here? Well, I shoot myself up every night for the next four nights. Then we have an ultrasound Monday April 29th at 8am. This ultrasound will measure how big the follicles (eggs) are getting and how many we have. The doctors will decide if and how much more medicine I will need, how much longer to take them and when the next ultrasound will be. That day they will also decide if I need to start taking the Ganirelix to prevent premature ovulation. 

I thought I might mention at this point that we put an offer on a house in Green, OH yesterday. It's a short sale so we aren't expecting this to be a "short" process at all!  I'll keep everyone updated :) I'm also going to mention that at some point there will be a "guest" post. Nick is going to do a couple of posts about his feelings and thoughts about this whole process. I thought it would be neat to get a guys perspective!