Welcome to the next post in my IVF Round 2 series! When I last left off, I had finished all of my fertility testing and gotten the official ok to start medications and prepare for our frozen embryo transfer for baby #3.
The first week of August, I started my period. This was another “oh shit” day. I called my nurse to report cycle day 1, as it is called in the fertility world. She immediately called in a prescription for birth control pills and told me to start them the next day. She also called in my prescriptions for all of my other medications. It was total deja vu when she rattled off the medications I was going to be on: estrogen pills, estrogen patches, baby aspirin, lupron injections, progesterone in oil injections, z-pack. The pharmacy called me that day too to go over pricing and shipping. It was a big day. I looked at Chris and was like, “Are we ready? No turning back now.” He was totally excited and said “Yup, lets do this.”
8/14/20: My medicine arrived! Not going to lie, my heart dropped a little bit when I opened up the box and saw my old needle friends. I’m very well aware that’s a necessary part of the process but man, reality hit hard when I saw those again.
8/24/20: I finished 3 weeks of birth control pills and this was the first day of injections. Thankfully it was a stomach injection so I was eased back into things a little bit because the stomach ones aren’t bad. I figured giving myself an injection would be like riding a bike – you just pick up where you left off, right? Nope! It was not like riding a bike. I watched the injection video, got my medication drawn and ready to inject, then stood there for about 5 minutes trying to find the courage to actually inject it! After a few minutes, I gave myself the injection and it was smooth sailing from there. I had to do that injection once a day for 4 weeks.
9/3/20: I went in for blood work and an ultrasound to see how everything was looking. At this appointment they are looking for quiet ovaries, no cysts, and a thin uterine lining. Thankfully that is what they saw! My blood work came back great too so I was told to start estrogen that day. If you remember from my previous transfer, I needed more than the bare minimum amount of Estrogen and we ran around last minute getting estrogen patches to try and thicken my uterine lining. This time I was on estrogen patches and a higher dose of estrogen pills from the beginning. It made me feel so tired! I don’t remember feeling that tired the first time, but I also wasn’t chasing two toddlers around so I’m sure that makes a difference.
9/9/20: I had to get a COVID test before we could continue moving forward. Thankfully it came back negative.
9/14/20: I had a lining check appointment, which is where you have an ultrasound to look at the thickness of your uterine lining. I was nervous for this appointment because my lining didn’t thicken up as fast as we wanted last time. So this time my doctor started me on a higher dose of estrogen from the beginning since we already knew my body needed more than the minimum amount. I was taking estrogen pills 3 times a day and using estrogen patches as well. I was hopeful that my lining was thick enough, but I was also really nervous for this appointment. It seriously felt like deja vu when I had my ultrasound and my lining wasn’t close to where it needed to be. They want it to be at 8mm minimum and I was at 6.3mm. My nurse said she would talk to my doctor and call me later that day and I left with tears in my eyes. I was really disappointed because like I said, I was already on a higher dose of estrogen and I didn’t understand why this dose worked for my body two years ago but not this time. I had been trying so hard to be positive and hopeful, but that news just brought out all of my fears. If my body wasn’t doing what it was supposed to do with growing a thick uterine lining, would it do what it was supposed to do in a few weeks when we transfer our precious embryo? Later that day my nurse called and said I was going to add in vaginal estrogen two times a day (in addition to the pills and patches) and come back in a few days for another lining check. I started the vaginal estrogen that day and crossed my fingers.
9/17/20: Lining Check #2. I was so anxious for this appointment but so relieved when my lining looked great! It had thickened up to 8.83mm and my doctor gave the official ok for transfer on September 23, 2020. He also made me feel so much better when he explained that because I had been pregnant before, my uterus had changed and he wasn’t concerned that I needed more estrogen this time around. He was hopeful our transfer would work and I was hopeful too!
9/18/20: I started the dreaded PIO (Progesterone In Oil) shots that day. Chris had to give me those shots because they are injected into the low hip/top butt muscle and it’s hard for me to do those myself. It’s also an intra-muscular injection, which means you use a large 1.5 inch needle and it’s just better for Chris to do them, so I don’t have to see it go into my backside. Since I knew what to expect, this shot wasn’t terrible (but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt!) and it was one step closer to our frozen embryo transfer, which was only 5 days away!
Stay tuned for next week when I’ll share how TRANSFER DAY went!
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