Pelvic Ultrasound, Blood Test, Spending Money Like a Player, How to Inject Yourself with Hormones, and Bags of Drugs and Needles

This morning my husband and I drove to the Victoria Fertility Clinic for our 8:00 AM appointment. As my nurse made yesterday day one of my cycle (since Toby didn't arrive until 7 PM Wednesday), today is day two. We were both nervous.

I am nauseous with fear in this picture.

A car #selfie.

The waiting room was completely full. It seems that most people in a cycle have to come for appointments first thing in the morning and I suppose if you're working in a traditional 9-5 schedule, this would work best. We waited for a while after our appointment time before being shown into an examination room.

By now I'm well familiar with the drop your bottoms, lie on the end of an exam bed in stirrups, and show us your bottom routine. Dr. Hudson gave me a pelvic ultrasound. He pointed out some follicles that were developing. He again reiterated that I don't have a large egg reserve and that's why I was on a high dose of Estrace. He said it's impossible to know until they see how I react to the further hormones if they'll get eggs enough to work with or not. He says you just never know (more "reassurances" for a couple suffering from Unexplained Infertility). He let me take pictures of the ultrasound to my heart's content, admonishing me again for having a full bladder. He said that I should empty it before an appointment. I explained to him that I did, but it filled right up in the 20 minutes or so that we waited. So, he apologized for keeping me waiting.

Lying on the exam table.

My full bladder.

Dr. Hudson measuring the thickness of my endometrium.

Barely visible in the top left are two follicles (dark circles).

While my nurse took a blood sample from me, my husband was given a sheet of possible supplements that he could take to improve his semen (though Dr. Hudson again reiterated that it wasn't bad- that's the thing about Unexplained Infertility- it just can't really be explained).

Another blood test! At least I don't have to go to the lab separately for these ones. They're done at the clinic.

I dressed and we went two doors down the hall of the clinic to the drug dispensary. We paid for the drugs I'll need until my appointment next Thursday (my husband said "that's less than I thought it would be" when it came up at about $2,800.00. I had to remind him that this just drugs for less than a week, so there's more coming in costs, and really that's still a lot of money!).

The drug dispensary at the clinic.

Then a nurse showed me how to inject myself with Gonal F (it's in a semi epi pen format in that it's loaded, but I have to choose how much to dispense at a time and press down to inject rather than just stabbing it into my leg like an Epi-pen for allergies), how to load a syringe with Menopur using three different bottles of medication and water, and explained that if I brought back "used" Gonal F needles they can get the last bit of medication out of each of them for me and put them together, thereby decreasing my medication bill by about $200.00 (they're each overfilled and many are single use doses). The injections will be in the stomach, avoiding the belly button area, one on each side so the medications don't mix and "react." The third hormone I'll be on, Dexamethasone, is a tablet taken in the morning, so by comparison, it was very straightforward.

We reviewed my list of medications and the nurse told me that I'd be back to buy other drugs next week (as you go on in the cycle, other things are added or adjusted, based on how the follicles are maturing) and learn how to use them.

The demo table.

Gonal F is in an preloaded Epi-pen type format.

Menopur is not that simple and requires various vials,mixing, and assembly.

Menopur is complex, like me.

We also paid the balance of the fee for our first IVF cycle (we already paid a deposit of $1,500.00, so we paid $5,000.00 more today). We left with two bags brimming full of needles and drugs plus a zippered nylon bag with more instructions and a smaller sharps container (talk about purse candy!) and a huge dent in our bank account.

Pretty pink bags conceal the "goodies" we just bought.

We were basically speechless on the way back into town. All we could keep reiterating at various intervals was variations of I can't believe that we have to do this, I can't believe that this is happening, etc..

My husband went to work. I grudgingly went off and did a big grocery shop. I know I'm not going to be feeling like doing that as I get into the thick of these new hormones, so carpe diem I suppose.

I feel weird today, but definitely less awful than I felt while on the Estrace. I suppose my level of estradiol must be dropping, since I haven't had any Estrace since Wednesday night (the blood test today was for estradiol and progesterone).

The cat was not impressed my latest arm candy. What? It's all the rage at London Fashion Week!

 The action was supposed to kick off tomorrow morning with my first dose of Dexamethasone 1mg (two tablets) and then Saturday night was going to be a wild one with  not one, but two injections, Gonal F 300 and Menopur 150.  However, this afternoon, I received a call from my nurse. She told me that my progesterone levels were really high and they didn't know why. She said it might be because I'm early in my cycle, but they'd have to give me another blood test at their office tomorrow morning at 10:30. She said that I should not start the medications until after I've had the blood tests and that it might be delayed by a day (oh how sad, no needles for another day!). 

Stay tuned. In the mean time, I'll be going out to dinner with a friend tonight, to bank up on fun before I enter this unknown forest where the trees are actually needles and there's a sharps box every quarter of a mile.

Something tells me the next few weeks are not going to be that fun . . .