2/10/2017 0 Comments Trigger DayAfter all this nothing and waiting things finally feel like they’re moving along! We made the decision to keep going with this cycle. We’ve already sank so much energy and money into it, it would be a shame to not try. I ended up having to order an additional $1,100 worth of medicine. That brings the total to about $4,000 give or take for our medicines. We had our $180 consult with another clinic and the news was disappointing, but I’m glad we had a second opinion. He actually encouraged us to stop this cycle and move straight to donor eggs. He said that it’s often difficult to retrieve one egg because they tend to move around a little more and they’re harder to get out successfully when there’s only one. He also agreed that if I’m not responding to high doses of medication there’s no point in trying again. He recommended a mini IVF if we had to have our own eggs. But that process can take up to a year or more. I’m really not feeling like I can do that. The difference is that you are put on Clomid for 10 days instead of 5. But if you don’t have 3 follicles you don’t go to retrieval. At this point, it’s highly unlikely I’ll ever have 3 follicles. I gained 22 pounds in one month on Clomid and took two cycles to get my period back. (Not to mention the hot flashes, night sweats, headaches, and general moodiness.) I just don’t think I can risk those side effects again for several months and still have the same results. So, although this was disappointing at least we have a plan. In the last 7 days, I’ve had 5 sonograms and 5 blood draws. My estrogen and progesterone are in the right range, my uterine lining is nice, and my little follicle is maturing! On Wednesday the follicle was 15mm and yesterday it was 15.5mm. They want it to be at least 18 before triggering. Because of this we had to order three more boxes of Gonal-f (~$1100). But today, my follicle jumped up to 19mm! So we ended up not even needing one of the boxes we ordered ($357.75) and we had an extra dosage left between some of our other vials. So we have about $700 wort of medicine we will never use. We get to stop Lupron, low dose HCG, and Gonal-f today in addition to DHEA and CoQ10. Tonight at exactly 9:30 we are doing our trigger shot! We have had this thing for months and I was convinced we would never get to use it. On Sunday we go in for our retrieval. We have about a 70% chance of having an egg in our follicle. So if there’s an egg it will be ready for fertilization. If the egg fertilizes it will then become a blastocyst. If the blastocyst develops correctly it will become an embryo. If the embryo does what it’s supposed to by day 3 we will transfer the embryo into my uterus on day 3. (This all may not be exactly scientifically accurate…it has been a while since my last biology class.) Day 3 will be Wednesday! As you can see there’s a lot of places where this ship could all go down. Even if the embryo does implant we aren’t free from the threat of miscarriage. This tunnel keeps getting longer and longer. I am literally living one day at a time which ironically makes days feel MUCH longer. If we get to do a transfer it will be two weeks before we know if it worked. Because I am a worst case scenario thinker, I did more research on the donor egg programs. A donor egg at our clinic is $17,950 and medications range between $2500-$4500. Our clinic has just started doing frozen donor eggs this year, but it’s even more expensive than the fresh ones! Originally when I looked at CNY in New York their frozen eggs were $6,000. But it seems their prices have changed effective February 1st and they are now $9,000 or we could do fresh eggs for $12,000. You are also guaranteed six mature eggs. It doesn’t appear that our clinic has a guarantee. The science for frozen eggs is very new and our doctor told us they’ve really only been using frozen donor eggs for 3-ish years. It’s fascinating how all of this is really in its infancy. Because our situation is a “mutually disappointing event” we are getting back at least $6950 of the $15,000 we’ve already paid. But for now, I’m going to really just hope this is our egg. I have felt a real since of calm and peace the last few days. At first, I felt like if IVF didn’t work it was a waste of money. Matt kept reassuring me it was not a waste of money because we had to try. I’m now finally understanding that. Even if this doesn’t work, I know we gave it our all. I’ve changed my diet drastically, given up caffeine and alcohol as well as scented products and switched to all natural products, and attended over $2,000 worth of acupuncture appointments. I have really left no stone un-turned to try to make this work. I found a nice quote from Mulan that is so poignant: “You’re at peace because you know it’s okay to be afraid.” I wish I had realized this weeks ago.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Heather Joyce
Trying to conceive. Archives
April 2018
Categories |