IVF here we come....

So much to tell! We had our IVF education day yesterday Friday, Feb. 29th--Leap Day! We found out that YES we can start IVF this cycle!!!!!! Woo-hoo! I am so happy I could cry!

The education day itself was a little overwhelming. First we watched a power-point presentation with 3 other couples. Alot of information in a short time frame. Then we met with our IVF nurse, Shannon. We found out that we BOTH have to go on 10 days of Doxycline hyclate plus I have to take an extra one after the egg retrieval; in fact everyone in my IVF "class" was prescribed this drug. Upon looking up doxycline, I found that it is an antibiotic used to treat a variety of STD's, as well as inhalation anthrax, cholera, typhoid, Lyme disease, malaria, and an assortment of other scary things. BTW, did I mention that it causes birth defects....and severe diarrhea? LOL..I have already experienced the latter after only 3 doses...oh, joy. Because of this drug we are required to use barrier birth control (BC), but I think that the diarrhea will serve as its own form of BC. LOL. I bought condoms for the first time in our married life today and I hope to feel up to using them soon!

Anyhow, we were also given a timeline of how my cycle would proceed leading up to IVF. Basically, I will be on BC from now until March 11th. I will then go in for an ultrasound (u/s) and blood work (b/w) to monitor my ovarian activity and hormone levels (hopefully all low secondary to the BC) to make sure "down regulation" has occurred in preparation for the stimulation phase. That same day, Brad will give a "sample" for critical morphology testing (to check out the % of sperm with defects, everyone has them, and to determine if ICSI is needed). He will also have his b/w to test for HIV and Hepatitis (required of both mother and father before IVF).

Then, tentatively, March 15th I will start Menopur (an injectable FSH drug) and continue that for 8-10 days, the last 4 of which I will also have to take Ganirelix (an injection to PREVENT ovulation). After I finish those shots, I will get a shot of Ovidrel (an artificial HcG hormone that STIMULATES ovulation) followed by the egg retrieval on around March 27 or 28th. That same day Brad will provide his specimen and the ART lab will put his sperm with my eggs, possibly with the use of ICSI. We will wait 3 days and then hopefully transfer 2-3 embryos into my uterus. We will then have to wait 2 weeks to see if those embies stuck. Whew! My head may explode! IVF here we come.......