Tuesday, January 25, 2011
And now we wait...
So I gave myself my trigger shot on Friday at 8:30 pm and went into the Dr for our IUI at 10:30 am on Sunday. Everything went good and it was super fast. I came home afterwards and laid down because I was already starting to cramp up. I was expecting cramping considering I had an incredible amount of cramping last month. I had to start progesterone last night and now we wait for 2 weeks to find out if this is the month we get lucky.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
And now...
Went back to the doc today...I get to give myself a shot on Friday night! I'll only have 1 egg this month, but I'm totally fine with that! We have our IUI on Sunday morning, which is nice because that means that Dom can come with me. It also means that I will be spending the rest of the day in bed because I'll be cramping like crazy, but whatever...sometimes this is what you have to do to get a baby. I would laugh if this is the month we get preggo because this is probably the only month that Dom will be able to come to all my appointments. Fingers crossed for Sunday!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Boo
So I just went in for my follicle check to see when I'll be ready to give myself a shot. Apparently I didn't respond very well to the hormones this month. I only have 2 follicles, one is 12mm and one is 10.5mm. They need to be at least 20mm before I give myself the trigger shot. Since they are still small, I'm going in on Wednesday afternoon for another check to see how they are growing. Hopefully they are bigger and I can give myself the shot and then have my IUI next weekend, which means Dom would be able to come with me. If they still aren't very big, I don't know what they are gonna do.
I did find out some good news though. Since we changed insurance companies, they had to verify my benefits. I knew that I had a $2000 plan max for infertility, which I had assumed meant IUI and IVF. I was informed today that it is only IVF, I have unlimited IUI's! I still have to pay the specialist co-pay, which is $30, but it's nice to know that I have unlimited IUI's, cause thinking that we only had $2000 a year meant that we only got 4 tries a year without having to pay anything extra. Dom said that since we get unlimited tries, we should just try every month until we get pregnant, but we'll see because after attempt #6, our chances never go above 50%.
I did find out some good news though. Since we changed insurance companies, they had to verify my benefits. I knew that I had a $2000 plan max for infertility, which I had assumed meant IUI and IVF. I was informed today that it is only IVF, I have unlimited IUI's! I still have to pay the specialist co-pay, which is $30, but it's nice to know that I have unlimited IUI's, cause thinking that we only had $2000 a year meant that we only got 4 tries a year without having to pay anything extra. Dom said that since we get unlimited tries, we should just try every month until we get pregnant, but we'll see because after attempt #6, our chances never go above 50%.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
And so it starts...
So I had to start taking my hormones today to prepare my body to get pregnant. Let's hope that it works. If we don't get pregnant this cycle, my doctor wants to move to injectables next month, which is a month before we planned, but hopefully we won't have to and this will be our month! If we aren't pregnant after next month, we are going to take a 3 month break so that we can de-stress!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The results are in...
Today was testing day! I didn't sleep well last night (I had figured I wouldn't). Dominic woke me up at 5 when he got up and he went and got my box of prenancy tests (he hid them from me so I wouldn't take any early). I waited the required 3 minutes and found out that we aren't pregnant. I had kinda expected we wouldn't be as we only had a 14% chance of it working on the first try. Now we just have to wait for my cycle to start so that I can go back on the hormone pills and we can start all over again. I am rather excited to have a week without extra hormones coursing through me. I didn't get mean, but all the extra hormones make me queasy and tired, which I don't like. We are going to try the same treatment this month and we now have a 25% chance of getting pregnant. If my follicles aren't where the docs want them to be this month, we are moving to injections next month, provided I don't get pregnant.
So I've been doing a lot of reading about PCOS and trying to figure out what it is and what all it means and so forth. When I saw my doctor last week, he went over all my lab results which helped to explain part of why we've not been able to get pregnant. Two of my main hormone levels are backwards. My body also doesn't break down insulin, which causes fertility issues and puts me at an increased risk of getting adult onset diabetes...which I've been told since I was a teenager I would probably have, so no surprise there.
I wish that more doctors knew about PCOS. I've always had an irregular cycle and when I was a teenager and in my early 20's, the solution I was always given was to go on birth control to regulate my cycle, no one ever wanted to run tests to find out what the problem might be. It wasn't until we had been trying to have a baby for over 2 years before we even had any tests run to see what the problem might be, and even then, my doctor said that I didn't have PCOS, but they couldn't give me an answer as to what was going on. It wasn't until we started seeing a specialist that we got any answers. There would have been a lot less heartache and doubt had I found out when I was a lot younger that I would have an issue having kids someday.
Infertility is such a wide spread issue these days. Women are told to be so careful when they are pregnant, but it used to not be that way. Women were given all kinds of medications while they were pregnant that we now know contrbute to all kinds of health and medical problems. I wish that more insurance companies and employers would add more to their insurance plans to help with infertility. We're lucky that our insurance will pay for $2000 per year, but they will only cover hormone pills, absolutely no injections, because according to the insurance company, pills are all you need, injectables are elective. I can kinda see the point of that, but at the same time, our chances of getting pregnant are much better on injectables then on pills. Also, $2000 doesn't cover much. I'm trying to find out right now what all is considered Advanced Reproductive Technologies (ART). What is considered ART greatly affects how many tries we get each year. We can't afford to pay for very much out of pocket because I'm already paying for a number of things out of pocket...so we only get as many tries as insurance allows.
Infertility is very frustrating and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I'm doing my best to handle it all and I am lucky to have a great support system, but I know that isn't the case for everyone, which is sad.
So I've been doing a lot of reading about PCOS and trying to figure out what it is and what all it means and so forth. When I saw my doctor last week, he went over all my lab results which helped to explain part of why we've not been able to get pregnant. Two of my main hormone levels are backwards. My body also doesn't break down insulin, which causes fertility issues and puts me at an increased risk of getting adult onset diabetes...which I've been told since I was a teenager I would probably have, so no surprise there.
I wish that more doctors knew about PCOS. I've always had an irregular cycle and when I was a teenager and in my early 20's, the solution I was always given was to go on birth control to regulate my cycle, no one ever wanted to run tests to find out what the problem might be. It wasn't until we had been trying to have a baby for over 2 years before we even had any tests run to see what the problem might be, and even then, my doctor said that I didn't have PCOS, but they couldn't give me an answer as to what was going on. It wasn't until we started seeing a specialist that we got any answers. There would have been a lot less heartache and doubt had I found out when I was a lot younger that I would have an issue having kids someday.
Infertility is such a wide spread issue these days. Women are told to be so careful when they are pregnant, but it used to not be that way. Women were given all kinds of medications while they were pregnant that we now know contrbute to all kinds of health and medical problems. I wish that more insurance companies and employers would add more to their insurance plans to help with infertility. We're lucky that our insurance will pay for $2000 per year, but they will only cover hormone pills, absolutely no injections, because according to the insurance company, pills are all you need, injectables are elective. I can kinda see the point of that, but at the same time, our chances of getting pregnant are much better on injectables then on pills. Also, $2000 doesn't cover much. I'm trying to find out right now what all is considered Advanced Reproductive Technologies (ART). What is considered ART greatly affects how many tries we get each year. We can't afford to pay for very much out of pocket because I'm already paying for a number of things out of pocket...so we only get as many tries as insurance allows.
Infertility is very frustrating and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I'm doing my best to handle it all and I am lucky to have a great support system, but I know that isn't the case for everyone, which is sad.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Update
So apparently I got really lazy about updating my blog...I'm going to try and be better about it, but I don't promise anything!
Dominic graduated in November and it was very exciting! I of course cried like a little baby because I am so proud of him. He actually cried afterwards when he saw me and I was crying and told him I was proud of him, but he'll never admit it. Now he is considering getting his Masters since none of the criminal justice agencies are hiring. He's taking a little break, but I wouldn't be surprised if he starts soon. Dominic wanted to go to Disneyland for graduation, and he wanted to take the adorable Miss Desi with us. We had a lot of fun! Dominic will do anything for that little girl, including stand in line to see all the princesses (and take pictures with them!)
We were told about 2 years ago that we wouldn't be able to have kids, and we've been trying to figure out what to do ever since. We kept going back and forth between infertility treatment and adoption. We were pretty set on adoption when Dom changed his mind after finding out that we would most likely have an open adoption. He wasn't very comfortable with that, so we went and got all our tests done and started seeing a reproductive endocrinologist at the end of November. The RE mapped out a plan for us that is going to be most economical. My insurance covers a little bit of the cost, but not much. I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), which means I don't ovulate correctly, which has been one of our major issues. PCOS has also caused a number of my hormones to be out of whack, so we are working to correct that. I started taking hormones while at Disneyland so that I would be ready to get knocked up! After we got back, I had to go in for an ultrasound to make sure that my body reacted correcly to the hormones, and thankfully it had. I then had to give myself a shot to trigger ovulation so that we could do an IUI (intra-uterine insemination). I was very proud of myself for giving myself the shot as I HATE needles and don't do very well with shots. We went in for the IUI 1 1/2 days after I gave myself the shot. That was December 22nd and so now we are just waiting to find out if it worked or if we are going to have to try again. It's frustrating because I am still on hormones, just in case it did work, and they make me not feel very well and give me all the early pregnancy symptoms. I think that I've been very good about not getting my hopes up, while still remaining positive.
We are both very excited to become parents and can't wait for it to happen. We would love for it to happen now, but considering nothing else in life is easy, we don't expect this to be either. I'm going to try and keep my blog updated with what is going on, but I'm not making any promises.
Dominic graduated in November and it was very exciting! I of course cried like a little baby because I am so proud of him. He actually cried afterwards when he saw me and I was crying and told him I was proud of him, but he'll never admit it. Now he is considering getting his Masters since none of the criminal justice agencies are hiring. He's taking a little break, but I wouldn't be surprised if he starts soon. Dominic wanted to go to Disneyland for graduation, and he wanted to take the adorable Miss Desi with us. We had a lot of fun! Dominic will do anything for that little girl, including stand in line to see all the princesses (and take pictures with them!)
We were told about 2 years ago that we wouldn't be able to have kids, and we've been trying to figure out what to do ever since. We kept going back and forth between infertility treatment and adoption. We were pretty set on adoption when Dom changed his mind after finding out that we would most likely have an open adoption. He wasn't very comfortable with that, so we went and got all our tests done and started seeing a reproductive endocrinologist at the end of November. The RE mapped out a plan for us that is going to be most economical. My insurance covers a little bit of the cost, but not much. I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), which means I don't ovulate correctly, which has been one of our major issues. PCOS has also caused a number of my hormones to be out of whack, so we are working to correct that. I started taking hormones while at Disneyland so that I would be ready to get knocked up! After we got back, I had to go in for an ultrasound to make sure that my body reacted correcly to the hormones, and thankfully it had. I then had to give myself a shot to trigger ovulation so that we could do an IUI (intra-uterine insemination). I was very proud of myself for giving myself the shot as I HATE needles and don't do very well with shots. We went in for the IUI 1 1/2 days after I gave myself the shot. That was December 22nd and so now we are just waiting to find out if it worked or if we are going to have to try again. It's frustrating because I am still on hormones, just in case it did work, and they make me not feel very well and give me all the early pregnancy symptoms. I think that I've been very good about not getting my hopes up, while still remaining positive.
We are both very excited to become parents and can't wait for it to happen. We would love for it to happen now, but considering nothing else in life is easy, we don't expect this to be either. I'm going to try and keep my blog updated with what is going on, but I'm not making any promises.
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