IVF Prep Appointment: Let's Get This Party Started

We had our first nurse visit yesterday. She spent over an hour discussing and demonstrating the various medications and injections. I tried to be patient, despite the fact of telling her that my husband, who was sitting right next to me, is nearly complete with his nursing bachelors degree.

We discussed the various testing that would be needed, primarily testing for every possible STD and then also CF genetic testing. C insisted that I failed to mention that he also needed to be tested today, which I still stand that I did and he just ignored that detail. Either way, I was amused. It's nice to bring him in as active participant every so often.

We both signed numerous consent forms, including the lovely hypotheticals. I may actually devote an entire to that aspect because, despite our many jokes, this was something that we put an enormous amount of thought into.

Then, finally, she pulled out the calendar. Not that the other stuff wasn't important, but let's be honest, this was really the exciting part. It basically came down to when C and I were "ready". For little impatient me, that was now. For C, it was a harder decision. He is in some very difficult classes and the retrieval and transfer dates could potentially fall into his finals week depending on when we chose to begin. The decision was basically between starting ASAP and hoping to finish before his finals, or waiting several weeks so that we miss his finals altogether. Luckily, I think C could read my mind, as the nurse was staring at us to make a decision, and he said that it would comfortable with starting earlier! So, without further delay, here is our schedule:

Wednesday, February 5th - First Baseline monitoring appointment
Saturday, February 8th - Begin Stimulating medications, repeat every 1-3 days as necessary
10 - 14 days later (February 17 - 21) - Retrieval
3-5 days after Retrieval  (February 19 - 25) - Transfer
14 days after Transfer (March 5 - 11) - Beta testing

After this excitement, we separated for excitement of a different sort. C submitted his sample to freeze and I had my hysteroscopy. The doctors were correct; this was not nearly as painful as the HSG test. It also was not pleasant. It was crampy and painful at times, but not as severe as it could have been, and didn't last long at all. I was able to see the camera, which really isn't as exciting as I was hoping. Although I suppose that's a good thing. The doctor did find one small area in my vagina that bleeds when it is touched. She told me that I may bleed sometimes during intercourse, which is really stating the obvious as this has been an issue that I've seen doctors for before, but then said was benign. Despite this, she decided to "just scrape it off" anyways, which was less than pleasant. Overall, it was ok and the results were normal. I felt mildly crampy afterwards, but was completely back to normal within a half hour.

C and I met back in the waiting room, knowing sheepishly was the other was up to just minutes before, and then headed down to the lab to get our blood drawn together. After several vials, we were each handed plastic cups and took turns using the restroom. I left for a half day at work, after a kiss, and we thanked each other for such a romantic afternoon. That is all. And that is just the beginning.