We got our financial clearance letter yesterday! That means that I can call and make the appointment with our nurse to come in and sign the consent forms and learn about the medications and injections! I called this morning and am just waiting for them to call me back.

I have done so much research in the past few days that I could be an expert in IVF (not really) but it is so amazing what can be done! I thought I would share the process with you so that you could all understand it a little more.

First thing - Pay A LOT of money - haha! No in all seriousness usually the 1st thing that happens is that the doctor will put you on birth control pills for a few weeks. They want you on these to be able to regulate your body and know exactly when your next period is going to come. It was so strange for my to actually start taking them - I want the opposite effect, but once I read what they were for I understood. They were really expensive too, I guess they are a specific kind that they use for this because I know someone else who had the same ones, they are chewables!

Once you have been on the birth control for a bit and they check to make sure you are ready to go you will start injections (usually of Lu.pr.on) to suppress your body, this usually happens a week before your period is supposed to come. So basically they want to shut down your system, it's almost like going through menopause apparently! From what I have read you will get hot flashes, night sweats, moodiness and not be able to sleep. Oh boy, I can't wait for that! All I have to say is bless Bob's heart right now because I know I am NOT going to be a fun person to be around. He thinks my PMS is bad - just wait mister!

Next, it's time to stimulate your ovaries! At this point I will be giving myself stimulating injections (along with Lu.pr.on still). You can be overstimulated and develop a serious condition called OOHS (I think that is it) so therefore you still need to take the Lu.pr.on. How long you stimulate is all dependant on your body. My doctor is putting me on a low dose of stimulating drugs because she doesn't think that I will need that much. Some side effects of the stimulants are pretty much the same as Lu.pr.on becasue you body is just going crazy - but add on top of that lots and lots of boating! I think I might need to find some strechy pants. I will go in to the office a lot during this time to have bloodwork drawn and ultrasounds to see how my follicles are growing. When the doctor feels that I have enough follicles and lots and lots of mature eggs (hopefully) I will give myself and injection of HSG. This has to be timed perfectly! Forty hours from the injection I will go to the office, be put out and they will go in to retrieve all of my eggs. If you do this too early the eggs might not be fully ready and have a hard shell (or something like that) on them, if it is too late the follicles might already release the eggs and there is no way to get them. So Bob and I will have to make sure we are right on time for that appointment.

Once my eggs are retrieved they will be immediately taking to the lab and a embryologist will take all of my mature eggs and put one of Bob's little ones in there. The eggs will continue to grow (and hopefully divide many, many times) in a petri dish. On day 3 they will check on them and see how they are. Then on day 5 they will check on them again. I need to do more research on this part but I think that they can put the eggs back on day 3 or 5 depending on how they grow. Once my baby (or babies) are ready we will go back to the office and they will implant some of them (at least 2, but maybe more depending on their quality) with a catheder directly into my wanting and waiting womb :) At this point I will start injections of progesterone to keep my lining nice and squishy and thick for the little one to plant into! Then we wait 2 LONG weeks until we go for our blood test to see if it worked!

I think I got all of this information correct! I'm sure if something is wrong I'll learn very quickly. But that is the jest of it for you guys!

UPDATE - REs office just called - we go in on February 23rd for our class with our nurse!