Meds came today!

I had the meds delivered to my office today, because I had to sign for them, and I didn't want someone swipeing them from my doorstep!

I've always heard people say to not be overwhelmed when you get the big box, and I didn't think that I would be . But when you see all those meds and more importantly, all those NEEDLES in front of you, it's impossible to not be overwhelmed.

Here is the big box:
It was full to the top!After taking out the ziplock bags:Those are all needles:The little cooler thing to keep the meds cool: Yes, those are all needles in my hand. And if you look close, you can see that they're 18 guage. YIKES!

Chris's appt in GR yesterday

Chris had to go for a semen analysis in Grand Rapids yesterday (Feb 27). According to him everything went fine, even though he had to be there at 7:00 AM and I was totally worried about the roads.

I'm not sure when they will tell us about the results...probably at our next appointment, which won't be for a few weeks.

I did it - told my boss!

I finally worked up the nerve to tell my boss about our upcoming IVF today. After waking up about 5 times during the night last night I decided I had to get it off my chest.

I had the perfect opportunity when he walked out this morning and made the comment, "You've been very quiet today." So I busted it out on him. His reaction was, "Why were you so nervous to tell me, what did you think I was going to say?!"

So I don't know why I was all crazy nervous, but I was. He'll be cool about it I'm sure. He just said, "As long as you're not quitting, I don't care." HA! :)

Yesterday we also had Chris's parents over for dinner and gave them the whole story as well, since they're going to be our embryo guardians. That went pretty smooth as well.

So two major things off my mind for now!

ART consult & Mock ET

Today we had our 'official' consult with the IVF nurse, Julie. We had to sign tons of paperwork, Chris said it was like signing another mortgage! There are several consent forms to sign, like what to do with any embryos if you get divorced, if one partner dies, if you both die, etc. Now we have to elect a guardian for our embryos. I think we're going to ask Chris's parents to sign that this weekend.

I also had my Mock ET today. That went very quickly, but it was crampy when the catheterer went in, that didn't feel so good. But Dr. Y said that won't happen when he actually does the real transfer, because he was measuring this time, so next time he'll know and it won't touch my cervix. He said things looked good, my uterus was slightly tipped, but that was fine.

Just lots of information to digest in one day, lots of paperwork to read over.
I start the Lupron injections on March 8th. If everything stays on track I'll have the egg retrieval on April 5th and the transfer on April 7th.
Now I just have to get up the nerve to tell my boss about all of this!

The beginning

Yesterday I received my paperwork for my preliminary blood tests, which included: FSH, Hep C, HIV, CBC, Hep B, Rubella, and RPR testing.

Luckily my boss had taken a half day vacation, so I could sneak out a couple of hours early to get this done and he'd never know. :)

I drove to the nearest (to my house) hospital, Lakeview. I signed in around 3:00 PM.

The first lab tech came and took me back. She poked each arm once looking for a vein. Nothing.

So she called another girl to come and try. This girl decides to try getting it from the back of my hand. Ouch! But she did manage to get a vein. Until it blew :( Which if you have never seen, is pretty horrible. My hand swelled up to about twice it's size, and turned deep purple. Apparenly, when a vein blows, it fills the hand with blood? So the tech got all flustered and pulled the needle out, in the process dropping the vial, and blood spattered all over. The floor, me, the chair I was in, the wall, etc.

So she starts to clean that up and calls someone else to try, since we didn't get enough blood. So they page a nurse to come down off of a floor to do it. She arrives, and goes right for a surface vein in my lower right arm. Got it on the first shot, and I was done.

I didn't walk out until 5:00 PM, so two hours for this ordeal, and 4 pokes.

Today my hand still hurts, and this is only the beginning.