Posts Tagged ‘ovidrel shots’

IVF Shots Day 18 – Stim Day 9

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Yesterday was kind of a roller coaster. I went from feeling great, aside from a little continued pain, to terribly nauseated and in bed at 9:55 on a Friday night. (Welcome to the rest of our lives I guess!)

Started the day with our LAST LUPRON SHOT!!! I’ll grant you, if I had to take those forever, it would be no bigs. I don’t even feel them. Nonetheless, good riddance! Then it was off to our fourth ultrasound and bloodwork of the week. This one had the best news yet, we’re done! My ovaries have responded incredibly well and we stopped our regularly scheduled shots yesterday. That means Thursday was our LAST MENOPUR SHOT!!! If you’ve never taken it, or are planning to take it, let me put it this way, it’s fire water. It’s like filling a syringe with fire and then injecting it into your belly. It’s so uncomfortably painful. So again, good friggin’ riddance!

The ultrasound was very busy yesterday. There were, from what we could see, 12 follicles (holding the eggs) on my right ovary and 5 follicles on my lazy left ovary. Our nurse “Y,” who we love!, did the ultrasound and showed us on the screen where my ovaries are actually touching. Afterward we spoke with “M” and I was like, no wonder I feel like none of my pants fit and I’m in so much pain. She agreed, the follicles are full and my ovaries have expanded and pushing out.

The other good news of the day? Retrieval is scheduled for tomorrow!!! We have to check-in at the surgery center at 7am Sunday, retrieval is scheduled for 8am, and we could be there for a few hours, including recovery. Sunday you ask? I’ve been told that not all IVF clinics make themselves available on weekends. Make sure yours is! Otherwise you’re compromising your cycle. They need to take those eggs out at just the right time. So I’m eternally grateful that our doctor, nurses and the entire surgery team are giving up a precious Sunday morning to poke holes in me.

Last night at precisely 8:00 I did my Ovidrel injection. This comes in a pre-filled syringe that’s been nesting in our crisper for the past few weeks. This is the “point of no return” shot, the “Houston, we are go for launch” shot, the “this shit is getting real” shot. This is an HCG injection (human chorionic gonadotropin) and is responsible for helping the follicles mature and triggering the release of mature eggs. It’s taken exactly 36 hours prior to egg retrieval. Apparently I was supposed to alert my health care provider if I had severe upset stomach and vomiting – good thing I didn’t go all the way.

The blood test showed that my estrogen was soaring somewhere around 2500 yesterday (400 is normal). The day before it was about 1500. So by my mathematically handicapped calculations, my estrogen increases about 41 points every hour. So I could very easily be around 3500 this morning. EVERYBODY LOOK OUT!!! I’m actually surprised that I feel as well as I do. I figured with estrogen that high Shelton would have stitches in his forehead and I’d be bawling because our dog’s bowl was out of water again. But alas, no tears. No need to panic.

Last night you would have thought Shelton and I had actually brought home a baby. We were just so romantical and sweet and whatever (insert nausea) with one another. We did a lot of talking last night. He told me he was proud of me for getting through all of this fairly easily, and for doing it at all. Thanked me for not going off the deep end and expressed how excited he is to have a baby. I pretty much echoed all of that – telling him there is absolutely no way I could have done this without him, and no way I’d want to have done it with anyone else.

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Big Box of IVF Needles and Fertility Drugs

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Earlier this week I received a phone call from the pharmacy filling our fertility drug order. I confirmed all of the pertinent details and then reviewed the order. They had the Doxycycline, Ovidrel, Progesterone in oil and Gonal-F, plus needles. I referenced the list we’d received in IVF class, and everything checked out. I had to call back with some insurance information, knowing it was really a waste of time because they weren’t going to cover any of this. Once I confirmed that I was told they would process my order through insurance and call the next day with a final total.

Yesterday, I received that call. I told the rep that if she hears a loud thump it was me falling out my chair. I think she was too busy to have a sense of humor and with a very concerned tone asked if I was OK. I laughed and told her I was just dreading the total. So drum roll please…. she ran the card and announced that we would be charged $1781.21. I didn’t fall out of my chair. In fact, I was rather relieved by that number. Don’t ask me why spending $1800 on prescriptions is relieving, but I expected an amount far surpassing that. Plus, we got our needles complimentary so that made the entire thing sound like a bargain!

I was told that FedEx would deliver the package tomorrow morning (today) between 8 and 3 and that someone had to be here so that the Gonal and Ovidrel could be refrigerated. At 8:15 the doorbell rang and our package had arrived. I signed. Walked back inside. Placed the box on the floor. And started bawling. I just kept saying “it’s here, I can’t believe we’re doing this, we’re actually doing this.” I think a part of me had just believed we were going to let time get away from us and one day it would be ten years later and there still wouldn’t be a baby. But that’s not the case. We are doing this. We are actually doing this.

So I had a good hearty cry this morning and then followed instructions and took inventory of the package. Two things were wrong:
1. My sharps container was missing. The container for the used needles. Don’t ask me why but I am so excited about that sharps container. It feels so official. I mean, how many people do you know what a needle box in their house? (If you can answer that… maybe you shouldn’t!)

2. My receipt was small. As in, a lot less than I was quoted less than 24 hours previously. $1142.66.

I called the pharmacy and I was told they would get my sharps container in the mail (damn right!), and then asked about the total. Don’t get me wrong, I’m jumping for joy over here. I saved $600 without even trying. I just wanted to confirm that a mistake hadn’t been made and which of the two charges we were actually incurring. Lucky us, it was the lower amount.

I promptly moved my drugs to the lower shelf of the fridge (behind the negro modelo) and then moved on.

I think when we have kids and we’re inevitably faced with the dreaded “how are babies made” question, I’ve got an easy answer. They come in a box. It’s like a model airplane kit. Except more expensive and more painful. The stork sends a box full of supplies and then you just make a baby. And a man, not your father, puts on the finishing touches, and wah-lah, you have a baby.

It should also be noted that two of my drugs are missing from the above list – Lupron and Menopur. We found out this week that our entire doses for both are being donated. I can’t even tell you how excited we were to learn this news. I’m not sharing specifics because I honestly don’t know what the disclosure parameters are with this and I don’t want to disrespect or cross a line I shouldn’t. But the parties responsible are likely reading this and we just want you to know that we are incredibly grateful. I’m not sure how those two items would have impacted our total Rx bill, but I am so very thankful that they didn’t. Hopefully we’ll have a fast cycle and we’ll be able to return the favor!!

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