Moving Forward IUI #1

Moving Forward

I woke up really early this morning for a 7:30 am appointment with the RE. I thought I would be in and out, but it didn't go exactly as I had planned.

When I got there, the room was filled with a half dozen women who were all in various stages of this process I assume. I waited and waited as the entire room cleared out. About 45 minutes later, the phlebotomist called my name. It was a quick blood draw, but I hadn't had much to drink yet since it was early, so it took her a bit to squeeze blood from my veins. Finally she had gotten enough. She told me she didn't have a room available for the ultra sound yet so I would have to wait a little longer. I sat back down in the waiting room. I didn't mind since I was in the middle of a good fan fiction book. That seemed to pass the time by quickly. Before I knew it the nurse called me back to get my ultrasound. I got undressed and waiting patiently for the ultrasound tech to come in. When she got there I felt immediately at ease as she cracked a couple of jokes to lighten the mood. As she inserted the instrument I winced and then shifted my gaze to the ultrasound screen. I had a little difficulty determining what I was actually looking at. The ultrasound tech graciously explained that I had 3 follicles and a nice lining, which was all positive. I was actually shocked as I had my doubts that the medicine even worked. Guess I was wrong about that one.

After the ultrasound, I met with the RE. He said things looked good and he was going to give me an HCG shot which I would pay 100.00 for. Lucky me. He also said that if my blood confirmed that I was already ovulating then we would do the insemination today, but as it turns out, I was not ovulating. They gave me the HCG shot and I scheduled my first insemination for tomorrow 10/13/15 at 10:45 am. I am actually I little upset that I have to schedule it on the 13th since that is not a lucky number, but who knows, maybe my luck is changing.

After I had the shot I started to get many symptoms of pregnancy. I had sore boobs, some cramping, I felt a little tired, but nothing crazy. It all seemed like a good sign. Then I read that the HCG shot gives you pregnancy symptoms and progesterone can also mimic pregnancy symptoms. On 10/13 we had the insemination. Doc said the sample looked good, but did not give me specifics. I was so nervous I didn't even ask. The whole procedure was pretty quick. Less than 5 minutes. The first clamp he put in did not open my cervix, so he had to put in another size and that hurt a bit. Other than that it was relatively painless. After the procedure, Chris and I went to lunch nearby. While we were there, we decided to take the day off of work and play hooky. I wanted to go home and have sex. Chris wasn't into having day sex, so we ran errands instead. Wow, so romantic! Lol.

We went camping that weekend and I took two different pregnancy tests but nothing showed up. That following week I started spotting, which is not like me. I thought maybe it was implantation bleeding. Nope! AF came in full force a day later. I never even made it to my beta test. No baby in the month of October. Maybe my birthday month will bring better luck.

An adult pic of our donor 

The Next Step

The Next Step

My first appointment for an ultrasound and blood work was scheduled on 10/5/15. I was prepared for him to tell me that we were going to move forward with an insemination that week, but something unexpected happened. The results of the ultrasound revealed that I was showing no signs of ovulation. Although the doctor appeared a little puzzled, he stated that it was possible that he missed my cycle but that blood work would confirm whether or not I had ovulated. A few hours later I got my blood tests back and low and behold I had not ovulated yet. My RE gave me a prescription for 100 mg of clomid and told me to take that for 5 days and come back on Monday 10/12 ( Columbus Day) to see if the clomid worked and to decide our next step.

At this point I wasn't really discouraged because I figured there would be a snag or two along the way. I was very fortunate that my boss and co-workers were very understanding about the process and were offering support. When I told my boss that I would be going through fertility treatment, she seemed understanding, but didn't ask many questions. I know she is religious, so maybe it was uncomfortable.  Hopefully I won't have to take more time off work for this if I am successful the first time. I guess we shall see.