Medications have Arrived!!
- Natasha
- Mar 13, 2016
- 2 min read
My IVF medications arrived this weekend!! I knew there were going to be a lot, but wow, it's still super overwhelming. I'm kind of nervous about some of the medications that you mix yourself. My sister is a nurse, and at times like this I really wish she lived close to me again! She used to live right below me before we moved to New England. I'm also always nervous about drawing medication into the needle to make sure its measured perfectly. I have to remind myself that a lot of people go through this without problems and have the same fears. Gives me new appreciation for people who have to give themselves insulin daily.
My husband and I will be meeting with our RE (Reproductive Endocrinologist) this week since we're changing the plan a bit by doing PGS (Preimplantation Genetic Screening). Initially we had decided to not do it because it's an extra $2,000-$3,000 out of pocket, because it's not covered by insurance. Having the testing done also adds extra time before embryo transfer. It takes a couple of weeks for the testing to be completed. I was feeling impatient at the time of my inital IVF consult, so I was just thinking "get that embryo inside asap!" After a lot of discussion and debating I've decided I can be patient, and would rather make sure that we don't have to do multiple IVF cycles. I've also learned that frozen embryos seem to do better than fresh ones, oddly enough.
There's so much complexity to this whole process. I want to be able to provide information on what my process looks like as I go through it. I'll probably have a better plan to describe after my consult this week, and explain the PGS process better as well.
I am obsessed with journaling, and recently started keeping a bullet journal. I use my bullet journal for daily to-dos, goals, activities I've done, appointments, and anything else I wanna keep track of all in one place. Today, I spent a lot of time creating an IVF calendar to help me keep better track of this whole process. I know there are going to be some overlapping days with taking birth control, and starting Lupron, as well as some of the other medications. Here's what it looks like so far!
The fertility clinic gave me a spreadsheet of the POC (Plan Of Care), but it's more of an outline. So, I wanted to have a place to keep track of the medications and be able to check off what I need to do each day. I think I'll also keep track of payments and costs of things as well. I also created a calendar for April and May since I'm not quite sure how long the entire process will take. I even tried to search online, but I couldn't find a good answer for what is the total time required. Hope I'll be able to answer that for anyone searching in the future.
I'll most likely have an update after my consult this week!!
Best,
Natasha
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