OUR FIRST IVF ATTEMPT

After 7 months of waiting the time had finally come just before Christmas in December 09 - We were starting our first IVF cycle! This was such an exciting time for us and even just the idea of starting the pill which is the first step was exciting (as crazy as that sounds!) We were doing the long protocol and they're not joking when they tell you that doing an IVF cycle is like doing a military operation - it really is! There are all sorts of drugs to take and everything has to be taken at a specific time, plus you need to remember blood tests, scans . . . it can be complicated but once you get into the swing of things it isn't so bad. I had to take the pill for a month which seems crazy because you have spent so long TRYING to get pregnant that the idea of actually taking the pill to prevent pregnancy is against everything you have been trying to achieve. After 3 weeks of the pill we started the buserelin which is a drug that is injected into your abdomen which you do in the morning and puts your body into a temporary menopausal state so they can manipulate your ovaries to do their bidding. I was so nervous before my first injection - during an IVF cycle you inject yourself so I nervously removed my drugs from the fridge and drew up my first dose. I tried not to hesitate and just jabbed it in there and it really wasn't as bad as I had imagined. One down, only about a million to go! My husband and I got a bit of a routine going with the drugs where he would draw up the injection for me in the morning and I would jab it in. It meant we felt like we were doing it together rather than me feeling like I was doing it all by myself. Once it was confirmed via a blood test that I was down regulated it was time to start the puregon to stimulate my ovaries into producing lots of eggs for collection. I was on 150iu puregon and had to dial up a special pen to administer the dose. At this point in a cycle you are doing two injections a day, in my instance we would do one (buserelin) in the morning at 6.30am and the puregon at 7pm. I was so excited! It had taken approximately 6 weeks to get to this point, 3 weeks of which I was stabbing myself with needles and we were finally closing in on the exciting part! After several days of injecting the puregon it was off for our first blood test to check how I was responding and test my E2 levels (estrogen) The more follicles that develop and the bigger they get the higher the estrogen. I eagerly waited on that afternoon phone call from the nurse to see how I was responding . . . my cell phone rang and I answered it in nervous anticipation. It never occurred to me that there could be a problem but the first words the nurse said were 'It's not good news I'm afraid . . .'