Tomorrow it starts....

 Today is the last day before I start my stimulation meds. Once they start, I have a feeling everything will start to go quick as I will have ultrasounds and blood draws frequently. I am excited, but am just going to take it one day at a time - it seems to work best that way. To get all of my medications, they give us a list of pharmacies and we do our own price comparison. I actually found a pharmacy in MN - Fairview specialty pharmacy in MPLS that specializes in fertility medications and they were awesome to work with. Not to mention, they were the cheapest! I finally got all of my medications in three different shipments. The total, a meer $3,000 and that is if no refills are needed  :)

When I open the first package Brian goes "holy crap, that is all for you?" I told him it would be intense, but it will be worth it in end. I will start with just once injection twice a day for the first three days, then it changes to two to three injections twice a day - not too bad, but I am lucky I am a nurse. I can see how it would get very confusing to those not in the medical field.

 I was watching The Little Couple show on TLC the other day. It is such a cute show about these to "midgets" and their day to day life. This couple has also been trying to conceive a child and because of her stature they are using a surrogate. I have not followed too closely, but I know she had trouble stimulating and they finally have two embryos. However, what I thought was most touching was they did a question and answer from the audience. One of the questions was "if you could, would you choose to stay little or be average height." Their answer was they would not change a thing because then they would probably not have found each other. Tears started coming to my eyes...this couple has so many struggles in their day to day life, but they are so happy in love. I feel the same way about Brian. If I can't have a child, I wouldn't change a thing because I am so in love with Brian and I know he is incredibly in love with me! We are certainly lucky and blessed!

It's been awhile

 It has been awhile since I last made an entry. To be honest, there was not a lot to blog about. Since I have last blogged, we have been approved for the VIP program, took my last birth control today, and paid a large sum of money for invitro.

  Before I blog about myself, I want to take a minute to talk about a friend of mine. We were childhood friends who went to the same daycare. We re-connected through facebook and ultimately through the frustrations of infertility together. In August, this friend, at 27 years old and healthy, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. She is currently undergoing chemo and is doing great. Hodgkin's lymphoma has a success rate of 90% with treatment and with her being young and healthy, things look wonderful for her. She is a fighter with a great heart and attitude and I KNOW she will beat this. My heart goes out to her and her family. If you get a chance, check out her blog, she is inspirational!

                                          http://stephaniemadson.blogspot.com/


  I can no longer complain about not having a child. Although both Brian and I would love to have a child of our own, if we can't I know we will get by with the two of us and be happy! We are blessed beyond belief and asking for more just seems wrong.

  I am not sure if I addressed the VIP program before. Basically, what the VIP program is allowing us to do is to buy and "insurance policy." We are paying more up front and if I get pregnant the first time we will actually be paying more than if we just did it one time, but what does it matter if we have our precious child? This program allows us to try IVF up to three times in a year's time. If it does not result in a birth of a baby,  we get 90% of our money back. I am anxious and excited to start, but just taking it one day at a time. First you have to respond to the medications to stimulate, then you have to have a successful extraction, they have to fertilize, and then re-implant into you. There are a lot of steps that could go wrong, so taking it one day at a time is how I am getting by! Tomorrow I start a new drug called Norethindrone. This drug is a progesterone based drug that I will take for 16 days. It will thin and shed my lining and it gets me prepared to start the stimulation medications. Those will begin on the 30th of October. I have a class on Tuesday that will better help me determine the pharmacy to use and how the medications will be administered. For now, I am just happy to be done with birth control! Yay, onto the next step!