IVF prep month

I met with my fertility doctor today for my post-op check up. With the surgery done with we can now start the next chapter in our quest for a baby, In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). This cycle will be more of a starting point than anything else, full of tests. There will be basically 2 events occurring this cycle.

First one is to get some baseline blood work done. The last time I had the full fertility blood work done it was April 2006. So almost exactly 2 years ago back in Florida. This is pretty simple stuff, on cycle day 3 I get a handful of blood tests (Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH),Estradiol,Prolactin, Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)). Then on days 5-9 I take 100mg of Clomid. Another set of blood tests are drawn on CD10 to re-evaluate and compare the results to determine ovarian reserve. Now nothing too exciting here, my only concern was 2 years ago when I did the Clomid challenge a couple weeks later I was admitted to the hospital for 6 days in a horrible flare up of my Ulcerative Colitis(UC). Maybe it was related, maybe not. The fact that I stopped taking my UC meds when I began my workup was probably the main reason...

Second thing to do is meet with the doctor that will do the egg retrieval and embryo transfer (Dr. Bidwell). He is the partner of my current doctor (Dr. Groll) So Dr. Groll will handle everything that can be done on base (lab work, ultrasounds, medicines), aka things insurance will cover. Dr. Bidwell will do things that isn't covered by Air Force insurance. I will meet with him June 10th. I will also have to go to a nursing meeting, where they go over the medicines, how to give shots, etc. Dan is really against having to give me a shot, so I will probably end up doing it myself.

Hopefully everything goes well and we can start the actual process in late June or early July. Once we get through these first hurdles I will go into more depth about what my IVF treatment plan looks like.