Oh Birth Control, how I have not missed you!

Day 2 of birth control and my guts are not happy.  I guess I forgot how much I hated taking birth control and how much happier I was while not on it.  The only thing making me think good thoughts is the possibility of a baby in several months! 
Yesterday I met Dr Young who is a male Fertility Specialist at The Fertility Center in G.R.  He mentioned that my blood pressure was a little high and couldn't figure out why I would be nervous.  Umm, I don't know, maybe because you are going to put an ultrasound wand up my bleeding vagina...gross!  I don't want anyone down there at that time of the month!  Oh, well, it actually wasn't as bad as I thought.  He told me that it was going to be quite uncomfortable and when I mentioned that I had an HCG done and hardly felt anything he said that I would have no problem with this procedure.  About half way in, the ultrasound machine ran out of paper so the nurse started rifling through the cupboards to find some.  Then she and Dr Young discussed whether or not she should leave the room to and get some more for what felt like 5 minutes.  Finally, they decided that she would go and get some so I told her to take her time because I wasn't uncomfortable or anything.  I said it with a laugh, but I think that they definitely picked up on the sarcasm because she left quickly.  That said, I was then left alone in an exam room with a male doctor who had an ultrasound wand in my vagina.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that is against procedure.  Luckily he wasn't creepy and didn't try anything unprofessional.  She then returned and the ultrasound proceeded.  The results showed that my ovaries looked good and my lining was as it should be at that point in my cycle.  Yay! 
The next step is Lupron in a couple of weeks.  Until then, we will be scraping every last penny we have to prepare for our upcoming ultrasounds which will be a few hundred dollars out of pocket each!  So long social life....

The First of Many Big Days...

Tomorrow we begin our IVF treatment.  I start the day by having my blood drawn to check my estrogen and FSH (follicle stimulation hormone) levels and have my first ultrasound.  I also start birth control.  It has been a crazy week getting everything all lined up since last Wednesday when we received our results from all of our previous testing.  It turns out that my right side is blocked which wasn't a concern to our doctor since my left side is wide open.  Also, my liver panel showed that it was 1 point above normal...oops!  I guess all of those years of boozing is showing up!  The good news is that if we get pregnant, it will have 10 months to heal itself! :)  Back to the results: Jon's testing showed that his total count is 17 million (20 million is normal), his motility is 56% (60% is normal); all of which did not bother our doctor.  Her main concern was the shape; only 3% are normally shaped (4% or lower is abnormal).  We joked that he could have 2 headed sperm and when we went home to look it up, it turns out that yes, he definitely could have 2 headed sperm...many of them!  Therefore, she said that our next step was IVF because the specialist would be able to isolate his good sperm and connect them with my eggs in her petri dish. 

Many phone calls later and I have everything set up to start this process.  Even though Jon's insurance covers IVF up to $15,000 per year; that is only in Detroit.  Unfortunately, the fertility clinic that I have to use for my monitoring in Grand Rapids does not accept our insurance and therefore we will be paying roughly $1,000 out of pocket over the next couple of weeks...ouch.  I'm going to break the news to Jon tonight that his social life is pretty much over for the next few months until we can get through this.  Bonus for me because I won't have to sit around and be jealous that he can have a beer or glass of wine and I can't!  :) 

I'm feeling good about everything so far.  I'm trying to stay as stress-free as possible which is tough for me because I tend to overreact at times.  I'm also not researching anything on the internet because there are way too many horror stories which I do not need to know about!!  :)  Here's hoping that things will go as planned and I'll be knocked up by this time in March!!!

A Day of Answers

Tomorrow is a very big day in our household.  First, we have an appointment to get our results over the phone from Dr. K.  Fingers crossed that it doesn't end up to be anything more than just a low sperm count; not a really low sperm count, but just low enough to be called low.  :)  After that, we have to take Bella into the Vet to see if she has hip dysplasia.  Fingers crossed that she doesn't and just has some type of heal-able injury caused by the devil dog that she played with on New Year's Eve.  We've discussed it a bit and should she need surgery or something, we are of course going to do it, but with the timing of everything else that would be super hard!  (Monetary wise as well as stressful!)

Saying many prayers tonight!!! 

This waiting is getting old....

Well, here I am, 21 days into my cycle and still no ovulation.  This puts me on track for a nice, long 35+ day cycle.  I swear my body is getting some sick pleasure out of slowing down this whole process.  Unfortunately, I can't get my bloodwork results until Jon gives his sample which we don't want to do until after I ovulate.  (No point in wasting some potentially good swimmers!)  Our doctor wants to have all of the information before deciding her plan of attack and won't share anything with us until we get it all taken care of...frustrating! 
However, I have found a new obsession which has helped to take my mind off of my baby-making obsession and that is Pinterest.  I had heard about it for a while and just hadn't taken the time to do it.  Honestly, it seemed like it was all about baby and kid stuff which I didn't have and desperately wanted and figured that it would just make me feel worse about our lack of children.  Well, after I finally caved I have discovered that it is amazing and a huge distraction from everything!  I have so many ideas and projects for Jon and myself in the upcoming months!  We actually spent over and hour last night on it just checking things out and getting ideas for our house and future homes.  I can't wait to get started on decorating our guest bedrooms!

Fingers crossed for ovulation soon!!!