Let the Games Begin.

Ironically, this is not an Olympics-related post, though the title may indicate otherwise.

Rather, I am referencing the IVF Games!
{I better get the freaking Gold, Silver, and Bronze! ...unless of course that means triplets, in which case I may lose my mind. ...and my partner. I'm just kidding of course. I want whatever God gives me!}

Any how....onto the IVF Game....
The majority of our meds arrived via FedEx or UPS at about 7pm on the day before I was to leave for vacation {San Pedro, Belize posts coming soon}. I had to check and double check all of the meds b/c I had 72 hours to let them know if anything was missing, and I was getting on a plane the following morning.

Our first shipment:

Jess & Co. were over for dinner, so she helped me check them in. Mom & PawPaw had also just arrived, so Mom got to see first hand just how much medication {and needles} we are facing here...

So, after returning from San Pedro, I got a call from the specialty pharmacy. My Lupron is not covered. Guess what: out of pocket cost only $99. Hello, sold!

So, we budgeted $5,000.00 for meds for this.
So far we've spent:
$57 for shipment #1 of 2 boxes
$99 for Lupron (to arrive Friday)
about $6 for the antibiotics (total for me & Hubby)
$15/each for 3 packs of Orthocyclen
----------------------
About $207 total.
{I'm not including the cost of the prenatals, Co-Q10 supplements, and Hubby's vitamin supplements}

I'd say we've come out waaaaay ahead in this arena, given the budget we'd estimated for ourselves.

How are things going so far?
The antibiotics have to be taken on an empty stomach.
They make me nauseous.
The vitamins make me nauseous if I don't take them with food.
I can't take the vitamins within 2 hours of taking the antibiotics, and I have to take the antibiotics twice a day.
I can't take the vitamins too late in the day because they pep me up a bit. If I take them too late, I can't sleep. I can't explain it.
I still have to take the orthocyclen and it makes me queasy too. I take it at night. I was taking it with a bit of food, but I have to take the antibiotic in the evening too, and that's on an empty stomach.
 So how am I?
Queasy almost all the time now. And just when it subsides, it's time to pop another pill of some sort again.
Yeah, it's tons of fun.

But, pretty soon, it's gonna be pills & patches & shots, oh my!
The count-down is on: 8/14 is the date for the shots to start.

This part of the journey is so exciting. I'm filled with hope, and even though the process is going to suck---if it works---it's all going to be so worth it!

I have to admit though: it's kind of weird being here, in this IVF place.
I just think about all of the years that we were "trying" just by way of not preventing things....and how every month I would get disappointed when my period came. I think about how many times my ob/gyn suggested birth control pills for endometriosis symptom management instead of more surgery, and how I always refused because it was preventing the very thing we wanted. I think about New Year's Eve this past year when we had our first IUI, and how I was just so hopeful that it would work....and then every single time we'd do another one, I'd be online calculating my due date to see if I'd be pregnant at Halloween, or Christmas, or whatever holiday.... And now, here we are. About to throw my body into a whirl and let a team of doctors steer our ship into uncharted waters {well, uncharted for us...they claim to have done this a time or two}. It's just...all very weird.

For the longest time after we lost Masyn, I swore that when I got pregnant again, I (1) didn't want to find out until I was about half-way through the pregnancy! (2) wasn't going to tell a soul until I KNEW that the baby would survive {as if I would ever have that security}. I know all of that was just fueled by my own fears and desire to protect myself. So, then when we were approaching this whole IUI series and now IVF, I told Hubby that I didn't want to tell anyone.  Well, clearly THAT didn't happen. I couldn't contain my excitement. I just couldn't. And here we are now. I wasn't sure that I would blog about this---but at the same time----as I've approached this whole process, I've found comfort in reading what others have experienced before me. It's given me such insight to the whole process. So---here I am. Sharing it all. {Well, maybe not all of it, but quite a bit.}

I'm nervous about pregnancy after miscarriage.
But, bigger than that is my hope that this will work.