February 7 we get to make another exciting day trip to Long Island (there really needs to be a sarcasm font) for a consult on my repeat lap. I am so not looking forward to doing the prep for that again, but I'm really just hoping things go smoothly (as in we do not get another massive blizzard) & we can maybe sneak in surgery by the end of February since I took the 1st week of March off for vacation (no plans, just chillaxin' for hubby's spring break) anyways. My last lap was almost 4 years ago & they found nothing, but who knows? I have an infertile friend who was told it was all good only to have a CCRM consult where they took out a ton of endo.
Once I get my period post lap, we can cycle, so in theory I could be stimming in as little as 2 months. I'm guesstimating based on prior experiences that if that was the case I could end up with retrieval/transfer right around my 35th birthday. I wonder if I'll get a special gluten free cake that says "Congrats on being AMA now too!"?
I plan on taking FMLA time when the IVF cycle itself starts. Even though most monitoring can be done locally & they say stress does not affect outcomes, I call bullshit. And honestly, I have such hatred for my job that anything I can do to lessen cortisol levels will be beneficial to my mental health regardless of pregnancy or not. My therapist agrees this is a smart idea thankfully so if HR decides to be assholish (I doubt they will be) I have back up.
When we do cycle we will do either a micro Lupron or straight Menopur stim. Lupron was the only med I've been on (and I've been on a boatload) that ever gave me side effects (I was a zombie; slept 12 hours a day & was still exhausted) so I'm kind of "meh" at the idea. However, women who are shitty stimmers like myself often do well on such a protocol. It's kind of similar to what we did for IVF #2 (the only good stim I had) & honestly, I totally trust Dr. B: I know many women who have had way worse issues than us end up with a kid (or more!) working with him.
In addition to the stim we will be adding 2 other meds: Prednisone & Lovenox. Prednisone is a steroid that will supposedly help with my immune issues & make my body not so hostile to an embryo. It also has the lovely side effect of making you legit psychotic (ever hear of "roid rage"?) & we don't give it to patients @ work unless absolutely necessary because of this. I've already warned my husband; should be fun. Heh. Lovenox is a blood thinner used to help with implantation. An infertile interwebs friend had some of these drugs left over & was nice enough to mail them to me. I hope they work as well for me as they did for her.
2 comments:
I did Menopur only for my successful cycle with Dr.B. Are you planning to cycle with him? If you have any questions, feel free to email me. Going through it was a little different than at other clinics so I'm happy to share my experience.
I hate prednisone and don't wish that drug on anyone. I was on it for a few months because of inflamed cartilage in my chest. I also gained about 40 pounds too. Hoping that if they do have to do a lap they find what they need to and remove the nasty stuff. I have stage 3 endo and it sucks! Wishing you all the best for a great IVF this year!
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