Cycle 5 Day 14 Insemination Day

Today we did our 5th cycle of donor sperm intrauterine insemination. Out of the five times that I have done IUI's 4 of them have been on a weekend. The doctors office has been wonderful about coming in on the weekends. Today a nurse wasn't avalible so Gary went with me and chaparoned. He was SO nervous to be in the room with me and being hungover really didn't help the situation at all. LOL With this cycle falling over the holidays the ultrasound tech was not avaliable on Friday so I really don't know how many follies matured.

We are already making plans for the next cycle. Dr. Marshall has agreed to let me do a minimal stimulation protocol. That means I will take Femara for five days 3-7 and then do 2 injections of Repronex on days 7 and 9. Repronex is one of the drugs women use when they have a litter of babies! That is the reason I will only be using the minimum dose for 2 days. There will be more ultrasounds than normal...oh yeah, me and dildo cam are becoming good buddies! :)

Tomorrow I will start my battle with the insurance company. I have called three different times and have gotten three different answers. The doctor told me today he is willing to work with me and order the medication and then submit it to my insurance company if my Rx card will not cover the meds.

For two days of medication it is $330 and that is the minium dose. Most people who use this drug take six doses per day for 12 days for a total of $5976 and 72 shots for one month! OMG, I pray that I NEVER have to do that many shots.

Tears and Hope

http://www.tearsandhope.com/

Thanksgiving with Sara

Today Gary's Daughter Sara, her husband Micha and their daughters Chandra and Micayla who live in Texas came to our house for lunch. I prepared BBQ brisket, cheesy hashbrown casserole, green bean and pie. We had such a wonderful time catching up on what has been going on in each others lives. I love to hear Sara talk about her childhood with her Dad. She told me that when it was her Dad's turn to cook he either made pancakes or "barf". Gary explained that "barf" was basically chili with vegetables in it. YUCK!

Tonight was Chad's bachelor party! Gary had a really good time but drank to much and didn't get home until 1:00 a.m.! He is going to be a hurting unit tomorrow! Oh my gosh I can't remember the last time we stayed out till one! I guess I must be getting older or could it actually be that I'm getting a wee bit wiser! Damn I just can't bounce back from a night out on the town like I used to.

No Shopping for me!

Today is the infamous Black Friday and I had absolutely NO urge to go shopping! I have gotten to the point that I hate going to Wal-Mart much less go when everyone in this city is there. A few years ago I went to Wal-Mart bright and early amongst the mob and an old lady rammed her cart into my heels and made me bleed. I wanted to punch her lights out so I promised myself that I would NEVER endure this again!

Gary and I did go to Wal-Mart this afternoon to buy Christmas lights for the house. Everyone must have been to the store at five AM because there weren't many people there at all.

Happy Thanksgiving & Happy 6th Birthday Zachary

We had such a nice Thanksgiving! We had lunch at my parents house with my family and Gary's daughter Anne and her three kids were there. Amazingly enough we made it all the way through our meal without talking about my menstrual cycle, sex, or anything gross! For my family this quite a feat! Now after Anne and the kids left the sex talk was ON!

For supper we went to my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Steve's house. It was so nice to get to visit with some of my cousins and other relatives. I miss the days of going to Grandma's for all the holidays.

Cycle 5 Day 10 Ultrasound

I had my ultrasound and had one follicle that was 21 and three that were 18. I feel like the double dose of Femara helped make more follies. Dr. Marshall wants to do the HCG injection Friday night at 11:30 p.m. and do the insemination 36 hours later (Sunday at 11:30 a.m.)

My lucky #38 swimmers arrived today! Yeah

Cycle 5 Day 8

I'm getting anxious to have my ultrasound on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. I'm really praying that I have more than one mature follicle. I ordered my #38 swimmers this morning from MWSB. Joanne made a point to tell me that #44 has a much higher success rate. Number 38 was my original pick but has not been available for the past four months. This month there is one vial available of #38 so I want to give him a try.Today I called the RE's office in Wichita to schedule an appointment. I didn't realize that it would be this difficult to "schedule" the appointment. They are going to send me out a packet of papers and when I have everything completed I send the packet back. If I'm accepted they will call to schedule an appointment. Good thing I started this process early!

Cycle 5 Day 3

I have been doing some research on adding FSH injectables to my Femara cycle. I found a protocol that was Femara cycle days 3-7 and 2 amps of FSH on cycle days 9 & 11. At first Dr. Marshal my OBGYN was not responsive and said in the past he has used FSH but no longer uses it in his practice. After talking to him more and showing what I had printed off the web and had sone a lot of research he said he would consider it if I could find some additional information. After doing more research I have decided to do 2 more cycles of Femara and then make an appointment to see the reproductive endocrinologist in Wichita if I have not conceived. I have done 2 unmediated cycles using donor sperm and 2 cycles using 2.5 mg Femara with donor sperm. This cycle I'm using 5.0 mg of Femara to see if it will increase the number of follicles. While doing research I found statics of using 2.5 vs. 5.0 mg of Femara. With 2.5 mg you have a 1.2% chance of twins and a 38% chance using 5.0 mg. At this point I would LOVE to have twins and be done with the entire infertility phase of my life. My Dad is a twin and my Mom's Dad is a twin so I would love to follow family tradition. You would think with that family history and add in fertility drugs I would have a chance at ONE baby.

It just amazes me that women who have had a child have absolutely no idea how babies are made and what a complex process it is to actually conceive. The other day someone who has a child made the comment that since I am taking fertility medication and using donor sperm that I should just use all of the sperm and eggs at the same time and just make lots of babies. Hummm.....I guess people just assume that when your doing "infertility treatments" that you are doing In-Vitro Fertilization & can pick and choose how many eggs you want to fertilize.

Cycle 5 Day 1

Aunt Flo showed today! I possibly had the worst PMS symptoms this month that I have ever had so it was no surprise that she showed. I'm disappointed as always but I'm not giving up yet.