Hobbling to my First IVF Appointment

First thing this morning Derek and I headed to the fertility clinic for my first round of blood work. They are looking at my estrogen levels, which are indicative of how my follicles are developing. Ideally, at this point, they like to see between 250 and 500.

While there, we spoke with the nurse and I had her explain to me what it was the doctor used during my ultrasound on Sunday to straighten out my cervix. Apparently they use what are basically forceps and pull on the cervix to straighten it out and get the catheter in. No wonder it hurt so much! I also learned, as the nurse was describing this process, that the non-pregnant uterus is about the size of putting your pointer finger against your thumb and making a tear drop shape. Way smaller then I thought. Must refresh self on anatomy, apparently! Derek is also having bad side effects from the antibiotics he has to take - lots of nausea. She said that if he's still having issues after tonight's dose to call and they may let him forgo the last day.

Following this appointment, we went to my physical therapy appointment for my knee to determine if I will need surgery or not. If I did need surgery, we would postpone the embryo transfer, freeze everything, and do the knee surgery first. Our primary concern was that my knee would not be able to support the pregnancy weight, and I wouldn't be able to get around during or after. Of course, I thought this was fine ("I'll figure it out!" says I, in tears), but Derek pointed out that this would put a lot of unfair pressure on him and the baby, which is not what we want. 

Anyway...I don't need surgery! Well, I might some day, but the therapist was confident that I will be able to rehabilitate and strengthen up enough to support pregnancy weight and even go back to cycling and running. He did say I will have to avoid the harder skiing, but could probably get away with skiing resort runs (not this year, of course). He did an assessment, said he felt some laxity in the forward/backward movement and thinks I may have partially torn my ACL and MCL. I am planning to pay for a private MRI in the next week or so and will see him weekly. We did a bit of acupuncture and ultrasound on my knee to help with swelling and he gave me two exercises to help increase the range of movement in my knee.

As I'm laying on the table with needles in my leg, the clinic calls. My estrogen today was 130, so not even close to where they want it. All this means at this point is that I increase my dose of Gonal-F to 225 UI, and continue with 75 UI of Luveris. Not a big deal, but this does mean our drug costs increase. We do get it back from insurance eventually, but it's still hard to pay thousands of dollars up front.

So, next step is to go in for an ultrasound and more blood work to check estrogen levels on Saturday morning. Fingers crossed everything looks good! If I progress as expected, it's only ten more days to egg retrieval!