Information day

Spring, the flowers in the garden were blooming, and the weather was warm.  I was enjoying getting tan for the summer earlier than in NC.  We also were visiting the doctor again, talking about more options.  The doctor really said our next step was to either have exploratory surgery or IVF.  IVF was something hubby and I talked about when he had his tumor, not knowing this could actually be real one day.  At the time, I was completely ok with it, and then again today, when it was becoming a real topic, I was scared out of my mind.  IVF isn't anything to take lightly.  Its a journey in itself.

So what you have to do, is get regulated, but being on birth control for a month, and also to sync up with other girls going through the process.  They like for a group to be going through it instead of individuals.  Which in theory makes sense, but after the procedure, I found that it wasn't as easy to be in a group.  Everyone is excited if they get positives, and upset if they get negatives, and you have to watch others around you get good and bad results, all together.  I know it makes sense for the docs.

Then, after BC for a month, you start to build up your ovaries.  They want them to be huge, full of eggs.  They become the size of grapefruits, and you look 3-4 months prego.  There is pain, the ovaries are so big, it feels like the worse ovulation you have EVER had.  In my case, that was a new experience since I rarely ovulated.  Then, they would do a procedure to remove the eggs, then merge with the specimen (taken in the office same day) and left to grow for 5 days.  Once the 5 days arrives, you can tell how many embryos survived, and they insert them back in.  Then any remaining get frozen for any future transfers.  So there is fresh and frozen.  Fresh is IVF and happens 5 days after retrieval.  Frozen is called Frozen Embryo Transfer, and they thaw out the little guys, which in turn is like a 5 day fresh transfer.  Yeah I was overwhelmed!  The doctor and nurse were giving us all this information along with what it may cost.  We were again shocked.  And that was not mentioning the medication.  Medication that had to be refrigerated, and was time sensitive.  I had no idea what was about to happen.