MellFire

I am, I just took at peek at my blog. None of the ads to the left of my blog seem like reputable IVF clinics, or egg donor registries. Once I am though this cycle I would be more than happy to post information about the clinic I have been using. Until then if you are interested in IVF services or donating your eggs, do your research. Don’t offer up all your information to random companies advertising on my blog, google, etc. Most exceptional clinics do well on their own w/o salacious ads (like sell your eggs for $20,000). Check with a doctor or call around to a few places. A great clinic’s service will stand on its own.

Like I said, oops. I was so exhausted last night after practice that I forgot to take my Lupron injection. I realized that I had forgotten it when I woke up a couple hours ago with a killer headache. I’ve still got the headache. I’m actually writing from bed at the moment. I’m waiting for my migraine medications to kick in so I can shower and head into work. I hate missing work (no sarcasm, I really do love my job).

At least once a cycle I forget to take the injection(s). As long as I take it as soon as I realize I forgot it, I’m fine.

I doubt the headache is a result of the IVF medications, I did have a few bad migraines when I was taking the birth control pills, but that is to be expected. I might be a little stressed, a little tired and a little bloated. Not fitting in pants comfortably that I fit into two weeks ago makes me cranky. The lack of caffeine can’t be helping either. I’m trying to give it up. Caffeine and soda (regular and diet). Neither are good for various reasons. I am hoping that some extra water and attending practice regularly will help with the bloat.

I’m having a therapeutic soda right now, I want the caffeine and the sugar. Only half a can though.

I just took the injection and I took some photos to post, enjoy them, please don’t judge the puffy belly, it’s partially bloat from the shots and partially the holidays. 🙂 Enjoy the photos (and my moose pj’s my mom made them)

I’m now on day 3 of my hormone infections. I am taking 10 units of Lupron (leuprolide) via an insulin needle. I can receive the shot in my thigh or my lower stomach. I have been using my stomach, I am not sure if I can give myself the shot in the leg. The belly is freaky enough. I have to pinch a little skin, this is not an issue as I have been eating and eating and eating lately. This makes the shot a little easier to take. When I have been thinner it seems to hurt more. During the last round of egg donations I was thinner (it was summer) and I sustained many bruises on my stomach. I do the shots myself, I clean the area with an alcohol prep pad, clean off the top of the Lupron vial, up cap the syringe, draw the medication, pinch a little flesh and pop the needle in. It’s not pleasant but it really doesn’t hurt.

I stopped the birth control pill on Friday, this means I might get a period again! I hope I don’t get one I really do not want 3 periods in a month. My poor sweetie won’t be able to deal with me. This also means that my boobs are going to shrink a bit, this makes me sad. Then again, they might not be as sore. My belly is a little puffy, I’d like to think it’s from the hormones. That is wishful thinking.

Oh well, I thought that yesterday’s visit to the fertility clinic would be a little more exciting. I was hoping that the film maker would get to experience a little more of the world of IVF. He rode with me to the office, it’s an hour and fifteen minute drive (one way). We chatted about life, movies and the IVF process. A family member of his used the same clinic a few months back (it was successful).

After the get to know each other drive I was feeling a little more relaxed, not as anxious about him filming me (from the waist up) while my lady parts are probed by the fertility nurse. We walked into the exam room, I hopped up on the exam table and was immediately told that they wouldn’t need me up there today. No needles, no stirrups, no prodding. I was actually disappointed. I was hoping to get some good footage. We discussed the process, I was given my goodie bag (hormones, syringes and a sharps container) and some instructions. When to stop the birth control pill, when to start the shot and to call with any issues. That was it! I got all hyped up for the rodeo and didn’t get to saddle up. Oh well, next Friday should be fun. A blood draw, STD test and a vaginal ultrasound. A total of 2.5 hours in the car yesterday morning, I woke up at 4 am-ish to make it to the Thruway to meet the filmmaker by 5:30. Did I shave me legs for this? Ugh…

I stop the pill tomorrow and I start my shot on Saturday. My tummy is going to be SO bruised. I can not wait to start though. My spotting is now a full blown period, ROAR. I have the cramps, the crankiness the whole 9 yards, two periods in one month is more than one woman (and her long suffering boyfriend) should have to bare. I’d depleted most of the chocolate supply and I can not keep Lay’s potato chips in stock.

The one by product of the pill that seems to have my boyfriend pretty excited is the extra boobage. While I was being a real bitch last night (sleep deprived) he turned to me matter of factly and mentioned that my chest looked a lot bigger. He asked if I was sporting a killer bra or something. I don’t think he read my tweets or previous entries about the hormone boobs. They look real nice, but they hurt. So it’s more look than touch at the moment (sorry hon). After my awesome dinner and 2.5 hour nap, I was in good spirits again.

I might try to post a video of the first shot on Saturday, stay tuned! Oh and thanks to you folks that actually read this. I’m new to blogging, so comment, make suggestions, ask questions. It’ll get more exciting (at least I hope it will).

It’s the countdown to the stirrups. Any lady that has had an internal annual exam knows just how much fun this is going to be. I’ll have someone filming me too. We’ll see how dignified and laid back I can be while I’m literally laid back with a vaginal ultrasound crammed up my lady parts (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003779.htm). Sorry, what a visual.

I’m generally chipper and happy to be helping someone out. I tend to focus on the outcome of this process. It’s more rewarding for me than it would be if I were undergoing IVF to become pregnant myself. It’s often a heartbreaking process for the people involved.

I’ve been taking the birth control pills for a couple weeks now. I’m a little bloated and my boobs are a little bigger a little more tender (actually they feel like they’ve been sternum blocked by one of the gals on my derby team). I am also spotting a bit, which means that my uterus is building its typical lining and starting to shed it. This could be a good thing, or a pain in the ass. If I get my period again soon then we have to push the process back a couple weeks. I think I will know for sure how thick the lining is on Wednesday and I should now what the full IVF schedule looks like.

More to come……

I’m about to start my latest trip on the hormone highway. I’d like to apologize to friends, family and loved ones in advance. Along with the bloat and the headaches I’m likely going to be one miserable bitch. If you ask certain people, they’d say who would notice? Ha ha…

I’ve been taking the birth control pills that the clinic prescribed since Sunday, so far so good. No headaches that I can attribute to them, I haven’t missed any yet. I’m using the pills to sync my cycle up with the recipient.

I’ve got my first appointments set up for the 6th and 15th of January. I hope to have the recipient knocked up by mid February. 🙂

I received my pill pack in the mail today and placed a call to the clinic to find out when I can get this reproductive show on the road. I hope to get my tentative schedule tomorrow.

I was pretty excited to find out that I will have a e- medical file that I can use to review correspondence, update medical information, check appointments and what not. They started the process with the recipients, now they’ve moved onto donors. I love that, less paper, less waste. I’m such a geek. I love it when records go paperless. I wish we could do more of that at my office.

I hope to get a user name and password so I can access my donor profile, it’s like a dating site, but instead of picking out a date you are picking out the biological mother of your child (wait that is the same thing isn’t it?) I won’t publish it publicly but I will try to get some of the info they have listed, info other than height, weight, hair color, eye color etc… Some of the more interesting stuff to write about.

Aunt Flo is here, this means that it’s time to help make a baby! I called my fertility specialist this morning and I’ve got the go ahead to start my IVF cycle soon. I’m going to be receiving a pack of birth control pills in the mail (shortly). I start out the IVF cycle with a pack of birth control pills so I can regulate my cycle with the recipient’s cycle.

In other nifty news I will be blogging and hopefully dragging a camera (crew) along for the ride. I’ve actually found someone that is interested enough in this process to want to make a wee documentary about it. Even more astonishing is the fact that the fertility clinic is excited about this and wants to be involved in the filming.

Although this will be my third IVF cycle this will be the first cycle with an audience. Wish me luck, I will hopefully update again when I get my pill pack in the mail, or find out when I get the schedule set up!

So I’ve started my cycle! It began Tuesday of this week. Yippy. I’m not exactly sure if that is normally cause for such celebration, but I want to get this baby making show on the road. I’m excited. Yesterday I called the doctor’s office to let them know that I’m ready and raring to go. *such disappointment* The recipient isn’t quite ready she’s just finished her first mock cycle (http://www.resolve.org/site/PageServer?pagename=lrn_wamo_deg). This is a general overview of the process. I will likely update this with some better sources. I’m not sure how reliable this sours is, it covers the basics.

I’ve got to take care of myself and contact the doctor’s office when my next cycle begins. I should be starting my injections on Christmas.

I started my first IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) cycle last Christmas. The first one was hard, the process normally takes a couple of months, the first cycle lasted months. I began on 12/25/08 and completed it in March. It’s a hard process to sync up two women’s cycles, I would be ready, and the recipient wasn’t and vise versa. It was eventually a successful cycle, the baby should be/ should have been due any time now. A November baby – a gift just in time to make his or her parents very happy this Christmas!

I wrote about the previous IVF cycles and posted them on my Facebook and MySpace pages for friends and family to read but I took them down because the experience seemed to personal, and I had recently ended a relationship (he did not approve of this process) and I was beginning a new one (I wasn’t sure how his family and friends would feel about my choice) I still feel that this is a very personal process, but I want people to know more about this. It’s important to me, and I feel that it’s important to women that are having issues conceiving or those deciding whether or not to donate eggs. It’s not all glitz and glamour for sure, it’s not even a way to make some quick cash. You have to believe in what you are doing, be informed about the health risks and other issues down the road. It’s hard, physically and mentally. I have a supportive family, a wonderful partner and friends who have stood next to me each step of the way.

For the previous two cycles I’ve signed papers allowing my biological offspring to seek me out when they turn 21 if they choose to. I have to make sure that whomever I intend to marry is comfortable with this (so far he is).

This process is confusing for my grandparents, they ask if I get pictures of the child, like a feed the child style program, photo’s letters updates and so on. No, that isn’t how this works. The recipient can authorize me to know that a child was born, not the sex, no information about how many children are born, only that the process has been truly successful.

Since my community is smallish, and my own circle of friends (network) is expanding on a explosive rate I will also try to maintain some anonymity just in case my current recipient is out there searching the Internet for information herself. This likely isn’t the way she wants to meet her egg donor, she might not want to meet me at all. (can’t wait to describe the selection process, it’s like a dating site)

If anyone has questions, let me know. I’ll do my best to answer them.

More to come…. I’ll post some of my old entries and some pictures from the previous cycles soon. This weekend most likely.