My mock transfer went very well. It did hurt but not as much as I was fearing. My right ovary looks fantastic! My left one still has an endometrioma on it which is preventing it from having the normal amount of follicles. Dr. Freeman said that it would be alright and wouldn't hinder the IVF procedure at all. When they go in for the harvesting, they will drain the endometrioma as well. For those who don't know what an ultrasound room looks like, check out the picture below to the left. This is the room where they did the mock transfer. They use the ultrasound to guide the tube.
While I was having my mock transfer performed, Kyle had to do his duties as well! He will have to get checked 2 more times during this process. Of course, I didn't realize that they actually provide visual aides. Check out the TV they put in the room. LOL!
On a serious note, we got our tentative schedule. This Wednesday I go back to sign the paperwork and learn more about my injection medicines that I'll be taking. Every three days for 10-15 days, I'll be getting an ultrasound performed to check the growth of the eggs/follicles. When they reach maturity, I'll be put on a new medication to stop my body from ovulating and releasing those eggs. Then they'll do the harvesting, and take care of my endometrioma at the same time. A few days later, they'll implant the embryos. One week after that, they will draw blood and repeat in another two days to check for pregnancy. They do not trust these results though. They will confirm by ultrasound that I'm pregnant approximately 2 weeks after that. Best part... the ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy will be within a day or two of Christmas day! Best present ever!
Starting on Wednesday, November 13th, Kyle will start antibiotics and remain on them until the harvest date. This will help keep his contribution as healthy as possible. On that date, I start my injections. I've never had to give myself a shot before so this'll be new territory for me. Kyle gets light-headed at the sight of needles so I'll be on my own. Also, I can't take any medicine, drink anything but water, or do anything more strenuous than walking.
On to the paperwork. Going through IVF is like getting a mortgage! I'm understanding that there are so many moral implications with different aspects of the process. They have so many decisions on what to do each step of the way that will cover what your religious beliefs allow. My father had some great questions that cover these religious and moral issues.
1) What do they do with the remaining embryo's that you do not want?
There are two options they allow: donate or discard.
If we donate them, they go to a completely infertile couple. Being that we've had such a hard time conceiving on our own, this option is such a great one. I couldn't imagine if I were told that my husband's sperm weren't usable and that my eggs weren't either. It would be devastating. But that isn't the end! These couples can carry a child to term and then raise them as their own. Compared to adoption, this option would be just a little bit more personal. It gives the mother the chance to experience pregnancy and the birthing process.
The embryos can be discarded. This is NOT an option for us. Once the eggs are fertilized and split into living embryos, they are children! Destroying them is killing. This is my opinion and you couldn't convince me otherwise.
2) What happens if the results are multiple birth pregnancy?
Selective Reduction or Allowing them to take.
Selective Reduction is where they can go in and dissolve the extra embryos that implanted. This is also NOT an option for us as it is also killing.
Allowing the multiple babies to thrive and what happens is in God's hands, is the option we'd go with. I understand that it increases my risk! I'm willing to take that risk. I'm not going to willingly kill a baby.
On this note, depending on the quality of the embryos, we may implant only 1 embryo at a time. In this case, it would be very rare for a multiple birth pregnancy. Yes it can happen if the embryo splits again before implanting, but the odds are slim. We are praying that our embryo quality will be excellent! There's no need to put me at a greater risk when we can keep going through this process each year until we decide we've had enough children.
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Now on to finances. Our original understanding on the cost was best case scenario. We're more to the middle case scenario, apparently. The IVF process is going to be at a base price of $8,400 and we just received an estimate of our cost of the medicine: $3,100. This brings the total to $11,500.
The $500 voucher we got was used for our meeting yesterday. That meeting wasn't included in the base price of the IVF process as it's the visit prior to starting. It was $460 total. This Wednesday is when the process officially starts. They put the remaining $40 voucher amount towards our IVF cost.
We're still raising the funds and looking towards other financing options. We have loans we've taken out to help get us closer to our goal. Please pray that the remaining funds come into place.
Thank you so much for your prayers and support!
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