We met with Dr. Amiee Chang the very last day of August 2011. She has her own practice at the Oregon Infertility Institute in Portland Oregon. The drive is about 2 hours-one way. At this point I am used to all the traveling though, so it’s not really an issue.
Dan actually had the day off and he got to go with me. He almost never can get time off from work and this was a really important first meeting. I’m so happy that he got to go. We showed up and the receptionist/MA had me fill out a prior history packet that would make any infertile woman’s hands get clammy. It was the most detailed prior history packet of all time. Luckily I’m very organized and carry a planner around with me that has literally everything written down in it. Every appointment, cycle day, lab results, periods, what days I took which meds. I also had my medical records sent over from the last two doctors.
We met Dr. Chang and I will admit at first I’m very leery when I meet a new doctor. She impressed me immediately. We sat down gave her some more background information and she laid out a game plan for the next four months. She let us know that this was all in our hands. We were in the driver’s seat. If we weren’t comfortable doing something then to tell her and she will back off. She said she would do whatever she could to get us to that ultimate goal of getting pregnant. She was soft spoken, confident, and to the point. I was mid cycle when we went into the appointment. We had about two weeks until I could take a pregnancy test. If it was positive, then we were set. If not we’d start the next step. Judging by the blog you can probably tell it was negative.
On CD1 (first day of my period) I called the office and they scheduled me that day to come in for a baseline ultrasound. They look at your lining and your ovaries to make sure that everything is on track. My lining was thick but appropriate for CD1 and my ovaries had several small “eggs” called follicles that were pretty small but consistent with having PCOS. The next step was a pretty intense one, but one that we were ready for.
We decided to move onto injectable fertility medication. I started on CD 2 and I will go in every three days or so for ultrasounds to be monitored. The reason that I am going to be monitored so closely is injectable fertility meds are VERY potent, especially with my young age. Follistim is the medication I have been using. Each night at the same time (8 pm) I give myself an injection of 100 IU. This is a pretty mild dosage. My first follow up Ultrasound is tomorrow CD6, I will have taken 4 injections by then. To monitor my progress and adjust or keep the dosage the same based on those results. Here are a couple pictures of the injection pen and a little snippet of me getting my second injection on Saturday night.
Above are the different parts to the pen and medications.
Below is a little video taken of me getting my second injection.
I will continue the injections until the doctor feels I am ready to “trigger”. I will give myself an injection of hcg (Ovidrel is the brand name) and that will trigger my ovaries to release all the mature eggs. Each egg that releases has potential to be fertilized. My doctor thinks I have over a 50% chance of conceiving multiples. Dan and I are really excited about this possibility! Only time will tell. They will call me and give me very specific instructions on when to give myself the hcg shot down to the minute. 24-36 hours later Dan and I will go up to their office. He will give them a semen sample and they will perform an IUI (also known as Artificial Insemination)they do a procedure to the semen called “Washing” to prepare it for the IUI. It increases the chance of fertilization by removing any mucous or non-motile sperm. Then they will put a catheter into my uterus and place the semen directly into it. That way they don’t have to do a whole lot of work. After that we wait and see if any or all of the ovulated eggs get fertilized and implant! I will do another update tomorrow after my visit with Dr. Chang and my ultrasound.
Luckily we are covered 100% for now. A usual injectable cycle with IUI runs anywhere from 3500-5000 per cycle. The Follistim itself, runs 1.30$ per IU. Each one of my mild doses of 100IU a night would run me 130$. YIKES! After December some serious budgeting is in store for us.
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