Introducing The Superheros

19 October 2010

Time to breathe a sigh of relief -I actually get to start my IVF!!! I was so worried I'd be canceled, even right up until I had my meds in hand and was taking the first injection, I didn't believe it was really happening.

Yesterday was my follow up visit to the clinic after the horrific sono/biopsy-turned D&C. My ovaries were behaving themselves and had enough antral follicles (they still won't give me an exact number ). My Aunt Freida had started the night before and was doing a nice job of tidying up the funky lining. I asked the RE what he thought was going on with my lining before and he said "I have no idea, but your biopsy was normal, so I think we should go ahead with the IVF cycle as long as your estradiol and progesterone levels check out OK". They took my blood and asked me to come back to the clinic in a couple of hours, and if all looked good I could purchase my meds and start taking them that night. I went off to my counseling appointment, which couldn't have come at a better time.

When I arrived back at the clinic the nurse announced "your blood work was all NORMAL!". They packaged up the next few days with of meds, and ran through the schedule again: microdose Suprefact, and Dexamethasone starting Monday night, then on Wednesday add Gonal-F and Luveris. $1600 later, I have 3 bags of medications and syringes to get me to the next appointment.

My husband gets a kick out of the drug names. I began imagining them as various characters last night as I lined them up on my counter like I used to line up my figurines as a kid. We have:

Suprefact -the superhero. This guy has a flashy name for a flashy reason. He gets everything kick started. Actually when you read the directions on the box it says "for use in adult men for palliative treatment of hormone dependent advanced carcinoma of the prostate gland". LOL

Dexamethasone -The faithful dog to keep things calm, and encourage things to stick. My husband thinks the name sounds like methadone. I'll probably need some sort a withdrawl program after being on all of these injections for the past few months.

Gonal-F -another superhero of IVF. This time a female one. Her jobs is to super-size the ovaries of course. Gonal-F and I go way back and have a good bond. I hope she continues to be good to me.

Luveris -the trusty sidekick for Gonal-F. Where she goes, he goes.

These superhero team members are all working together to fight off the evil IF dragon. Stay tuned for the next episode...