We were mowing the lawn tonight and after an extended reprieve, Heidi was wearing her handy-dandy tank top she picked up at a gay days booth that contained a sexy, yet very significant slogan "Wanna make a baby?". It's a non-descript tank top from a lesbian reproductive company in California but yet it held obvious significance. She said that she hadn't worn it since one of her IUI's because it had been unlucky the last time she wore it. It was nice to see it on her. Maybe her wearing it today indicated she had let go of the bumps we have had in our journey, wrought with moments of excitement, followed by disappointment and frustration. Maybe her reunion with this relevant piece of clothing represented a renewed faith in the possibility of our success. We were, after all, venturing into the unknown with a new doctor and potential insemination this week. Maybe the simple gesture of putting on that tank top holds extraordinary optimism.
Heidi got her period (FINALLY!!!!) ten days ago. It was not a pleasant arrival. It had apparently decided that after 45 days, the long awaited menstrual cycle would come with a vengeance. It was a mix of emotion for us...relief that it had finally come and cramping like a beotch for Heidi. I believe it may have taken her two days to be able to actually stand upright after the arrival of our long-awaited visitor.
She started a new regimen of follicle creators: Letrizol. It's a milder version of Clomid. It's also item 1 of the new protocol. Five little pills: Completed. The good news is that if it's working, it's not working on overload. There were periods of time when she was on Clomid that she felt like her little abdomen may explode. As of yet, this hasn't happened on the Letrizol (generic for Femera). (I have to write this crap down so I remember all of it; I thought I would never forget the names of her meds but as soon as her regimen changed, I somehow managed to lose everything in this little, frazzled brain of mine).
Wednesday is our bean counting day. We go back to the doc to see how many follicles Heidi's little ovaries have created. I'm optimistic it isn't too many, despite the fact that she is typically an over-achiever in this area. Incidentally, we were having a discussion the other day about her follicles (yes, her uterus, her follicles, her period, etc., these are things we talk about all the time. ALL THE TIME.) Anyway, we were talking about the very first cycle we did with Dr. Welden when she created a whopping nine follicles. We joked that we should have just inseminated then; our chances would have been amazing. That then led us to how many we would stop at for our next insemination. It's a bit of a scary thought, really. Once you've failed so many times, nine follicles doesn't seem like so many. I mean, if there's about a ten percent chance of success with IUI (which for you mathematically challenged is a ninety percent chance of failure), then logically speaking (I'm channeling Leonard Nimoy as Spock here), if we insperminated with nine follicles, would that translate into a potential ninety percent chance of success? Food for thought, people, food for thought. Worse case scenario, we have nine kids, a potential reality show on TLC and the need for all of our family members to move in with us to help us take care of nine babies. I mean, at this point, nine sounds better than none. So close...exchanging an "o" for an "i".
Sometime after Wednesday, we take a trigger shot of Ovidrel in Heidi's little tummy area. We're used to three shots to her arse so Heidi's hiney should be thankful. This one also cost about three times more than the three shots we used to take so it better be three times as good. For sure!
After the inspermination, which will hopefully be this Saturday or Sunday, Heidi begins, um, hehehe, well, she begins progesterone vaginal suppositories. She is less than excited about this and would, quite frankly, prefer the shots. However, the doc said she likes the suppositories more because they are closer to the intended "target", unlike the shot which has to go through her blood stream. Now, we've never done progesterone with IUI so this is new too...we've only done it with IVF and FET. We couldn't get these at Costco at a reduced rate, oh, no. We had to go to a compounding pharmacy and get them prepared for us. They look like huge bullets, waiting to be "shot". LOL My poor Heidi and her poor little vajayjay. So much going on there that she better get a good return on. LOL
So, to recap:
Letrizol ($9)
Ovidrel ($95)
Suppositories ($104)
Prenatals ($25)
Making a baby: Priceless (Oh come on...you knew that was coming!)
So, that's where we are. Hopefully we inseminate within the week. Hopefully ten days after that we find out we've made a baby.
Back to that tank top. Perhaps this was a sign; a positive augury. Or maybe she just grabbed a random tank top from the closet. I suppose we'll find out soon enough.
