It's finally happening!

After a lovely 2 week honeymoon in July, we have finally, officially started our IVF journey.

We had an appointment booked to hopefully get us started on the injections on 19th August.  At this appointment I needed to be on my period and was told to stop my pills on 14th August.  I'd had to double up packets as you have to be on them for 21 days before you stop and if I'd had my week off as I normally would, I'd have only had 14 days on the pills before I came off them.

As you can imagine, after 6-7 weeks with no period I was starting to feel pretty bloated and had incredibly sore boobs so I was pretty glad to see the back of the pills on Sunday.  However, I do tend to have to be off them for 4-5 days before my period shows up.  At 3am Friday morning (just 5 hours before our appointment) I woke up and still no sign.  Needless to say I was pretty frustrated as I wouldn't be able to start the injections and would probably have to travel back to Sheffield the following day.

Fortunately about 5:30am it finally showed up and at 6:15am we headed off to Sheffield for our appointment.

The Appointment:

We were told that I'd need a scan and blood tests, which are always done at a Friday morning clinic and this clinic is first come, first served.  Clinic starts at 8am but as I really needed to get back to work as soon as possible we arrived around 7:30am to ensure we were first seen.

Our usual nurse was on annual leave so another woman took my bloods (which was painless at the time but has bruised pretty badly and is now rather sore).  She asked me if I was bleeding and when I said it had only been for about 3 hours she told me it was probably too soon to start the treatment today and I'd most likely have to come back tomorrow - not what I wanted to hear, especially as it's a 100 mile round trip!  Then I was taken into another room for an internal scan and I cannot praise the nurse enough.  She took the time explaining what I could see on the screen and really put me at ease. My womb lining was thin and ovaries suppressed (as they should be after taking the pill) and because I've been on the pill for a good few years, although I'd only just started my period, my lining was thin enough to be able to start the treatment.

I was given the prescription for the next week's worth of medications and told to ring between 2-3pm to check that everything was okay with my bloods and to confirm the dose.  Then we were sent off to the pharmacy and back on our way home.

Just a note for anyone having IVF on the NHS, you do have to pay for the prescriptions - our total was about £25 as there were 3 different medications.

To be honest I was a little disappointed with this appointment as we were given no recap on how to do the injections and everything seemed very rushed.  Fortunately all the medications come with detailed instructions so we've managed to follow these - but it would have been easier to see it again as it's over 2 months since we were shown!

Starting Treatment:

As I'd gone back to work, ALS rang the clinic in the afternoon and they gave me the go ahead to start the Gonal F injections that evening.  These have to be done at the same time every evening and we've chosen 7:30pm as it fits around all our other commitments.

The first one was pretty nerve wracking and ALS did it for me.  The Gonal F comes in a really handy pen device so you just have to screw the needle onto the end, insert it into the skin and then press a button on the top.  Surprisingly it was pretty painless.  I've read on other blogs that it hurts less if you take the medication out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you inject it so this is what we did.

Yesterday I did the second injection by myself with ALS there for support.  I'd got to learn to do it myself as tonight he's at work so I had no choice to do it alone.  Both nights have been fine and I'm pleasantly surprised how easily I'm managing.

So far I haven't had any side effects other than a little bloating and really mild pain, but that could be just down to my period anyway.

On Wednesday morning we add in a second injection!  I'll try to keep you up to date with what's going on.