IVF Round 2!

There is a LOT going on in our world right now but this is the most exciting/pressing matter so it's where I'm going to start!

On Saturday we are due to start our second full round of IVF so I'll go back and cover where we've been at recently.

We had a multidisciplinary meeting via video call with the genetics team, IVF Consultant and Tracy (our amazing nurse) to discuss the process and go through the differences between using their sole clinic rather than using them as a satellite clinic and travelling to London.  I'd already had blood tests and a scan done so they essentially just made the referrals to the company that run the genetic tests and then we had to go through a counselling appointment with them.  They already had all our DNA stored from the last time so they used that to create our probe and we were essentially just waiting to hear what happened next.  In the meantime, Ant had his semen analysis checked and all was fine there. 

A few weeks ago we received a call from Tracy to say that the genetic side of things was all complete and that we could start as soon as we were ready effectively.  She arranged an appointment to go through things with us, again via video call, on 3 June.  In the couple of weeks before that weekend we got our finances in order and we are in a position to go ahead!  We are borrowing a small amount from grandparents as we won't have to pay interest to pay that back and we have also received a small grant from a wonderful charity.  The rest we have managed to save ourselves! 

At the appointment on 3 June we went through the consent forms, sorted the starting dates and prospective dates for the procedure and Tracy also dropped a bit of a bombshell on me in that they don't use sedation for the egg collection - NOT thrilled about that bit, or the Fentanyl that they use instead!

However, we are set to go to the clinic on Saturday 19 June at 9:30 AM to get the ball rolling.  I'll take my last pill tomorrow (Mon 14 Jun) and hopefully be on a period by Saturday.  Whilst there I'll have a scan and blood tests then we will have to sign our consent forms and collect the prescription for my medication.  Hopefully we will find out relatively quickly that I'm good to start and I'll have to do my first injection straight away.  From there it is all very much the same as last time - the medication is the same but they're using a higher dose as I was pretty slow to respond last time so hopefully I might be on the stims a little less than 17 odd days this time!  I'm so keen to get started but we know it is still a long road from here, especially as I have to isolate around the procedures and we have a wedding to go to in August so we can't start our transfer cycle until after that.  It's much harder to work around things when you have to isolate for 5-6 weeks as you can't just take meds with you and crack on with it, avoiding any procedures.  You have to totally wait until the event is over before you can start.

However, we have an appointment booked on 26 July to discuss our embryo results (a luxury we weren't offered last time) and plan our next steps so at least we can get an idea of what is going to happen and when.

Watch this space!