Round 2

IVF takes a freaking long time. I've waited 10 weeks for my HCG levels to come back down to 0 after I miscarried in July. I had 3 blood draws to continue checking- thats 3 trips to Portland, 4 hours round trip for them to say, "nope, not yet!" come back next week. I finally told them "no, I'll see you in 2 weeks when I will be in Portland for an event. I don't want to say that it was a waste of time to go to get my blood drawn, but it was time consuming and disheartening to learn that my HCG levels still were not 0.

My doctor is amazing, this timing isn't his fault, its my body doing its thing. I sat down with my dr for the first time since covid for an in person appointment to go over a new plan and what to do differently.

It was nice to have a sense of normalcy, going to a doctors office and speaking face to face.

I am on a cocktail of vitamins to do everything I can to have as many healthy eggs as my body can produce. I've added CoQ10 to my vitamins, turmeric, so on and so on.... we'll see. I am doing everything I can (except for giving up wine until the transfer- don't judge me!).

IVF meds are shipped to your door from a special pharmacy. I cannot just drive into town and grab them at Walgreens. There have been a half dozen conversations about these prescriptions with the pharmacy already and it isn't figured out yet. Fingers crossed for Monday. They ship everything overnight in dry ice, syringes, alcohol swabs, sharps containers, preloaded shots, saline to mix medications to inject, etc etc.

Looking forward to starting the STIMS again and getting one step closer to having our babe.

One difference this time that we didn't do last time..... We've decided to test the embryos. This is only covered by insurance if myself or Zack have genetic markers that could result in birth defects. Fortunately, we do not. This means we pay out of pocket. And its not cheap. We pay up front before they'll even order the medication, so we've paid for the embryo freezing and the genetic testing.

I am doing everything I can to increase my AMH and get more eggs this time hopefully resulting in more embryos and a few healthy babes to choose from. If we have multiple viable embryos, then we get to pay rent on the freezer for them- but I'm not complaining I promise. Just putting it out there for people who are curious. Its $100 a month for a embryo to hang out in a freezer.

Once my eggs are mature and ready, we'll do another egg retrieval (surgery and under anesthesia), then test and transfer a healthy em-baby.

I have heard great things from both my doctor, other doctors I follow on instagram, and articles about acupuncture. I am eager to try! Have you done it, or heard good things?

Send us all the baby dust, cross your fingers, say a prayer, and all the well wishes. We need it over the next couple months!

xoxo