first shot!

sooo, our excitement was already growing by the day... but now, we have our first shots THIS week!!!  i know that most people don't get excited about giving themselves shots in the stomach, but WE do!  my first shot is tomorrow, 10 units of lupron.  this will continue everyday until saturday, when the dosage changes to 5 units.  today, I also started taking dexamethasone, which is a pill.  andrea's shots start on wednesday.  we'll update soon!

Recent Articles, etc.

There seem to be a lot in the news lately about infertility and also about gays parenting and IVF and so I thought I would share two articles on it.

Gay Parents Better Than Straight Parents? What Research Says
There are definitely no accidental pregnancies with gay couples - so obviously we really have to want to have a child to go through all that we do to have one.

Researchers Say 3 Embryos Is Too Many For IVF
We are planning on doing a 2 embryo transfer as long as everything works out okay. It's a perfect number in that it increases the chances for a successful birth.


Also, I know that we had previously mentioned that Marisa was having an additional $400 blood test done and that we never mentioned the results, which were negative so that's a good thing. We decided to have the test done because of her Thyroid disorder, there was a chance that these "natural killer cells" could have affected embryo implantation. If you want to read more about what "natural killer cells" are you, you can check out an article here, Understanding Immunologic Implantation Dysfunction Part 1: Setting the Stage for Selective Immunotherapy with Intralipid and IVIg.

how many drugs does it take to make a baby?

There you have it folks!  these are the official meds, needles, and syringes that will help us make lots of babies (or, at least, lots of eggs).  Andrea's meds are on the left and my meds are on the right.  Andrea's drugs include Follistim, Menopur, Lupron, Lovenox, Azithromycin, HCG, baby aspirin, and pre-natal vitamins.  My drugs include Lupron, Dexamethasone, Azithromycin, Progesterone (in 2 forms), Delestrogen, baby aspirin, and pre-natal vitamins.  

We ended up using 3 different pharmacies in order to cut costs, hence the three sharps containers!  One pharmacy, Mandell's, even gave us a little bag of hershey kisses!  how cute are they!  we love the folks at Mandell's!

Some of the drugs are easy to administer because the come in pre-filled syringes, others are somewhat easy to administer because they require us to fill the syringe before injecting, still others are kinda tricky because they require one type of needle to draw a liquid from one bottle, mix it with a powder from another bottle, draw the liquid into the syringe with the same needle, and then switch needles before administering!  And one drug even has it's own pen that you use to administer.  So much to think about!

My shots begin on January 30th and Andrea's start on February 1st.  I'm pretty sure that at some point, no one will want to be around us because of all the crazy hormones and mood swings... BUT, it will all be sooo worth it in the end!  :)

Meds - Marisa

So this is a picture of the pills that I take each day.  That would be 13 pills, so i definitely have Andrea beat!  =P  And actually, there were some IUI cycles when I took more pills that this.  I've done a lot of research on herbs and supplements to help you conceive that are safe to use if you have a hypothyroid.  We also both are now drinking red raspberry leaf tea.  And I am also drinking nettle leaf tea and valerian root tea.  PLUS, I also take a few drops of a liquid called "false unicorn root" (when I remember to), and it's pretty gross.

All of these pills will have to stop once we start the shots, with the exception of pre-natal vitamins synthroid, birth control, and folic acid.  My shots begin on January 30th and continue until the 7th week of pregnancy.  We'll be getting the "official" meds and shots soon.  SO more pics will be posted soon!  And these meds will NOT be fitting in the palm of my hand!  :)

Meds - Andrea

What you see here is my (Andrea) daily mix of pills. 1 fish oil, 1 vitamin D, 1 pre-natal vitamin, 2 folic acids, 1 baby aspirin, 1 birth control, and 2 CoQ10 pills. That's a total of 9 different pills (although Marisa may have me beat) that I've been taking, and will be taking until February 1st, which is when the hardcore meds start.

Good Eggs

Andrea here. I'm due for a post and haven't really said much since we switched to Dr. P so here we go.

First of all, Dr. P and his staff are soooo wonderful, from the nurses to the secretaries. They know your name when you go in there and actually care about you as a patient, Dr. P even draws pictures for us and makes sure that we fully understand things - all of this is such a breath of fresh air compared to our last Doctor who rolled her eyes at us when we asked questions. The changing of Doctors is giving us a renewed hope overall, and we both once again have the feeling of "this is it, this is the time we are going to get pregnant!" Had we decided to stick with RMA for the IVF I think we still would have felt hopeless. It's hard to stay optimistic when you have no faith in a doctor.

Other big news that may be redundant because Marisa already mentioned it, is that we are now using my eggs! Honestly, I never thought this would be a possibility and am completely overjoyed that it is. I am physically unable to carry children mostly due to a pulmonary embolism (related to a hit and run- as a pedestrian) and a uterine ablation that was a result of the PE. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would never physically have children, and kind of left it at that. At our consultation Dr. P mentioned that we could use my eggs in Marisa as long as I still had good eggs. Scenes from Willy Wonka with Veruca Salt and the "egg-dicator" kept flashing through my mind. Would I have good eggs (ding!) or bad ones (honk!honk!)? Thankfully the tests came back saying they were good eggs (ding!)

With the previous IUI's we had obviously been using Marisa's eggs, and if we had conceived a child through that method -first of all we would have been completely thrilled, but I then would have had to go through the steps of a second parent adoption which luckily is available in the great state of Pennsylvania, (however the costs would have been upwards of $3000 in addition to what we've been spending to get pregnant, and there would have also been invasive requirements such has home studies and background checks). This way Marisa will be the birth mother and I will be the biological mother and we will be able to apply for a court order so that both of our names will be on the birth certificate at birth. How exciting! I also feel like I now have a bigger role then what I did before. I mean don't get me wrong, I was super involved before to the point where even if Marisa just needed to get blood taken I would go to the doctors office with her, but now it's a part of me as well. I am getting blood tests done, I am taking pre-natal vitamins.. and come February I am going to probably be either an emotional wreck or a raging bitch because of all of the hormones that I will be on, but it is all going to be worth it. I just keep thinking how amazing this whole thing is going to be for the both of us, not just it being my eggs, but for Marisa to be carrying our child for 9 months and it really being a part of both of us!