First Injection!

Well, I was supposed to start my injections last night, but I wasn't able to get in to my doctor's office until 3pm yesterday for my blood test so the results weren't in until today. I wasn't allowed to start injections until SG knew for sure that I was not pregnant. Well the results were negative (which I already knew) so I called SG to see if my doctor's office had faxed the results or not, but they hadn't yet. I told the nurse that they did tell me that it came back negative for sure, so I was able to start my injections tonight.

So I got out my supplies: 1 cotton ball, rubbing alcohol, a syringe, a needle, the Delestrogen, and my instructions. I put the needle onto the syringe, drew in some air, cleaned the top of the vial with alcohol, then inserted the needle into the vial of delestrogen. I injected the air into the bottle, then turned it upside down and drew the plunger out to suck in .20 ml of the medicine. Then I pulled the needle out of the vial, tapped it to make the air bubbles rise to the top, then gently pushed the plunger until a tiny drop of medicine appeared on the tip of the needle. Then I was ready to go. I cleaned the area on my backside with alcohol, then I inserted the needle. I didnt push it in far enough at first...I could see a lot of the needle still, so I started gently adding more pressure until the needle went all the way into the muscle. It wasn't so bad. I injected the medicine slowly, then pulled it out. A tiny drop of blood appeared but that was it. I cleaned it up, then I got really light headed. I had to sit down for a few minutes and when I felt better I came downstairs to tell Chris that I had done it, and was light headed again. He got me a bandaid and I sat for a while until I felt better. This was 3 hours ago, and so far I feel fine. My head feels a little funny, but I've been packing for our move this weekend and running all around.

Next time I will do what the instructions say and quickly insert the needle rather than the slow way I did it tonight. But now that I've done it once I'm a pro, right? ;) The injection site is sore but hopefully the soreness goes away quickly. I dont have to give myself another injection until Sunday. I will do this injection every 3 days until March 10th, which is when I go in for my ultrasound. If my lining is an 8 or higher, I am good to go and I stop the medicine. If its less than 8, I have to get that horrid biopsy done. So I am hoping and praying that I've got at least an 8 by March 10th.

So that was my very first injection experience. It wasn't too bad, and I didn't even need to sit there and gain the courage to do it. I just did it. And then it was over. :)

Here's the plan!

I spoke with my nurse at Shady Grove and there have been a couple changes to the protocol recently. I will go in tomorrow to my doctor and have a quantitative beta HCG test done, which will check for any amount of pregnancy hormone in my system. Then I start my Estrogen injections tomorrow night and I will do this every third night. On March 10th I will go in for an ultrasound to check my uterine lining and if it's responding the way it should, I do NOT have to have a uterine lining biopsy. If it looks fine, I will stop all injections and take a medication called Provera to bring on my period. When that happens, I will start the birth control pills to get synced up with M's cycle. Now if my lining isn't responding properly I will need to have the lining biopsy done.

I have no idea what our tentative transfer date will be. Hopefully they will tell me and M once we determine how the mock is going. :)

Let the games begin!

Today is officially CD1. So I dont have to worry about day 2 being on the weekend. :)

Any day now

Tomorrow is CD31 and my cycles are always 31 or 32 days long. So any day now I will start a new cycle and then start my meds! I am nervous and excited! I will have to go in on CD2 to get a blood test so I hope that doesnt end up on Saturday or Sunday. I dont know what I'd do then...go to the hospital for the blood test? Yikes I need to call Shady Grove and find out. I think Chris is going to give me my injections...hopefully he wont enjoy it too much!

It's feeling SO real now. Months ago this was all just a distant dream. I'm going to help create a FAMILY! I have felt a calling all my life to help people...and this, to me, is the most important, wonderful thing I can do to help someone else. I love technology! To even have surrogacy as an option is just amazing. Years and years ago they never could have imagined something like this. And I get to live it. I just feel so blessed to have been chosen by all involved.

Meds are here!

My meds have arrived! I received one pack of Progesterone in Oil with 18mm and 22mm gauged needles, 2 packs of Estradiol with 22mm gauged needles, 2 packs of birth control pills, and one hazardous waste container for my used needles. Now it is definitely starting to feel real! I got a little packet from the clinic that tells me when to go see my doctor and when to take each injection, and what to do on day 24 (the uterine lining biopsy). I am going to call the nurse tomorrow and let her give me the rundown so I know for sure what to do and when to do it. I just want to make sure I do it all correctly.

Let me tell you...those 18mm needles are scary! Those are for drawing up the PIO since it's thick. The Progesterone is in Sesame Oil. Interesting! So I will draw it up with the 18mm and then switch needles to the 22mm. The 22s dont look too intimidating. Once I start the injections I will post pictures so everyone can see the difference. There's a piece of paper in the packet with the PIO supplies that give tips on how to give a good injection. It starts off "numb the area with ice for 10 minutes" I doubt its that bad. But if it is, I'm sure the ice will numb it right up and I wont feel a thing.

So now I wait until CD2. I should start on 2/28 so CD2 would be 2/29. I'm so excited! The agency called me yesterday to ask what my timeline was and I told her about the mock starting 2/29 or 3/1. She then said "Ok so it looks like you'll have an April transfer then." It's so cool to have a timeline. So if we transfer mid-April and it works the first time, M&B will be having a Christmas to New Years baby! I got pregnant with my first son in the last week of March and he was due December 15th. So it would be the best Christmas present ever. :)

No news

I wish I had a big, interesting, fabulous update but I don't. Yet. :)

I talked to a nurse at the clinic on Monday and she said she was going to get my meds sent out to me for my mock cycle and to call her once they arrive. Well they haven't arrived yet and I don't even know when to expect it. I've been reading up on self-administered injections though, in the meantime. It seems pretty straight forward. Plus I received some good information from the clinic in my initial informational packet. So I'll be good to go once everything gets here and day 2 of my next cycle comes around. I am currently on day 19 and ovulated yesterday right on schedule. I've been tracking my cycle to make sure there is NO WAY any accidents can happen, regardless of the form of contraception used. This may be too much info for some, but the whole week surrounding my ovulation is a 'no fly zone' for Chris. I'm not taking any chances. And once we're cycling, we'll have to abstain until pregnancy is confirmed. But I've got no problem with that and definitely understand the precaution. Ok enough of that. :)

Once I have any kind of interesting news I will update.

EDIT: How funny...I got a phonecall from the place who disperses the injection kits. They will be mailing my meds to me on Monday and I should have them on Tuesday!

Injections

I received a phone call today from one of the medical coordinators at the clinic in Annapolis. Unfortunately I didn't hear my phone ring so I noticed a few minutes afterwards that I had a voicemail. She was wanting to know if I knew how to give myself injections already or if I could have my doctor show me how. She wanted me to call back ASAP. So I called her but I must have just missed her. I had to leave her a voicemail. I told her that I have a booklet and DVD they had sent me, and I have researched it online as well. I also told her that I can have my OB show me how if need be.

So I think this means they will be sending my meds soon, or calling in the prescription. I'm not sure how they do it. I think I will ask the girls in the Extensions group who have worked with this clinic before. They are a great wealth of information for me.

I also got my flight booked for the trip to Chicago on March 8th for our next group meeting. Last time I was brand new, not yet matched, and eager to get started. This time I am a little 'seasoned', matched with the best couple ever, and still eager to get started! Have I mentioned that patience is not my thing? :) So this time I will have a bit of a story to tell. I can't wait to meet the new girls. I wonder how many there will be? It will be wonderful to see my counselors at the agency again. Kim and Carole are awesome.

Yesterday I had emailed the medical coordinator with the agency to let them know that I was successful in getting my HSG done on Monday, and she emailed back to remind me that my insurance is not to be billed for the procedure, to have them call my Trust Coordinator and have her set up a credit card in my file, for all things surrogacy related. So I got an email from her (Molly) letting me know we were good to go and I won't have to worry about billing issues in the future.

So now I wait. :)

"Textbook Anatomy"

This morning I started calling Infertility clinics, OB's, and radiologists to try to get an appointment today or tomorrow for my HSG procedure. My own OB's office wasn't sure they could do this procedure if it was ordered by another clinic. So the phone nurse called me back and we talked about what all I was doing and what all we need to have done. She called me back again and said they had a doctor who could meet me across the street from their office at the radiology clinic....today! So I jumped at the chance, otherwise we'd lose another month by waiting until my next cycle to have the HSG done. I think today's snow storm had something to do with the availability of the appointment.

So I went in at 2:30. I had to undress and put on the little gown and some little paper sock things. She had me lay on the table as if I had my feet in stirrups, only there were no stirrups, just the edge of the table. She gave me a couple shots of novocaine in my cervix to numb it up, then placed a clamp. Then she inserted the little tube with which she squirted in the dye. I believe it was Iodine of some sort. We watched on a monitor as the dye filled my uterus and snaked through my fallopian tubes and into my ovaries. She then told me that I had "textbook anatomy" and that's exactly what we wanted to see. I had some mild cramping during the injection of the dye, but it wasn't bad at all. I had taken 3 Tylenol beforehand, just in case. I really liked this doctor, too. My old OB retired at the end of 2007 so I am currently without an OB. I think I will use her throughout the surrogacy. She has already seen my chart due to the HSG today, and she and I chatted for a bit about the surrogacy and what else I would need to have done.

On CD2 of my next cycle, I will start meds for the mock cycle. I am excited but I am also very nervous about giving myself the injections. I heard that the estrogen ones aren't bad at all...they are done subcutaneously in the stomach with an insulin needle. The one that I am worried about is the PIO: Progesterone in Oil. It has to go in with a bigger needle, intramuscularly. So, in my butt cheek. I've heard it burns going in and you have to massage it to keep it from forming a welt and a big bruise. This is the one I will have to continue all the way through the 13th week of the pregnancy. I'm sure I will do just fine. I'm pretty tough. =) I should start around 2/28 or 2/29 so it looks like I will start meds the first of March. So our real cycle will be in April with a transfer at the end of April or early May. The more I think about it, I guess I am glad we won't be doing a real cycle in March since I will still be moving into my new house and getting settled. I will need as little stress as possible when we do the 'real deal'.

I am confident that everything will go wonderfully and we'll get pregnant on the first try. M&B deserve it.

"Medically Boring"

I was given the 'all clear' by the doctor at Shady Grove. He did an exam and looked at my uterus and ovaries and they looked fine. My left ovary had tons of follicles on it already, even though today was CD6. He said if I were to have been an egg donor like I tried previously, I would have probably been hyperstimulated because I produce a lot on my own. So that was interesting.

We did a 'mock transfer' where he inserted a tiny rubber tube into my uterus, to simulate how the transfer will be. He put some saline in there so we could see it on the ultrasound machine. Everything looked good and he said I am a perfect candidate for surrogacy. Also, he said that even though I am small and slim (I've never ever been called slim so I seriously love this man) that if I were to end up carrying twins I would do just fine because I have a long torso and a wide pelvis. And then he said I was made to do this. =)

Next step, I get assigned a nurse who will be my one contact at the agency and then I go in for an HSG to check my fallopian tubes and uterus out in more detail. I will do this here in MN though.

Then on the cycle after that one, we will do a mock cycle to make sure my uterine lining responds to the meds. At the end of the mock cycle they will do a uterine lining biopsy (and send it off to Johns Hopkins!) to make sure my lining thickness lines up with how many CDs I am. If it does, we're good to go and the next cycle will be the real deal.

So it looks like it will be 3-4 months until transfer. I wish it wasn't going to be that long, but the HSG has to be done at a certain point in my cycle and its too late for the cycle I am in now. Then the mock cycle will take a month, and then we'll get to the real cycle.

We got home later than expected so I didn't get to call M&B tonight. I will call them tomorrow and tell them all about the consult. =)