Day 2: Baseline & Bloodwork

Big day today with our first visit to the Dr. since our official IVF start. Got a lot accomplished today at the clinic, so brace yourself for a long update. So far everything is going according to plan and I am happy to finally be ‘in progress.’

Here is an overview of the various appts we had at the clinic. The only inaccuracy was that we didn’t get all four things done in 15 minutes. We were there for over an hour.

First up when we arrived was a slew of blood work for both of us. They took 6 vials of blood from me. I sat there and watched the blood flow out, vial after vial getting filled up for testing. The Husband got off a bit a bit easier and just had to give up a measly 3 vials. The lab work included infectious disease screening for both me and the Husband, as required by IVF laboratories. Preconception screening is added for me (hence the 3 extra vials), which includes: my blood type, immunity to varicella (chicken pox) and rubella, a complete blood count (testing for anemia), prolactin and thyroid levels.

Next, we moved on to what they call a follicular ultrasound which is basically a vaginal ultrasound that looks at the uterus, ovaries and follicles. Purpose of today’s ultrasound was to get a baseline count of how many antral follicles I had developing. Ultrasound counts of ovarian antral follicles are a good predictor of ovarian reserve, egg supply and the expected response to ovarian stimulation with medications. The doctor described looking at your follicles sort of looking at a chocolate chip cookie. The dark areas (the chocolate chips) are the follicles within the cookie (ovary). Well, I am happy to report this girl makes a mean chocolate chip cookie! My follicle count was very high. 25+ on one side and 15+ on the other. This is a positive sign and means that I should stimulate well and generate a good quantity of eggs. In IVF cycles a good quantity of eggs is a good thing! The only negative, is that because I had so many follicles already (without the help of meds) they need to be careful not to overstimulate me which can lead to a serious medical condition called hyperstimulation ovarian stimulation and could put me in the hospital. So to avoid this, the Dr. has decided to extend the suppression phase of the cycle…more about that later.

Final stop at the clinic was a meeting with our nurse to go through the schedule in more detail, get upcoming appts set and get meds ordered.

Got a call this afternoon from the nurse once the Dr had a chance to review my blood work and the ultrasound results. And the good news is that everything looks good (no cysts or concerns) and I am approved to move onto the next phase of treatment which is the “Suppression” stage. This phase will last about 4 weeks and the purpose of this stage is to use birth control and a medicine called Lupron to prevent ovarian cysts from occurring, and to block spontaneous ovulation during the stimulation cycle. Basically, during this phase they want to shut down your reproductive system so that they can have full control of it.

So next up on the schedule is 2 1/2 weeks of birth control pills and a baby aspirin every morning…let the meds begin and let the control end.

Total cycle pill count: 2