A few things to share…

1. We had our consult meeting with Dr. Nash last week. A few things: first, we agreed to progress through the treatment plan. Next, we discussed IVF as a whole in detail, and finally (and probably most importantly), we discovered that I have a low follicle count. He says they will have to “jack [me] up” with more meds. Translation: another $500. He gave us a 40% success rate for the first cycle transfer. We also discussed the possibility of a FET (frozen embryo transfer) cycle in the future or if my body isn’t quite ready for a fresh transfer after being “jacked” during the retrieval process. 2. We applied for financing. We weren’t entirely sure how people pay for IVF out of pocket and discovered that, in general, people don’t. They mostly finance the process. We’ve been pretty stressed since we got the initial numbers because of the cost, but now that we know, the stress has decreased, even with the addition of a $20k loan in our budget. We don’t expect that we will need the whole $20,000, but we wanted to be prepared in case there were extra expenses (like the extra $500 in meds!).

3. Shane happened to be home tonight, which was about the best timing ever because Michelle, the IVF nurse, called to discuss our plan and timeline. Most importantly, we are starting with my next cycle. As in, this weekend. Insert emoji with big eyes here. I thought we were starting NEXT cycle, not this one! Apparently once you’re rolling, you’re really rolling! It’ll work like this:

Day 1: call doctor, check in. (around 9/25)

Day 3: start birth control pill (around 9/27)

Day 10: hysteroscopy and blood work, order meds (around 10/4)

Day 16/17: IVF consent, Shane blood work, injection lessons, ultrasound (around 10/10 or 11)

Day 29: Egg retrieval, semen deposit (around 10/23)

Day 33: Transfer of Day 5 blastocyst (around 10/28)

Day 38: HCG/pregnancy test at RGI (around 11/1)

Are your eyes big like the emoji yet? Mine are! I didn’t expect a slow moving process, but I can’t believe that we got our 5% news on the second day of this school year, and by the end of the second month of the year, we will know if IVF was successful.

That said, I’m completely at peace with all of this. We have the financing, we have a plan, and we have each other. I am confident that we are on the correct path. I just pray that this path is what leads us to a baby.