National Infertility Awareness Week

Every year, Resolve, the National Infertility Association, organizes a National Infertility Awareness Week (NIAW). The purpose of this week is to encourage people to educate others about infertility, clear up common misconceptions, and answer questions. It's such a difficult and life changing experience, and we want others to understand. There is a lot of misunderstanding, insensitivity, and prejudice when it comes to infertility. 

This year, NIAW is April 21-27. Until then, I hope to blog about different topics leading up to the actual week, when I will have one final blog that will be entered into the Bloggers Unite Challenge. My hope is that many of you can learn from my posts, and even be encouraged to share information of your own.

Morph

I stumbled across a new website that lets you morph pictures together. They had a feature to take pictures of two people, and make their baby. Sounds creepy, I know! So I took a picture of both me and John, uploaded them to the morph generator thing, clicked the button, and expected the worst. We were actually quite surprised at how cute our baby was!

Here is our morphed baby boy.

Isn't he cute?

*Edit* Okay, I realized that I forgot to post the website! It's Morphthing.com. Now, go have fun! I think John and I sat together and made different combinations of babies for about a half hour today!

Just One

I had my ultrasound yesterday, and saw one big, beautiful follicle on the right! Just one, so no chance of fraternal twins this month (we are actually a bit disappointed). But, it was on the right!!! We saw the left tube was clogged when I had my HSG, so it's always good news to see eggs coming from the right side.

I did not trigger with hCG this cycle because the nurse said no. I think I will talk to my doctor directly about it in the future if I need to. So the good news is that any positive I see will be for real and not a false positive from the shot. And this time, I only have to get a blood test done if I see a positive at home first. Let's hope to see some good news in the next few weeks!

No Trigger for Me!

I got a very, very pleasant surprise today when I tested with my OPK. Last cycle, I did not see an LH surge, so I had to use an hCG trigger to force my body to release the egg that had matured.

This time, I followed doctors orders by knowing-that-it-was-going-to-be-negative-so-why-am-I-wasting-my-time testing (TTC ladies will understand what I mean by that). And, shockingly, I saw this staring up at me! 

You can tell it's positive because the test line on the left is as dark, if not darker, than the control line on the right.

Or, if you don't want to guess the results with the lines, you can just read the digital window. I love that little smiley face! 

This is the earliest I have ever had a positive OPK, since I am only cycle day 12, so that added to my surprise. I still didn't believe it was a real positive for some reason, so I tested again a few hours later, and it was positive again! I can feel confident in saying that I have had an LH surge, and that I will ovulate all by myself this time! I still have an appointment tomorrow for an ultrasound. They will look to see how many follicles, if any, matured this month. Then we can know my risk of multiples in case I get pregnant this month. I may ask if I can still use my hCG trigger, because I have read a lot about how much the hCG helps with implantation if the egg were to be fertilized. I will take all the help I can get. This is exciting! Onto my two week wait!

My Current Family

Everyone who knows me knows how much I adore my cats. We got our first cat, Suki, just weeks before I found out I was pregnant the first time.

She was one of the absolute best comforts to me when I lost the baby, and has continued to be every day since. She will be turning three in May. She is my precious, and only likes me. She's definitely a one person cat. She follows me to the mailbox and back, and sleeps with me every night.

We've shared a pillow every night since the first night she came home.

We also have another cat, Momo (can you tell we like Avatar: The Last Airbender?). He was a stray that lived under a trailer at my work. One night it started snowing and hit record lows, and I laid awake all night long worrying about him freezing. The next day, I picked him up and took him home so he wouldn't have to stay one more night out in the cold.

He is one of the sweetest and friendliest cats we've ever seen. He is very cuddly, loves to play, and is really good at letting my little nephews love him in their own ways. 

Right now, that's our family. I'm so happy to share my heart with my two "fur babies."

Onward

I will begin my fifth round of Clomid tomorrow, second round with this new doctor and the monitoring. Pretty much the same drill as last time, minus the water ultrasound. When I finish Clomid, I start the OPKs. If I see a positive, I will go in for an ultrasound to see how many follicles matured to guess my chance of multiples. If I don't get a positive, I go in for an ultrasound and have another hCG trigger shot if everything looks ready. I'm hoping I won't need the shot this time. It was bothersome.

I've had a few people ask me about the cost of my cycle with a specialist. I know a few friends are considering seeing one, but are afraid of the cost. I don't mind breaking it down for you. This is just how much I paid (rounded to an easy amount), and it's definitely not universal for every doctor, and would depend on what treatment and medications you need. It has ended up being much less than I had anticipated. It doesn't hurt to go check it out! It's absolutely and completely worth it.

*Edit* This is what I paid straight out of pocket without help from insurance.

Appointments:

• Baseline- $200
• Follicle check- $200 
• *Second follicle check- $200 (This is not always necessary every cycle).

Medications:

• Clomid- $20 for 100mg dose. It goes up or down depending on the dose.
• hCG injection- $60
• Progesterone- $45
• Baby aspirin- Didn't cost enough to factor in. One bottle is about $3 and it lasts for about 4 months.
• Prenatal vitamins- About $5 a month.

Tools:

• Ovulation predictor kit- It costs $35, but I can use one kit for 2-3 months. So about $12 per month.

Labs:

• Blood pregnancy test- $45. 

Optional:

• Pregnancy tests- Depending on how much you test and which tests you use, this number would vary a lot. I have had good experiences with Wondfo tests through Amazon. That is to buy 50 tests in bulk for only $16. Perfect for POAS addicts like myself.
• Preseed- If you need lubrication, it's safe for sperm. Regular lube from the store has the wrong acidity and can be harmful to sperm. 
• Softcups- Holds everything in there in case you need to get up and can't lie down for a few hours.

So for one cycle, without any optional items, would be about $580.

Add in the possible extra follicle check appointment, and it would be about $780.


We will be taking a long distance trip and visiting some friends in early April, so we hope we have some very good news to share with them all in person.

Nope

Not this time. That's all I can say right now.