Today is Cycle Day 5 of our 2nd IVF cycle. For those of you who are new to my blog, I previously had a chemical pregnancy with my first IVF cycle and our frozen cycle in May failed.
You may also remember that the last time I went to the RE’s office (for my beta), we ended up having to go elsewhere for the beta because my RE showed up at his office very ill. I went in yesterday for my first monitoring appointment and was happy to see that he has fully recovered.
Our protocol this cycle is the same as my first fresh cycle with Follistim, Menopur, and Prednisone right now. My RE has also added Heparin shots and baby aspirin to help prevent early miscarriage. Later on in the cycle, we’ll add antibiotics, Climara patches, Endometrin inserts, Ganirelix, and PIO. I’m supposed to trigger with Ovidrel, but last time we ended up switching to a Lupron trigger to prevent OHSS. We’ll see what happens this time.
I’m also taking prescription pre-natal vitamins. They have iron in them and last cycle I had some… ahem… issues…. with constipation. It caused me major stress, and I actually ended up on the floor crying from the pain last cycle. I thought about not taking them again, but I know how important it is. So I’m taking them two days in a row and then on the third day, I’m taking an over-the-counter pre-natal with no iron. This is something I decided to do myself and I haven’t run it by the RE, but I feel okay about it.
Aside from a headache after my first night of stims, I haven’t had any major side effects yet. I’m doing weekly acupuncture and feeling very relaxed since I’m currently on my summer vacation from work.
I’ve been doing pretty good on keeping gluten and caffeine-free. I did cheat once last week and had a piece of bread while out to lunch with my mother. (Come on, you can’t have soup without bread!) The hardest thing for me is not cutting out certain things, but adding healthy variety like leafy greens and vegetables.
Thanks so much for all the support and prayers! I’ll do another update next week.
*** Looking for tips on surviving IVF? Check out my post, 10 Practical Ways to Prepare for IVF ***
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