Injectables

After finding nothing wrong during surgery, I was pretty depressed about our chances. We met with our doctor again and went over everything we had been through thus far.

One great thing about our doctor was that he was an incredibly nice guy. He is passionate about his chosen field and is very sensitive to the emotions that infertility generates. I cried more than once in his office and always felt very comfortable asking any questions that came up. I have recommended him frequently.

He suggested we move on to add an injectable medication to my cocktail of drugs. We would follow the same schedule we had been - cycle day 3 ultrasound to verify no cysts, days 3-7 Femera taken between 6-8 p.m. each night, day 10 ultrasound to measure follicles, and, if everything went well, trigger shot that evening. The difference is I would add Follestim, an injection containing FSH every other day on days 3, 5, 7, and 9. Another shot to give myself. Yay.

We started with the new month and things seemed to be progressing nicely. On day 10 I went in for my ultrasound and they didn't find a single follicle that was mature enough that they felt comfortable having me take the trigger shot. I was devastated. I was sure our journey was going to lead to IVF and I was still uncertain if we would ever be ready for that path. They were fairly confident, given a little more time and a little more medication, I had one follicle that would develop, so they suggested I take another shot of Follestim the next night and trigger two nights later.

This was the cycle I conceived. I was positive that I wouldn't, but the doctor said to take a pregnancy test fourteen days after I triggered. I did. Two pink lines. I woke up Mike. I didn't believe it. Two pink lines. We were going to have a baby!

I called my doctor when they opened and they had me come in for a beta test (that measures the pregnancy hormone HSG). My initial numbers were well within a normal range for a "normal" pregnancy but that's not really what matters. They want you to come back within 48-72 hours to make sure that your beta doubles. That's the true sign of a strong pregnancy. The numbers doubled. They declared me officially pregnant and told me, barring any issues, to come back at week 7 of my pregnancy for a dating ultrasound and to verify the baby had a heartbeat.

Somehow, my most depressing cycle ever had produced the most fabulous results.