Monday, January 25, 2010

Jan 25th Appointment

Bobby-Jo and I went in for our second visit with Dr. Jaffe today! We have been waiting for this one. We are ready to move on. We got all the parts working and all the hormones at the right levels, when is it going to be time to get this show on the road so to speak? LOL!!

We walked in to the office today and she was very excited, it seemed, to help us get onto the next step. She sat and reviewed all the things we have been doing the last couple months as far as blood tests, psychiatric evaluation, ultrasounds etc. She seemed pleased with all the results and things are good.

Dr. Jaffe then outlined several options as our next steps:
(1) We can wait for the next cycle, use some ovulation predictor kits, and take our chances, the most natural way, she called it.
(2) We can use one type of ovulation inducing drug that would help us monitor her cycles which could take a couple cycles for us to predict well.
(3) the one we are opting for, is a second ovulation inducing drug that has also been used to help treat breast cancer patients. With this one, after Bobby-Jo starts her next cycle, she calls the Center and goes in for an ultrasound (day 2 or 3) to look at and inspect her ovaries. An "ovary check" they call it. Basically they are taking a look at her ovaries before they actually start gearing up to release an egg. At that time Bobby-Jo gets the prescription for and begins the drug Letrozole for 4 days. This will stimulate the release of and help mature an egg. On day 11 of her cycle she goes back in for an "ultrasound follicular scan" and some blood work. This time they are looking to see that the ovary is indeed almost ready to release an egg. Depending on how her system is responding to the Letrozole, we will then give Bobby-Jo an injection of Ovidrel. The Ovidrel will actually tell her system to release the egg. A couple days after the injection we go back into the Center for Dr. Jaffe for the IUI. A week after that, we get a progesterone blood test to see if it all worked.

We decided to go with option 3 because it is the most "hands on". Dr. Jaffe and the ladies at the Center monitor Bobby-Jo's system every step of the way. If her system isn't responding the way they anticipate, to one of more of the drugs, they will know this and we can wait and start over with the next cycle and/or alter how she takes the meds to increase our chances of it working. The last thing we want to do is waste time with proceedures that may or may not work especially since we only have 5 trys, LOL.

So that is the low-down! We will keep you all posted...

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Update

Ok, so shame on us for not posting anything recently. However, we really haven't had much to post. With our commitment ceremony and Thanksgiving in November, and our trip to New York City and Columbia, Missouri over the Christmas holiday, we have been very busy and unable to focus on tests and appointments.

Now that the holidays are over and the new year has begun, we are ready to get moving on the road to building a family. The Center for Reproductive Medicine is where our doctor is - Dr. Sharon Jaffe. They require a battery of tests including bloodwork, Hysterosalpingogram, pelvic exams, and even a psychiatric evaluation.

Once all of the testing was completed, the next step was to choose a donor. We have been reviewing the hundreds of donors available for the last two months and finally got the list narrowed down to 13. We made our final decision a few nights ago and purchased five vials of specimen. Dr. Jaffe says that it takes the average woman three or four cycles to concieve with IUI (intra-uterine insemination).

We have an appointment on Monday, January 25th to discuss what the next steps in the process are. The nurse who booked the appointment said that typically Dr. Jaffe will prescribe an ovulation inducing medicine. This is taken on the first day of the new menstrual cycle. We just missed this one, as it was on the 8th, so we'll have to wait until next month to get started.

We'll post more after our appointment on the 25th!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To learn more about the process, here's the website for CRM (Center for Reproductive Medicine): www.ivforlando.com

To see more info on the donor we selected:
http://www.cryobank.com/Donor-Search/Donor-Profile/index.cfm?donorNo=02414

If that link doesn't work, then you can go to www.cryobank.com and do a DONOR SEARCH and put in his number - 02414.