We're on our way!

Well, I guess it's official. As of Sunday I have started on BCPs and my Z-pak antibiotic in preparation for IVF.

If there's one thing I've always been pretty lucky about, it is my 28-29 day non-medicated cycles. Even with the pressure of perfect timing, I managed to have a perfect 29 day cycle which put me right in line for the projected schedule we were given. Should my period have been even one day late, we would have had to put things off at least a week if not more due to scheduling at the clinic.

This is a quiet week, followed by two appointments next week. I'll have my SIS and trial transfer on Tuesday with our nurse consultation on Thursday. With the nurse consult comes our up-front payment. Eeeks! That's one check I'm not looking forward to writing out.

Last week on Monday I went in for the Karyotyping and Antinuclear Antibodies blood draw. I'm not sure if I should expect the results from these tests as early as next week. It's possible, but seems a little early. At this point, all we can do is wait, which is one thing I've gotten quite used to in all of this. Waiting.

Some of my friends who have also gone through IVF recommended that I make a color-coded calendar to keep track of everything. So far I've got appointments in red, and each medication has its own color. I like to be organized, and it seems like this will be the best way to keep track of everything. I don't think my little purse sized planner would be big enough for all of this stuff. Besides, it'll be nice to see it all at a glance and not have to flip through week by week to see where we are in the process.

The basic timeline of our cycle is BCPs for 3 1/2 weeks, starting Lupron on May 4th, and stimulation drugs on May 16th. Depending on how I respond to the meds, we are looking at an estimated egg retrieval date of May 26th. From start to finish it's about a 9-week process.

There probably won't be many updates between now and my first ultrasound after stims start. I feel like we are in a period of calm before the storm.