I’ve been telling my story of how I FINALLY got pregnant and  the whole lead

in til this moment, when the IVF process actually began. If you want to catch up

with my story, go to http://mirzukfitness.com/blog/. I think this story has far

more to do with life in general and making things happen than it does with

IVF in particular. Take from it whatever works for you.

IVF. This is the part that stumps most women. The thought of the whole In Vitro

Fertillization process is intimidating and scary. Lots of doubts come to mind:

How can I afford this? How can I fit all those doctors appointments into my

schedule? I’ll lose my job for sure if I take time to go to the dr every other day.

I can’t tell my boss what I’m doing and I’ll lose my job because I’m out all the time.

I can’t possibly give myself shots every day, that’s crazy!! And on and on. Those

thoughts are ALL valid and there might be more scary stuff you haven’t even

thought of yet.

BUT, you’ve got to ask yourself. WHAT IS IT THAT YOU REALLY

WANT? IF YOU REALLY REALLY WANT IT, NOTHING CAN STAND IN YOUR

WAY!  I went through more shit with this process than most people do, due to

incompetence at the Dr’s office. If I had known I would have to deal with all that on

top of this whole thing, guess what- I would have done it anyway. Because for me, it came

down to this question:

You live once, as far as we know. What do you want your life experience to include?

Above all else at this moment in time, I want to have a child (fill in your own blank here).

So, how can we make this possible?

And thus we began this process, which I am going to demystify for you and take you through

step by step.

We began the IVF process at the beginning of May 2011. Some dr’s offices may do things

differently, but this is the way it went for me to give you a good solid idea of what goes on.

It is all based around the female reproductive cycle, which YES means that you can’t really

plan around it. You must go into the dr’s office one or two days after your period begins and

have a blood test. This determines if your hormones are at a level that says this is a good month to try.

Once you get the go ahead, you begin your meds. For me, that was not so much fun. The first

drug on the first night was called Menopur (helps stimulate the follicles and develop more eggs).

We had to mix it up and inject it subcutaneously. Subcutaneous means that it doesn’t go that deep.

Inject into the abdomen or thigh. I couldn’t imagine giving myself a shot, so Ron and I stayed up

late trying to mix this stuff up, and I got such a headache! We messed it up maybe 5 times before we

got it right, despite the online videos that lay it all out for you. Then, he gave me the

shot, and it was all very dramatic. I had no idea how the hell I was going to do this every night

for 14 or so days. I had to remind myself to just take it one day at a time.

In the morning I had to give myself a shot of Gonal-F (similar to menopur, but just stimulates follicles

I believe), which is already mixed and comes in a pen form. MUCH easier than the whole mixing thing.

I did that one myself since it just seemed less dramatic than having Ron do it. I used an ice pack to numb an

area of my thigh and then shot myself up. By the evening shot of menopur, I was much more prepared.

No headaches  and it didn’t take an hour 🙂

I began alternating- morning shots in the thigh, evening shots in the abdomen. I started getting

bruises, but whatever. I was pleased that I was making progress.

I had to go into the Dr’s office every two or three days to do a blood test and have an examination.

He said that I was developing about 13 eggs which sounded quite promising. I was certain that

with this much effort, and with the help of the Dr that this HAD to work! How could it not?

Getting to the Dr’s office was tricky with work. I never knew which day I had to come to the Dr

until one or two days before, which is often not enough time to get a sub to teach my classes. These

were my classes and it was my responsibility to be there OR to make sure it was covered.  I couldn’t

just leave it hanging or dump it in someone else’s lap. My responsibility. It was

very stressful to have to figure out how the heck to get my classes covered at the last minute all the time.

On top of that, I needed a certain amount of hours to keep my health insurance. It was a crazy

balancing act. I did alright at just taking it one day at a time, but it was very stressful. I knew I

was starting to come across as flakey to my managers at the different locations, so I ended up telling

most of them what I was up to. I didn’t want to share this info, but it seemed like laying all the cards

on the table was the best way to insure that I get to keep my classes and maybe get some support in

having the classes covered. I believe I only lost one class due to having to sub it out.

About 7 days into this process, another drug comes into play. This one is Ganirelex, and it helps

keep you from ovulating early. For me, this shot was taken in the morning with the Gonal-F. So each

thigh got a shot. I started to lose track of which thigh I used when and also stopped using the

ice pack. Just wham bam. I was actually starting to get used to giving myself 3 shots a day.

This is part of my backing for my belief that we really can train ourselves to do anything! Haha.

I did look funny though- bruises everywhere. Dramatic looking but not terribly painful.

I will tell you honestly that the freak out factor of needles far outweighs the physical pain.

The physical pain is miniscule. Get over the freak out

factor and you’re good to go.

When the Doc decides that the eggs are fully developed and it’s time for you to ovulate

and to do the actual IVF process (egg meets sperm and then gets injected), he assigns

an HCG drug that makes your body ‘drop’ the eggs. That one is intramuscular, so Ron was

back on as shot giver. This one goes right into your butt cheek. I know people who have

given this one to themselves, but I for the life of me (and even being pretty flexible) could

not figure it out. So I lean against the wall, Ron gives me the shot. One time deal and then it’s

DONE! He really hates doing it, and I get why. It does look like it’s painful and you don’t

want to stab someone you love, generally speaking. But it’s not so bad. The funny part after

this particular round was that we decided to walk the dog right after I got the shot. About

halfway around the block my leg started to give out. It was ridiculous. I thought it was kind

of funny and totally did not see that coming. Just the whole leg wasn’t working right. Who knew!

I wobbled myself through the whole walk, laughing about it and looking forward to this

process being successful.

Then you take a whole day off of work and go in for the Egg Retrieval process, which also

sounds terrifying, but is not so bad and you get to take a day off! I’ll pick up right here next week.

In the meantime, here is a list of all the drugs currently used in IVF processes. This link tells you

about the ones that I used as well as all the others. http://www.ivf.com/ivf2col.html#antagon

It also goes into how to prepare for the cycle, and all sorts of other ivf related info.

The trick is really just taking the whole thing one step at a time, instead of looking at the whole

picture. The whole picture will freak you out. Thinking of all the things that can go wrong will

freak you out. Just take it one step at a time. One day at a time.  Whatever it is. This doesn’t just

relate to IVF- this is ANYTHING that you want in your life!! Stop talking yourself out of it- figure

out what the first step is and TAKE IT! Ready…  GO!

Your Fitness Coach,

Miranda

Share this post: on Twitter on Facebook on Google+