A quick update

I have been putting off writing this post mainly because I just didn't know what I wanted to share and what I didn't. I will just start off by saying if you are one of the three people reading this and I talk to you on a regular basis if you have questions feel free to ask. If it isn't something we want to share I will tell you. Sometimes I really feel like talking about it and sometimes I don't. Regardless of whichever mood I am in being asked always makes me feel good because I know other people care. We are currently seeing Dr. N on a very regular basis. I will not bore you with all the gory details but will give you some info. What we have been doing for the last three months is what the fertility world calls "combo" cycles. I see Dr. N at the beginning of each cycle and he does an ultrasound to verify that my ovaries are "quiet". This means that the polycystic crazy is calm for the moment. Then I start an oral medication called Femara. This medications job is to help my ovaries sort out a few dominant follicles. When you have PCOS like I do your ovaries tend to have several follicles (potential eggs) that never become dominant and therefore never maturing. This goes back to the reason Dr. N does a baseline ultrasound. He wants to make sure that after being stimulated and going through a cycle my ovaries quiet themselves back down like normal people do at the end of every month. So far my ovaries have cooperated in this. So the Femara helps my ovaries isolate a few dominate follicles to be prepared for stimulation. After taking the Femara for 5 days I start the stimulation medication called Follistim. This is an injection I give myself in the stomach once a day. This medications main job is to get those dominate follicles good and plump so they will be ready for ovulation. After three to four days of "stimming" (giving myself the Follistim injection) I go back and see Dr.N for yet another ultrasound. This is to check the size of the follicles. Dr. N will then give us instructions based on the size and number of follicles. Typically he has me do a bolus injection (double regular dose). Then I give myself yet another injection called Ovidrel. This medications job is to cause the follicles to release an egg for fertilization resulting in ovulation. Without medicated assistance my body does not ovulate on it's own. So in case you are counting in a one month cycle I give myself at least five and sometimes six injections in the stomach. Fertility treatments are not for the faint of heart and what we are doing is mild compared to what I would have to do for IVF! After I give myself the Ovidrel...which is also called a trigger shot, Dr. N then has me start Progesterone. The Progesterone aids in implantation of the fertilized egg and also helps prevent miscarriage in some cases. I supplement with this until I start again or until I get a negative pregnancy test. Once becoming pregnant I will likely supplement through my first trimester. We have completed three cycles this way. We are not sharing exact timelines for two reasons. One is when we do get pregnant we would like to be able to share it with everyone in our family at once. Two is because on the day that I test if it is negative that is something we have felt better about handling privately. These days tend to be rough for us and it is hard to talk about right away. Our doctor is very encouraging and constantly reminds us that it could take several tries before it works and to not be discouraged. So this wasn't as short as I was planning but I felt I needed to update. Please just continue to pray for us that God will guide us in our decisions.