Protocol!

Today C and I went up to learn how to do shots, and get the medication! I feel weird now, like a weight was lifted (in that now I know when and how everything is happening), and like another one has settled down (in that now I have to actually DO this stuff, not just talk about it happening someday).

The nurse was a cute, very Portlandy-looking lady with an eastern European accent. She sat us down in front of a table littered with little vials and syringes and round skin-colored lumps, and C practiced drawing liquid out of the vials and sticking it into the round lumps. It kind of reminded me of CPR class, with the victim stand-ins.

Then we went downstairs and sat for about an hour waiting for the meds to be gathered together in the pharmacy. They gave us a little pager a la restaurants-with-a-long-wait, and I crocheted and C used the wifi for a bit.

When the pager flashed at us, we went back to the pharmacy, dropped $3045, and came away with a cooler and a grocery-sized paper bag full of medications.



So here's the protocol:

Continue taking birth control until 8/13.
On 8/6 (this Saturday), start taking Lupron daily.
Go up to the RE for an ultrasound and estradiol test on 8/19, and wait for a phone call that says all is well. (If it's not, they'll rewrite my protocol.)
If all is well, decrease Lupron by half and begin Follistim in the morning and Menopur in the evening.
Go to the RE for a blood test on 8/23 and then again every 1-3 days while they check my hormone levels.
Retrieval between 8/28 and 9/2 (enema the night before, and of course trigger shot 36 hours before)
2 days after retrieval, take progesterone in oil daily until a positive pregnancy test and weekly for several weeks after that
Transfer 3-6 days after retrieval

Bada bing, bada boom. Hopefully. For now, we're squarely in the hopeful and happy phase.