Hope on the Horizon!

It's been too long, I know!  Things happened pretty quickly for us over the spring/summer, so it was hard to keep up.  No excuse though, so I will do my best to catch you up on everything.

After we found out that the cyst had grown, we were obviously upset (see last post).  Luckily for us, a promising phone call came from Dr. P later that day!  She consulted with an RE at Mayo Clinic in Rochester (shout out to my hometown!) and they decided that we could try one round of IUI before moving forward with surgery.  The concern is that the hormones necessary for IUI can make cysts grow even more, and the bigger the cyst the more likely it can cause complications.  For IVF they would absolutely remove the cyst first, but for IUI, mine was still small enough that one round of the hormones, they thought, wouldn't do much damage.

This meant that, since I had just started my period, we could get on track to try IUI that month (June)!  So, we scheduled the IUI for the 15th, and scheduled the cyst removal operation for July 10th (a mere 8 days before I was supposed to be the matron of honor in my best friends wedding!  Thank you again, Emily, for not freaking out when I told you!).  If the IUI worked and we conceived, we would cancel the operation, but if not then it was scheduled before I would lose insurance coverage.

So, on to the process for IUI!  I was given a prescription for Clomid, which I would take cycle days 5-9, and start ovulation kit testing on day 10.  I was supposed to call when I got a positive test kit or by day 13 to schedule a follicle tracking ultrasound (check to see if I was ovulating and if the follicle looked promising).  I was also told about the HCG trigger shot, an injection of hormones to get my body to ovulate when they wanted me to.  I figured since I had gotten positive test kits in the past (even if later in the cycle than "average") I didn't need to pre-order the HCG (it's way cheaper if you order it ahead of time).

Well, day 13 (also Saturday, June 13th, convenient!) came with no positive kit.  This didn't surprise me, as we had determined I usually ovulate later in my cycle.  However, letting the follicle grow too large can have adverse affects as well, so I went in for the ultrasound.  They found three follicles, all on my left ovary!  One was measuring large or mature, so they wanted to go forward with the HCG shot.  I, of course, thought that I knew my body well enough and that if waited just one more day, surely I would get a positive test kit tomorrow!  Dr. P compromised and said if I didn't get a positive test kit in the morning, to take the shot before 10 am, and then insemination was scheduled for Monday the 15th.