IVF mark #2

On Thursday I had an appointment with the nurses to get started on our next stimulated IVF cycle. I think things must have ramped up a lot at the clinic because at first they told me I couldn't get an appointment to see the nurses before March 10.

Even when I said that I would have expected to start the cycle by then, I was told I would have to wait a cycle until I'd seen the nurses. Needless to say, I wasn't going to wait it out for another whole cycle just because I couldn't get an appointment to see the nurses.

I explained that I'd already done IVF before and this was just a refresher appointment and she put me on hold for a bit and then came back to say I could come in the next day. Thursday lunchtime was a spectacularly inconvenient time work wise because it was right in the middle of deadlines, but I managed it without too much disruption.

It all came back to me as the nurse walked me through the process, showing me how to do the injections and explaining the system. Its all pretty much the same but there are a few differences.

They now use a different brand of FSH, so the pen is slightly different. And I don't need to go and buy the antagonist from the chemist in pre-filled syringes any more. Now I get vials of it that need to be filled with water each time. As I've already experienced, they've got rid of the clipboard to record everyone coming into the clinic for tests and now everyone has an electronic pass card with a bar code that records automatically what tests need to be done each day.

So now all we have to do is wait for Day 1 of my cycle and we are off and running again. I've got very low expectations of this stimulated cycle. I think if we get one 5 day embryo, it will be a good result. I work on the rule of halves - if there's 20 follicles, we might get 10 eggs, and from that we might get 5 fertilised normally, and then end up with one or two at Day 5. Maybe we'll do better but at 43, I think its best not to have high expectations.

But what is really different this time around is juggling the appointments with Zoe, my work and LH's work. We are planning to go to three different clinics, depending on the day of the week. If its a work day for me, I'll go early to the one nearest work after I've dropped Zoe at childcare. Other days we will go near home or maybe to the main clinic if its the weekend. I'm already dreading the logistical planning that's going to go into it. It was so much simpler to get to appointments when it was just me I needed to worry about. But what a nice reason to have - our lovely Zoe is worth it all.