Stephanie McKenzie's blog

So, the news of just how expensive the medications for IVF were going to be was shocking, and a bit unexpected.

The IVF coordinator at the clinic was very helpful with answering my questions and taking me through every medicine I would need, in order, and how much of each I would need.

Once I got home from the education session, I started trying to figure
out just how much all of these medications were going to cost me.

Apparently, part of the IVF process at my clinic was to have an
education session with the IVF coordinator and her assistant on the
whole process.

After getting the blood drawn, we went back to the car, and thank God I remembered I was supposed to get a prescription for birth control pills while I was there.

There wasn't anyone else in the waiting room when my mother and I got to the clinic, so I got called back pretty swiftly. I invited Mom to come back with me. I'm pretty sure she hasn't been "behind the scenes" at a doctor's appointment with me since I was in high school.

After being two days overdue on my period and wondering if maybe I
actually did get pregnant naturally following the polyp removal, I
started menstruating.

So, the Clean Cuisine cookbook was a resounding success. Even my husband
was enjoying the meals I made from it. Of course, I think he was partly
just happy to have home-cooked meals served to him again, as I'd taken a
couple of years off of cooking.

While waiting to see if I'd actually gotten pregnant naturally, I set about intensifying my mission of cleaning up my body and my environment to make both ideal for my children.

If that's how it had to happen, that was fine with me. I just wanted my babies, and I was definitely ready for them to arrive. After going through the hysteroscopy to remove the uterine polyps, I felt like their arrival was pretty certain.

I smiled and nodded a lot during my follow-up appointment. I was still
hugely angry at the doctor over the anesthesia issue, but determined to
be pleasant so he would hopefully be pleasant in turn.

I made a follow-up appointment with my fertility doctor for about 10
days after the polyp removal. During the appointment, we were to discuss
the pathology report on the polyp and when to start the IVF drugs.

I had mild cramping and spotting on and off for about a week after my
procedure, but didn't need to take anything more than Tylenol for it. I
even started my period a few days after the polyp removal, right on
schedule.

I am very phobic about general anesthesia and the thought of it was
already making me physically shake and feel like I was going to cry. I
asked to speak to the anesthesiologist again, and he came back to talk
to me.

Between scheduling the surgery and getting it, I asked no less than four (and possibly more) other people whether I would have the option to choose a different kind of anesthesia, and they all said yes.

I decided there was no reason for me to wait until the end of October to get that uterine polyp removed. It was basically just me putting off surgery because I dislike medical procedures of any kind and try to avoid them.

As I mentioned before, the saline sonogram was actually pretty painful
even though I was assured beforehand it would be painless. This was
entirely due to me having a very tiny cervix that required dilation just
to get the catheter to go in it.

A week after getting my saline sonogram, I called for my husband's sperm
analysis results. I wasn't too concerned about the sperm test results,
because they'd been phenomenal when we'd had it done for the
intrauterine insemination three years ago.

So, I was both bummed about having to wait another month to start the
IVF and nervous about undergoing the polyp removal procedure.

It was both a relief and an irritation to find out I needed surgery
to get pregnant. On the one hand, the polyp probably explained most of
the reason for my 12 year lack of conception.