A. D .D for I V F

I may have come down with a serious case of ADD or maybe I am subconsciously sabotaging myself. Either way, I have already messed up my brand new protocol. And I haven't even gotten my box-o-meds yet!
So, here's the score: I am doing the Estrogen Priming Protocol (EPP) along with co culture this time. (3rd clinic, 3rd protocol) With EPP, you start your cycles by taking estrogen patches. Co culture just means that your embabies are grown in your endometrial tissue as opposed to pigs blood (or whatever animal they use.)

***TIME OUT FOR A PROTOCOL LESSON***

The 1st 2 cycles, I did the Long Lupron protocol: (the most common and THE newbie protocol) You start by taking BCPs, then Lupron (both to suppress the ovaries a bit) then you take the stims to grow those follies.

Cycles 3 & 4, I did the Antagonist protocol: Better for old ladies. You start off taking the stims and growing follies, then you take an antagon to prevent ovulation.

Cycle 5 I will be doing EPP and Co Culture: EPP starts with estrogen patches before your period instead of starting with stims or supression. By taking estrogen before you get your period, it prevents a lead follicle from forming. When a lead follicle forms, the other follicles usually can't catch up and you have fewer eggs. Fewer eggs=fewer good eggs. The more eggs you have, the better shot you have that 1 will become a baby. This is also suppsed to help with egg quality but I haven't figured out that relationship yet. Give me a few weeks and I'll become an expert on this too,though.

***BACK TO THE POST***

I was somehow under the misguided impression, that I was supposed to wait for my period in February if I was starting in February just like every other cycle I have done. Nope. This EPP is a whole new ballgame and I suck at baseball. I was supposed to wait for my ovulation day for January (yeah, that was about 5 days ago)and call them to schedule my co culture biopsy (they need to take some endometrial cells to be able to grow my embabies in it) and to find out when to begin taking the patches. I should have started taking them about now. So, it looks like I will be held up another month.

Things sure work differently at this clinic. Not a lot of hand holding going on...Thank goodness I didn't try this place 1st. I have had alot of practice so I am taking it in stride. This post is like a gentle smack on my forehead. (Dingbat, Ginger!) I am really going to have to pay closer attention. Better to have a wake up call this early on than to really mess something up later when it's impossible to fix it!

I don't know how I am going to keep you guys entertained for another month without me cycling......if you don't see any posts for a while, check back on Valentine's Day. That's when Flo is coming to town again. Can you believe this shit? Every year for the past 2 years I have had Flo with me on nearly every observed holiday from Christmas and Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day and Memorial Day. Not to mention she always comes on vacation. It's bad enough that we IFers live our lives in 2 week increments (2 weeks of having Flo and waiting to ovulate, 2 weeks after ovulation to see if we are pregnant) but I usually find out I am not pregnant on a holiday because that's when the witch shows up. I am hoping to get rid of her for at least 9 months in the very near future!

Thanks for reading!