YOUR MEDS:
The meds were probably the easiest part for me this go-round (weird, since normally I get awful headaches and turn into some kind of raging hormonal witch from you know where. As an individual who doesn't often have to DEAL with naturally occurring hormones, having massive levels thrown at you all at once can shake your world).
- Be kind to yourself. Recognize that you are putting your body through a stressful and sometimes difficult regiment. Everything will be affected - your ability to think, your energy, the way you feel physically. It will probably come with some degree of pain. Just take it easy, do something each day that relaxes you, and try to keep your mind off of anything other than the aches and pains that go along with it. The thing I most looked forward to was a hot shower in the morning. For whatever reason, it's been extremely helpful with recovering from PIO shots, easing cramps and sore ovaries, etc.
- Find a way to keep track of your differing doses. I made myself an IVF book where I outlined the dates, and on each date I had an appt I would write in the appt time, the type of appt, the medications I needed to take, and the doses. This way if I ever got confused all I had to do was reference my little book. I'd take it with to doctors appointments, too.
- For peace of mind, take your meds at the same time every day. Some doctors tell you that a two hour window is fine. If we were out and about, I would go to the later end of that window, but for the most part, I did shots at 8:30 at night. When they told me to trigger at 10:30, the needle went into my skin at *exactly* 10:30.
- Check your dosing multiple times. I am the kind that will think about it 30 minutes after the fact and wonder "Did I mess up my shots?!". To counteract that, I would draw up the syringe, check the amount, get all the air bubbles out, check the amount again, and then, after prepping my skin, check the amount for a third time. I would also double check which vial I was drawing from about 3 times, too. At the very least, I could have peace of mind that yes, I did in fact give myself the correct dosage even if it took fifteen minutes to administer 2-3 shots.
YOUR DR's APPTS:
If at all possible, find a Dr. that has WIFI and short appointment times. I realize - please, believe me - that your options can be quite limited when you live in a smaller town, but do your due diligence and find an office that will work for you. When we lived in Lubbock, we had 2 choices for REs. The first one was horrific with long wait times every.single.day. At least an hour before even being called back. To me, that was unacceptable - how was I supposed to make that work when I had a fulltime job? The next one was marginally better, but still had the occasional wait time longer than 45 minutes with no wifi. Mind, I didn't want the Wifi to entertain myself - I wanted to be able to work. The RE office here in Utah rarely had a wait time longer than five minutes and if they did, they had Wifi and a computer available. I felt 100% comfortable going to every appointment because I knew I could keep on top of work and even if it took longer than an hour round trip (which it almost NEVER did) I wouldn't be behind on work when I got home. My husband appreciated the Wifi too, as it allowed him to use his phone and stay entertained during the longer appointments.
YOUR MARRIAGE
This is probably the biggest one of all. Before starting fertility treatments, I had no idea exactly how much it would affect our marriage.
- It will affect your finances. It just will. Unless you are one of the fortunate few who have treatments covered by insurance, be prepared for it to hurt a little bit. We had to save before we started each treatment and consciously make the decision that it was important enough to both of us to affect our finances. More on that later.
- You're going to want to talk about it all.the.time. It's going to be on your mind 24/7 because it affects pretty much every part of your life - you are the one having to finagle all the doctors appointments in addition to whatever else you have going on in your life, you are the one getting shot up with medication, you are the one feeling the effects of that medication. Newsflash: your partner has a different view. He understands what is going on, but he also has a higher level view and understands there are still 57 other normal things going on in your life. He will not want to hear about your lady parts 24/7. Find other things to talk about.
- Stay close. Have fun. Go on dates. Be a couple.
- It's gonna affect your sex life. It just is. Depending on your protocol, it's going to throw a massive wrench into what you're able to do, and when. Be sensitive to your partner. (Sorry you had to read that, mom).
YOUR FINANCES
This is such a subjective thing (as is most of fertility treatment) but here is what we found that helped minimize the financial stress for us.
- Save for it up front. Once you know what kind of treatment you're looking at (and get an idea before you even go into a consult what your insurance will and won't cover), save up for it up front. That way, when the money is spent, even if you get a negative result you're not left paying on something that didn't work out. We did that for both of our IUI cycles and it felt so good to be able to just forget that cycle and move on. Granted, we have been 6-7 months between each treatment cycle, but we were willing to do that to take care of the finances. We may have been more aggressive if we had felt "right" about either of the REs.
- Forget about the money after you write the check. Yeah, it's a lot of money. Yeah, you're going to notice that your bank account decreased dramatically. Write that check and don't think about it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment