Our First Medicated Cycle = BFP!

After the surgery we were instructed to wait one cycle until we started trying again.  It felt like forever, but Dr. Jaffe already had the plan set up for our first medicated cycle.  A medicated cycle is when a woman takes fertility drugs (such as Clomid or Femara) to help the cycle behave as it should (in my case, help me ovulate earlier).  My protocol was to take Femara for 5 days and then take an injection of the medication Ovidrel to help ensure that my body really would ovulate.  Ovidrel is actually a synthetic version of the human hormone hcg, the pregnancy hormone.

During the cycle I was monitored, which means that before I started the Femara I was checked to make sure I didn't have any cysts or other problems.  Everything looked clear so I started the Femara.  After the 5 days I came back for another check and the tech counted the follicles that my ovaries were producing.  She measured several good sized follicles, which meant that I was responding well to the medication.  I was told to wait 48 hours and then take the Ovidrel shot.

Art gave me the shot in my belly on Saturday and then we waited the long, dreaded two week wait to find out if everything had worked.  I was so impatient though that I didn't wait the whole two weeks and tested just 12 days after ovulation.  Miraculously, on October 25th 2012 I saw that beautiful second line on the pregnancy test.  I was completely overwhelmed.

It was pretty early in the morning and so I ran over to Art who was still sleeping and woke him up saying "Guess what?!  I think we're pregnant!"  It was a scary feeling because I wasn't even sure if I should believe the test, but we were so excited.  I went in for a blood test at the RE's office to confirm that I was really pregnant.  They called back and gave me the beta hcg number: it was only 16.5.  However, once they realized that I was just really early in coming in they said I was probably fine and to come back in 72 hours.  My next beta number was 40.  Still low but at least the number was doubling, which is what they want to see.  I had one more beta two days later that came back at 128!  Everything was on track and I really was pregnant!