Cycle Day 3 - Start Stims

Today was the day that I only managed to get nervous about once we finally managed to check into the hotel. There will be more detail of the vacation aspect of our journey on our family site but I will say that we had a long drive to get here as our GPS ran out of power before we even managed to leave Vienna (no - forgot to charge it before we left and then we also left the car charger at home...). It was fine though. We purchased some maps and drove through Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic and saw some great scenery along the way. I wish my camera wasn't packed while we drove but I'll get pictures soon.

We checked in around 9.30pm (we have a cute studio with kitchenette and great views), unpacked and shared an egg sandwich and chips for dinner. We turned in by 10.30pm but my nerves started around 11.30 and I was up a few times due to that. By 5am I took out my iphone and listed to a guided visualization session to calm down. I then slept until 7.30am. We caught the news about Hurricane Bill before going to breakfast. It was lovely - sausages, scrambled eggs, fresh bread and jam and cereal. We sat with Jenny and her husband who are here from Germany and caught up in real life since Jenny and I met on one of the IVF boards. We then went back to our room to set up our wireless internet access while they headed to the clinic.

We got to the clinic around 10.15am. I got my blood pressure meds and then we had to wait. They took us in for our STD blood tests and my hormone blood test at 11am. It was easy - which is something for me to say since I am the worst person for blood tests. I guess she has tons of experience since it's an IVF clinic so it shouldn't have surprised me. We then had a long wait. The place is soooo busy but it does move quickly. I think we noticed how long the wait was because we weren't prepared - we only had my iphone and sharing it was awful. We talked with Jenny and her husband before they went in for their 1st control visit and then we were on our own. I looked at the pictures in the Czech magazines and even started picking up the gist of some of the articles.

We went in to see the doctor at 1pm. It was so worth the wait though. He explained everything to us - what our records meant in terms of what he was going to do, the entire cycle, the decisions we'll have to make, an ultrasound with descriptions of everything on the screen and what the results of my hormonal blood test meant in relation to the protocol he was going to give me. My FSH was 5.3 this morning and he was quite happy with that. He's started me on the Gonal F 900IU pen with daily dosages of 187.5 units through to Monday. On Tuesday (8/25) we have a 9am appointment where they'll do another hormone test and a vaginal ultrasound. I will then tentatively have my next visit on 8/30 where I'll probably receive the trigger shot and ER would then be on 9/1 and transfer would be 9/4 (for 3 day) or 9/7 (for 5/6 day - they don't do transfers or retrievals on Sundays here). So once we discussed that we were taken to learn how to use the pen. I felt nothing! It is so easy to use. They gave me all of my stims and I have put them in the fridge in our little studio apartment.

Well, off to do some grocery shopping and then we'll walk around Zlin a bit to get used to the residential part that we're living in. I am loving the gardens already.