so much for the fast track

My last post was a trip down memory lane, a recap of the 3-1/2-year odyssey we went through to conceive baby #1. Once said baby was properly gestated, birthed, grown a little, and finally weaned, Mr. Foxy and I got busy working on baby #2. By "working" I mean counting the days until we could get a referral back to Dr. Snaggletooth.

We rolled back into his office in March of this year. Happily the good doctor told us that we wouldn't need to mess with those silly IUI's and could go straight back to IVF. He also told us that insurance will cover 2 fresh IVF cycles, as opposed to 4 cycles allotted for a first child.

Learning that we could do just 2 IVF attempts was kindof a relief. It meant that our infertility journey has a few more steps to go and then a very definite ending. We want to have a second child, but we really could be quite happy with the one. I just wanted to be done with it, one way or the other.

So how hard can it be to get cracking on an IVF cycle?

Let's put it this way.. what can you do to avoid doing an IVF?

1. Disorient your doctor: have totally random menstrual cycles. They can't start your meds if they don't know where you are in the cycle! You can blow a few weeks by making it look like you might ovulate, but then you never get your period.
2. Create a diversion: have a very short-lived positive pregnancy test. Surprise everyone with an unexpected HCG result. Give the impression that there might be a miraculous so-called "natural" pregnancy. Waste a few days on follow-up HCGs to confirm that there's nothing there. Then repeat #1 by failing to get your period again.
3. Fake out your doctor: threaten ovarian hyper-stimulation, get cancelled. This is a fantastic time-suck. Actually start the IVF cycle, including 1 whole month on birth-control pills followed by 2+ weeks of ovarian suppression, then stimulation. Right when it looks like your ovaries might explode, your doc will put the kibosh on the whole thing. You basically went through 75% of an IVF cycle with nothing to show for it. Then of course you repeat #1 for a couple more weeks of limbo.
4. Nuclear option: get an ovarian cyst. This one is totally unpredictable and can wipe out months of time. There's no way of knowing how long a cyst will hang around. Your doctors are stumped about whether to "wait and see" or take action by aspirating it.

To be honest, my ovaries failed to show true commitment to tactic #4. I had a 30mm cyst which within a week had fizzled to less than 10mm.

I'm done with the birth-control pills and am about to go take another Lupron shot. We are fully into ovarian suppression mode. I'm scheduled for baseline bloodwork/ultrasound and stims on Monday. That leaves me with 5 days to come up with some asinine way to derail this puppy.

Oh, what the heck.. let's go ahead with it!