Initial Meeting at the Clinic

Our Initial meeting at the Oderzo Clinic was October 20th
We took one of our Italian friends, Alessandra with us (this family is pretty much our Italian family) I keep their little boy Enrico, I have been his Nanny for 3 years now! Alessandra is an Oncologist and we asked her to go to our initial meeting with us to help translate and tell the clinic they could contact her with any information about our case. She helped translate during the meeting and helped us line everything out for the entire treatment! It was a lot of information, we signed a lot of paperwork, we received an outline of the treatment and the payment plans, so we now had an idea of  how everything, well mostly everything would play out! 

Dr. Manno actually told us this in an email but because of my low ovarian reserve they will actually be doing ICSI with us. This stands for intracytoplasmic sperm injection. ICSI may be used as part of an IVF treatment. In normal IVF, many sperm are placed together with and egg, in hopes that one of the sperm will enter and fertilize the egg. With ICSI, the embryologist takes a single sperm and injects it directly into an egg. 

Here is a link if you would like to research ICSI more: http://www.webmd.com/infertility-and-reproduction/guide/intracytoplasmic-sperm-injection-for-infertility 


We are still waiting on an appointment with the Genetic Counselor but we are still able to proceed with the IVF treatment cycle before seeing him. 
This is where we currently are....now I will start with day by day posts of our treatment! 

I am excited and nervous! I am very thankful for Cliff to help with the injections because I do not think I could give them to myself.


Today Nov. 18th we had to go to the Clinic for another appointment, the beginning of the treatment :)
We saw the anesthesiologist who we paid 120 Euro to, he explained a little about what would happen during egg retrieval (which they call pick up) and transfer.
Next I had an ultrasound and blood work done by Dr. Tomei, they gave me several samples of medications ok so they aren't really samples it is the medications I need and the most expensive ones! This medication is called meropur it comes in a box of 12 vials of 75 IU which will more than likely last me 2 days per box, but here is the kicker, each box cost 200-250 Euro! YIKES! Luckily the clinic gave me enough to last until the 26th and then she (Paula a nurse) said she would more than likely be able to give me more! She also gave me more Inofolic vitamins which was nice because I was going to have to go to the Farmacia (Italian pharmacy) tomorrow and buy more.
And then we saw the biologist who also explained a little about what would happen during the egg retrieval (pick up) and transfer. She gave us a print out of some steps that happen, a few pictures of their lab and answered any questions that we had! 
At the end we paid 470 Euro for the other half of the visit, the ultrasound, blood work and visit with the biologist.

When we left I felt very confident that they will do everything they can to make this a success! It seems like if something doesn't work they have a back up plan! I was extremely happy to feel some relief and a sense of calmness! 


Medications we started: (Most of my meds are from the clinic or we get them from the Farmaci so the meds are Italian names.)

Oct. 14-22 - Yaz, birth control so glad to be finished with that, I did not like it! Changed my skin (gave me             some acne that I never get), reduced my libido and made me quite moody! I was able to get this from the Base.  

Oct. 14 -until pick up - Inofolic - (in the morning) this is folic acid 200mcg and Myo-Inositolo 2000mg 

                                 
 -Inofolic Plus (at night) - folic acid 200mcg, Myo-Insitolo 2000mg, Melatonina 3mg, I had to buy these from the Farmacia there are 20 in a box, Inofolic is 13.50 Euro, the Inofolic Plus is 27.50 Euro both are powder form that I mix with water and have no taste! 

Nov. 18 - Enantone 3.75mg injection intramuscular (Alessandra was able to get this for us) this injection hurt!

Cliff started his vitamins on Oct. 14th also!
Genadis - one pack per day, (Acido D-Aspartico 2660mg, Coenzima Q10 200mg, Zinco 10mg) it is also a powder form that he mixes with water but it is orange flavor. This is basically to make him have super sperm ;) A box of 14 packs costs 41.50 Euro