I'm still on the Lupron, but I'm down to 5u, so the headaches aren't so bad. When I was on 10u, every night around 9 pm, I felt like my head would explode! Last week I added the Vivelle patches, 3 at a time for two days. Its crazy having 3 little stickers on your hip at all times, but you really don't even notice them once you've put them on. They're safe in the shower and the pool, and I haven't had one fall off yet. Pro-Tip: When you go to take off your patch(es), have a cotton ball with isopropyl alcohol on it ready. That's about the only way you're going to get that adhesive off! That stuff must be made by NASA! We're also doing 4mg of the Delestrogen IM shots. I always hated getting IM shots in the past because the nurse would do them too low on the butt cheek and I'd get sore. Luckily, the hubs watched a few YouTube videos on how to give them. I haven't been sore or had any problems since we started! I have to say, I definitely recommend laying on your tummy and getting it done while you're face down. You don't have to see it, you get to relax a bit more, and you end up with no soreness at all.
Next week, I'll start the Estrace pills, and I have to say, I'm not too enthused about this. I'm not sure why on earth anyone would think it a good idea to stick a pill up your hoo-ha twice a day, but I guess I'm gonna. Supposedly your body absorbs it a little better and it helps thicken your lining that way. Fine. I'll do it. Whatever, man. Just get me my baby!
For those of you keeping tabs, I believe forgot to mention the cost of the FET meds in my last post. This time, meds are different than they were for the fresh cycle with egg retrieval. I think we spent about $3000 (after insurance paid a little) for meds for egg production and retrieval, but since FET has a different protocol, we couldn't use anything that was left from that prescription. FET meds were only about $500 (insurance wouldn't pay at all). That should bring the total to around $25,500 ($10k for hubs surgery + $12k for IVF + $3k for fresh meds + $500 for FET meds). If your IVF cycle does not include ICSI (intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection), then you would likely spend about $9-10k less.
ICSI is only necessary when you have sperm that are unable to swim up for fertilization. Instead, the RE will take one individual sperm from the lot, and inject it into one of the retrieved eggs, waiting for it to fertilize. Wanna see what happens with ICSI? Check out this video.