IVF #4: IVF Calendar has officially arrived

It feels like such a long time to get this IVF cycle started... and here I am -- ALMOST there!

Since the last time I wrote: 

1. I stopped birth control on 9/17/18, as directed from my RE. 
2. AF arrived on 9/20/18. I called my RE's office and my next directions were to start birth control again on 9/22. 
3. TODAY I received my IVF calendar. 

Some random things I forgot: 

• I tend to spot while I'm on birth control. So, it was kind of hard to determine if I was having the start of my period or just spotting from the birth control. 
• The WAITING for everything feels so very long... like insanely long. I thought I'd get my IVF calendar right away. Nope, just got it. 
• I have to give up caffeine during stims.... oh no... what ever will I do without my one cup of coffee in the morning... I feel total sadness over this, which is silly. LOL. But man, I love my morning coffee! 
• My mood swings on birth control are so bad. I swear, I hate being on it. I know it's going to get worse when I start stims. 

Things I didn't know: 

Apparently I needed to register with my insurance for something called the "Women's Health Program." I don't recall having to do this before. Maybe I did? Maybe I didn't? Maybe it's new? Who knows... But, this has to be done in order to get my insurance fertility benefits to kick in. So they asked me all these questions like, "have you been trying long to have a baby," "Do you have irregular periods?" etc etc. It takes about 5 days before they approve it. I'm waiting for the call back from a nurse to see if they'll even approve my fertility coverage... which I think is odd since I don't believe my employer has any stipulations on the lifetime max fertility coverage. 

My response: "I have not been trying long as I'm single and will be using donor sperm, so not like I could be trying." Then: "I've also been diagnosed with unexplained infertility, which should be in my records." Because umm, my insurance provider has not changed. Man... insurance companies annoy me. Jump through hoops, I swear. I'm concerned they're going to deny coverage or something, say I need to try 6 times before coverage kicks in or something like that. But I'm not going to stress about that at the moment and cross that bridge if it comes. I have low AMH, so I believe I can also use the "diminished ovarian reserve" argument as well. Will see. 

Medication Order: 

My medication order was submitted to a different pharmacy... which I thought was weird. I had to call them to request them to send it to my normal pharmacy. Which means I should be getting my BOB (aka Big Box of Meds) either late this week or early next week... When I receive that... it'll start feeling extremely real to me. 

IVF Calendar: 

1. 10/10/18: Injections Training and Cycle Pay Day 
2. 10/13/18: Stop Birth Control 
3. 10/16/18: Start Microdose Lupron 
4. 10/18/18: Start Stims - Protocol: Microdose Lupron Flare Protocol  
5. 10/22/18: Stim Day #5 - First monitoring Appointment 
6. 10/29/18: Estimated Day of Egg Retrieval 

Thoughts: 

Everything with IVF is so completely unpredictable. I have no clue if I'll respond well to the protocol or not. If I'll even make it to egg retrieval. I want to say I'm optimistic... and I am, in a way. However, with everything that I went through before - I know I need to be real with myself. I'm trying not to have too many expectations and just go with the flow. So far, I've managed to do that and just roll with it. But at the end of all this... I really want another baby. I feel totally invested in adding to my family. 

So... fingers crossed and baby dust sprinkling all around that there's at least one good egg in there.