Medication Calendar

Finally, the time has come to start the medication and see the timeline for the Embryo Transfer. I had a scheduled transfer of December 8, 2015...

November 15, 2015
I took my last birth control pill today and tonight I start the Lupron shots. What's Lupron and I have to do what with it?! Crazy right? I have to inject myself with a needle in my stomach, I cringed just thinking about it! Lupron is taken to control the menstrual cycle and puts you in a "medical menopause". What does that mean? Well basically its means that my ovaries will stop ovulating and my menstrual cycle will be controlled. The injections didn't hurt at all, I think just psyched myself out wayyyy too much. Once I poked myself I was like that's it? That was nothing!

Not only did I have to start the Lupron injections, I also had to take some oral medication. I had to take Prednisone, Estrace, Folic Acid, Prenatals and a Vivelle Dot patch (twice a week).

I read that there were going to be some side effects, you know, headaches, nausea, mood swings. I just figured I would be an emotional wreck while on these medications. I warned my friends, hey don't come around me at this time, I don't want to snap at you for no reason, I won't be able to control myself... It wasn't as bad as I thought! Yes I got irritated a little faster than normal, but I wasn't going bat shit crazy like I thought I would be. Pretty sweet, but that's not the case for every surro mom out there. I was one of the lucky ones.

December 1, 2015
So I've been on the Lupron shots and all of the other oral medications for about 2 weeks now. Today I go in for a check up to see how thick my lining is getting. The Dr examines my uterus and tells me that my lining was thickening but it looked "cloudy". I was confused as to what that meant. The Dr said that they had standards of what they are looking for in the lining. They were looking for it to be trilateral. She was telling me that on my next appointment, which was in a few days from today, that if the lining wasn't clear that they will have to regroup. I went home, kind of confused but figured that I would know more on Friday.

December 4, 2015
Today was the day I was either going to transfer on December 8th or not. I see my Dr. and he tells me that my lining hasn't cleared up and that they will have to regroup and cancel the transfer next week. I was pretty bummed out at this point. I wanted so badly for everything to be okay and work out for me and my IP's. My doctor prescribed me Prometium and sent me on my way. I had to take the Prometrium for 10 days and then call them when my menstrual cycle came.

My menstrual cycle ended up coming early, I didn't even get to finish the pills. Luckily I didn't have to go to Irvine to get more meds. I just started all the meds again on Dec 27th. Second round of medications we go! Only this time, they added another shot! Yes, another flipping shot, this time its on my upper buttock region with a BIGGER needle! Of course I psyched myself out yet again because the needle was huge, but in all actuality it wasn't as bad as it looked. I now have a new transfer date of January 22nd.

So to make a long story short, my newest transfer date was canceled again. Same issues with my lining being cloudy. I now I have to take 1 estrace pill and 1 endometrin (suppository) for 10 days. The suppositories kind of put a damper on your night lift because once it goes in you cannot do anything but lay there. Whew that was kind of a long blog post, but now that we are up to date, check back next time for my latest update.

The Beginning

Let's start at the beginning... In the back of my mind I have always thought of being a surrogate mom. I just never knew anyone that had done it before or where to look at the time. Until I started beauty school in January 2014. One of the girls in my class told us that she was a surrogate mom three times! I thought that is the most amazing gift someone could give to someone else. 

So then I started looking into becoming a surrogate and what it took to be one. It's definitely not an easy task. First you have to find an agency, going Indy (independent) for your first journey would be too overwhelming. I definitely recommend going through the process with an agency for your first time. Then there's a medical screening process, psych evaluation process, matching process, legal process and then the journey starts.

Fast forward to June of 2015... Finding my agency wasn't hard at all. I had spoken to some of my other classmates about who they were going through and checked out their agencies. I ended up going with one that I had found out in Irvine, CA. I met with my coordinator probably around the end of June 2015. After I met with her, things were in limbo for a few months. Waiting around for a phone call or email to let me know that my medical records were cleared was kind of stressful. Luckily I had a really busy summer. And then in late July, beginning of August I got a call that the Dr's at the fertility center looked over my records and said everything looked good! I was so excited to hear the good news because after this point, things started rolling forward. 

I  started the medical screening process at the end of August. There was a lot of lab work, lots of tubes of blood being taken out and trips to the fertility center. Once I was medically cleared, I went through the psych evaluation process. This process was much simpler, no needles! I was officially matched at the end of August! I was super excited and so anxious to keep going forward. The legal process wasn't too difficult, just a lot of reading. I had a 2 hour phone call with my lawyer to go over the contract, I didn't need to change anything, which was a good thing. No issues arose out of this stage, I was worried because I follow a surrogacy forum and there are people on there that have had issues with their contracts and it was just a mess.

I was finally cleared of all of the above processes, now I wait for the fertility office to call so that I can start the medication process. Unfortunately I had to wait another month! I was told that I wasn't vaccinated for Hep B, so they needed to vaccinate me with a series of 3 shots in one month. There was a one month waiting period before I could get tested to see if my body created the anti bodies for Hep B. The whole month of October was a waiting game. On a positive note I didn't have to make any trips to Irvine during this time. Although I don't mind the 1-1 1/2 hour trip up and back, it takes up half my day! So now we are now into November, lab work done and I am in the clear! WOOO HOOO!!

Whew! that was a quick 5 months since I began my journey of becoming a surrogate mom. At some points it seemed like time was at a stand still but thinking back, it actually went quicker than I thought. I know this post was a doozy and I started it kind of late in my journey but people have been asking me to document my journey so that they can follow me. So that's why I started my blog today... Come back next week for a blog update!