Cervical Dialation

I had my cervical dilation this afternoon. When I entered the room I saw a cup that had some brown fluid in it that looked like soy or teriaki sauce in it! I told our RE that is what I thought it looked like and he laughed! It turns out it is some iodine solution that he rubbed on my cervix before the procedure to prevent infection. The actual procedure lasted about a minute, after he prepped me, sort of like one does for a pap smear. The tool he used was maybe about the size of a pencil (though longer) and the tip he used to may a very small puncture in my cervix, was probably the size of a dully sharpened pencil. It was painful, but not unbearably. I started cramping immediately when he put the tool in. I cramped off and on for probably about 30 minutes afterwards and then felt fine. He and the nurses said there is nothing I should or shouldn’t do post-cervical dilation and that yes, amazingly it will stay dilated through when I am scheduled to have my ET on October 11.

After the procedure I met with one of the nurses to go over the plan going forward. I found out that I was indeed supposed to come in on Friday for a day 21 on the pill pre-starting Lupron monitoring appointment. But they said since it was so close that they could do the u/s and blood work while I was there today and save me a trip, which was great! As it turns out, with the HMO insurance coverage we have, they have to approve each little step of the way, but not before each previous step… So though the procedure today was approved, we do not yet officially have approval for this FET cycle! GRRR! 🙁 So they will put in for the approval today and hopefully have it by Friday, so I can start Lupron on Saturday, as planned, with the ET scheduled for October 11! 🙂 However, if somehow they don’t get clearance by Friday, I will have to refill my pill prescription and continue to take it until we get the green light from our HMO. That said, in effort to have our RE do our ET and not another RE in his practice, that might mean that everything could get pushed back by days or even weeks, to work around his schedule. I am to call on Friday to find out the status and we will go from there.

Also, the medications can not be ordered until we get the green light from our HMO and we are planning to go to Bob’s parents and uncle’s cottage in MI this weekend, so the nurses had to let me take some of their Lupron stock, to get me through the weekend, assuming I am able to start on Saturday, as I will likely not be able to get the meds shipped and scheduled to arrive until Monday or Tuesday of next week. If all goes as planned my next appointment will be on day 7 of being on Lupron (Friday, September 21) and I will start the patches and vaginal pills to build my uterine lining on Saturday, September 22. It is a bit frustrating to still not know for sure what the plan is for this cycle. But I have learned through this ART experience, that often seems to be the case and I have to try to be patient and roll with it!

Well, I am off to meet some of my neighborhood mommy friends for a drink at one of our local pubs! I am tired and sorta feel like just laying low, but know that I will be glad I went after I arrive and spend some quality time with my girlfriends! 🙂 I have some more cute Sean stories from his first week of preschool, but gotta run, so I will share tomorrow or Friday! Thank you for reading and for your continued support, thoughts and prayers!