Day 6 - Ultrasound and consultation with Dr. Robert Kuo-Kuang Lee

I had to wait around 30 minutes for the ultrasound. Once done, the technician completed the follicle monitoring sheet and returned it to me. I then took the sheet to Dr. Lee's clinic which is on the same floor as the ultrasound lab. Within minutes I was called and after around 5 minutes in the waiting area, it was my turn. Dr. Lee looked at the form and started prescribing the doses of the stims for the next couple days. He prescribed the below doses:

Day 6 - 150 iu Gonal-F
Day 7 - 225 iu Gonal-F
Day 8 - 225 iu Gonal-F & 0.5 ml Orgalutran/Ganirelix

I am to return to the hospital to do another ultrasound on day 9 and follow up consult. Actually I was rather disappointed to see the current ultrasound result as it showed only 5 follicles. I asked Dr. Lee if this number was a little too low, he said this number is good. Ahh well...as long as he thinks so!

After that, I was passed to Lisa, the doctor's assistant. She drew the remaining Gonal-F from the 2 used pens for the previous stims into a traditional syringe and gave it to me as day 6 stim. The nice thing about doing ivf here is that they do not like to waste any medication and don't want the patient to incur any additional expense than necessary. I asked her if it is possible to just use the pen to inject instead of drawing the meds into a single syringe. She said that's also possible but that would mean the patient will have to inject twice (75 iu remaining per pen). I was pretty touched that they care enough to ensure that the patient's anxiety and discomfort is minimized!

After I came out of the clinic, I visited Annie at the international medical services center and had a nice chat with her. Then on my way out of the hospital, I picked up the medications from the pharmacy injections pick up counter and went home. I spent only around 2 hours and was all set for the weekend.

The cost of this visit was NT$8,288 which is approximately US$277 or CA$302. This includes the fee for registration, consultation, ultrasound, pharmacy and medications for day 7 & 8 (Gonal-F & Ganirelix). Note that the medications accounts for the major portion of the cost (meds cost was NT$7,580).

In the evening, my mother-in-law helped me inject the 150 iu of Gonal-F as it was in a traditional syringe and I am lucky that my mom-in-law used to be a nurse. With her administration, I did not even shed one drop of blood whereas, I always bleed when I administer the injection myself. I also requested her to help administer the Ganirelix injection for me on day 8. Phew! I feel less anxious now. Praying that I grow more eggs!!