The Good, The Bad, & The Bloated

The GOOD:  Retrieval surgery on Saturday went well....42 eggs, which is an amazing number.  The ideal number you want to get somewhere in the teens, so the fact that I had that many is really spectacular.  By Sunday 25 had become embryos and on Wednesday our new count was 20.  We'll find out today what our final number is.

The BAD:  Because I had so many eggs, my ovaries grew to be extremely large.  When they removed the eggs all that space filled up with fluid.  By Sunday I was in a massive amount of pain.  On Monday they had to cancel my embryo transfer because I was getting so sick which was a bit of a bummer but I was in so much pain that honestly I couldn't imagine doing the transfer at that point.  

The BLOATED:  I've gained about 6 pounds and my stomach is about 6 inches larger then normal....so I'm pretty bloated.  I don't remember much of Tuesday or Wednesday other then they put me on Vicodin so I'm pretty much slept and tried to find some sort of comfortable position.  Thursday we went back to the doctor at which point the fluid had moved into 5 sections of my abdomen, the last being my lung area.   At that point it was decided I needed to go back into surgery and have some fluid removed to relieve the pressure.  They took out 2 liters!!!  That's a big ol' soda bottle of fluid.  I'm finally eating and talking again which is making the hubby happy because he's just been terrified staring at me for 5 days straight.  Poor guy.  Still a little out of breath and there is still fluid in me, but things are much more manageable.  

Things may seem bad, but they are really ok.  We are so excited that we got embryos.  They will be frozen tomorrow and we'll do the transfer next cycle when I'm healthy again.  For now, I just rest, work on getting strong again, and somehow deal with the pain of having to suffer thru watching bad action movies that I've seen before.  Apparently the hubby has been trying to watch them all week and my subconscious just kept saying no.  The hubby would like to add that he suffered thru a lot of HGTV all week (honestly I know he liked it.  He's totally into House Hunters).

Day 4 Stats

Here are my injection day 4 stats for my IVF ladies.

Day 1-3: Gonal-F @225, 1 powder of Menopur

Day 4: b/w, u/s

  Follicles: 8-L, 10-R

  E2 Level: 562

Reducing Gonal-F to 150 for day 4, 5 & 6 injections
Hubby & I started our Z-Packs on day 5

*Next b/w, u/s morning of day 7

Lazy Left is back in the game baby!

This picture represents all the follicles in my ovaries.  It's like a snow day in there.  10 follicles in my right ovary and 8 in my left.  You read that right people, 8!!  My lazy left ovary has created more follicles.  No more cookies for it.  The ultra-sound technician informed us that there is a chance my E2 level will be high and they'll have to lower my hormone dosage.  Don't want the E2 level to be too high.  We'll wait for the doctor's office to call and I'll find out then what the level is and what "normal" is. 

Lets chat about side effects.  I've had a bad cold for about 2 weeks now so I'm not sure what side effects are being caused by it and what the meds are causing.  Other then the horrendous cough and the stuffy nose, I'm walking into things (I'm a little loopy, but that could be the cold), and the injection site on my tummy is sensitive.  I've had a little cramping every morning at around 4:15am which wakes me up.  Bad timing, but I'll just consider it prep for parenthood.  Other then that, I'm feeling pretty good.  

Now we just wait for our nurse to call us and give us instructions for this evenings injections and when we'll need to be back at the doctors office for another blood test and ultra-sound.  In the meantime, I hope my snow flakes continue growing:)

Shots Fired

We are done with day 1 folks.  It wasn't the most pleasant thing I've ever felt but it most definitely wasn't horrible. 1st Shot: Gonal-F went in smoothly.  2nd Shot: Menopur went in a little more rough.  When we inject, we are supposed to hold the needle in for 5 seconds.  A real 5 seconds people...not the quick seconds we did as children.  I definitely felt the Menopur needle going in and let out a tiny little yelp that scared my husband a little and he pulled the needle out.  I'm not sure if its because of the meds, the needle or if it was that side of my stomach.  No matter what, he was a super star.  It can't feel good hurting the person you love the mostest.  Tomorrow we'll make a few adjustments with the location.  

Happy Thanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!  I’m thankful for my amazing family and friends. This has been an incredibly difficult year for us but we made it through with the love that surrounds us.    I also want to give a shout-out to my period that arrived today.  I’m thankful that you have started so that I can start to jab my belly on Saturday.  It’s been great fun, but 
I hope you disappear for 40 weeks. 

Holy $hot!!!

Love hipstamatic, it makes everything look better, but don't let it fool you.  All those med's are going into me.  I’m not gonna lie, I was a little overwhelmed when I saw it all.  My husband unpacked them and took inventory and the moment he finished he called me and professed his love to me and gave me the ultimate “card”.  You know the “card”, the one I get to hold up in situations where he is being an ass and I get my way because I’ve done him an enormous favor.  Well, the favor this time is injecting all those medicines into my body while he just sits around waiting to do his part.  This “card” is a picture of a bunch needles going into my stomach and I’m going to use it for as long as I can. 

Lets break it down; the injectable medicines ended up costing us $2,940.45.  The pills (which no one told me about until I was basically picking them up) cost about $123.73.  Luckily those are actually partially covered by my insurance!  Praise the Lord!!! 

Off to injection lessons we go.  Now…they give you one lesson on how to do this all.  My husband secretly records the entire thing on his iPhone, because knowing us; we will most likely forget the process the moment we leave here.  There is a nurse on hand at all times that you can call and there are loads of videos emailed to us as well as websites that have them all.  But other then that we are on our own.   Our lesson became a chemistry class.  It took me back to high school, sitting in front of those freezing cold black top tables, only now we are sitting in uncomfortable chairs using the top of a file cabinet as a workspace in the smallest room they could find.  We mix water with water in our class to show us how to mix the solutions and powders.   There are different size needles that we have the capability of changing.  They give us a fake belly pad to practice on.  The hubby goes to insert the needle and my face turns to horror.  He’s forgotten to remove the 20 gauge needle!  For those who don’t know how long that is, it looks to be about 2 inches to my horrified eyes.  YOU AIN’T JABBING ME WITH THAT NEEDLE, BITCH…he stops just in time and realizes.  That poor fake belly almost got it. 

Maria, our nurse, suggests that my husband do all the injections while I lie down.   Did she not just see what happened?  At the end of the day, I agree that it’s probably the best idea.  I do have a high tolerance for pain, however I’m not sure if I have the guts to jab myself 2-3 times daily with something I know won’t feel good.  She gives us our calendar, which explains what shots I’ll be taking when and an idea of the timing of my retrieval surgery.   I love me a calendar. 

I’ll be taking 2-3 shots every evening at 9pm.  The timing was my choice, but it had to be an evening time.  I start with 2 shots and then move to 3 when my body is “ready” for it.  On day 7, both the hubs and I start on a z-pack.  Not sure why, but I’ll find out closer to that day.  I’m assuming it’s to kill any infections in our body so that my eggs and his sperm are at their prime.  I have no idea what these shots do exactly.  Other then the fact that they are hormones and they will make my body drop more eggs, I really don’t know what they are.  In my case I’d like to keep it this way.  To much information can make me a crazy person.  No need for me to obsess over something I can’t control. 

Once the shots have done their thing, and my body is ready for retrieval, I’ll be headed to the surgical center.  Out they go and I start on all of the oral meds (and another type of med that I’m not gonna chat about because I have boundaries to grossing people out, but lets just say it may as well be a tampon).  As of right now Maria says that these meds are to make my uterine lining the thickest and bestest it can be for embryo attachment.  YAY for modern medicine!

And there you go, a quick download on the meds and the process.  All I have to wait for now is for the “flow” to arrive.  We take off on a jet plane tomorrow and head to my parents.  Our amazing families have moved Thanksgiving to Monday so that we can spend it with them since it looks like I’ll have to fly home before the actual Thanksgiving to get the process started.