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).

floating

Day 11: All we need is 1 egg, but my body seems to want to make 60 for some annoying reason.  Today we found out that I am reacting "too well" to the medicine and I had to be taken off.  My E2 (estrogen) level is at 7328 which just crazy and I am feeling it.  I imagine this is kind of what it feels like to be uncomfortable during pregnancy; my back is killing me, my stomach feels like a rock and I'm nauseous all the time.  

The doctor has put me in a "floating" state.  What this means is that I won't be injecting any more hormones but will continue my Cetrotide injection in order to halt my LH surge.  I'll be going to the doctor every day now because they have to watch me closely as I am on the verge of hyperstimulation.  We don't want this to happen, it is a BAD thing.  They are hoping that without the hormones my body will naturally lower my estrogen level.  Let's hope it does because they can't do the surgery until it goes down.  Stupid hormones.  

In our ultra sound this morning, the technician said that I had over 30 follicles in just my left ovary...she wouldn't even give me the count in my right.   I do love this woman though.  She has done most of my ultra sounds and she remembers me every time because I seem to always have the most follicles.  She gives me insight to what the doctor is going to most likely do with my treatment that day.  She has always been right so far.  She's brilliant. 

All I can do is continue to waddle around and wait for my body to do its thing.  Let's hope it moves a little quicker then I am at the moment.  

Going thru the motions

Not sure what to write these days.  I feel like its the same story over and over.  Needle in belly, blood test, ultra sound, results.  My belly is a battlefield of polka dots and bruises.   So here are a few quick notes from the past few days.

Day 7 Injections:  This is the evening we hit our first vain.  I didn't feel it, but the hubby sure did.  Little blood, large bump, hives...and a call to the emergency nurse line.  All was good, it was our first time giving me the Cetrotide injection and we were worried that I was having an allergic reaction because after hitting the vain I got an immediate hive that was about an inch in size.  The nurse said that it could be a reaction to the needle and to ice it.  We iced it for about 20 minutes and everything was fine.

Day 8: a blur of lots of TV and a trip to the grocery store and a 3 jabs to the belly.

Day 9: It's Sunday and the doctor's office was nice enough to give us a 7:15am appointment for a blood test and ultra sound.  I love waking up at 6am on a Sunday morning....its my favorite thing (cue enormous and dramatic sigh).  We were able to measure a lot of the follicles and some where measuring up to 16.   Nurse said it looks like 15 follicles are maturing very nicely which is a fantastic number.  You don't want to have too many, but you also don't want just a few.   My E2 level was over 2000.  I'm surprised I didn't cry.

One of my closest friends had an adorable baby a couple weeks ago, but because I was sick I wasn't able to meet him.  Today we finally got over there.  I think I spent a full hour just holding him!  Had to put some of that baby energy into my body...he is my baby Buddha.   

Say What?

Day 7:  Dear diary....I went to the doctors this morning for a blood test and ultra sound and found out that I am an Egg Making Machine!!!!  I've got 33 follicles in total.  18 in my right ovary and 15 in my left.  So I guess that means our parents better start saving up some cash for all these grandchildren!!! Just kidding, Gigi, Papa, and Grandma....I promise I won't be the next Octomom... or Triginta-tres-mom! 

Our appointment went something like this: sign in - wait - bloodtest - wait - ultra sound - "I'm sorry, how many are in there?!?!?!" - talk to our nurse about questions regarding paper work we received from the surgery center - meet with the billing person at our surgery center and spend $6,950 in about 2 minutes (Ouch) - meet with our doctor regarding genetic testing and clarify if we need assisted hatching (this may sound like I'm literally about to lay eggs but its a process where the technicians make an incision in the embryo to help with the attachment process to the uterus - currently not something we need to do since I'm only 33 and this is my first IVF) - talk to the surgical center nurse regarding our paperwork that needs to be signed before going into surgery next week - sign paperwork - call our parents in amazement of all these follicles!

All in all, it's been a great day.  My E2 level (aka estrogen level) is at 1641 which would explain why I started crying today watching the Hunger Games trailer (for the 6th time) and then cried again while watching "Last Man Standing" which embarrassingly enough (for many reasons) is a sitcom.  Someone needs to slap me back into reality.  Only other side effect I'm feeling are my rock hard ovaries.  Really feels like I'm carrying around some rocks in there. 

Surgery will be happening next week.  I start my Cetrotide injections this evening.  This drug is used to stop my LH surge from happening.  I'll have whats called a trigger shot the night before my surgery that will kick my system into action.

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.