Trigger Happy

Day 14: No one tells you that the Novarel (aka trigger & HCG injection) is going to feel like its attacking you from the inside.  Barely slept last night because of massive cramping, and what I had convinced myself at 3am, a heart attack (aka heart burn, shouldn't have eaten that Red Baron pizza).  This is all normal folks.  The nurse said that these are normal side effects and that mine were just much worse because my numbers are so high.  It's all a trick, to get you to take the injection.  Those sneaky little honey badgers.  

Today I get no injections, I just get to sit back, relax and enjoy the cramping.  Our nurse called to prep us for the "procedure" and her prep notes were....

1. "no eating/drinking after 2am" - You know I'm gonna sit up until then eating 

cookies and drinking everything in sight.

2. "check in is at 11am" - Totally normal, we'll be there at 8am because I'm known as the early bird thats always there WAY too early.

3. "don't pee to much before I get there" - I'm nervous...in my world of bladder, if I have to pee I start the pee pee dance immediately....not sure how I'm going to withstand a 

30 minute drive in the car over bumps.

4. "wear warm socks" - Yes ladies & gentlemen...this is the MOST important note of them all.  I wonder if this includes Uggs.  Although, I'll be in such a happy place with all the meds that I'm sure I won't have any clue as to the temperature of my toes...I will be wearing warm socks.  No worries mom & dad, I follow directions. 

Harvest Time

Day 13:  Triggering tonight!  Surgery this Saturday.  It's time to gather the seeds people.  Hold on to your hats because its gonna be "raining eggs! hallelujah! - it's raining eggs! EGGS!"  The Doctor is feeling very optimistic about my numbers.  I've got more than 75 follicles.  They stopped counting yesterday and gave up.  A good amount of them will be empty, but we should get a really nice batch. 

I'm apparently an anomaly at the office.  Everyone knows my numbers, and everyone was asking how I was holding up today.  My blood guy said it was the most follicles he's ever heard of and he WORKS at one of the TOP fertility clinics in AMERICA!!!  

I'm feeling pretty full these days.  Moving slower and slower, and I've had a headache since last night that I'm pretty sure is gonna hang around for a few days.  But WHO CARES...I'm so fracking excited that they are going to be able to get these little guys out of me and make me babies.  Maybe I'll be able to convince him to put in 10 embryos....Just Kidding ;) ...maybe not. No, just kidding.

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.

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:)