Stimulation Day 9 & Monitoring

UPDATE: Minor update since I posted the below this morning. As expected, we are staying on the same dosage tonight and going back for monitoring again tomorrow morning at 7am. Also can we just talk about this snow storm for a second?? Seriously I love snow and have been mad all winter that we got nothing and NOW in the middle of freaking March when I'm at the end of an IVF cycle we are forecasted to get a foot of snow - you've gotta be kidding me!!!!! Thank god we have a Wrangler.... Tomorrow morning will be interesting!

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Day 9. Ugh. Can we be done yet????

I mentioned on my last post that we were instructed yesterday to start our third injection, Cetrotide, to prevent ovulation. I was nervous about doing a new one just because I wasn't sure what to expect - would it hurt like the Menopur or be ok like the Follistim?

We did the Menopur and Follistim injections first because I wanted to get the "easy" ones out of the way before doing the new one. We were instructed to increase our dose of the Menopur last night and doing that made it SO much worse. That one already burns going in and adding in the extra medication put me in lots of pain that I wasn't expecting - whew. Follistim was the same dose and was ok as usual. We prepped the Cetrotide and I was so surprised when I didn't feel a thing! Of all the injections it was by far the easiest one. I was so happy until about 5 minutes later when the injection site started feeling really itchy and burning. I lifted up my shirt to find a 2 inch diameter red rash all around the injection site - cue the panic. Just when I thought it was easy - nope - if there's one thing I've learned, nothing about IVF is easy.

I started googling online and found that a red itchy rash is a common side effect from Cetrotide, so that made me feel better. I took some Benadryl and by two hours later, it was basically gone. I was glad the rash was minor, but not fun knowing that's going to happen after every Cetrotide injection. Last night was the only night we will do Cetrotide with the other injections. Now, we do it in the morning. Yay....

We were up bright and early again this morning for monitoring - appointment at 7am. We rolled out of bed around 5:45, took the dogs out, and then had to prep my Cetrotide injection. Seriously, injections at night are hard enough, but doing them at 6am right when you wake up is AWFUL. I was so not in the mood and not mentally prepared to be doing that at 6. I got a rash from it again, but it was smaller this time and again lasted just about 2 hours.

Our monitoring appointment completely sucked this morning. My veins are SO done after doing blood work every single day. This awful nurse poked me three times trying to get blood and kept blaming me for being dehydrated (and then threatened to use a vein in my hand). Ummm no, I've been chugging water and peeing every hour lady, this is YOUR fault for missing. I can't stand when they blame it on the patient. They still couldn't get my blood so they made me go back for ultrasound first. No doctor today, so I didn't get much info, but everything seemed to be fine. Largest follicle was 18mm today so they are still growing right along, but not ready quite yet. The tech said she thinks 1-2 more days probably. I went back to try again for blood after my ultrasound. FINALLY they gave me my reliable nurse who always gets it on the first try! Thank god for her. And I never thought I'd say this, but thank god it's Monday. The weekend appointments really suck because there aren't many techs and nurses and your stuck with the sucky people.

The only good thing about going to SGF? There's a Krispy Kreme right across the street :) I was a little upset after all the poking today, so we stopped on our way out. Yes please to all the chocolate iced donuts.

Same drill for today - gotta wait to hear back from the nurse on this morning's results and next steps. I'm sure we will be back there again tomorrow.

SO CLOSE!!!!

Stimulation Day 8 & Monitoring (yes, again)

Lots going on over here today!!!

Not gonna sugarcoat it, last night was hard. First, I waited around all afternoon for our call from the nurse to let us know our results from Saturday's monitoring and our next steps. I was not informed of this, but apparently, on the weekends, they do the calls between 4 and 7pm. Earlier in the week, I had been getting calls between 11am and 3pm, so when it was 4:30pm on a Saturday and I still hadn't heard anything, I got worried. We waited, 5:30pm passed, and it was getting close to our 6:30pm cut off time for injections (you're supposed to take them within an hour on either end of your typical time). Kyle was home napping, and after me worrying and pacing for 2 hours, he finally checked his phone at 6pm and realized that for some reason they had called and left a voicemail on his phone instead of calling mine! Ugh!

They kept our dosage the same last night, but the kicker was they wanted us to come back in this morning for blood work and ultrasound... AGAIN. We weren't expecting to be back till Monday. This led to my first major meltdown later last night. I'm not sure why - I think I'm just mentally and physically exhausted from all of this. I was frustrated that they didn't see my right ovary Saturday morning, and I was frustrated to know we had to go back again Sunday. I'm so so so over it and done at this point.

Soooo, we got up at 6:30am this morning (which, was really like 5:30 since we lost an hour of sleep last night) for our 8am appointment. I haven't gotten to sleep in in days and we seriously feel like we live at SGF. I'm beyond exhausted. I'm also starting to look like a heroine addict because my arms are so bruised and my veins are so done being poked (they took two tries to get a vein again today...). I will be so happy when I no longer have to get blood drawn every single day.

But although I was annoyed going back this morning, today went much better. They got good pictures of my right ovary this time (the right is out performing the left so it's important to see that one). [by the way - I find it super interesting that my right ovary - the one that's not connected to anything - is the one producing the most eggs - just a fun fact.] My biggest follicle is now measuring 16mm!!! Getting so close!

I mentally prepared myself today to not get our phone call till later this afternoon, but they ended up calling at 1230!! Woo hoo! It's been hard dealing with all of this over the weekend, because my primary nurse isn't the one calling me, it's the weekend nurses, but they've been super nice still. And!! We got some good news on the phone!! My estrogen is up to 904! Anddd since my follicles are getting big, we are officially starting the third injection, Cetrotide, tonight! Cetrotide prevents ovulation so we can keep those eggs in there maturing a bit longer. For the first day, we do the new injection tonight with my other injections, but starting tomorrow, I'll take the Cetrotide in the morning, and then my normal other two, Menopur and Follistim at night - so complicated! Also, since we are now adding in the Cetrotide, they have increased my dosage of Menopur - so we'll be doing 225 IU of that instead of 150 like we were doing before.

And the final update (which at this point is no surprise) is that we are going back again for blood work and ultrasound tomorrow morning. Shocker. At this point, since we are at the end, I expect to be there every day until my egg retrieval. 

I'm feeling much better today. Physically, I feel pretty good, and mentally, I'm excited that we've progressed this far and made it on to the next stage. Starting Cetrotide means we are near the end of stimulation, so that's exciting!! Should only be a few more days now! I am a little nervous for a new injection tonight though. I've gotten very used to the Menopur and Follistim and they are *almost* easy for me now cause I know what to expect. I'm hoping the new one doesn't cause any trouble and is easy too. I'm definitely running out of space on my stomach though for all these needles!!! I'm a human pin cushion and I have bruises everywhereeeee.

Yay for Day 8!!! More updates to come tomorrow!

Stimulation Day 7 & Monitoring

Just a quick update this morning cause I'm about to head out the door for a venue walkthrough with a bride in DC!

I've officially been at SGF for morning monitoring 3 of the last 4 days. Whew... Today's appointment went ok. They weren't able to get a good picture of my right ovary to be able to measure the follicles - so that was annoying. It's weird - just some days they are able to see it and some days not. But, Dr. Sagoskin was there again today and he said he mainly wanted me in for blood work today anyway, so seeing the follicles wasn't that big of a deal since they just saw them yesterday.

I have to wait and get a call from the nurse later today to see what our next steps are based on my blood levels. Dr. S had us make an appointment for Monday, so hopefully we will stick with that and don't have to go back in again tomorrow. I'd like a day off! The nurse will also tell us if we are keeping our same dose tonight or switching it up.

That's really it for now - if anything interesting happens based on our call from the nurse later, I'll update, otherwise, I'll post again tomorrow!

Stimulation Day 6 & Monitoring & HALF WAY!

It feels like it was just day 1 and we were newbies and now we are just chugging right along! I feel like an IVF CHAMP!

I was honestly so nervous for my monitoring this morning. I only had 7 follicles on Wednesday, and I couldn't imagine how it could change very much in just 2 days. Plus, I've actually been feeling great the last two days, so I thought maybe the meds weren't working. Well... I was wrong!

We were in and out of the office in just 30 minutes this time - super fast!!! This place is a well oiled machine. I had a new nurse draw my blood today (somehow I've managed to have the same lady every other time even though there's like 5 nurses drawing blood). And, it sucked, cause the new lady stuck me and missed my vein. She then called over my reliable nurse, and she stuck my other arm and did it fine. Ugh stuck twice - and this TOTALLY messed up my groove of switching arms each day. Now I have holes in both arms and how do I know what arm to pick next time? I know, I'm dramatic.

Ultrasound went much better than the blood drawing. I had a nice tech and another new doctor came in. I really don't think you're supposed to have a doctor every time you do your monitoring ultrasounds and I'm starting to think the doctors just want to see my unique uterus - which, is fine by me cause I like to pick their brains :) She very clearly pointed everything out to me on the screen, which I love. My right side had 8 follicles - that's right, it went from 4 to 8 in 2 days! CRAZY! The follicles are getting big enough to measure now too - the biggest on the right was 12mm. The left side had several follicles too - they didn't count all of them - biggest on the left was 10mm. She said all looked as expected! And we were told to make an appointment for Sunday morning for our next blood work and ultrasound.

As usual, you get a call the afternoon after monitoring to let you know next steps. But - they are on the ball today and called me by 1130! My blood levels looked good and my estrogen has more than doubled since Wednesday - now at 382. The shocker was Dr. Sagoskin wants me to actually come back tomorrow again for monitoring - gah! Already! I'm at the point in the IVF cycle when they need to decide the perfect time for me to start taking my third daily injection, Cetrotide, that will prevent me from ovulating naturally - we don't want to loose those eggs yet! He doesn't want to risk me waiting to come in till Sunday, so, we will be back again tomorrow morning bright and early at 7am! Good lord I'm starting to think they should let you live there during your IVF cycle...

Tonight, we are on the same dosage we are used to. We will be adding in that third injection soon though I believe. I hate to jinx it, but I really am feeling good lately - I expected to feel much worse at this point.

Oh and.. today is APL's 75th Anniversary and they have all kinds of special stuff going on. I missed most of it this morning cause of my appointment, but I got here in time for the 75 cent lunch and am currently enjoying a well deserved, gigantic, chocolate cupcake with sprinkles. 

Here's to being halfway!!!!!

Stimulation Day 5

I really need to stop promising updates at certain times and then fail to follow through with them... ugh lol. The afternoon just got away from me yesterday and I didn't get to post!

My nurse called me around 2 yesterday with my results. She confirmed again that I had 7 follicles and my blood levels all looked good! My estrogen was at 183 - she said as long as it's over 50, that means you have some eggs growing! So far, sticking to the same injection dosages. I am officially going back tomorrow morning for my next blood work and ultrasound appointment - hopefully we will see some more follicles then! [by the way, each follicle contains an egg, so it gives us an idea of how many eggs I have. Also, once we get further, they will start measuring my follicle sizes - the size of the follicle corresponds to how mature the egg is and that's what helps the doctor know when it's time for retrieval]

Last night's injections went good and I actually felt good all day and night yesterday for the first time in 3 days. My headache has gone away for the most part and I was able to have a bride meeting last night and stay up till 9pm without feeling too uncomfortable. I slept through the night too which was a plus!

Tonight is the 5th night of injections. The stimulation phase is typically 10-12 days, so if we are lucky and only have to do 10 days, tonight could be the halfway point - and that's enough to make me happy for today. I'm actually excited to go back for monitoring in the morning - it helps so much with my sanity being able to get updates every other day on how things are progressing and it gives me the motivation to keep going.

Feeling extremely proud of myself today. Each day I survive I feel this sense of accomplishment and I'm learning that I'm a lot tougher than I think!

Stimulation Day 4 & Monitoring

We've somehow made it to Day 4! Injections again were better last night. They still hurt the same, but I'm getting tougher :) I was super uncomfortable the remainder of the night though. The past two nights I've gone to bed by 8-830pm just because I'm so uncomfortable and all I want to do is lay down. I woke up a few times in the night with pains and tightness, but my heating pad helped. I had a horrible headache pretty much all day yesterday, but as of this morning it's much better. The frustrating thing is, by mid-morning the tightness and pains in my stomach seem to feel much better and I feel pretty ok at work, but just when I'm feeling good I have to go home and do more injections and feel like crap at night all over again. It's never ending.

This morning I had my first monitoring appointment since starting the stimulation injections. Kyle is in training this week and wasn't able to come with me, but my wonderful, wonderful grandma drove up to my house early this morning just so she could drive me and be with me at the appointment. She's the best.

They took me back quick - even before my 8am appointment time! Doing blood work this time felt SO much easier than the last time when I had the flu and a fever. I didn't even get dizzy and I was like one of those cool women that gets blood work done and can get right up from the chair afterwards without being told to put my head between my knees! Woo hoo!

While I was waiting to get my room for the ultrasound, I heard a nurse say, "Dr. Sagoskin" - **gasp** my doctor is here today?!? I tried not to get my hopes up, but I was excited he was on the floor!! (They usually have one doctor per day "working the floor" in the monitoring area in case they are needed for anything, but there's a bunch of doctors at SGF, so it's unlikely your doctor will be there at the same time). I waited half naked and cold (as per usual) on the table for my tech to come in. Once she arrived she confirmed my excitement saying, "your doctor is actually on the floor today, so he will probably stop in while we do your ultrasound" eeeeee YAY!

Dr. S came in pretty much right at the beginning and stayed the whole time to chat with me. As usual they had a hard time getting my right ovary on the ultrasound and had to push my stomach in this time to see it. I had 4 follicles on the right and 3 on the left. He said for now that's normal and expected and they don't expect to see too much growth yet. yay! He told me he needs to wait to see what my blood levels look like, but that I should plan on a Friday morning monitoring appointment (again for blood work and ultrasound). There's a small chance they will want to see me tomorrow, but most likely Friday. I have to wait to get a call from my nurse this afternoon. I pretty much expect to be at SGF for monitoring every other day for the next week. It's annoying, but I'm glad they are keeping a good eye on me and making sure they aren't overstimulating my ovaries. And it really does help break up the injection days. Now I can focus on my injections tonight and tomorrow before another appointment to check on the progress Friday.

So for now I'm waiting on a call this afternoon from my nurse. She should be telling me how my blood levels looked, if Dr. S wants to make any changes to my dosage, and my definite date for my next appointment. Also, I plan to ask if there's any idea on how long I'll need to take the stimulation meds for - I'm guessing they don't know yet, but I so wish I had an approx end date so I could at least count down the days.

I'll post a quick update later once I hear from my nurse!

Stimulation Day 3

We are doing better! Last night I was completely dreading going home to do injections again. This time I tried just letting Kyle prep everything and I stayed on the couch - I feel like the less I'm involved and the less I stare at the needle, the better off I am. The Menopur still burned going in and took FOREVER, but I didn't cry this time. The Follistim is still my favorite - how messed up is it that I have a favorite? I did bleed a tiny bit this time, but I'm chalking that up to the fact that Kyle is a newbie and my mom gives needles for a living.

So I have faith now that every day it really will get easier. Last night was 100 times better than the first night and I'm less scared about going home after work today. Just focusing on the fact that I just have one more set of injections tonight before my appointment tomorrow. Even though the monitoring appointments suck, they do help break up the days. I'm really hoping I get some kind of indication on how my follicles are responding and how long they think I'll need to do injections before my egg retrieval. It's SO crazy to think that my egg retrieval surgery will be sometime next week.

I am already having side effects from the medication. Awful, awful headaches and I can't take Advil - only Tylenol, which I hate. I'm also pretty uncomfortable the whole night after the injections - I can only lay certain ways and I get occasional sharp pains where the medicine is. No bloating yet, but I can literally feel my ovaries - it's the weirdest feeling. It's going to be really interesting dressing for work as they keep getting bigger - can't I just wear leggings everyday????

Here's to one more day down!

Stimulation Day 2

Well, we made it through stimulation day 1 and here we are on stimulation day 2. I wanted to post yesterday after my injections, but I was kinda an emotional mess, so it didn't happen.

I was so anxious all day about it. It sucked because I wanted to get it over with, but I had to wait until the evening to do it because the medication is supposed to be taken at night and has to be taken at the same time each day. Originally I had decided to do 7pm - my alarm had been set for medication at 7pm the last two weeks as I took the birth control. But Kyle and I decided that time was kind of inconvenient because sometimes we'd want to go out for dinner or meet up with friends, etc. So, I decided we'd do 5:30-6ish instead - that way I can do it right when I get home from work, get it over with, and not have to anticipate it.

We had planned for my mom to come over the first day of injections to help us and make sure we were doing everything correctly. Since I was starting to feel better flu-wise on Sunday, my mom, my sister and I all went to the mall during the day to keep my mind busy. Thank goodness we did - it helped a ton. We got home around 330 and waiting until 530 felt like a week, I can't imagine what I would have done if I was just home all day waiting around. We watched the injection videos again to refresh our memory and took everything out of the boxes to prep. Ugh I was terrified.

At 5:20 my mom and Kyle started mixing and prepping the injections. Surprisingly I didn't cry until right when we started wiping my stomach with the alcohol wipe. I have never gotten a shot in my stomach before, so I really didn't know what to expect. We did the Menopur first and then the waterworks happened. I swear I'm not usually this much of a baby with shots, but holy crap, the amount of volume for the Menopur is just SO much it took forever for it all to go in and it burned the whole time. I could literally feel where the medication was under my skin - it was so sore and uncomfortable. We did the Follistim quickly afterwards and thank goodness, that one wasn't as bad. Much quicker and less liquid.

I was seriously emotional for the rest of the night and I cried, a lot. Not because I was in pain, but just because of the realization that I'm going to have to do this every day for what seems like forever (I know it's not that long, but it feels long). And I'm sorry I'm going to be whiny, but it's just so unfair. It's so easy for so many other people to get pregnant, but I have to do this just for a shot at it. Ugh. And I know I shouldn't complain and I should be thankful that I'm still getting the opportunity to go through IVF (and I am thankful I promise), but somedays I just want to complain cause it isn't fair.

I'm completely dreading tonight, well, every night for the next 10 or so days. But I'm trying really really hard to just focus on the current day. I get way too overwhelmed looking forward and I need to take it in stages. So for today, I just need to get through another night of it and hope it gets easier.

On Wednesday morning I go for my next monitoring appointment for blood work and ultrasound to see how my body is reacting to the medication. Right now, I'm just counting down to that appointment and hoping for good results! I'll post an update on Wednesday after I get the results from that appointment!

Thank you to everyone who checked in with me this weekend :) It means so much to have your support!!!

Good News & Bad News

This post was supposed to be titled, "Pre IVF Baseline Appointment," but "Good News & Bad News" seemed much more appropriate for today. So what do you want first? The good or the bad? Bad? Ok good...

The bad news is, just when I was complaining about timing yesterday, it got worse. After having just a tiny tickle in my throat yesterday, I woke up this morning with a 101 fever and full blown flu symptoms... yay.

I somehow managed to get my weak, achy body out of bed to get ready for my 8am blood work and ultrasound appointment. I was also terrified about my symptoms and if they would affect my blood work and worse, if the doctor would make me wait out my sickness before I could start my injections, ugh.

Luckily they took us not long after 8am and Kyle got to come back with me this time. I did blood work first. I already almost feel like I'm going to pass out when I get blood work done, so imagine me getting blood drawn while already being sick with a fever. Yeah, great. Afterwards I must have looked pale cause the nurse made me sit with my head between my knees for 5 minutes. I told her beforehand that I was sick and woke up with a fever, but she didn't seem concerned about it affecting the blood work they needed and said I could let my doctor know.

Next we went back for ultrasound. Same drill, undress from waist down, sit there freezing cold, wait for the doom of the stirrups. I think Kyle found it all amusing - glad he could finally see the crap I'm about to go through every few days now for the next two weeks. A tech performed the ultrasound, but a doctor (another new one I haven't met yet) came in during the appointment. I told him about my fever and symptoms and he said it shouldn't be a problem since I still have a few days until I start the injections on Sunday, but that they would make note of it.

I was so busy talking to the doctor about my sickness that I didn't pay much attention to the tech doing the ultrasound. I did realize about halfway through that this was the same bitchy tech I had when I did my first ultrasound test back in November before anyone knew my diagnosis. Last time she pretty much blamed me for the reason she couldn't find my right ovary - although this time now that she knew it's way up high and to the right, she didn't seem to have a problem. Man I wanted to remind her of her ignorance from the last time we met, but I restrained. Good job me :) Even though I didn't really look at the ultrasound picture much, she said all looked good with my ovaries.

Afterward I decided to go to an urgent care place nearby just to see if they could give me any medication. Luckily, we were the only ones there so we were in and out quick. Based on my symptoms, they thought I had the flu and prescribed me Tamiflu and mandatory two days away from work. I was happy they gave me meds, but not so happy about the no work thing. I have limited sick leave for the year, and I really need it for all these IVF appointments. I just know I'm going to run out now.. and I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that.

We got home and I took the Tamiflu. I also emailed my primary IVF nurse to let her know about my flu symptoms and I wanted to see if it was ok for me to take the Tamiflu with my injections this weekend. She emailed back immediately saying she would need to talk to Dr Sagoskin to see what he recommends. Cue the paranoia. I was kinda expecting her to just say "oh yeah it's fine" but now I was worried - would they make me push my IVF cycle back now? Please no!!!! Oh and also I started throwing up from the nausea the Tamiflu caused me (apparently that's a side effect..)

She called me back within the next hour (thank goodness!) and this is where the good news finally comes in incase you were wondering...

She said Dr Sagoskin was totally fine with me taking the Tamiflu with my injections AND she already had my blood work results back, which she said "look beautiful" and that I'm ready to start!!! As planned, I'll do injections of Menopur and Follistim on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and then go in for my next blood work and ultrasound on Wednesday! Woo hoo!!

My mom (who is a nurse) is coming over Sunday to help us out with our first day of injections to make sure we have it down and don't do anything wrong. I'm terrified but so ready to get started!

So anyway, sorry for the late update today, but needless to say, it's been quite the long day. I plan on laying in bed for at least the next 36 hours in hopes to feel better soon. I'm reallyyyyyy hoping I don't have to do these injections while feeling as awful as I do right now.

More updates to come this weekend!

Timing

Life has a funny way of timing things. While I've been dealing with this infertility roller coaster of emotions for quite some time now, March is now here and this is the month we've been waiting for. You know what else is in March? 3 separate baby shower/gender reveal parties for my friends...great timing huh? I'm sure you ladies, if you're reading this, know who you are - and please know I'm SO EXCITED for you and your showers and this is not your fault at all, but gosh, the timing just sucks.

Today I online shopped for 3 baby gifts for each of these showers, which, wasn't hard because I literally have a list on my phone of all my favorite baby stuff from instagram, Pinterest, etc., but it's not easy buying that stuff not knowing if you'll ever have your own baby to shop for. I write this only because I know so many other women going through infertility that deal with these same emotions. It's hard enough just going to baby showers, but 3 in a row while giving yourself IVF hormone injections every night? Yeah... that's just going to be an emotional mess. 

So, March, here we go. Your timing is ironic, but I'm going to do my best to go with the flow, follow the process, and trust that everything happens for a reason.

Here's to the last day of birth control and the first day of what could end up (no, WILL end up) being a very happy month!!