Tonight's the night

Eeek. Tonight about an hour or so after I normally go to bed, I'm going to wake back up and TRIGGER! ER is set for Wednesday morning.

I didn't ask about # of follicles or their sizes today but at my last check I had about 14 follicles averaging around 12mm. I did see the nurse measure one today that was a little over 17mm, so I guess that's where we're at. Really, as long as they're good quality I should be happy. The number of eggs we get probably won't be our limiting factor anyway.

On to an entirely different kind of waiting and obsessing. I can't wait to see what craziness I latch onto over the next 3 weeks. First will probably be number of eggs and thaw quality of our sample, then fert report. In there I'll be stressing about how many embryos are making it and if we'll have any left to transfer or freeze. Then there will be the ultimate 2ww.

Deep breath - one thing at a time.

For now, I will look forward to tomorrow. It's an injection free day!

Things are moving

and what ever it is needs to stop. I have had some weird stomach twitch all day. Right now my guess is that it has something to do with my ovaries - but I can't be sure because it seems like it's too close to my belly button. It is driving me insane.

My monitoring appointment this morning was uneventful. Things are measuring around 7-8 mm (at this stage they look for 6mm). The nurse thought they might call with some adjustments for my meds, but I didn't hear anything so we must be on track until the next appointment. She didn't turn the screen for me to see or tell me how many follicles she saw - just that one ovary was producing better (better is my interpretation of what she said) than the other. I really have to get better at asking things when I'm there.....

I'm dragging DH with me on Friday so he can help with making sure we get that information. Plus, it seems like it will help him understand the process if he gets to see things first hand. At any rate, it looks like he'll get his wish and I'll have my ER before next Friday. Since that makes ER less than a week away - I can officially say that things are finally moving!

Insta-bloat

I swear my stomach grew between my Repronex and Lupron injections tonight. DH doesn't believe me since it was really only about 2 minutes - but I think it did.

So far the Repronex injections (all 2 of them) haven't been too bad. Since I suck at drawing them up, it seems like it sits long enough to reduce some of the burning feeling. If tonight's injection doesn't give me a big, red welt like last night's did, we're in business.

I am starting to wonder if I'm feeling side effects already or if it's really mental. Ever since the first lupron injection I've been extra tired - I was very happy to read that it seems pretty common. I feel much better about sleeping so late the last couple weekends knowing that it isn't pure laziness.

This morning I thought I noticed some differences while we were doing sprints during swim training. It seemed like I was getting out of breath more quickly and I couldn't breathe as deeply. I am assuming that is probably mental.... after only 1 follistim and 1 repronex I wouldn't expect to be noticing a difference.

Anyway, tomorrow morning is my first monitoring appointment. I am curious to see if my ovaries are on track and the differences from the baseline. I've been instructed to get things going so that I don't have my ER next Friday. DH has a meeting that day and he doesn't want to miss it. I've given my ovaries a stern talking to - I guess we'll just have to see if they cooperate :)

Cruising along

I keep thinking I'm going to post, but the last few weeks have been nuts. I think being so busy at work spills over into the rest of the day. It's probably a combination of the morning workouts and work - and the lupron.... I'm pretty much blaming everything on that ;) Time has been dragging a bit since I finished off the BCP and it seems like it will never be time for ER/ET, but then I look at a calendar and realize how quickly it will all be happening.

The injections have been going pretty well. My 3rd one left a pretty decent bruise. I think I'll try to post pictures eventually. It's been a week and a half and it's still a really dark purple. Once DH got back from his work trip, I started having him do the injections for me. It's a pretty sweet deal - I just point out the time and he does all the work. Hopefully, that will help when it comes time for the PIO. He'll have done a few injections and I'll have developed trust that he won't kill me.

My baseline was uneventful (well, besides the fact that they thought my appointment was 2 hours earlier than I did....) - so just waiting to start stims. Only a couple more days. I've heard that things go really quickly once stims and monitoring start - with Thanksgiving being next week I think time will go even faster!

Other than that, today has been a nice lazy-ish day. DH and I ran the local cross-country race we've signed up for the last few years (I say signed up because last year we only got a quarter mile in before I tripped and sprained my ankle). After we got all showered and warm, we went to find some extra lupron syringes. I have the 14-day lupron kit and was supposed to get extra (I guess I suck at inventory because I didn't realize they didn't give me extra until Thursday night)- since the mail order pharmacy won't ship them overnight, we had to find some ourselves.

The oversight really worked to my advantage. There is a local pharmacy with an old-fashioned soda fountain/counter that the clinic "recommends" and I had been looking forward to going. I was pretty bummed when I found out my insurance requires a specific mail order pharmacy for this stuff. DH and I drove into the down town and stopped in for a late lunch - including a milk shake for him and root beer float for me. We also picked up the supplies - free of charge! I wasn't expecting that at all. The pharmacist just asked what I needed and handed me a bunch.

I really think we'll have to go back the next time I have a craving for a malt or sundae!

Oh yea, my coworker found out last weekend that her first IVF worked! I am so happy for her but still afraid of how much it will suck if mine doesn't. She told a lot of people she was doing it, so I've gotten to hear a lot of random comments. Mostly they point out the obvious - that going through IVF and having it not work would suck - but they aren't really things I want or need to hear with where I am in the cycle.

2 down....

I'm just not sure I'll ever get used to it. Tonight's lupron shot went a bit better than yesterday - it didn't itch quite as long and I didn't fight the urge to faint. (Purely mental - I have a tendency to over think things) I still have a little bit of a red area around where I did the injection and tonight there is a little bump like a mosquito bite.

I'm so paranoid that I'm going to mess something up. I've reread my directions and calendar a bazillion times and I'm still sitting here wondering if I took the right dosage. How am I supposed to relax through this? My therapist would be so disappointed in me ;) The two weeks of birth control went pretty fast (and taking a pill is so easy!), I just hope the next few fly. While I'm asking for things.... can I request no side effects?

Oh yea, and that my co-worker's first IVF worked, and that my other coworker's 2nd IUI will work? I could go on but I'll stop for now :D

So....

It seems that Repronex is worth it's weight in gold. I was able to get my injectables ordered today and while I'm not thrilled at the price, I know how lucky we are to have some insurance coverage - at least until we reach our lifetime IF meds limit -- we're darn close.

Still, why is the Repronex 75% of my total copay? Why is the copay for my meds equal to/ more than the copay for the rest of our IVF cycle? And why am I on 2 vials of the Repronex a day (once I start stims) instead of only 1?

Is it my weight? Whatever it is, I hope it's something that never would have been in my control..... I can't believe it could have cut our meds cost in half!

I am feelin' the love

It seems Hope is Ours nominated me for an award?!? My first thought was to be extremely flattered. That was quickly followed by shock that someone looked past all my choppy sentences, incomplete thoughts, and poor editing to nominate me. Amanda's blog is full of many emotions that I recognize (expressed more clearly than I can seem to get things out) plus so much determination and faith.




The rules for this award are simple. I LOVE YOU equals 8 letters which gives you 8 rules:

1-Thank the person who nominated you for this award and write a little bit about why you love them.
2-Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3-Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4-Nominate no more than 17 people (why 17?) who you love or you think could use some love.
5-Write one word (you can only use a word once) about what you love about their blog.
6-You cannot nominate someone who has already been nominated-the love has to spread to all.
7-Post links to the 17 blogs you nominate.
8-Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they’ve been nominated.

I pass the love on to the following :

This is where I'm going to completely cop out. What can I say - I'm a rule breaker ;)

Most of the blogs I read are listed and linked - although I admit it's a bit out of date. I've started following quite a few other blogs and will work to get my list updated.