Ryan’s Ramblings

Delayed Transfer + Post-Transfer Update (OOPS!)

I have been really bad about daily updates. That was one of the reasons I wanted to blog about our journey. I’ve just been exhausted. I can’t summon enough brain power to blog or do anything. I will do some reflecting later on.

I last left off on Friday, which was when we got our embryo update. Saturday and Sunday weren’t anything exciting. I did exactly what I had been doing—sitting my fat ass in the recliner and moving as little as possible. I felt okay, just tired and crampy still. I’ve had a little nausea. I started taking my Metformin again, and when that starts…nothing comes out solid….yea. Super fun. I yelled at Austin on Sunday…yay hormones.

Transfer Day

Monday was our Day 5 transfer day! We were so excited! I had to go in with a full bladder (the nurse said “emphasis on the full bladder” when scheduling). I slept in, we ate a little, and then we were off to OKC. I had to insert a vaginal progesterone pill 2 hours before the transfer. I assumed we would be in a regular exam room, just like the IUIs, but we were taken into the egg retrieval room (which I remembered NOTHING about). **started this post on Thursday, but this was where I left off** So while the process was similar to an IUI, it was much more precise and slower. I waited on the exam bed until the doctor to come. I also saw the embryologist. He gave us the picture of our little embryo and told us that it was graded as 4AA (which is considered excellent, we Googled later). He told us there were 2 that they would try to freeze tomorrow and a few more they were watching. The doctor explained every thing that he did (touching my leg, entering the spectrum, etc). He did a mock transfer to make sure the catheter went in correctly and where he wanted. Then, cleaned the cervix with the same fluid the embryo was in. Then, he put the embryo where he wanted and took the catheter out. They too it to the lab to ensure the embryo didn’t get stuck in there or something. We were given post directions, and I was told to get up. I guess research has shown with transfers its better to get up immediately after than to lie there for a while. While we were there, we had the nurses check where Austin has been doing the shots and draw circles in Sharpie where he could do them. Then, we left!

There is a superstition about eating McDonalds fries after transfer in the TTC community, so we got some on the way home. When we got home, I went to the bathroom. I had been feeling nauseous so I was hoping that would help. While Austin was in there, I got extremely nauseous and ran to throw up. We have one bathroom, so I had to do it in the sink. So yummy. As I was throwing up, Austin held my hair. Then he cleaned up my vomit. He’s the best! After that, I still felt nauseous but better. The rest of the day, I ate salt in crackers and drank Powerade. I actually started craving soup. I hate soup. HATE. I only eat it when I’m really, really sick. So it was super strange that I was craving it. Since I was feeling so sick still later that night, I decided not to go to work the next day.

One thing the nurse said, that I loved, was…now, whatever is supposed to happen will happen. There’s nothing that we can or can’t do at this point that will help or hurt our chances. There are some restrictions, but they are mostly to help with our minds. We go back on the 13th for our blood pregnancy test.

Day After Transfer

I totally forgot that the clinic would be calling us to update us on the freezing. So I was unprepared with writing utensils and my recorder. Luckily, I had the IVF planner next to me. They were able to freeze FOUR embryos!!!!! I was SHOCKED. They were graded 3BB, 4BB, 4BB, and 4BC. We are so excited!! Hopefully, we won’t have to use them, but we have some great ones if we do. Our doctor told us that a successful cycle would be transfer one and freeze 1-2.

This day (Tuesday) and Wednesday I stayed home from work. On Tuesday night, Austin was working late, so I had to give myself the progesterone shot. This was tragic. I have a video to show you how horrible I was at this. Makes me so much more grateful for Austin! There are 2 more nights I will have to do these myself, and I am NOT excited! But it brings us closer to holding baby A, so I’ll deal!

Post-Transfer Wait…

This has probably been the hardest. I think this is why it’s been hard to motivate myself to blog. I’m really not sure. This TWW (two-week wait) is different. It’s shorter. I’m still struggling with my mentality through everything. Of course, I’m trying to stay positive and hope for the best. I’m also recovering from surgery and getting nightly shots of hormones. The progesterone itself has the same side effects of early pregnancy symptoms, which doesn’t help. With IVF, this time is different. That’s what I keep telling myself. It’s a bit terrifying because the one part science doesn’t control is the stage we are in—the embryo implanting & continuing to grow. After all of the action of the last several weeks, being in this waiting period makes it feel even stranger. It’s actually gone by very quickly. I only worked 2 days last week and the weekend is over! We have 4 more sleeps until test day. We are working on our plan for that day—positive or negative result. They will take my blood at the appointment, and then call when they get the results. They usually do all of their labs in the afternoon. Austin and I have taken off so we can be together all day.

During this wait, I’m going to try to blog some and process through things. Comment and let me know if you have any questions, want to know anything, want more details on anything, etc!

Egg Retrieval & 2 Days Post

Sorry for the delay in posting. I have not had the energy to write or think much. I’ve been posting quick updates on Instagram & Facebook. There are some questions that have been asked, and Austin told me I should probably stop putting off posting. So here we are. I’ll post pictures later…

Egg Retrieval

We were to check in at OU at 6:15am, which meant we left at 4:45. I knew that I would have to provide a urine sample when I got to the office, so I was trying not to pee. I woke up in the middle of the night needing to pee, but I refused. So by the time we got to the office, I was dying!! We got there super early, too. The office doesn’t open until 7:30, so the nurse that was assigned to egg retrieval was the only one that would be there. We were let in, and I was able to go to the bathroom and produce a urine sample. I felt bad for getting there so early, but our nurse was incredible. I had to undress and put a cloth gown on and cover with a sheet. They had those in a blanket warmer, so they were nice and cozy. Once I was ready, the nurse put the wires on me to monitor breathing, pulse, etc. Then she attempted my IV. I’m a hard stick and it’s always an issue. She tried in my right arm, and then found a great vein on my left hand just below my thumb. It was such a strange placement, but it worked. We basically waited around until it was time to go into the procedure room. The anesthesiologist came and talked to us about the anesthesia and then the doctor came and talked to us about the procedure. None of it was new information, since they prepped us really well. They give us SO MUCH information, so it’s good to hear it multiple times. It was finally time, and I was out before I even got to the room. They literally wheeled me into the hall, turned the bed around, and went in the room (it was directly across from where we were). I remember being warned that we were turning, and that’s it.

When I was knocked out, Austin got to do his part. They time it so that the eggs and sperm get to the lab around the same time. I was expecting to be loopy and out of it the rest of the day. I was not. Once I woke, I was lucid in the moment, but I couldn’t remember later what was said. Austin was there when I woke and helped me get dressed. I am SO SO SO glad the visitor policy because of COVID was lifted in time for all of this. It would have been really difficult to go through all of that without him sitting with me the entire time. I had to stay for a while to be monitored while I recovered and woke up from the anesthesia. While we were recovering, we found out how many eggs were retrieved—34!!! They got 14 from the left ovary and 20 from the right. We were SOO excited!! I was hoping for at least 20. Austin is just hoping for like 5 embryos. Before all of this, I was feeling crampy and afterward, I was feeling more crampy. I think I posted about this before, but with the retrieval, they go in with a long ass needle and suck the liquid out of the follicles. Then they go through that liquid and find the eggs. With PCOS women, they usually have a lot of eggs retrieved during IVF. It’s because they don’t always have an ovulatory cycle, so they usually have a good ovarian reserve. But the eggs are usually lower quality. My doctor said that she could retrieve maybe 20 and 15 would be mature. So getting a ton of eggs is exciting, but knowing the attrition rate, that doesn’t mean we will have 34 kids!

After being dismissed, we went to breakfast at Jimmys Egg, and had our regular waitress. Then we went home. Once we got there, we had to do our first progesterone shot (1/4 mL). That was an experience. We videoed it. Lol! This one is intramuscular, meaning it’s in my ass. The needle is 2 inches long. So I have to lay down. Doing that in the kitchen where we’ve been doing them wasn’t a place to do that. We tried in our bedroom, but it wasn’t light or bright enough. I took a nap until dinner time and just rested. We had to do another progesterone shot, starting our nightly shots.

Day 1 Post-Retrieval (Egg Update)

I pretty much sat on my ass all day with the heating pad on. It pretty much felt like period cramping except when my digestive system was working. Moving a fart through my bowels felt like daggers. Soon after, I had to poop. This was super painful. I started taking stool softener the night we did the trigger shot. I didn’t know how much to take, and the bottle said 1-3 daily. My poops are normally diarrhea, so I didn’t think I needed to take many. Well, this fart and poo experience changed my mind. So I immediately took another stool softener and a pain pill. Bathroom visits in general hurt. Getting up and down hurts. I assume it’s the same type of pain after giving birth, just minus the vagina stuff. We got the call from our doctor about our eggs and sperm finally! Of the 34 retrieved, 29 were mature, and 12 fertilized. There was one that was questionable, so they set it to the side and were keeping an eye on it. The doctor said that there were some egg quality concerns, and fertilization was less than expected or she would like. We will get a call about the grade on our embryos. They will be like school grades (A, B, C, etc). The lab hardly ever gives As. The doctor said to expect some Bs and several Cs.

Day 2 Post-Retrieval (Embryo Update)

Today, I was off work to continue recovering from surgery. It’s so weird. I don’t feel like anything happened other than the cramps and pain. So Austin has to remind me to rest and take it easy. I took my car to the dealership today for some work. I sat around for a while, so it wasn’t too different from being at home. On my way home, the doctor’s office called with our update. It was almost 2pm, and of course I had been waiting anxiously all day. Our 13th fertilized! Of the 13 embryos, 6 are As and 7 are Bs!!!! Our 13th little one turned out to be an A. Crazy! I was shocked to hear about our little embryos. Yesterday’s news of the low fertilization made me nervous. I wasn’t expecting ANY A embryos. Like my doctor said, I was expecting a lot of Cs. Because we have so many good quality embryos, we are doing Day 5 transfer, which will be on Monday. I will take a progesterone tab vaginally 2 hours before our 1:30pm transfer. They will transfer the best quality embryo and freeze the rest.

The doctors don’t transfer more than 2 embryos anymore. They typically only suggest 2 for older women or those with a history of miscarriage. There’s a chart that the assisted reproductive people have as a guideline for doctors. Also, my doctor said that with my high blood pressure and insulin resistance, having multiples is not a good thing. The chance for multiplies is already increased simply with IVF, so transferring more than 1 embryo would not be safe—for me or out embabies. We won’t get any other updates until we find out which embaby is transferred on Monday and how many were frozen.

Other Random Updates

My whole life, I have known two things: I love sex, and I want to have kids. And I always thought that those two things would go hand in hand, but now, I think it might be one or the other.
Michael Scott, The Office

If there is a quote that absolutely epitomizes IVF, this Michael Scott quote is it. You have to abstain from sex 2-3 days before the egg retrieval. Then, after the egg retrieval, we can’t have sex until after the pregnancy test. Not only this, during the Stim process with all of the nightly shots, sex is not on the mind. The side effects, the bruises from the shots, everything makes sex undesirable if it is even on the mind. And now, we have to wait until pregnancy test, which is about 15 days post egg retrieval. Making a baby is the fun part, right?! Not for us.

Money….so with everything that has happened, the car repairs I need, etc, we decided to break down and get a loan. I did this on Monday, which was last minute, because Wednesday was another procedure to pay for. This is not what we wanted to do, but we did not have enough to cover the rest of our cycle. Our payments are under $150 a month and start late May. So that gives us some cushion. This is how I was able to take care of my car—new tires, new battery, alignment, oil change. Then there were some things they found when doing the multipoint inspection that needed to be done. Austin’s car started acting up on Tuesday, so he had to get it fixed today—another $300. So this loan alleviated a ton of stress during this time that we are supposed to be completely stress-free and calm.

So now, we wait for Monday and continue our nightly progesterone shots until 10 weeks of pregnancy!

IVF Update Days 10 and 11

I woke up this morning and got ready to leave for our appointment today. Before leaving, we did our AM shot—Ganirelix. I took the wireless heating pad with us. It wasn’t fully charged, so I only got 10-15 minutes of heating pad. It looks like a weight lifting belt or something!

Today is the first time Austin has been able to come to an appointment with me since our 2nd IUI, which was January 2nd (I think). He was very excited, but didn’t show it too much. I’m so, so, so, so glad OU revised their visitor policy just in time for us to start IVF. We didn’t have to wait too long in the waiting room, but once we were in the exam room, we had to wait for a long time. On weekends, they normally take a bit longer, so we weren’t surprised. I’d rather have to wait longer on the weekends anyway! It makes the 2 hour round trip feel a little more…worth it (I guess). Our doctor, Dr Craig, was not there today, so we had a different doctor. Again, this is normal on the weekends. It was fun to see Austin react to the ultrasound and all of the follicles. Under normal circumstances, we would see 2 or 3 follicles each cycle. With IVF, we want LOTS of follicles. Each follicle could have an egg, and we want as many eggs as possible. There’s a natural attrition with everything, even with IVF. Here’s an example (except we will only transfer 1):

So back to our appointment…the doctor goes in and looks at how many follicles are growing and measure each of them. We are looking for a group of 14-20mm follicles. Today I had 11 on the left and 15 on the right. I have the measurements both listed below. I go back for another monitoring appointment tomorrow. The doctor said, by the looks of everything, retrieval is looking like Wednesday. We are continuing with the same dosages for all of our injections.

Left on Friday (7)	Right on Friday (8)	Left Today (11)	Right Today (15)
12.9	12.9	16.2	18.3
12.0	8.0	12.6	10.5
10.5	11.1	15.5	15.8
14.3	13.8	15.1	11.2
11.4	11.1	12.8	11.0
9.7	10.0	13.5	10.2
12.5	9.7	16.4	15.1
	13.1	17.3	10.8
		15.9	14.8
		13.3	11.5
		10.1	16.3
			17.0
			14.0
			14.5
			14.2

Day 10 of stims! What?!?! After our appointment, we went to Jimmys Egg for breakfast and then trekked home. For some reason I could not nap! I was pretty uncomfortable throughout the day. At one point, I even sat in the recliner for a bit. I felt exhausted, had a headache, bad no appetite. So about the same as I had been feeling. Tonight’s shots were the same ole. We are becoming pros. Lol!

Day 11–April 26

Well, I meant to finish this post yesterday and post it early this morning. Oops! So here we are, the evening of Day 11. This morning started with our morning shot. YAY! Then I left early for my appointment.

Bloodwork and ultrasound happened at my appointment this morning…again. Follicles are growing along. I had 11 on both sides. The left ones measured 14.1, 16.6, 18.6, 15.4, 16.3, 16.0, 18.3, 19.3, 17.1, 19.5, and 12.6. The right ones measured 15.8, 17.0, 15.1, 18.0, 15.3, 12.8, 19.6, 17.3, 16.9, 16.8, and 13.9. Woot! Unless my bloodwork wasn’t where they wanted, retrieval will be Wednesday. Well, I got the call this afternoon. We are doing retrieval on Wednesday! I have to be there for check in at 6:15am for the procedure to be at 7am. We had to do evening shots early (anytime before 7pm and the trigger shot at 8pm!

Evening Stims

It’s so crazy that today is our last day of stims!!! Tomorrow I will get one day of not being poked! Woot! We have done this trigger shot 10 other times, so we are familiar with it. The bottles were bigger than before, we think. It’s hard to know if it is different or if we are just used to the other meds now. LOL! I can’t believe we are FINALLY to egg retrieval!!!! I had to start taking a stool softener in preparation for the procedure, so that’s fun! I’ve had a really bad headache since probably lunch time, and it just keeps getting worse.

TRIGGER SHOT!

Yay! This is the same trigger shot we did for the IUIs, so we are totally pros at this one. We don’t have to do the Lupron trigger shot, which is kind of annoying. But one less shot! Yay!

After the trigger shot, I ended up feeling super nauseous and my headache was almost unbearable. I iced my face to try to get relief. After going to bed, I woke up around 10:30 being super nauseous with so much pain I couldn’t sleep. Eventually, I threw up. Everything in me. IIt was horrible. But my head was better after, which is weird. Yay IVF…?

IVF Update Day 9–April 24

Today was our first morning shot! I sleep in on the weekends, so I rolled out of bed for the shot and then went back to sleep! This one was pretty simple. It’s the Ganirelix and it’s a pre-filled syringe. We used the Pain Cakes to ice, so I felt nothing. Super quick and easy! I slept with the heating pad on as well.

When I woke up again, I felt fine. One thing I have noticed is that I have no appetite. I know I need to eat, so I do. But I’m not craving anything, nothing sounds good, and I really don’t want to eat. So weird and not normal for me. Even with sleeping in today, I still feel exhausted. I’m just generally feeling discomfort. It’s not really pain. It’s hard to explain. Sleeping with my U shaped pillow (aka pregnancy pillow) has helped when I sleep. I’m tempted to sit on the couch with it for additional support. It’s nickname in our house is “my boyfriend”. I’m sure I’ll get more uncomfortable as we get closer to retrieval day.

Tonight was day 9 of stims! My bruises are looking something fierce. I try to get the bandaid gunk off, but it hurts to put too much pressure on my belly. We used the Pain Cakes again—best decision ever!! One would not stay on! When Austin did the Menopur, I don’t know how or why, but it was bleeding like crazy. We had to get cotton balls to stop it and clean up the blood. It really hurt, too. So that was fun…lol! Tomorrow is our appointment at OU, so it’s early to bed. We will have to do the Ganirelix before we leave. Our lives basically revolve around injections right now…
Dosages…
Ganirelix—1 syringe
Follistim—300iu
Menopur—1 vial

IVF Update Day 8–April 23

This morning was my appointment for ultrasound & bloodwork. I forgot to post the pictures I took last time, so I will be posting those below! Today, I videoed the ultrasound, so you can see what that’s like without a baby in there.

Infertility community calls this ultrasound probe “Wanda”

My appointment this morning was exciting. I posted the print out of my follicles above. My doctor is wanting a cluster of a bunch of them measuring 14-20mm. Today, I had 7 on the left (measuring 12.9, 12.0, 10.5, 14.3, 11.4, 9.7, & 12.5) and 8 on the right (measuring 12.9, 8.0, 11.1, 13.8, 11.1, 10.0, 9.7, & 13.1). I will go back on Sunday at 8am for monitoring. We started the Ganirelix this morning, with my nurse administering it for me. She warned that the needle on this shot isn’t as sharp as the others, so it may require a little more umph to get it in. On the plus side, it is a pre-filled syringe! So just alcohol the area, take the cap off, and inject! The doctor said everything looked good and retrieval could be Wednesday, possibly Tuesday. We will know more on Sunday, of course. I didn’t really think ahead regarding the possibility of starting the 3rd med this morning. On my drive to work after my appointment, I could start to feel it. It hurt pretty much all day. When they start the Ganirelix, your dose of Follistim almost always increases. So starting tonight, my dose went up to 300iu. Throughout the day, the only discomfort was the injection spot from this morning and the bruising. Other than that, the only things I’ve experienced have been exhaustion, all the time regardless of sleep, and brain fog/pregnancy brain.

Tonight was day 8 of shots! Crazy! We tried the Pain Cakes tonight for the icing. Austin was an ambassador or something, so we have quite a few. They were AMAZING for this purpose! They stick on, so I could prep without worrying about keeping the ice on. I did not feel the Follistim at all. The Pain Cake that was on the Menopur spot had a cloth thing on it, and Austin injected there, so it was slightly iced. I could feel it, but it didn’t hurt or burn like normal. Tomorrow, we will be more aware of that. After the shots, I have been heating off and on. Pretty much immediately after finishing, I was hurting and felt discomfort. The additional med and the increase in dosage is going to be interesting…

I forgot to share this yesterday, but a friend of Austin’s recently went through IVF (successfully, I might add) and she had extra meds. She gave them to us. Yes, GAVE! When he first told me, it sounded like it was about $1500 worth, based on what we have to pay. When he got home with it, it was more like $3500!!! CRAZY! So we shouldn’t have to order more meds. Such a blessing! She is truly an angel!!!

Tomorrow, I will have to wake up to do the Ganirelix shot. That one is in the morning and it has to be around the same time I got it today, so 8:30/8:40. It can’t be later, but giving it earlier is no problem. This is good! I didn’t want to have to do an injection at work! So starting Sunday, we will probably do it around 7, so it’s when we usually leave for work.
Dosages:
Follistim—300iu
Menopur—1 vial
Ganirelix—1 syringe

IVF Update Day 7–April 22

Last night after my heating pad and trying to sleep, I was pretty uncomfortable. I could feel my ovaries and activity. It was kind of like fluttering. I’m hoping that means my follicles are cooperating! I’m going to start sleeping with my U shaped body pillow (frequently known as “pregnancy pillow) tonight. I sleep weird—my shoulders are as if I was side sleeping and my stomach and hips are twisted basically like sleeping on my belly. That twisting was very uncomfortable last night. So we shall see how that helps.

Today, the bruising is looking pretty fierce. This morning was tons of purple on my belly! The bruises, I think, are painful. It’s tough to say whether its the bruises or what, but I’m pretty sure it is. Other than this and the discomfort of my pants, sitting, etc, that’s all I’m experiencing so far. I’m still exhausted. I am still exhausted. Looking at my “body battery” on my Garmin, I just can’t “recharge”. I’ve been talking about comparing IVF days to previous days. So here we go…

It’s hard to say, really! The Follistim we ordered arrived today! Yay! This is what $930 of IVF meds looks like…

Unboxing today’s med arrival!

Pretty depressing, right?! 🤣 Today…7th day of shots. 7th day of IVF. Injections tonight were fun 🤷🏼‍♀️ Not really. The Follistim, we had to do multiple times to get our full dosage. I did ice the area before doing the Menopur. This helped a TON! I could feel it, but it didn’t hurt or burn like it usually does. When Austin was prepping the area for injections and it hurt because of the bruising. Crazy! Tomorrow is my next monitoring appointment. Everything after Friday is not pre-scheduled. I’ll find out about those at my appointments. So Friday, they will tell me when I will come back. I may start the 3rd med (Ganirelix) tomorrow. I have it in my IVF bag. It’s a morning med, so that will be an interesting addition to our day! I should find out a little more about how many more days to expect for Stims. If my assumption is right, it will be at least 5 because the Ganirelix is done for 5 days. We shall see how my body is or is not cooperating!
Dosages…
Follistim—225iu
Menopur—1 vial

IVF Update—Day 6

Money & Med Update

Yesterday, finding out we will be doing injections an extra 2 days, I wanted to calculate our estimated additional costs. Without more meds, we still have about $2000 we will pay for this cycle. I think I will need more of 2 meds—Follistim & Menopur. We had 4 Follistim cartridges of 300iu, which gave us 1200iu. We, so far, have used 975iu leaving 225iu. If we stay with 225iu for the remaining Stim phase, that will be (not counting today’s dose, which will be the last of our original order) we will have 6 days of shots, so we will need 1350iu. When calculating the cost per 300iu cartridge, it comes to about $307.80 (based on what we paid) and we will need 5 cartridges, so $1539 for the Follistim needed. The Menopur, we will need 2 more vials, which are $87.90 per vial, so $175.80 for Menopur. This brings our total for additional meds to $1714.80, which will deplete what we have set aside. I emailed my nurse about ordering more, and am waiting to hear, but I really need to order today to have Follistim for tomorrow. I’m hoping this is all we will have to order in addition to our original med order, but there’s no telling! **got the Follistim ordered, which was another $930!

General…

I honestly do not understand how people can go through IVF being silent and telling no one, while also acting normal. I am having a hard time focusing on work or anything other than IVF! I’m trying to remember to hydrate and snack on salty things. I’m exhausted. Plus the uncertainty of next week with my job and needing to do stuff with my car. It’s just insane. With the additional money for meds and my car needing some maintenance, that added stress sucks. I’m just wanting to do whatever I can to make sure my body cooperates. I’m sure it will be worse once we transfer our embryo!

Other than that and some bloating, I’m doing okay so far. I’m very tired, but I will check if that’s normal for me or not. When I get home, I use the heating pad off and on until shot time. I got a mastectomy recovery pillow on Etsy to help protect myself from our dogs during all this. This is the BEST thing ever. The dogs are adjusting to it pretty well. They love to snuggle and give kisses, so barriers are not their friend.

Injection Method/Process

So researching a bunch, I compiled a list of tips and tricks. So we have been doing those things. I will probably do a post separate from this to share those, but I wanted to share quickly in case anyone needs that now.

1. Ice the area. I’ve been doing this by putting the ice pack in the waist of my pants and icing until we start prepping. It helps to “numb” the area. So far what I’ve noticed/experienced is the Follistim, if it stings or anything, is minimal and the Menopur stings/burns quite a bit.

2. Prep—it was suggested that you mix the Menopur & let it set for 10 minutes, which makes it burn less. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I’m not willing to test the alternative. So we prep the Menopur, which is the mixing, pulling the med, and attaching the needle.

3. Then we do the Follistim injection and then Menopur. It was suggested to think of the tummy area as a clock (with the belly button being the center) and split it into quadrants. So 12-3 would be Quadrant 1, 3-6 Quadrant 2, 6-9 Quadrant 3, and 9-12 Quadrant 4. Since we are supposed to do UNDER the belly button, we are now doing Q2 and Q3. Each injection, we are writing down the exact injection time and where it was injected, using the clock time & quadrant. We try to inject in different areas and move it around to help with healing & pain.

4. After we clean up, I use the heating pad for a while. This was a tip, too. It apparently helps spread the meds in your body and helps with pain. Again, I don’t want to test the alternative, but I know that the heating pad feels SO GOOD! It’s becoming my best friend.

Stim Day 6–April 21

Today I felt pretty normal, except for being exhausted. I’ve now freaked on Austin for no reason a couple times and my brain fog/pregnancy brain is BAD tonight! I have these glasses that have a light and magnifier that I use when cross stitching, I know…I’m 80. I lost my pen that I use to mark off the stitches I’ve done on the pattern. Austin was trying to help and turned the flashlight on his phone. After a while, I gave up. I told him he could stop looking and I’d find it later. I kept seeing light shining, and TWICE I said with a LOT of attitude, “Okay, you can turn off the light now!” It was the light on my head. That was helping me see my cross stitch. Yep…..

Shots tonight were nothing new. You can REALLY see the bruising now. We are getting pretty good at this thing! Tomorrow, we may try something new. By the time we do the Menopur shot, the numbness from icing the area is gone. That one is painful. So I may try icing between the injections to see if that helps any. I put an ice pack in my pants, I shouldn’t be able to feel anything. Lol!

IVF Update—Days 3-5

Stim Day 3–Sunday 4/18

Writing this on April 21st, and it’s a bit tough to remember! Geez! I need to get better! Sunday night shots weren’t too exciting. We are getting better at this! I got my new heating pad, but it sucked. So that was disappointing. I ordered 2 more, so hopefully I’ll find a good one. I’m nervous about school tomorrow and how I will feel as we progress.
Dosage:
Follistim—225iu
Menopur—1 vial

Stim Day 4–Monday 4/19

This was my first day at work after starting injections! I was a bit nervous about this. Today, I felt extremely bloated and tired. I could barely keep my eyes open. The bloating was the worst part. When I got home, I had the heating pad on and off all night. That seemed to help with the bloat, I think.
Dosages:
Follistim—225iu
Menopur—1 vial

Stim Day 5–Tuesday 4/20

Today started with my monitoring appointment. Bloodwork and an ultrasound to make sure my follicles are growing and my levels are going up. Nothing too exciting happened today. I have some follicles growing, but Dr Craig said on our calendar, I will be on the slow end. Figures! So I am to continue same dosages unless I get a call later today (which I didn’t). The next med that will be added is Ganirelix, which my calendar guessed would start on Wednesday. This one, I’m taking to my appointment on Friday and may start it then. So that’s going to add 2 days to my calendar, which is 2 more days of Stims. Fun. My blood came out easy today, which is unusual and a relief.

Work today was hard to focus. I don’t know how people can keep their IVF cycle a secret and function normally. I felt okay today, just tired. Which, I normally feel tired. My Garmin calculates “body battery”, which is like your energy level. Mine has been so, so low so far. I probably should compare it to other weeks.

Today’s injections were a bit wild. With the 225iu dose, that leaves 75iu in the cartridge. So we used the remaining 75iu in 2 of the cartridges. There’s excess in each cartridge, so we experimented with the dosing to figure out how much was in there, which is about 75iu (we think). Each new dose/cartridge was a new needle and poke. So tonight, I was poked 5 times. So much fun. Lol! We also found out at my appointment that we did yesterday’s too high. They need to be below the belly button. The nurse said that it shouldn’t affect the meds, but we needed to change that going forward. Whoops. We fixed that tonight. Even with the multiple pokes for Follistim, we got through it pretty quick! We are somewhat getting the hang of everything.

The other 2 heating pads came in. One worked great, but it was very small. The other one had to be plugged in, which isn’t what I wanted, and we are still testing the heat. I think I like it, but the point was to get one that was battery operated. So, still deciding and looking.

I did talk with our nurse about work. My school, the kids are coming back to in person on an A/B schedule on Monday. I’ve been concerned about this because if either of us get COVID or are in contact with someone that is positive, our treatment will be cancelled and our money not refunded. We have been extra cautious since COVID came here, but with us being in the middle of a $20,000 treatment, we are not playing around! So HR is supposed to contact me about this as of 2ish months ago. Because I still haven’t heard, I wanted to check with the clinic for their thoughts/suggestions. She said if I have the option of working from home, to do that, but I shouldn’t use my sick leave to avoid exposure (basically). I’m concerned about the school actually sanitizing like the CDC requires and the fact that our students/families still come to school when they shouldn’t (when sick). While I can hide out in my office and stay away from students and staff, COVID is airborne and my office has NO circulation. Hopefully I will know something before Monday!
Dosages:
Follistim—225iu
Menopur—1 vial

First 2 1/2 Days of IVF!

It has taken me longer than expected to update since starting injections. We decided to do them at 9 every night. We were told to pick a time 6-10pm, and we would do the injections at that time every night. 9 allows us to do them and then get ready for bed. Since it’s so late, I will probably be updating the day after. All of the social media and blog pictures I’ve seen of girls going through IVF are skinny ass bitches. So in my goal of normalizing infertility & IVF, I’m going to share my pictures. I’ve shared before, but I am the heaviest I’ve ever been. I HATE my body. I’m constantly uncomfortable with how fat I am. So sharing these is VERY uncomfortable. I ask that you don’t comment about my fat belly or my weight. Just pretend you didn’t see it. Lol! It’s really hard for me to be so vulnerable knowing I can’t control who sees it or how they use it. So here’s my update for our first 3 days of IVF!!

Day 1–April 16

When we got the calendar, the nurse told me that after stopping the birth control I may have a “small menses”, so I was prepared for small bleeding. Thursday, the 15th, I started bleeding and Friday was a normal, full on period day 1. My bleeding was very heavy, my mood was typical day 1, and I was cramping horribly. I had really bad brain fog/forgetfulness. I wasn’t expecting that, at all! So work on Friday was really difficult to focus on anything. The anticipation of doing injections was pretty overwhelming. It being period day 1 didn’t help!

It was finally injection time! When I get stressed, I lash out. I forgot to figure out which needle to use for one of the meds, so I had Austin Google it, but he couldn’t find it. I freaked out and then found my packing slip thing from when they came in. I’m the worst. We waited for so long, and then when the time came, the flurry of anxiety, anticipation, and everything, my brain totally blanked. I have done tons of research on tips, how to prepare, etc but I forgot some of it. Luckily, Austin is wonderful and was taking pictures throughout. I was recording with my phone. Tonight was only 2 meds: Menopur and Follistim. The Menopur requires mixing. We’ve had to mix before when we did trigger shots for IUI. This one uses Q-caps to make mixing easier. Without it, we would use a needle to poke into the liquid and then poke it into the vial of powder. Then mix it, pull the med, and change the needle. With the Q-cap, we just swap out the vial. It’s so much easier!! Someone suggested letting it sit for a while sos it will sting less. So we mixed it, and then worked on the Follistim. This one has a pen, which is SO easy! You put the med cartridge in, put the needle on, and then twist to the dose, and SHOT! The needle is tiny, too! Follistim is one that has to be refrigerated and its the most expensive of all the meds. It didn’t take us long to prep, even with the chaos. We were done by 9:05.

There was a suggestion of having a treat for each shot every night, as a reward for doing the shots. We decided on Reese’s cups. So we cleaned up our med station, got our treats, and got back on the couch. Another suggestion is using a heating pad afterward, so that’s what I did! When we finally went to bed, it felt like when we did the trigger shot and I was awake a few hours after. My ovary/uterus area felt bloated and crampy.

Dosage today…Menopur, 1 vial & Follistim 10iu

Now for the vide and pictures from Day 1!

Day 2–April 17

This was Saturday (yesterday). I felt funky all day. I was kinda crampy, but also weird. I had the heating pad on most of the day. My newest best friend is the heating pad. It brings a new kind of hell though. It brings comfort and relief to my uterus, but then I’m even more hot than I normally am, which is miserable. I wasn’t really in pain, just a little crampy and just a weird feeling. I drank quite a bit of gatorade. One of the huge things during this part of the process is hydration & sodium. This helps prevent one of the risks of IVF, Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome, OHSS, which is very dangerous.

The prep learning curve is over. We got prepped and then had to wait a few minutes before injecting. When doing the Follistim, Austin was trying to take off the needle cover and took off the actual needle. I thought I had fixed it. When I took out the cartridge though, the same amount of medicine was in there. Ugh. So we had to put a new needle on and do it again. There was some liquid still in the bottle, so we took pictures and were going to ask at my appointment today. Like I said, this is the most expensive med, so we don’t want to waste a drop! It’s about $1 per iu. After doing the shots, I laid in bed with the heating pad.
Dosage today…Menopur 1 vial & Follistim 150iu

Now for video and pictures of Day 2!

Day 3–April 18

Today was the first monitoring appointment. It was at 8am in OKC, so we got to wake up super early. Today was only bloodwork, so it was pretty quick. The nurse used the same vein that they did on Tuesday at our baseline. The bruise had finally left, and now its back. I showed her my other arm that’s still nasty looking from OBI. I asked her about the extra liquid in the Follistim. Apparently, they put a bit extra in, so I can use this as part of my dosage tonight. So weird, but we are NOT wasting a drop! Lol! After our appointment, we got breakfast. We tried IHOP, but they were very busy. We went to Jimmy’s Egg. The amount of people when we first got there was about my comfort level. They got pretty busy while we were there. Not great. We still have to be extra cautious about COVID because our treatment will get cancelled and we will lose all of that money. We would go to Jimmy’s Egg on IUI day between Austin’s part and mine. Today, the waitress remembered us and said she hadn’t seen us in a while. It was actually her birthday!

We’ve been relaxing today. I got a new heating pad that is battery operated to make it easier to manage. That came in today (a day early). While Austin was mowing, Dr Craig called about my blood test today. My estrogen wasn’t high enough, so we are to up our Follistim dosage tonight from 150iu to 225iu and keep the Menopur the same. I will do that tonight and tomorrow, and then go in for bloodwork and ultrasound on Tuesday.

I’m feeling okay so far. At breakfast I was craving savory, which is unusual for me. I constantly want sweets. I’m a little crampy and a bit bloated. It just feels like what I’ve experienced after the trigger shot. We shall see once the dosage is increased. With the increased dose, we will probably have to order more before we are done. Probably sometime this week. So another $300+ gone. Sigh.

Two More Sleeps!

Two more sleeps until we start injections, which is the “start date” for our IVF cycle! There was so much to process yesterday, and by the time we got home and I started writing, I just didn’t have enough left to explore and give all the deets from yesterday.

One HUGE thing I forgot to mention, our clinic is lifting the visitor policy on the 19th! This means that Austin will finally be able to come with me to appointments! I am SO thankful for this! He will be right beside me for everything now. Such a sigh of relief and a huge weight lifted.

I mentioned the clinical trials we are able to participate in. These aren’t any huge thing—they aren’t taking away from what we are doing or add anything. The one for me is looking at the correlation between IVF outcomes and aging in your face. They will take a picture of my face the day of my retrieval with an app that looks at the aging of my face and estimates my age. The one for Austin is looking at a specific protein or something. It can only be found in spinal fluid or bone marrow or something crazy and sperm. So they are looking at the correlation between this protein and IVF outcomes. Or something like that. We are all for it!

The other thing I found out is that I have to wean off of my Vyvance before the day of our transfer. This will not be fun. This med is for my ADHD. I’ve been off it before, in between refills, and its bad. I can’t get anything done. I can’t remember anything. So in addition to the crazy hormones and recovering from the egg retrieval surgery, I will be off of that med. Hopefully it isn’t for long! I didn’t ask that, so I’m writing that question down.

I got my car back from the garage yesterday, too. Turns out, nothing was wrong with it. They checked everything. No leak. No broken hoses. Coolant in the tank. Gauges were fine. So all of that mess, a rental car for almost $250, and the stress for nothing & cost $130. Such is my life! I will need a new battery soon, so adding that to my list of things I need to spend money on after we pay for everything with our IVF cycle.

Thinking about the money would be a lot easier if IVF was 100% chance of live birth. If so, I wouldn’t be so unsure about everything. Should I get a loan? Should I not? Should I get my car fixed or wait? If this cycle doesn’t work, will we do another cycle? When will we do that? How in the hell will we pay for another round? If I get a loan to pay for the rest of this cycle and get the needed car repairs and then we need another cycle, then I’m fucked. What if 2 cycles doesn’t work? It’s so hard to think of anything after the end of April because of the uncertainty. Luckily, we can’t go anywhere or do anything. But still, loan? Credit card? Large purchases? New tires have been a dire need since November. There are some other things we’d like to do or upgrade. I’d love to get Austin a new car. He doesn’t have a car payment, so that would be an added monthly expense. If I do get a loan, that’ll be a car payment or close. UGH. At the moment, we have enough on credit cards and leftover from paying bills to pay for the rest of the cycle that we know of, the $2000. There may be more costs as we go on, into next week. Yay.

An update on my arm from yesterday’s blood draw for you! It still hurts today. Looks a lot worse, too.

top row is this morning & bottom is tonight; left is left arm & right is right arm

Oh, and today was my first day off of birth control. Yay? I have a headache and have been about as moody as I have been. Lol! As the days progress and hormone levels will be changing daily, I’m going to be documenting feelings, symptoms, etc. Of course, who the hell knows if there’s a correlation, but oh well!

TWO MORE SLEEPS, Y’ALL!!!!!!!!!!