Week 5!

Woah... Time is sure flying on this calendar of mine!  My excuse for not posting last week, was because I must have been busy and I'm getting older / forgetful with this last birthday - yup that's my story and I'm sticking to it!  Well for a recap, week 4 wasn't much different than the beginning of week 3 as I just continued on my nightly Lupron shots.  I will have to admit that the shots are getting easier and easier each and every day.

Thursday, I had my baseline ultrasound and blood work done.  I also had to fork over my share of the cost for the procedures at the fertility clinic.  Thank goodness for flexible spending accounts!  I am pretty pleased that I put enough in the flex for this year to cover the cost of the medications and the fertility clinic cost.   I'll hopefully be able to plan for next year with the hospital bills WHEN baby J comes!  Anywho, the appointment at the clinic went well.  I was a little nervous as I had started a "cycle" as the birth control pills ran out... I wasn't sure if this was a normal thing or if the whole process had somehow gotten messed up and I would have to start over?!  Needless to say I was pretty scared to go to the appointment, but my nurse Nicole shrugged it off as it was nothing to worry about.  BIG sigh of relief after that...

Onward with the ultrasound!  Nicole was looking to see how my ovaries looked and measure the follicles and the lining of the uterus.  She basically reiterated the fact that I did have PCOS, because when you look at the pictures that she printed off you can see multiple follicles present in the ovaries - which is nothing new... I've know this since at least December 2011.  However, week 5 brings an addition of two more injectable drugs.  These two drugs (Repronex and Follistim) are both stimulation drugs.  They will stimulate the growth of multiple eggs within the ovaries.  Typically you only produce one egg during a cycle, but these two medications will produce multiple eggs to allow for multiple eggs to be taken during the egg retrieval process.  This sounds good, but this stimulation can be a problem with a person who has PCOS as you may overstimulate too many follicles.  So those with PCOS can get OHSS - gotta love acronyms.  Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome.  Basically, I want to produce more than one follicle, but do not want to produce too many.  Therefore, the clinic will be monitoring my hormone levels and being very careful about the dosage of the two stimulation medications they prescribe!

Speaking of medications... I picked up the two drugs on Friday.  I absolutely love Bauder's Pharmacy.  I know that this is probably a requirement that they talk to you about how the injections work, but the pharmacists are so nice and take the time to really make sure you understand the process.  They were very busy with people coming in and out getting prescriptions filled.  The pharmacist had to walk away from me for about 5 minutes and the pharmacy tech asked if I wanted something to drink for free.  Such kind staff.  The pharmacist explained that the Repronex is somewhat of a mad scientist drug.  The vials contain a power that I will mix with a liquid.  For the moment, I will be mixing 2 power vials with 1 cc of liquid every evening in addition to the Lupron.  Follistim is in a cartridge pen style form that I will be injecting in the morning.  I wish all of the drugs came in this style!  All you have to do is dial the pen to the correct dosage and stick yourself and push the pen in until it clicks!  So much easier than drawing the medication into a syringe or doing this mixing business!  Guess what life isn't easy...yeah yeah, I hear your finger violin a playing... :)

There must be some real winners, impatient, or rude people that come in to get their medications as the pharmacist was amazed at how I was picking up on the information she was telling me.  She made mention at one point that I should be teaching this "class."  Again, as I said she felt really bad about having to leave me sit there for a few minutes that when I went to leave she asked if she could buy me an ice cream cone.  I had to confess that I had already had a shake at lunch time, and that I probably shouldn't indulge in another desert for the day (stupid on my part to have a shake at lunch knowing I was going to Bauder's - which has THE BEST malts I've had in years).  She said that I needed to call in ahead of time on my next visit to pick up my trigger shot (right before egg retrieval) and she would make sure that someone would be here to help me right away as well as buy me an ice cream cone.  Have I mentioned I love this pharmacy?

I'm going to try this next week to get some pictures of the drugs and syringes for a visual... mostly because I want to be really open about what I'm doing as well as document this journey.  Life is a roller coaster at the moment as I said I was slightly depressed, nervous, and anxious for that first Dr. appointment.  However, I definitely feel like I'm on cloud 26 now!! I can't wait to start the stimulation drugs!  I have appointments on the 2nd, 4th, 7th, and possibly the 8th to track how the stimulation is progressing.  From there the 9th, 10th, or 11th could be go time for retrieval!  Those dates then bring the 14th, 15th, or 16th for the embryo transfer!  These next two weeks are going to fly by and like I said I CANNOT WAIT!!!!  After the transfer days will bring a little bit of a down hill slide for the roller coaster wondering if things went well and baby J will be a reality.  I am happy to say that I will be going to Canada on the 24th for the annual fishing trip, so that will help take my mind off of the results for a little bit!

I am just so excited I just want to tell the whole wide world - but not right now... I'll just be happy with letting you all know that things are progressing in the right direction!!!!

LOVE YOU ALL
ALJ

Week Three

Week 3 has officially started, which means the introduction of needles... Yikes! Friday, I went down to the pharmacy to pick up my first inject-able drug. I don't believe I've mentioned this before, but the only pharmacy in the greater DSM area that supplies fertility drugs is Bauder's Pharmacy. The pharmacy is located on Ingersoll and is east of 42nd street. This is a really neat old style pharmacy complete with the soda / ice cream bar with stools so you can sit right at the counter. The pharmacist is a very nice and knowledgeable man. He's is probably in his mid 50's to early 60's and you can tell by the way he works that this is definitely not his first rodeo dealing with these fertility drugs! Friday's trip to the pharmacy was to pick up Lupron. The pharmacist did a little show and tell with me to ensure that I knew what I was supposed to be doing when I got home. I had a pretty good idea of what to do from listening to the Mid-Iowa Fertility nurse and I also knew that I would have a pretty good expert to help me out on Saturday for the first shot. The expert would be nurse Cindy aka the best mom ever!! As I went to pay for the drug, the pharmacist said that the whole bag (syringes, lupron, and alcohol swabs) needed to go into the fridge. I gave him a look and said "Really? The whoooole bag?" He responded with: "Well, no" and smiled at me like okay smart ass get out of here so I can help the next customer.

I couldn't leave Bauder's without purchasing a vanilla malt (again this is an old style pharmacy). I got sucked in.... I knew the malt would be delicious... and let me tell you, that was the best malt I've had in years! I "drank" that malt like it was the last thing I was ever going to eat! I hope I don't have to go back to the pharmacy too many more times... this will be a bad, bad, bad habit to get into!

I worked Saturday which was probably a hidden blessing because that kept me from stewing and fretting about the shot that awaited me on Saturday evening. I had asked the expert if she would be willing to come down and stay overnight to assist me with that first shot. I am sure that she got a little bit of a kick out of watching how nervous I was for this first experience! However, I am definitely grateful that mom and dad were able to come on down and stay at our home. There is nothing better than the care of your mother! After another lesson on how to fill the syringe, the time had finally come. I hesitated quite a bit. That first step to stab yourself with that needle is tough, especially because I've never done that! I'm not sure what made me go through with the motion, but before I knew it... the needle was gone and in the skin. With shaky hands I pushed the plunger in until all the medication was gone and in a swift motion pulled out the needle. I cannot believe I just did that....

Mom helped me fill the syringe one more time tonight before she and dad took off to go home. Again, I don't know what got into me to give that shot tonight, but I found a way. I can't say that the shot tonight was any easier than the previous night, but I have hope that the next couple weeks will be easier. I only have 23 more nights for that drug... BRING 'EM ON! Injection site was a little red and irritated after the shots, but nothing too out of control.

On a side note my thumb is still healing well and the nail is getting closer to being fully grown out! Major accomplishment for this week was being able to remove my right eye contact using my right hand. Since the day the accident happened, I've had to use my left hand to remove both contacts! I feel more efficient now as I can take both of my contacts out at once rather than one at a time! Small wins....

Week 3 is officially in full swing!
ALJ

Week 2!

I was issued my official IVF calendar this past week! I was pretty excited to get the calendar to help me "map" out what is happening when! I bet this surprises you all that I like to have a schedule :)....OR maybe not! The biggest thing for me is that the calendar puts a little more clarity into the whole process. I am for sure starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Today officially brings us to week 2 on the calendar! At work we keep talking about celebrating the small wins... so I guess I'm bringing that to my personal life and celebrating the small wins! Today started 2 different types of antibiotics for me and a z-pack for C. The antibiotics for me will continue until next week.

My thumb is healing rapidly! I am impressed with how fast the nail has grown back and how many more tasks I can complete with my right hand - small wins now... :) My biggest accomplishment for the past week was the ability to hit the space bar with my right thumb instead of using my right pointer finger. This was somewhat of a weird thing to re-learn or re-train my brain to use my thumb instead of bringing that pointer finger down. I know... weird that I didn't just use my left thumb to space, but that seemed really awkward- almost as weird as trying to throw with my left arm.

Until next time...
ALJ