The Moral of the Story

The progesterone shot is definitely big. And scary looking. It took me three hours and a small crying fit to drum up the courage to do it by myself. Let’s be clear here: I’m not afraid of any needle, when someone else is wielding it. And I’m not afraid of small insulin-type syringes. But Hubs was at work and Pooka IS afraid of needles, so I had to give my first shot without assistance.

I was able to draw the shot with little trepidation – and holy crepe, is it thick! Lupron is a liquid, so pulling back the plunger on the syringe is easy. Progesterone in oil is just that – oil. It has to be drawn back very slowly to get the full CC into the chamber of the syringe, and tapped to get the air bubbles out. Anyway, I drew up the shot and panicked. Sat down on my bed and cried for about ten minutes.

I had read numerous articles and blog posts online, where surrogates and moms-by-IVF alike said that the progesterone shots hurt like hell once the oil was in their muscles. I’ve got a pretty significant tolerance level for pain, so I didn’t think much of it, as I had read that the Lupron shots hurt too. Burning, soreness, et cetera were the common complaints. Then I read an article that suggested that exercising immediately after the shot was given, would get the oil absorbed more quickly and relieve the soreness generally associated with pumping a bunch of fluid into a localized hunk of muscle.

I started my regularly-scheduled HIIT body-weight workout, thinking that perhaps if I got some endorphins flowing it might help me dredge up the nerve to do the shot. It worked. After my first round of Betty Rocker’s MakeFatCry Week One workout, I paused my timer, took a breath and did the injection. I barely felt the needle at all. It did get sore for a second, but I started right back into the workout and by the end of it, I felt no difference at the injection site than I ever did before the shots.

The moral of the story is, ladies and gents: Workouts are always good for you! And so is a healthy, clean diet. Since the beginning of October, this Preggosaurus has lost nine inches off her waist thanks to the aforementioned Betty Rocker and her various and incredibly helpful programs. (Shush. I can plug whomever I want. It’s my blog. Haha!)

Holy Medications, Batman!

BWAHAHAHAHA! I am now up to 5 medications to prep for the embryo transfer on Sunday:
- Estradiol: 2 pills, twice a day
- Vivelle: 1 patch, changed every 3rd day
- Progesterone in Oil: 1CC intramuscular injection, once a day
- Doxycycline: 1 pill, twice a day
- Methylprednisolone: 1 pill, once a day

Saturday night I take one application of Metronizadole, then Sunday I go in between 6:00 and 7:00 am for bloodwork and a final pre-transfer ultrasound. On my way out, I'll be given another application of progesterone and sent back to my hotel. I'll get a call around 11:00 am to inform me at what time the embryo transfer will occur. I'll be expected in around noon for transfer between 1:00 and 2:00 pm.

SO much more than I did with the old IVF Clinic! WHEW!

Bring on The Babies: The Uber-Ute Rides Again!

“Ladies and gentlebeans!” (My very first friend in school used to say this when we would play Circus and make his little brother and sister be our circus animals.) Please excuse me in advance: I am unaccustomed to chocolate these days, and I had half a bar of honey-sweetened dark chocolate. My brain is vibrating. I downed some tofu to keep me from crashing too badly later, but I’m pretty sure it won’t bring me down off the chocolate high. I’m pretty sure I’m about to start seeing through time, any second.

ANYWAY: Great morning this morning. I got to sleep in and get extra snuggles before I lumbered out of bed and shuffled through the house to brush my teeth and wash my face. While I did this, Hubs went outside to brush off and start the car for me, so it would be nice and warm when I was ready to leave for The Big Hospital. The drive went well; the roads were dry, so the violent gusts of wind on the interstate were manageable.

I actually got to have my blood drawn in the GYN clinic instead of having to go downstairs to the lab and wait in an hour-plus line for a two-minute procedure. I appreciated that, let me tell you! I only had to wait a couple minutes after my blood draw to be called in for ultrasound, too. The doctor was stuck at JFK airport, so another sonography “fellow” came in to check the lining of my uterus. I asked the nurse, “If I get (Unchaperoned Fellow) today, he’ll be chaperoned this time, right?” I told the nurse I was fine with him, as long as he followed the appropriate procedure. They didn’t send him in. Haha! Instead I got a very nice, if a bit terse, young lady.

Ladies and Gentlebeans, in the words of my dear friend BAMF: Bring on the Babies! The Über-Ute Rides Again! The minimum thickness of uterine lining for embryo transfer is eight millimeters. Mine’s at ten! HUZZAH!

I’m still waiting to hear on a date for the transfer, but based on what’s been said before, I’m guessing it will happen on Sunday (January 12), if not earlier! I’ll update this post again once I’ve heard for sure.

UPDATE: I have confirmation that I will indeed be getting knocked up on Sunday afternoon! WOO HOO!
Now to drum up the nerve to do my enormous progesterone shot! EEP!

Monitoring

Well my first pre-transfer monitoring happened this morning. Not much to report on the medical side; the doctor says everything looks normal for having had the menses that The Clinic predicted I would. The odd thing is: The nurse who brought me in for the ultrasound said I’d be dealing with a lady doctor. The doctor who came in (and had a badge matching his name) had no female accompanying him. He was wholly professional and did the same thing every other ultrasound doctor has always done, but I thought it was a little odd. I emailed my favorite nurse at The Big Hospital to ask if that’s normal, and am waiting for her response.

UPDATE: I heard back from my favorite nurse. The doctor who did the exam was a fellow of the doctor who was listed on my chart. She's notified the upper echelons of his slip-up today in not having a chaperon during the exam, though. 

So far I’ve been relatively level on the dino-shots. I’ve had a couple “needy” moments, but Hubs and Pooka have been exceptionally obliging on that score. I start estrogen tonight and decrease the amount of dino-meds I take. I had a panic moment a couple minutes ago and called my poor Hubs to wake him up and ask him to check my supply of surro-meds to make sure I have patches. I do, and he was most gracious about his sleep being interrupted. (He works two jobs now, amounting to some 17-hour days – not every day, but enough that I try not to interrupt his daytime resting.)

This weekend I had a house full of crazy teenage girls. They made a HUGE mess, which was to be expected. I told Pooka and her friend “Vriska,” who spent another night so her mom could try to get over a nasty migraine (plus I like having her around) that they could just chill: I’d take care of clean-up. I then proceeded to hang out in my room and watch TV on my iPad and patch up a favorite pair of jeans. When I emerged from my laziness, my house looked like I had cleaned it up myself. The girls tidied up their mess, washed and put away all of the dishes, vacuumed, wiped down the counter and stove, and took out the trash. Words cannot describe how positively this impacted my day! I have the best kids in the world. (Yes, I know Vriska isn’t mine, but she calls me “OtherMom” so she’s my other kid.)

Commencing IVF Cycle #4

Last night was my first dinosaur (Lupron) shot. It didn’t hurt, really, but my belly itched for a few minutes where I administered the injection. Oh well. There are bigger problems to have. The interesting thing about it was that within an hour, I was suddenly very sad and clingy. Hubs was accommodating as ever, and I was able to identify that I was hormonal and needy so I didn’t flip out. I was able to just ask Hubs to come give me a snuggle – he did – and that was enough.

Aside from that moment of mope, I’ve honestly been okay. I was groggy this morning, but I think that’s just Monday for you. We had a long, fun-filled Solstice weekend, and I dropped off to sleep very quickly Friday, Saturday and last night.

I did seriously pig-out this weekend; and I neglected my water intake and had a lot of sodium, so I’m really swollen today. There. I admitted it. I don’t feel bad about it, but I’m going to have to be really diligent about food and water and exercise this week. Two cheat-days in a row are not going to help my waist line. It’s not going to do a whole lot of damage, but it’s not a good habit to get into, either.

I’ve decided to take a rental car down to The New IVF Clinic for the embryo transfer next month. There are several reasons for this:

1.) Trains take just as long to get there as cars, and if my lining isn’t ready on the day we’re tentatively scheduled, it will be very expensive to change the ticket.

2.) If we book a flight ahead of time and the ticket needs to be changed, that would be even more expensive than if I took a train and changed the ticket.

3.) If we wait until the last minute to book a flight, it’ll be crazy expensive and I’d probably wind up taking long, round-about flights again because the nonstop flights would most likely be full.

4.) If I take a plane or train and I need to go out for something, I’ll have to call a limo to take me because there aren’t any taxi services in the town where The New IVF Clinic is, and those are PRICEY.

5.) I like driving.

The Carrier Coordinator at The Agency said that they’ve tried lots of methods to get rental car companies to charge The Agency’s credit card for their carriers and have had no luck. On a whim last week, I called the one across the street from my office and asked if they could charge a car to The Agency listing me as a subcontractor. (Well I am. I provide a service to their clients, but am not their employee.) The rental company said sure; they just needed The Agency to fill out a form and provide their card and the ID of someone who’s authorized to sign on the card. The Carrier Coordinator still isn’t sure this will work, so she’s had an advance sent out to me to cover food and possible rental expenses. If the rental goes through The Agency’s card, she’ll just deduct that amount plus whatever isn’t used for gas and tolls (for which I must provide documentation) from my transfer fee.

I honestly have to say: this cycle is SO much more conveniently arranged than the last three. I haven’t had to pay up-front for anything at all. It’s been so much easier on my budget. And while it would be nice to have Hubs or Mama come with me, I’ll most likely need both of them to be back home to stay home at night with Pooka. Anyway: Mum and possibly Dad will be there for the embryo transfer, and are staying in the same hotel. I like that they’re so hands-on and so involved.

Mum and Dad sent us a lovely holiday package last week: We got a bundle of DELICIOUS chocolate chip cookies (which were gone before 8:00 pm that night) and some cookie bars that Hubs said looked and tasted a little like Samoas. Whatever they were, they tasted of chocolate and sugar cookie with a hint of peanut butter and coconut shavings on top, and they are my new favorite confection! We also got a lovely scented candle in a velour covered box, and a bottle of dark nail polish with a fancy emery board. I felt sort of bad that they had spent so much money and effort on us, when all we sent them was a jar of “baby dust & sticky vibes.”

Anyway: Whee! The cycle has officially started, so send me all the baby dust and sticky vibes you’ve got! I want to get this right on the first go!

Festivities & Awesome News!

Only five days till the Winter Solstice! Hubs, Pooka and I don’t do Christmas for multiple reasons; the most significant being that none of us are Christian. Instead, in our house, we celebrate Solstice. We each give the others in our little nucleus one gift, so we never get more than two presents from within the family. We do stockings, so we can do small, inexpensive trinkets, and our extended families send gifts as well, but the idea is to move the focus of the holiday away from materialism and toward quality time with our loved ones. The gift is generally something that’s been well-thought-out, if we have money to buy something expensive; or homemade if we don’t.

We open gifts and stockings in the morning, and spend time as a family until the evening, when we typically host a dinner party for our friends and, if they’re in the area, our extended family. This year, though, we’ve decided to take the party outside. We’re going to a local park and sledding in the afternoon! There’s an old shelter at the top of the hill, with a fireplace in it, so we’re going to build a fire and pre-make chili, baked potatoes and hot chocolate to serve when people get cold and hungry.

Sunday I start taking “dino-shots.” I’m glad I’m doing it the day after the festivities. I’d hate to get completely hormonal and wind up in tears because I hit a bump on the hill and fell out of my sled! HA! I mentioned to Hubs this morning that I’m due to start “crazy meds” on Sunday. He snuggled up against me and told me, “There’s nothing to worry about, Honey. I’m not going anywhere this time.” I adore him. He always knows how to set me at ease.

OOH! ALSO! I'm going to be an Auntie again! I have two nephews: The Athlete, who is Hubs' nephew (but mine because I married Hubs) and Little Mook, who is my stepsister's. But now Lord and Lady Bear, who have been trying for a year and a half, are just into their second trimester. I'm wishing for a niece. Nephews are pretty awesome, but it's time we had another girl on my side of the family. (Pooka has two girl-cousins on her biological father's side, but no girl-cousins on mine.) We'll find out for sure on Valentine's Day! WHEE!

Moving Further Along...

We’re almost there! I should be getting my medications (read: hormones) and accoutrements (read: small, sharp, pointy things) around the middle of next week. I’ll start my “dinosaur shots” – 10 units of leuprolide acetate every evening - on December 22^nd. This should be interesting. I haven’t had to take dinosaur shots since the IVF cycle with Wiggle Worm more than two and a half years ago, and it made me kind of insane for a couple days. Not literally, of course; I was just a blubbering mess. So yeah: Interesting.

The day after Christmas I stop taking birth control and continue on with the dino-shots. By that time my brain should be used to the leuprolide (I hope) and I’ll be easier to deal with. Hubs, Pooka and I have gotten pretty good at realizing and communicating when we’re feeling wholly unreasonable. It’s so much easier to say, “I’m feeling [sensitive/hormonal/needy/antisocial/whatever] right now, so I need [support/patience/love/alone time/et cetera] from you,” than to get into a tiff because I can’t take a moment to realize how I’m feeling and what I need.

December 30^th I go up to The Big Hospital for monitoring: ultrasound to check the thickness of my uterine lining, and blood work. That evening, I start estrogen by pill (estradiol) and patch (Vivelle). It’s the same regimen I used for the last three IVF cycles, but the nurses have to be thorough, so I’ll get a phone call once the results of the monitoring make it to the New IVF Clinic to make sure I know what I’m doing. I’ll also halve the amount of leuprolide I take, starting that evening.

January 3^rd I increase my estradiol, and continue on Vivelle and 5 units of leuprolide. January 7^th I go back up to The Big Hospital for another ultrasound and more blood work. If the lining of my uterus (endometrium) is thick enough, an embryo transfer will be scheduled for January 12^th. If not, I’ll increase my estradiol again, and go back in several days later for more monitoring and THEN they’ll arrange for an embryo transfer.

The nurse informed me that once the transfer is scheduled, she’ll go over the changes in medications with me at that time. But we’re sure that I won’t be using Crinone gel as my progesterone: I’ll be doing that as an intramuscular injection. Momma tells me it’s uncomfortable, so I’m not excited about it, but what must be, must be.