Inflated Follies & the Porn Star

Last night was my first shot of Ganirelix.  My skin did NOT like this shot and I instantly had a weird little rash around the point of injection, with a tingly sensation.  Thankfully, this reaction died down after about an hour and all I was left with was another little bruise to add to my collection!  The shiner from the 1st Menopur injection is still glowing neon. 

Today at my ultrasound we learned that I have about 10 good sized follies (wishing it was more) with a few tiddlers trying to catch up in size.  Seriously, no wonder my stomach feels bloated, those things look like friggin misshapen hot air balloons on the screen!    I have another appointment on Wednesday morning and if everything is still on course, then the plan is for retrieval this Friday.

After my u/s and blood draw appointment I had to pick up some more meds to get me through until Wednesday.  Another few hundred on my card, just like that!  And for things that sting...why oh why can't I drop this money on a nice long weekend away.  Oh that's right, I can't get pregnant...crap.  Why can't my body be as frugal as me and get up the duff the cheap and painless way.  Get with the program!

I also went for another session of acupuncture today.  I've been having very vivid dreams since starting all the IVF Meds and waking up exhausted as though I haven't slept at all.  Nothing specific in the dreams that springs to mind, but I sure could use a restful night's sleep for a change.  I told my acupuncturist and she put some extra needles in my hands to "cool my heart".  No idea how this is supposed to help but as I feel so amazingly blissful after each session, I'll take her word for it, what do I know!

Oh and I have two things playing on my mind as we progress, wait, three things:

1. Will we get the grand prize at the end of this raffle?
2. Just how painful are those PIO injections...and can't I just swallow something instead? At this point, I can almost hear my Hubbs saying, "I have just the thing...!"  
3. Please little oocytes, grow in time for transfer next Monday and not next Wednesday.  At my age I have few pleasures in life, but Robert Pattinson is one of them (second to my husband of course).  We have tickets to see Eclipse next Wednesday morning and I really really really want to see it then.  Ok ok, I'll forgo this indulgence if it means I can have my little Bumble safely home to roost at the right time, but, if you can manage to make it Monday instead....there is a trip to Disneyland in it for you ;)

And lastly, it's official!  I am a Porn Star.  It's come to this...excuse the pun.  Hubbs and I discussed his part in this, and we agreed that somehow it just didn't seem right that he would be ogling at another woman while he does the deed.  I mean, isn't that like cheating!?!  So for the first, and ONLY time in my life, I permitted a camcorder in the bedroom and donned a sexy neglige with the obligatory knee-high, stripey socks (Hubbs has a thing for stripey socks, and no, that is not me in the pic!).  I'll spare you the details (she hears an overwhelming sigh of relief from the audience) but suffice to say that Hubbs is very very pleased with the performance and is now more confident that he can overcome stage fright on the day.  And at least I'll know his swimmers have me in mind as they hit the cup with a shuddering thud! 

The Second Shot & Big Girl's Panties

So all day I had been trying to forget about the fact that this very evening would be the first of my Menopur shots. Admittedly, the Follistim shot had gone surprisingly well this morning and at most I felt a pinch. I am wondering if I ever felt the Follistim injection at all and that the pinch feeling that I felt was in fact that, Hubbs pinching me as instructed on the directions. Curious to know whether this pinching process is actually required. But if that's the worst I have to feel for the morning shots I'm mightily relieved as I am NOT a good, morning person and need as little pain and aggravation first thing, as possible. Or else!

So back to this evening's shot. Menopur. What the hell is this one for again anyway? Another one to stim my follies, wow couldn't we just hook up a giant vibrator to my belly? I bet it would feel much better and stim the heck out of my follies, and much more besides ;) I digress. Wait, I'm liking this digression, must I really come back to the reality of the Menopur shot. "sigh"

We had popped in a light-hearted movie about cooking, ah food, that should serve as a good distraction! Not long into it I realized that the dreaded hour for the shot was upon us, and so the movie was put on pause. Hubbs took off upstairs to open his cupboard of "delights", put on his Doctor's uniform (now there's a fantasy) and prep for the first of my Menopur shots. Meanwhile, I dug out the ice pack from the freezer, grabbed a blanket and lay down on the sofa with ice pack numbing my belly and the blanket doing it's best to keep everything else warm. What seemed like ten minutes passed and I started to wonder what was taking so long. "Everything OK up there?"..."Oh sure" I heard in reply. Hmmm.

A few minutes later I heard Hubbs come down the stairs and so I turned to face the back of the couch so I wouldn't see the torture device and at the same time grasped the couch cushions firmly. I know I know, I'm supposed to relax but needles are needles, and they bite!

Do they ever!!! Hubbs said ok and I suppose he had started inserting the needle because all of a sudden I felt a sharp pain. Holy Cow! As Hubbs was apologizing profusely, mumbling something about putting it in at a weird angle and leaning over me not helping, all I could think was that if this one hurt this badly, what the hell will the PIO shot be like!?! I mean, from all the blogs I've read, that's the killer, the one to fear. And to think before we found out that TTC wasn't a walk in the park, I actually feared the pain of pregnancy...we aren't even there yet! Ah such is life.

But you know what, I'm a big girl! A big girl with big girl's panties...and I'm not going to get them into a twist over a silly needle. No I'm not!

Husband's Perspective - 6/12/10 – The Second Shot – not so smooth!

Mixing up the Menopur shot this evening was an adventure. I laid out all of the vials, needles, swabs, syringe and Q-cap in preparation.

Step 1 – remove the 1.5” 18 gauge needle from the syringe. Holy cow! You could drive a truck down the middle of that thing and not touch the sides.

Step 2 – remove the Q-cap from the package and drop it on the floor. Not sure that was in the instructions.

Step 3 – clean the Q-cap with a swab, then drop the swab on the floor. I’m starting to notice a trend here!

Step 4 – Use the Q-cap to draw 1ml of saline from the first vial. Took some effort to remove the caps from the vials, but I got that done without dropping anything.

Step 5 – Mix the 1ml saline into the two vials of Menopur. And I haven’t dropped anything for the last two steps – looking good!

Step 6 – OK, this is where I should have planned ahead. I now have a syringe containing 1ml of saline mixed with two shots of Menopur. And a Q-cap on the end. I need to remove the Q-cap and fit a smaller needle, but I just dropped the packaging for the Q-cap in the trash can, and I haven’t opened the packaging for the needle. If I put the syringe down with the Q-cap on it, I may contaminate everything. And if I remove the Q-cap, the liquid will drain out if I don’t keep the syringe upright. So holding the syringe tightly between two fingers, I use the rest of my fingers to pry open the needle packaging, and manage to swap the Q-cap for the needle. I’m going to have to rethink the logistics on this one before tomorrow night!

Step 7 – Stick the needle in wifey’s belly. This one proved troublesome, as she chose to lie on the sofa and ice her belly to numb everything before the jab. I bent over her and slid in the needle, but as I depressed the plunger on the syringe, I applied a little too much force, causing major discomfort. Something else that needs to be improved on tomorrow.

Husband's Perspective – The First Shot

I think it’s time to open Doctor’s Cabinet of Pharmaceutical Delights! This reminds me of the scene in Trainspotting, when Renton enters a heroin den and is asked by a drug dealer if he would care for an appetizer from the menu. “No thank you”, says Renton, “I think I will just go straight to the intravenous injection of hard drugs, please.”

Today is day one of the 10-15 day medication cycle that will require morning and evening injections.

The morning injections of Follistim are made in the abdomen using a rather ingenious “pen” system, where a cartridge of medication is placed in a pen-like device and used for multiple shots using disposable needles. The pen has a dial that is used to determine how much medication is injected each time. Quite a clever system.

The afternoon injections of Menopur are a little more complex. They involve drawing 1cc of saline into a syringe, then pumping that saline into a vial containing powdered Menopur, mixing and drawing the mixture back into the syringe. Two vials are mixed like this, and then injected into the abdomen.

The first Follistim injection this morning went smoothly. Lots of prep work to get the sharps disposer, swabs, pen, needle, cartridge, Arnica cream (to reduce bruising), cold pack (to numb the site before injection), heat pack (to warm things up after the injection) and cotton wall ball to stem the trickle of blood. Phew! I feel like a lab technician already. All of that build up to a few seconds of injection and we are all done. Lots of fuss, but according to Wifey, not much pain.

Is it time for the USA-England soccer game yet?

Bracing for the 1st round of Meds

Finished the birth control pill three days ago and am now bracing for tomorrow's introduction to the joys of IVF medications *sigh*. Hubbs is like a kid in a candy store with all those packets of meds, needles and other torturous looking devices. Literally, he keeps opening the cupboard where they are stored and eyeing them gleefully. Me being petrified of needles will be closing my eyes and hoping for as little pain as possible. Hubbs will no doubt be wearing a huge smile, perhaps even letting out an evil laugh as he preps and inserts aforesaid torture into various parts of my body. The worst of course, is yet to come in the form of the dreaded PIO (Progesterone in Oil). Oh the horror stories I have read about the pain associated with this procedure. I guess I will find out soon enough if my poor butt will withstand that 1.5" needle filled with nasty viscous goo. But for now, I am going to focus on getting over the morning Follistim shots which look harmless enough, but perhaps I'm deluding myself. Then in the evening, it will be the rather complicated concoction of Menopur; thank god Hubbs is handling the prep, I think I would mess it up or break the needles, accidentally on purpose ;)