After 37 days, Aunt Flo finally decided to bring her behind on ! This heifer just takes random vacations sometimes and I have told her before that she can not go AWOL without my permission.
Today is officially CD1 and on Tuesday, I have an appointment at 10 am for my sonogram to start my mock cycle for my Fall IVF. FINALLY !
So, I spent the night after retrieval in excruciating pain. First it was the awful gas bubbles in my tummy that were trapped and had no where to go. I was ridiculously uncomfortable. I way lying in bed and then noticed the backs of my knees were also hurting pretty bad. I could not get comfortable and my right knee pain was radiating down into my calf. I was finally able to fall asleep after the Dulcolax I took earlier in the day kicked in. I was still bloated and the abdomen was distended and my legs ached. I told my camera man to keep an eye on me and if he noticed my breathing change to call 911 immediately.
I talked to my nurse when she called with the fertilization report and she suggested I go to Albany Medical Center.
When the camera crew was leaving, I arranged for a cab to come pick me up to and take me to the emergency room. I got there in about 20 mins, checked in and waited for a room. I was seen by an ER doc and then sent to radiology in the middle of his interview. I gave him my list of meds that CNY printed out for me to take over the next few days and off I was rolled to radiology. That was THE longest ride ever ! I had a doppler done of the groin and both legs and the scan did not show anything above the knee. After I was done, I was rolled back to the room #13 that I was previously in and two more ER docs and an assistant came in shortly after and explained that doppler scans and xrays do not show much below the knee and that it was suspected that I had a clot in the right leg in the calf. The good thing was that the Lovenox was started again after egg retrieval, so it will help dissolve any clots, being that it works very quickly, unlike Cumadin and other blood thinners that take days to build up in the system. Lovenox begins to work within two hours of the injection. Next, the insurance coordinator came in and got my information, registered me, and took copies of my insurance card and id. I relaxed on the cot and watched television for two more hours before they finally let me go. It took AN HOUR for a cab (after calling 2 different companies) to show up to pick me up and take me back to the hotel. I ordered pizza on the way back and it arrived within 20 mins of my return.
I was instructed to walk several times a day to increase blood flow and to monitor for various symptoms.
The leg pain was gone by last night before bed, so I was happy about that. The bloating has done down some and I am no longer in pain.
This morning, I got up an inserted the estrace, Endometrin, did the PIO injection, took the antibiotic, and later took the Prednisone, Claritin, and prenatal vitamin. I have to insert the Estrace three times a day and the Endometrin twice a day. I was going to do the Delestrogen, but since my elevated hormone levels are the cause of the blood clot, I will just stick to the vaginal dosage.
Tomorrow, I have to report to CNY Fertility Center and Spa in Albany at 9 am for acupuncture and then I will be having my transfer of prayerfully all three of my embryos at 10:30 am. I called today, but they do not check the embryos again until tomorrow so I am praying and hoping all three of them are still with us and growing and dividing strongly. I won’t know about the 4th one until tomorrow either. I have had dreams about three and so has my mom, so I am going to go with THREE !
My nurse, Greta, called this morning, but called from a blocked number so the call was sent straight to voicemail because I have a block on my phone to prevent calls from restricted numbers.
Unfortunately, out of the seven eggs, so far, one of them was mature and fertilized. The others are being watched if and when they mature, will be fertilized later. The last two cycles, I had immature eggs at retrieval and they matured later that day and then were able to be fertilized so I will will keep my fingers and toes crossed that these eggs do the same. The E2 level was 1100 so that would indicate that the eggs, at least 5 of them, should have been mature.
This morning, I feel like I am on a job ! It is so daunting to devise a plan to take all the meds and injections and spread them out so that they do not interact with each other.
I am skipping my synthroid for a few days since my TSH is .04. I took my antibiotic with breakfast and took the asprin. I will wait until mid morning to take the prednisone. At lunch, I will take the folic acid, prenatal vitamin and b6. I did my neupogen, lovenox and PIO injections this morning. I also have instructions to insert 3 Estrace vaginally. I am still bleeding and experiencing blood clots, so I did the first dose and emailed the nurse to find out if I should just take the others orally until bleeding completely stops. My nurse instructed me to continue to insert them vaginally and the bleeding should slow down. It has slowed down a lot since yesterday. If it does not stop, then I will have to go into the office tomorrow and be seen by the doctor.
My transfer is scheduled for 11 am on Tuesday. I am scheduled to do acupuncture at 10 am.
Today, I started taking Estrace (estrogen) for my estrogen priming protocol ! I have to take two of the little blue pills per day. What is so odd is that these are the SAME little blue pills we put up out hoo-haa later in the cycle. Where they do that at? lol
I am taking Estrace for seven days then I have to wait for my period to start, which should be next weekend. Once my period starts, I am to go in for a baseline and pending no cysts or weird stuff, I start stims.
I am taking 4 maca root pills in the afternoons until my period starts to ward off cysts due to high estrogen levels. The maca root balances out the estrogen by adding progesterone to our system.
In other news, my mother has completed the first round of chemo and has a little break for three weeks until she starts eight weeks of the second round of chemo (toxil) which is really harsh. She will have a chemo infusion every 2 weeks. After she finishes the second round of chemo, she starts daily radiation and then will have reconstructive surgery.
On the dating front, my mom suggested I join sites that exclusively feature European men since they are more my speed and definitely are my interest. European men, according to several people I have spoken too, my personal experience and as read in several articles, are a bit different than American men of the same age bracket. They are more mature in terms of relationship and are more apt to be looking for marriage as opposed to a booty call or hookup. Now, we can not categorize all American men as such, but over the past few months, it is becoming apparent, with my experience on dating sites, and the experiences of others I have spoken too that American men in the age bracket of my interest, are still in party mode. You meet more men who want sexual escapades without commitment than you do men who are serious and looking for a committed relationship.
There are several renowned sites, such as Meetic.com, Flirtbox (Ireland), Parship (France), EuropeanCupid, etc that I am looking at and putting up profiles on. Hopefully, I will run across a tall, intelligent, gorgeous Italian, Englishman, or Greek ! 🙂 I am also joining two language exchange groups which is another place to meet the kind of man who peeks my interest. Wish me luck ! I figure the one way to find what you want is to start actively looking for it and placing yourself on the path of where those things are.
Would it not be awesome if I pop out some twins AND find Mr. Right or a few Mr. Rights to take prospect applications from? lol
This morning, the last of my medications for my IVF cycle arrived from Freedom Fertility Pharmacy. WOOOT WOOOT !!!
I am glad that all of my meds are here and that I will start injections on Monday or Tuesday. After my baseline on Monday, I will told when to start injections.
Me, sticking needles in my abdomen … by myself? LAUD !! Here we go… #babymakingviaivf2014
Plan B Chronicles 