Before we left for Idaho I received a HUGE box that looked like it should contain a nice big something awesome, but instead it was my medication. Holy crap it was overwhelming looking at everything.
I thought that maybe if I took it out of the HUGE box and spread it all out it wouldn't seem like quite so much...nope! I sat and stared at all the needles, pills and boxes for at least 5 minutes lost in an, "OH MY GOSH, I'M GONNA SCREW SOMETHING UP" panic. I went and grabbed my IVF calendar and tried to pin point where each medication was on the calendar. I found everything but two of the meds and than the fact there were two mystery meds started to stress me out. I finally calmed down enough mentally to put it all back in the box and decide I would just call Tanya in the morning. She would make sense of it all.
We left for Idaho the next morning and I played phone tag with Tanya from the 22nd until the 27th! I had to start my first round of shots the 27th, which was the morning after we got back from Idaho. My calendar said to take Lupron, but I didn't have a med with that exact name. There was a green vile that was close to it, but not exact (the bag on the far right in the picture). Due to my fear of screwing something up I delayed taking the shot that morning, waiting to confirm it with Tanya. When it was 11:30 am and I hadn't been able to reach Tanya I finally gained an ounce of clarity and simply googled the medication name, which was Leuprolide and it came up as Lupron...duh! I, sadly, was worried about this shot and making sure it was the right med the whole time we were in Idaho!!!! It was a pathetic moment wondering why I hadn't thought of google sooner, oh well.
Anyways, the shot was easy and basically painless except the tiny prick of the needle when it went into my stomach. It is a small 1/2 inch needle that is super thin and I only have to do 10 units of liquid, which is probably 1/2 teaspoon or less. I have to do this shot once each morning. A trick for stomach shots, for those going through this or other issues, is to pinch some fat to put the needle in, but slowly release your fat-pinch as you push the medication in. For me, it reduces the burning sensation a little and it works with all the shots I've had to do in my stomach. Also, you can very gradually change the level/depth of the needle so not all the liquid is in the same place. This works better with the longer needles and a higher volume of liquid, but just an FYI.
I haven't felt any side effects from the shots, except exhaustion. If this side effect is possible with a medication, I seem to have it. It isn't just that I get tired, but rather it is almost instantaneous at about 2:00-3:00 in the afternoon. I am fine one moment than literally can't think straight the next and have to lie down. I HATE naps! I feel like they are a waste of my day, but if I don't lay down the day can get pretty rough and I become super super slow with a mix of anti-socialness. On the 27th I also organized the meds into groupings of when I take them and transferred them from the HUGE box into a Big rubbermaid bin. I feel better with the bin :)
I am still on birth control till January 3rd and I am grateful that I haven't had any side effects with it. I was really worried I would go mental and become a raunchy wife that was terrible to be around, but instead I've been peachy :) haha. I'll admit I had a couple days of super irritability, but in my defense they were the days that I would have been on my period normally and I believe my body was a little confused those days.
Just yesterday, Saturday, both Beau and I started taking Doxycycline, which is a pink pill. We have to take it twice a day. It is to help our bodies become bacteria free so that when they do the extraction and fertilization they don't have to combat unwanted bacteria in the eggs or sperm. We were told that the pills would make us pretty sick if we didn't take them with enough food. We are not big breakfast eaters, so a brunch will be part of our schedules for the next couple days. We stop the pill on the 7th. So far though, of the four pills we've taken, neither of us has felt sick or had any other side effects.
Besides stopping the birth control and the Doxycycline the next big change will be on the 10th. I have to add 3 more shots a day and I've heard those shots can really mess with your hormones. Yikes! I'm also interested to see how my period goes and if I will start immediately upon stopping the birth control. I am pretty sure it will be normal, but I haven't missed a period (besides the 2 short pregnancies) since 2002 when I last attempted a form of birth control.
The only mental game I've been "playing" with myself lately is pep talks of how I should try not to stress or worry about things during the two-week-wait after the transfer. I know in reality it won't be possible to not think about every little thing, but I am giving myself supposed solutions on how to keep my mind busy. I tell myself it's worth a shot, but its just more of the same...the mental side of infertility that could literally drive a person insane!
Lastly, although I am ridiculously confident with what lies ahead for me in this process, I have one concern and that is with the possibility of over stimulation. This occurs when your ovaries go into super-hyper-drive and REALLY over produce eggs. I was told that they will try to get me to produce around 15-20 eggs in hopes of getting only a few really good eggs out of the bunch. That number sounded crazy to me until I talked to a friend of mine that produced 52!!!! Her doctor told her she had broken his record, but it wasn't a good record to beat. She had to deal with hell for the next week while her body put on 40 lbs of water weight and then naturally flushed it all out!!!!!! No thanks! My doctor promised me this is rare and that they will be monitoring me like crazy to prevent it. Fingers Crossed!
