Are we there yet?

Ah yes... the roller-coaster ride continues.

TMI alert. This will be pretty graphic and may offend more sensitive readers. You've been warned.

Got up yesterday morning and discovered that after days and days of intermittent light spotting (by 'light' I mean it never made it to a liner) there was finally a sign that the methotrexate had kicked in (or perhaps that the progesterone had left the building... or maybe a combination of the two). Bad cramps.

So, after sending my manager an email saying I would be working from home, I headed off to the clinic for my first follow-up beta. Many cramps. Much blood. At least they only had to poke me once to get their sample.

Drove home. Got home and made a mad dash to the washroom to find that the 'gush' I had felt had accompanied some large clots (well, I had just spent 45 minutes sitting in my car... preceded by 45 minutes sitting in my car, effectively... since it was about 15 minutes from the time I got my parking ticket to the time I left the parking garage and that includes the walk from WCH to the clinic, the blood draw, and the walk back) and some grey matter. I'm glad I was home when that happened. It wasn't a surprise to me this time (not like in October when I saw that and freaked)... it did look significantly different from October. Back then, it looked like a ruptured sack. This looked more like a short section of thin grey rope. (I did warn you it would be graphic and TMI)

Once that had passed, everything got lighter. The bleeding got lighter. The cramps got less and weren't constant. Of course, I also developed a headache, but I think that's a fair trade off.

But... to keep things interesting, I got my call in the afternoon from the clinic with my beta results:

nurse: "I'm calling from Dr. L's office. I have your results. It looks good, the numbers are up again to just under 3,000" (bear in mind, 6 days previously the number had been 1980 and since then I had had the stupid methotrexate injections)
me: "But it's not supposed to be up. I had methotrexate last Saturday."
nurse: {pause} "oh. Well, then we'll just stick with the plan Dr. L laid out and you'll come back in about 5 days for another test. You know, it's not unusual for the number to go up before it comes down again."
me: Yes... but that's why they wait 4 - 6 days before the first follow-up, isn't it?? "Fine, ok... so that's what, Tuesday?"

Yup... still no clue what's going on with that, and it'll be at least Tuesday before I know if they want me to go for another shot or have another u/s or what. Blah. Sucks. Just plain sucks.

And, in addition to all this fun, I've been having cramps in my thighs in the evenings since Sunday (both quads and hamstrings), I've got a blinding headache that comes and goes (but when it shows up it's literally blinding), and my ankles are swollen. My ankles don't swell. I've been on 8 hour flights and not had my ankles swell... my hand, yes, but not my ankles. No other part of me is swollen, just my ankles. Le Sigh.

So... that's the current update. I don't expect there will be much to say until Tuesday, but I might surprise us all ;)