Thursday, March 20, 2008

Are you sure humans don't hibernate???

Good gawd I'm tired. No, "tired" doesn't even really cover it. I'm exhausted. Dead on my feet. Wiped out.

I was kind of tired before, but once about noon yesterday hit I was just crushed under a wave of exhaustion. Could barely keep my eyes open at my desk... didn't relish the thought of walking to the GO Station to find my way home because it meant moving. And moving was NOT something I wanted to do. To much energy required to move. I managed to hang in there until 9:00 last night before surrendering to the exhaustion and heading to bed. But do you think I could get to sleep? No. Of course not. And when I finaly DID get to sleep, do you think I could STAY asleep. Nope. Not a chance. My personal favourite was when my bladder woke me up a mere hour before the alarm was set to go off. And then the cats followed me into the bathroom to tell me (loudly) how happy they were I was finally up. Not very helpful for my plan of making the trip in a sleepy haze of not-really-fully-awakeness so I could still get most of that last hour asleep. So when the alarm finally went off I would quite happily have rolled over and gone back to sleep... for at least the next week... possibly a few months. Le Sigh.

And now, of course, I feel like crap, and I can't tell if it's "side effects of the meds" or being freakin' exhausted that's making me want to hurl, fall over, or drop stuff. Oh yeah... we can add those three things to my list... 'cuz I want to hurl (not seriously run-to-the-bathroom-don't-get-in-my-way hurl, but that feeling in the back of your throat that any second now you might get to revisit breakfast a little bit), if I close my eyes or turn my head too fast I want to fall over, and I'm dropping stuff left, right, and centre. Good Times!

In other news... got the call from the clinic yesterday with the update on our remaining embie. On Transfer Day they had said that they'd freeze 6, but there was a 7th that was growing slowly and they wanted to give it a few more days to see if it reached blast before freezing it. It didn't make it. So... while we didn't really expect it would, and 6 is a better number in terms of 2-embie transfers, and 6 is still an awesome number to have on-ice (3 times what we had last time!), I'm a little sad. Another of our kids didn't make it. :(

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

d5p3dt - I spoke too soon...

.. about not bruising from the Fragmin. Silly me forgot that yesterday was my first day wearing regular pants AND sitting in a regular chair all day... silly me also forgot that said regular pants (or jeans, or the belt I wear with my work pants) create certain abdominal pressure points... silly me also forgot that these pressure points line up with my preferred local for these injections... just below the belly button all the way across. Le Sigh. So... I am now the proud owner of one large-ish and one small very black bruises.

In other fun... I apparently nicked a blood vessle when jabbing myself for my progesterone shot last night and illustrated that yes, the blood thinners are actually working. I said to DH as I lifted the alcohol swap after about 10 seconds of post-injection pressure "looks like I've got a gusher"... and sure enough, he slapped a band-aid on (we often do that if it's an active bleeder just to save my sanity... and my clothes) and it was soaked through in about 3 seconds. Yup... when I said gusher... I meant gusher. So he sprinted for a tissue which I held over the band-aid and I lay down on my tummy on the bed while he sorted out finding a bigger bain-aid. Of course, after about 90 seconds of additional pressure and lying down, by the time he had the old band-aid off and the new one un-wrapped it had stopped bleeding. I do, however, expect a pretty bruise there, too.

And tonight he's not home, so I get to do my own progesterone injection. Luckily it's on my right side tonight and I'm right-handed, so it should be easy enough (all things considered).

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

4dp3dt – that’s 4 days post 3-day transfer for the uninitiated

So… 4 days down… 10 days to go! Good grief that sounds like a long time. Le Sigh.

So. Good things:

  • I seem to be holding my own with the meds. DH is helping with the PIO (still just pushing the plunger and I do the rest, but that’s all I need right now).
  • Not bruising much (so far, 2 very small bruises from the Fragmin injections… both on the same side, oddly enough).

    Not so wonderful things:
  • the Fragmin injection seems to have a mild “shock” effect on my system. Meaning after I “shoot up” with the blood thinner, I have to sit down and have something to eat. Not a huge deal, but something to keep an eye on.
  • The progesterone “side effects” have started. At least, I’m choosing to tell myself it’s the meds, for the sake of my sanity. For the next 2 weeks, everything is a side-effect of the progesterone *laugh* So far we’ve got: gassiness, increased appetite, increased thirst, fatigue, sore nips and peeing every freakin’ hour. I expect increased scent sensitivity will kick in any day now, followed by nausea/queasiness and possibly food aversions. I had those even in December when we got the BFN (Big Fat Negative, again, for the uninitiated).

    Such fun!

    A big huge “shout out” to all my friends in the 2ww, or staring down the barrel of the IVF gun in the next little while. Especially big hugs heading out to ‘M’ on the West Coast, ‘cuz right now I just want to wrap her up in a big huge hug and try to make it all better…. Hon, we’ve been there, if you ever need to talk, you know where to find me and I’m more than happy to listen.

    That’s enough obsession for one day, I think… I’m trying to pretend the next 10 days aren’t really happening, so if I’m sporadic, that’s why *laugh*

    Take care, all!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Transfer complete!

Ok... I should have updated yesterday afternoon, but I was both too excited and too tired.. so I'm updating now instead.

Our transfer was scheduled for 11:30 yesterday, but didn't end up happening until shortly after 1:00... on the plus side, I got to go to the washroom many times in that extra 90 minutes, and it meant we were the last procedure of the day and I could "recover" on the table instead of having to move back to our ultra-luxurious cubby hole *laugh* What that means, for those who might be reading and don't know, is that for the 15-20 minutes post-transfer when I was supposed to rest and let things settle before finally going pee I was able to stay lying down instead of standing up to get back to my chair and then sitting for the time. Let me tell you, it's much easier to hold it for that extra time when gravity's not working against you! So DH and I stayed in the dimly lit OR and chatted :)

Yes... DH managed to brave the OR this time, and I'm so glad he did! Because our embies this time looked so gorgeous... so much better than the previous transfers... much rounder and more complex looking :) Even the lab techs chimed in telling us they looked beautiful :) Lots of positivity in the OR yesterday... which was a nice change from before when it was really only Dr. D's restrained positivity. Yesterday we had positive vibes coming at us from the lab techs, the u/s tech, 2 nurses, and Dr. L!! It actually helped a lot with my outlook on this whole thing... I actually have hope now (although that's a bit of a double-edged sword, because if it doesn't end up working I'll be even worse)

We were given the option of transferring 2 or 3. I'm not really all that keen on the notion of a 'selective reduction', though, and I'd have to agree to that in order for them to transfer 3, so I said 2. Of the 9 they reported on Wednesday, 8 of them grew like gangbusters ("excellent excellent embryos" says Dr. L ), and one of them was a little slow. So we transferred 2, froze 6, and that last one will stay in the lab for another day or two to see if it reaches blast. If it does, it'll join its siblings in the nitrogen tank... if it doesn't, we've still got a few more chances on ice and are miles ahead of where we were after the last retrieval. Personally, knowing that our FET transferred a 6-cell and an 8-cell, I think the first time they should have let the remaining 2 grow to blast before freezing and possibly saved us the money, but that's just me being pessimistic in hindsight. *shrug*

And, although we discovered that there aren't any options they're willing to give us for the castor oil progesterone transit medium (there are other options, but they want to avoid seed-based oils in case there's an allergic reaction, apparently), DH has stepped up and in spite of the fact that needles make him light-headed, is giving me a helping hand for my progesterone injections (I'm still doing the Fragmin ones on my own)! Well, he heard the nurse bascially tell me that the only other option was to come to the clinic every day, and that's not really feasible. So now I jab myself, and he pushes the plunger, and I remove the needle, because really it's not the injection so much as the fact that I can't get enough pressure on the plunger at that angle with such a stubbornly thick oil (even when I heat it... it's crazy!). He's a super-star!

He's very cute... he had to work today, but he wants me to stay in bed, so he packed me a lunch and put the cats on "guard duty"... they have to keep an eye on me and take care of me. And since they're both very vocal and prone to yelling at us when they're mad, it might just work *laugh*

Two irritations from yesterday:

1 - although Dr. L had my chart in front of him and could glean from it my age, he apparently missed his own notes indicating that yes, we've done this before, and it ended in an early miscarriage, so I had to share that info with the room in general. Ok for me, but DH is still pretty raw on the subject :(

2 - while I was getting into my gown with the curtain closed on our cubby, one of the "new" nurses came in to chat with the other "new" nurse (they're both early to mid 20's), and in spite of the big sign on the wall saying that "patients are recovering behind the curtains" (read: there are fertility patients in these cubbies... if the curtain is closed, assume the room is occupied), she started off with "my gawd, if you thought cancer patients were high maintenance, they've got nothing on fertility patients" (or words to that effect). She stopped mid tirade, so obviously her friend had kicked her and motioned to our cubby. At the time DH and I were laughing, but in retrospect it pisses me off. Especially when she followed up with an attempt to backpedal that basically said she meant that fertility patients ask too many questions. WTF???? It's a highly emotionally charged diagnosis and a pretty invasive testing and treatment process... damn freakin' skippy I'm gonna ask questions and be as "high maintenance" as I damn well please to make sure I understand what I'm taking and putting myself and my husband through and why. Gah! I'm debating saying something to the head nurse about it... that kind of insensitivity, lack of tact and discretion, and lack of compassion really has no place in a fertility clinic setting... especially not in the IVF suite! But should I report her?

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Ouch... enough of this crap...

Ok... so last night was progesterone injection #2. As I described it to DH last night, Castor Oil (as a delivery medium) has roughly the consistancy of warm-ish honey. Meaning it doesn't flow so much as ooze. This makes it a little difficult to depress the plunger in the syringe. This makes it damn near impossible for someone like me... because DH can't deal with the sight of needles and I'm consequently stuck giving them to myself. The Lupron was no problem (it goes in the gut)... the stims were no problem (so far, I'm able to twist far enough to inject things into my own butt).... I expect the Fragmin will be easy peasy (again... gut shots)... and while the progesterone in seasme oil was a bit of a pain the last 2 times, it was doable. Castor oil just isn't. I can't do it and not end up jiggling the damn needle in my butt... which of course results in pretty red stuff leaking from the injection site as soon as I remove the needle.

Not cool.

I like my blood... I'm very attached to it. Just ask the blood techs who can never find a vein *laugh* I don't like it flowing from injection sites.

So... I think tomorrow when I'm getting instruction on my Fragmin, I'm going to ask if they have any other alternatives to Sesame other than Castor oil... maybe grapeseed? Grapeseed would be good... it's nice and thin....

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

UPDATE! We have the initial report...

Ok... before I spill the beans... let me flash back to our first round of IVF. Back in October '07 the stats were thus:
retrieved: 15
mature: 8
fertilized: 4
which gave us roughly 27% of the eggies they harvested to pin our hopes to. That's a lot to ask of such a small creature!

So this time the numbers are:
retrieved: 15 (again)
ICSI'd: 10 (I knew some of them would be too small, and after my last u/s was only expecting there to be 10 retrieved!)
fertilized: drum roll please.... 9!!!!!

That's 60% of what they retrieved... and 90% of what I expected! :) I'm positively giddy right now! Those numbers are WAY better than last time (I'm not sure if it's the doc, the meds, or the supplements DH has been taking... but at this point, I don't really care!)

They'll call tomorrow and let me know what time the transfer will be scheduled for *happy dance* Hopefully they all grade out nicely :)

2 p.m. is really far too late for breakfast….

Well… the retrieval’s done! Finally!!

Here’s an idea how our Tuesday played out after my last post.

I woke DH up at about 7:30 because my mother was kind enough to drive us and was picking us up at 9:15. He ate… I looked longingly at his bagel. I told my stomach to shut up. This was something that happened frequently on Tuesday… me telling my stomach to shut up.

Mom picked us up and we headed off downtown. DH and I were supposed to be in the IVF suite for 10:45, but we got there at 10:30. We were shown into a room with a door (instead of the curtained cubicles we’ve been in before) and I changed into my gowns and checked out the new heated massage recliner they just bought a whole slew of (good to see that my fees are being put to good use *laugh* Although… it was a very comfortable chair after the retrieval was finally done).

DH went off to party with his little cup and the nurse came in to give me my IV. Luckily, she didn’t have too much difficulty finding a vein… unfortunately it still hurts, and I expect to have a bruise to match the one from Saturday’s blood draw. Oh well… at least my hands will match. Oddly appropriate to have wounded hands coming up to Easter, I suppose *laugh* (I’m going straight to hell for that one, I’m sure ;) )

Anyway… they finally brought me into the OR (thank goodness, I was mere seconds away from pouncing on the plate of nibbles that was waiting for me)… got me up on the ‘table’ and hooked me up to the oxygen meter and blood pressure. Took my blood pressure 3 times before the nurse saw numbers she was happy with (I have a bit of the “white coat syndrome”… I don’t trust doctors, so medical situations tend to make me a wee bit stressed). They gave me the first dose of the loopy juice. I think it was a different cocktail this time than last time… I felt sleepy pretty quickly, but was coming back around when they gave me dose #2. Of course, I was wide awake at 12:15 when the doc still wasn’t there yet. Le Sigh. So… when he showed up, they knocked me down pretty hard. I have no idea how much I got this time, but I’m pretty darn sure it was more than last time. I only remember snippets of the retrieval.

I remember 3 nurses, the doc, and the u/s tech clustered around me and thinking “Damn, it’s a good thing DH decided not to be in the OR for this… there’s nowhere for him!”

I remember a few stabs of pain

I remember looking at the screen at one point to see the eggs and seeing a wash of red. And then another. And then it cleared.

And I remember hearing “there were 2 in that one!”

Once they were done, I was helped out to our recovery room and plunked in the wonder-chair… hot water bottle clutched to my belly… covered in a blanket… chair turned on. I think I dozed for a bit, but I’m not 100% sure (see previous comment about how much loopy juice I got this time!). Finally felt up to having some food… 8 saltines, 2 “bear paw” cookies, and a Del Monte fruit punch pouch later I was feeling almost human again. So my IV and I went for a trip to the washroom to “try to pee”. Success! So they unhooked my IV (1.5 L of fluids after they started it… I guess I was “thirsty” *laugh*) and sent me on my merry way.

Our final count was 15… so either I had a few ‘doubles’, or some were hiding at my last u/s on Sunday, because there sure weren’t 15 then! *laugh*

I felt bad for the folks who were sitting waiting for their own procedures… we didn’t get out of there until 2:00, so even if I spent an hour in recovery things were already stacked up pretty far behind me :(

I was feeling pretty battered inside, and was moving very carefully. Thank goodness I came prepared for spotting, too (pure fluke I had a pad in my purse), because that wash of red was still making its way out. Blah.

We stopped at Wendy’s on the way home… Mmmm… grilled chicken sandwhich… breakfast of champions. But really, 2:00 p.m. is too late for breakfast.

I fell asleep in the car again about half-way home, and I was looking more corpse-like than usual by the time I made my way upstairs at 3:00 to crawl into bed for 3 hours sleep (give or take). Had an early night, too… and this morning I’m feeling almost “normal” again.

Now I wait for the clinic to call and tell me how many fertilized and other such fun.