Lazy Follies

I had my date with Mr. Wandy (ultrasound) and Helga (blood work) today, day 6 of stims.

My lining was 5mm, which is good.  However, my follies are lazy.  I have 10 small follicles on each ovary. 10 small.  Small.  I would have thought by now my follicles would have been at a measurable size, especially since we double the dosage of Meno.pur.  Dang lazy follies!

I suppose the one good thing is I now have 10 follicles on each ovary instead of 8 since March 2nd.  So I grew 4 more follies in 8 days.  Yay!!  Grow follies, grow!

I will continue my regimen of 5 units of Lu.pron and 2 vials of Meno.pur in the morning, and 300IUs of Follis.tim in the evening until my next appointment on Friday.  They will decide if anymore adjustments will be needed then.

I asked Nurse Amy when she thinks my egg retrieval will be.  Most people have the HCG (trigger) shots after 9 to 12 days of stims.  At the rate of how my follicles are growing, the nurse estimates that I would need 12 days of stims.  HCG shot is 36 hours before retrieval, so I am estimating that my ER would possibly be March 18th.  We'll see.

Helga drew my blood again today.  I'm starting to think that she is the only one that will be doing all my blood draws.  Not so excited about that.  I decided to switch and have my blood drawn from my right arm instead today.  My left arm was still sore and bruised from the last couple of visits.

As soon as I told Helga I wanted my to use my right arm this time, I started to panic!  It just occurred to me that I have never used my right arm for blood draws before this, ever!  I have always been so proud of left arm as I have never had any problems with it.  I noticed that my right arm does not have a nice visible vein that pops out a little, like my left arm does.  Suddenly horror stories of people being poked multiple times in the veins unsuccessfully came to mind!  Images of black and blue arms flashed by!

Argh!!.... what was I thinking?  Of course I was too embarrassed to switch arms by then.  Fortunately, Helga had no problem with my right arm.  I noticed that it hurt more after though, since I use my right arm more.

After the appointment, I called the pharmacy to refill my Meno.pur, plus I filled the rest of my prescription needed for the rest of the cycle:  Tetracy.cline, Va.lium, Endome.trin and Vi.velle.  Total cost: $296.95.  Again, thank you insurance company!

A side note: I have been experiencing headaches in the afternoons for the last couple of days.  I think it's the double dosage of Meno.pur.

I'm praying that my follies will behave and keep growing.

Come on..... Grow follies, grow!!

AF and Toxic People

AF arrived this morning.  Today is also the 9th day of 20 units of Lu.pron in the mornings, and 5th day after my last BCP.  For some reason, I kept thinking that I would not be getting AF this time, even though the nurse specifically wrote "bleed" in my calendar on days after my last BCP.  Not sure what I was thinking.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment scheduled for and ultrasound and blood work.  I'm hoping that all goes well so I can start my Me.nopur and Follis.tim shots on Friday.

We just received our federal income taxes refund in the mail today.  It's going directly into our bank account tomorrow!

Last night, my Babe told me that he finally told his best Buddy that we have been trying for a kid for 6 years.  "Buddy" and my Babe were winter camping on Saturday with some boy scouts.  The slept outside, yes in the MN winter, and were chatting till 2 in the morning.  Buddy was telling him all the crap that he as dealing with his daughter's mother (Buddy had a daughter when he was in college, but did not marry his daughter's mother) over trying to have his daughter over the weekends.  Buddy is now married with a 2 1/2 year old daughter.  Of course they got married a few years after us, and they got pregnant about 6 months into their marriage.

Anyway, after Buddy told my Babe about all his troubles, he asked so when are you guys having kids?  Since he just poured his heart out, Babe felt bad and told him yeah, we have actually been trying for 6 years, but he didn't want to get into any details.  I have to say though that I think this is the first time Buddy has actually asked my Babe over the 7 plus years we have been married, this question.  So at I appreciate that he is not nosy, or least didn't pry!  Buddy asked if we've tried any "help".  I guess Buddy and his brother T had discussed us not having kids and had talked about different kinds of treatments we could try.  T is completing residency as a medical doctor and thinks he is a know-it-all.  Without being real specific, my Babe just said, "we are way ahead of you!".  Hopefully we won't get any more questions from Buddy or T!  I don't want to go into any details!

So now, Buddy knows that we have been TTC for a while.  I'm kind of worried that he will tell his wife, which I'm sure he will.  See, I think if she knows, she will most probably tell a friend of ours, M.  We all used to do a weekly game night where we would get together to play board games.  M is one of those people my sister would call "toxic people" (I think it was an O.prah term).  People that sucks to be around, and you feel worse after being around them.

M and her hubby got married young, at 19.  They had an "oops baby" not long after.  M is the kind of person in which everything is about her.  About how smart she is, how she is the top of the class, how the world is trying to screw her over because they won't pay her the salary she thinks she deserves right out of college (it's ridiculous!)  They had another "oops baby" a few years ago, and she complained about it her whole pregnancy.  All she talked about was how she didn't want to be pregnant, how she didn't want another baby, how miserable her pregnancy was, how the one time they didn't use birth control they'd get pregnant; all this while we have been TTC for a few years, and around guys and women there were either not married, or pregnant.  She's the kind of person that expects her husband to do everything for her and the kids.  She also expects others to watch her kids when we are at game night, and lets them do whatever they want.  Worse yet, she would not discipline her kids because they are "so perfect".  She hates it when people tell her how to raise her kids, and then thinks they people with no kids know nothing about parenting!

Ughh!  She makes my blood boil just thinking about her!

Getting back to my original point, I'm worried that Buddy or his wife will tell M about our TTC issues which I would not be surprised if they did because they are pretty good friends.  We on the other hand have been avoiding M and her family in the last couple of years.  I just know that if M found out about our TTC issues, she would have lots of mean things to say, and would just drive me crazy!  I am still avoiding them, but it's just a matter of time before we meet again.  Hopefully by then we would be pregnant.  Even then, I'm sure she will have all kinds of advice to give.  In a sick sort of way, I am hoping that M would say something one of these day, I'll get super pissed off and finally just tell her off!!

Of course I can't always come up with the best things to say at the most important time, and will probably come up with something really lame!  Sigh......

CD2 Appointment

I managed to sneak in an appointment this morning.  Called the RE's clinic at 9:05 am and got an appointment for 9:45 am.  I'm so glad the clinic is only about half an hour's drive from home.

Got my blood work done today, no ultrasound though.  They took 2 vials of blood, one for my OAR (Ovarian Assessment Report) and the other for STD testing (standard testing for all IVF patients).  I didn't recognize the gal that took my blood today (it's been a while since I got my blood drawn here).  I didn't like Helga (not her real name) very much.  She's a little rough and didn't have very good bedside manners.  I'm not a baby but I'm used to nurses that are much gentler.  She said the usual, good morning, how are you doing, etc but somehow she just somehow wasn't very nice.  She didn't seem like she enjoyed her job or wanted to be there.  Maybe she was just having a bad day, I don't know.

I usually watch when the needles are stuck in my vein during blood draws.  Helga did that fast and hard, and it hurt.  Usually the nurses I have worked with are fast, but gentle and did not hurt.  Then when Helga switched the vials, she did that fast and kind of rough again.  I could feel the needle moving around in my vein!  Ugh!  At least she didn't leave a bruise at all in the site.

I also got my H1N1 flu shot, also by Helga.  That shot hurt too.  Needless to say, my overall experience with needles was not so great today.  I am hoping I don't get Helga very much for my future appointments, but I have a feeling that I'll see a lot more of her.

I started on BCPs tonight.  Looks like I will be taking it until 2/24.  I'll probably start Lup.ron on 2/21, but all the details about the meds will be discussed during our nurses consult on 2/16.  We are also scheduled for a shots class that morning before the nurses consult.  My Babe is going to be giving me the HCG trigger shot, which is an IM shot, so I want to make sure he knows what he's doing.  LOL!  Plus I am new to the drugs that I will be using, except for Follis.tim.

Next up: Saline infused sonogram and trial transfer with Dr. Hopeful on 2/9.