The One with the Latest

So it's been a little while but I just wanted to update on what's been going on with Project Make a Baby #2.

I got my period very shortly after the last post and started Estrace that day.  It did cause some headaches, but not as bad as the tap dancing leprechauns.  I took it twice a day for 12 days.

While I was on that, my PIO meds and super stabby needles arrived.  There are two bags of needles here, one with the syringe and one with just needles.  I draw up the med from the vial using a thicker needle and inject with a thinner one (both 1 1/2 inches long though!).

Baby sharps container is back for round two!

Close up of the big ass mo-fo needles.

On the 18th, I increased the Estrace to three times a day.

On the morning of the 19th, I went in for my baseline ultrasound to check on my fabulous uterus and see how things were looking in there.  The nurse was kinda cranky that day but she did say that everything looked great and my stripe was perfect.  She told me I'd get a call from one of the nurses later that day with my instructions.

When the nurse called, she told me I was going to start PIO that night and continue taking the Estrace.  I had to call the lab on Wednesday and they would let me know how frobaby was doing and schedule my transfer for Thursday the 24th if all looked good.

I will do a separate post about the PIO, but it really hasn't been that bad.  Hubs has been amazing and even though he gets super nervous beforehand, he has been doing my shots each night like a champ.

When I called the lab on Wednesday afternoon, the embryologist told me everything looked good and that I was to come in on Thursday at 9:30 for my transfer.

So, yesterday morning, Hubs took Liam to swim class (so sad I missed seeing them in the pool together) and I sat in massive amounts of traffic to get to the center.  If you remember from Thing 1 and Thing 2's transfer, I need a full bladder for this procedure.  So that was awesome sitting in traffic having to pee.

Things went well during the actual transfer.  The embryologist showed me a picture of frobaby and said it looked great.  One of the other doctors in the practice that I hadn't met yet did the actual procedure and he was extremely calm and peaceful during the whole thing.  Frobaby got loaded up in the catheter and even though I wasn't able to see a great picture on the ultrasound screen this time (the machine was being wonky), the doctor said he put frobaby in a great spot up in there.

I came home and rested for a bit (really for about 3 minutes before L needed something) and now we just wait.  I have a beta blood test scheduled for a couple of weeks from now when I get back from vacation and hopefully it will be good news.  We know there is such a small chance of this leading to a viable pregnancy, but it is completely out of our hands now.

I leave you with one more picture that has my hospital bracelet and the top of frobaby's former home.  We saved everything from the procedures that got us L and will do the same with this little one.

Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers.  Keep 'em coming!

The One with the Monitoring

I had my first monitoring appointment this morning.  It only involved blood work today, which was quick and almost painless.  Dr. Bow Tie was checking my estradiol (E2) level, which is a form of estrogen.  That level rises as my follicles grow and produce eggs.  The blood sucker guy took a while to get a vein, as I sat with the tourniquet tied around my arm on tightness level 300 on a scale of 1 to 10.  Eventually, he stuck me, got his vial and I was on my way.

If you look closely, you can see the remnants of the death grip the tourniquet had on my arm.

As if getting stabbed with a needle wasn't torture enough for me this morning, I decided to take a swing by school to do some work in my classroom.  I lasted about an hour and a half before I was sweating bullets and cursing the fact that I was even in there when I still have so much some time left in the summer.  I did manage to rearrange some furniture and unpack a few boxes of supplies that had been delivered.  I also got all my welcome letters to my students organized and those will go in the mail tomorrow.  I'm trying to will more days of summer.  Maybe if I wish hard enough for it I can make it happen.  

Fast forward a few hours, a lunch, and a nice afternoon spent reading outside later, and I got a phone call from the nurse at Dr. Bow Tie's office.  She told me that my E2 level wasn't as high as they'd like to see it at this point so my dose of Follistim was going to be increased.  I fully expected this to happen as Dr. Bow Tie said he was starting me on a low dose to see how I would respond.  So, she told me to keep the Lupron dose the same and to increase the Follistim to 225 iu starting tonight.  She set up a monitoring appointment for me on Wednesday to do an ultrasound and blood work.  Hopefully, the oves will be in full production by then and I'll be able to see some action on the screen.

I'm headed up to a conference in Some Town Super Far Away, Massachusetts tomorrow and will be gone all day.  More traveling with meds.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes shooting myself up with meds on the Mass Pike.

The One with the Mother of All Bruises

As I write this, I have been "stimming" for two days.  That means I have started my stimulation medication to make my ovaries produce somewhere close to seventy bajillion eggs so that they can get sucked out of me and go frolic with Hubs' sperm.

On Friday morning, I cut my Lupron does in half down to 5 iu.  The leprechauns have happily departed and my head feels back to normal.  I did my first Follistim injection on Friday night.  Follistim is a different setup than the Lupron.  It involves a cartridge full of medicine that gets put inside a "pen" and injected through an attached needle.  Little more complicated to administer.  It also has to be refrigerated which can cause the medicine to hurt more going in if you don't follow the directions and let it get to room temperature first.  What idiot wouldn't follow the directions though?!  ::hangs head in shame::

Follistim comes in this super stylish case.  I may accessorize my next outfit with it.

Pen with the medicine cartridge underneath and the needles at the bottom.  Looks innocent enough, right?  I mean how much hurt can something that looks like a Bic pen cause?

Close-up of the pen without the cap.  And more importantly, without the needle.

So the needle gets attached and the medicine gets "dialed" up.  That means I use the yellow turny dial on the top to dial up to 175 iu of the medicine.  And then I stab inject myself.

I didn't exactly follow the whole let it get to room temp direction and it definitely hurt going in.  And it also hurt after it went it.  And it also caused quite a bit of blood when the needle came out.  And it also brought about the nastiest bruise yet.

I give you...the mother of all bruises.

I also had my first traveling with meds experience yesterday.  My cousin and her boyfriend were having a party in Connecticut and Hubs and I took the two hour drive to go see them.  Because I have to administer the Follistim at the same time every night, it had to come with us.  I packed the Follistim purse in a cooler with ice packs, along with my baby sharps container and the dip I was bringing to the party. 

Hello, thanks for having us.  Here is the dip I made.  Oh don't mind the needles.  It's all part of the roller coaster.

(Side note:  This dip was amaze-balls.  Highly recommend you make it and then maybe just eat it with a spoon.  Like now.)

This time, I set a reminder on my phone so I took the medicine out about fifteen minutes before I was ready to shoot myself up.  This helped a lot with the pain.  Snuck off to the bathroom with my cooler of drugs and needles and put my ove's to work.

I go in tomorrow morning for my first monitoring blood work appointment.  Fingers crossed that everything looks good.

I leave you with a picture of Hubs in his new shirt.

Pretty much sums it up right there.

Enjoy your Sunday!

The One with the Baseline

I had my baseline appointment this morning.  This appointment is to check my ovaries to make sure they are sufficiently "sleeping" and to have something to compare the rest of my appointments to in the future.  I had blood work and an ultrasound.  The blood work went surprisingly well considering my teeny tiny nonexistent veins.  The techs at my center are awesome and she got a vein on the first stick.  The blood test was to check my e2 (estrogen) levels and also make sure I'm not already pregnant (would I be doing the stabby needle thing if I was?!).

Only a small mark from the needle and I'm crossing my finger that there won't be a bruise.

The ultrasound involved the tech sticking the vag cam in my va-jay-jay and checking my ovaries for their size and to look for any cysts.

The vag cam.  Come on, you know you're jealous I had a date with this guy this morning.

When the ultrasound was over, the tech said everything looked the way it should and I should expect a phone call this afternoon.

My phone rang around 1:30 this afternoon and the nurse said the blood work and ultrasound were perfect.  She went through the next steps with me.  Tomorrow morning, I cut the dose of Lupron in half (thank you sweet Jesus!) and continue taking 5 iu for the remainder of the cycle.  Tomorrow night, I add in 175 iu of Follistim.  This is the stimulation medication that will help my ovaries to produce lots of eggs.  I go back to the doctor's office on Monday for blood work to check my hormone levels.  Hopefully everything will look fabulous and I'll be able to continue the protocol.

Updated calendar with the new meds and appointments.

I'm nervous, excited, and hoping that the leprechauns (The Leprechauns with Spikey Shoes) are gone for good.  I'll post again after the addition of the Follistim.  Crossing my fingers that my ove's start doing lots of egg producing!

The One with the First Stabbing

So today was the big day - the first of many days of stabbing myself with needles.  I tried not to think about it too much last night.  I tried not to think about it too much when the alarm went off this morning.  I tried not to think about it too much when I was in the shower.  I tried not to think about it too much when I was making breakfast.  Obviously, I was super successful in this endeavor because I only thought about the stabbiness forty-nine million instead of fifty million times.  See, I can do non-obsessive.

I decided I needed to practice before I went in for the big stab so I did the most logical thing and got an orange.

Keep trying to trick me with your cuteness, baby sharps container.  I will not be fooled.

I took out one of the zillions of needles they sent me and practiced injecting air into the orange.  

Ms. Orange was very brave and only cried a little.

When I felt sufficiently practiced, I grabbed a new medieval torture instrument needle, alcohol swabs, and the Lupron.  This medicine helps to suppress my ovaries and kinda puts them in sleepy mode.  I will be doing one injection of Lupron each morning until the egg retrieval.  The dose gets cut in half once I start the stimulation medication next week.

This entire process caused Hubs to go into cold sweats.  He is petrified of needles.  Yeah, he clearly was a huge help this morning.

I got the area on my belly cleaned and sucked the Lupron into the syringe.  I stood with it hovering near my stomach for a minute or two, Hubs closed his eyes, and I poked the needle in.  I definitely felt the pinch, but it was pretty minor.  Little awkward trying to stab, hold the needle, and inject the med with one hand, but I figured it out without too much drama.  Stabby instrument went into the oh-so-adorable sharps container and I cleaned up the rest of my supplies.  

Many hours later, I can definitely feel that something "happened" in that spot today.  Slightly tender, but nothing to whine about (except to gain sympathy from Hubs).

I know this injection will get easier and most people say the Lupron is a piece of cake compared to the other meds.  But this makes it really real now.

I'm just proud of myself for making it through my first shot (takes bow as she exits stage left).