The Big Day.

So... It's been a while since my last blog. Lots has happened. Lots is about to happen. Real soon. So, let's cut to the chase.

IVF Injections = complete! I started out with the morning shots of Lupron, piece of cake. Had my Lupron Evaluation, follicles are present, so that's great! That evening I started my Follistim & Menopur shots. Two problems here:
1. Follistim comes in these little cartriges and you have to put them into a pen before injecting. (The Smarty Pants that I am, I declined the IVF Injection class, telling Nurse Stephanie that I had no problems with the other injections, I don't need your silly class! But thanks for the offer!)Kirk & I watched the video at least 4 times, making the same jokes each time about the "soap" that the demonstrator used to wash her hands and how it looked more like sunscreen than soap. Ha. Ha. I decided to do the Follistim injection first, because it seemed like the harder shot to do. Bottom line, it was easy peasy, lemon squeezy. A little tricky, only because it was different, but only about a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 for pain. Yay! Onto the next!!
2. Menopur comes in powder format, and you have to mix it with diluent using this big giant needle. A little scary, but honestly, it's just mixing. Who cares? The needle that I used to inject it was much smaller, a 27 gauge, maybe 1/2 inch needle? Nothing too scary at all. I push the shot in, and then it hits me. The PAIN! Holy goodness, this thing burned like a fire in my belly. For several minutes, I was close to tears. But, as a nurse in the Rockville office told me, I can use a 30 gauge needle to lessen the pain a little bit. (30 gauge is smaller than 27 gauge, don't ask me why.) It still hurt, up until the last shot, but I discovered that holding my breath while I did the shot made it a bit easier.

I've been monitored 5 times this past week, and finally on Friday I had met the criteria to trigger ovulation and schedule Egg Retrieval. I had one follicle that was measuring at 20mm, one at 19, and two at 18, with a bunch more at 16. I had to work on Friday, in order to satisfy a silly requirement at my job, (BUT- the silver lining is that, since I worked on a company paid holiday, I get to use another holiday any time I want, so there!) Waiting all day for my instructions, I finally got the call from the nurse at 7:05pm Friday night. Do you believe this? I mean, I was in their office on Thanksgiving Day, and on Black Friday, someone was still making calls after 4:00 in the afternoon! This place rocks my world. So, Nurse Karen tells me that I'm scheduled for my Egg Retrieval on Sunday at 6:15pm, and that I'll need to take my trigger shot at 6:15am Saturday. Let me tell you about the final injection- the injection that Kirk had to give me in my toukas- specifically, the upper outer quadrant of my toukas. He had to come home from work to do this, bless his heart. He gave me the injection like a pro. It didn't hurt at all, a 2 in fact. Now, it kind of feels like it might be bruised a bit, but that's the nature of the injection, nothing to do with his mad skills as a shooter. Other instructions are pretty simple- nothing to eat after 11am, nothing to drink after 2pm, which is in 10 min... brb- I'm going to get a bev real quick... okay, I'm back, and hydrated! So, tonight, in simple terms, the doctors are going to go through my lady business with a ultrasound probe, and slide a teeny tiny needle next to it, and suck out my follicles through the walls of my ovaries. The more follicles, the better. This procedure is done under IV sedation, so I won't feel or remember a thing. It a word, I'm super stoked. Can't wait. Really really excited. I am so grateful to the doctors and nurses at Shady Grove, I just want to hug and kiss every single person that works there. After the procedure, they'll let me know how many eggs they retrieved, and then I'll receive daily calls to let me know how the fertilized eggs, or embryos, are developing. Then, either on Wednesday or Friday, they will put back the best of the best, and if there are any others that are in great condition, they will be frozen for future transfers. That's about it for what's going on in my life.

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