Baa! (and a Day 10 update)

Thanks to everyone who's been leaving encouraging comments -- it's so great to know that there are people out there rooting for my follies! I'm incubating away today, and waiting to hear back after my ultrasound and bloodwork this morning whether we're triggering tonight or tomorrow. Curiously, the Mr. opted to join me again for the wanding today. I can't figure him out sometimes. Maybe he's done reading all of the magazines in the waiting room.

Anyhoo, the acupuncture doctor tells us that the Mr. is supposed to eat lots of lamb this week before he gives his, um, specimen. Why? I don't know. I made a batch of lamb meatballs on Sunday (yum!) and we're planning on grilling up some lamb chops tonight. I'd actually never cooked lamb before this week, and I'm not entirely sure what I think. I always feel a little queasy about lamb -- it tastes good and all, but I can't ever seem to get this Simpsons episode out of my mind. ("Liiisssa, I thought you loooooved me. Looooved me!")

Sigh. Something tells me I'm eating vegetarian tonight.

Day 9 Update

Sorry for not coming up with more entertaining titles for my posts.....all of my energy seems to be focused on managing the big round bloat-o-rama that is my belly. And studded with a couple of nice injection bruises....SEXY! Convenient that this IVF thing doesn't actually involve having sex.

So, another morning with the wand. Lead follie is at 22, but there are a bunch clustered at 14 and 15, so I think they're going to wait for those at the possible expense of the big one.

The most entertaining part of the morning was that the Mr. decided that he wanted to come in for the ultrasound (since apparently I've made the whole process sound so alluring and fun). First of all, I'm not sure he'd ever seen a table with stirrups before, which elicited a gasp. Gasp number two came when the tech did the double-gel-and-con.dom routine over the wand. I lost track of the gasps after that, but he was all blushing and sheepish when it was over. I don't think he'll be joining me tomorrow. What a wuss -- it wasn't even that bad today.

I'm totally getting flowers tonight, though. Or at least the dishwasher emptied. You've got to work it when you can!

Day 8 Update

Things were hopping this morning at the clinic....must be a big week for people cycling. My ovaries were hopping as well -- 4 big follies on the left, and 10 on the right. The biggest ones are at about 17. I've got another u/s tomorrow, and our pre-op appointment for the retrieval (which I can only imagine involves signing a bunch of scary forms).

I'm really starting to feel it today -- really bloaty and sore. I did a stupid thing yesterday and went to the gym. I've pretty much been feeling like ass since then.

Lesson learned -- I am spending the rest of today horizontal with Nate, David and Claire.

Day 6 Update

Major hijinks at this morning's wand-o-rama. To start with, the tech couldn't find my ovaries OR my uterus, so had to call in reinforcements. Then they found my uterus, but it had taken so long that my bladder had filled up again, so they had me run across the hall to pee with a paper gown wrapped around my waist. Then I got double-teamed with one tech wanding me, and the other pushing down on my abdomen (I don't need to tell anyone who's been through this process how good THAT feels) to see if we could move things around a bit and see some hot hot ovary action.

The good news: we could. And it looks like we've got 3 on the left and 5-7 on the right. I'll know more once they call with the bloodwork, but at least we didn't get cancelled this morning.

Oh, and the tech told me that I can expect some cramping today, since they were so, um, thorough in their examination. Awesome! Thank God for Tylenol.

UPDATE: E2 level is 723. Dr. thinks there are probably more follies we can't see because of my uniquely placed parts. Retrieval could be Thursday or Friday.

Blah

That's how I feel after this morning's ultrasound. My right ovary will still not come out to play, and they only saw 2 follies (12 and 9) on the left side. My E2 level was OK (261), and the doctor is still optimistic, but they're upping my Go.nal-F from 225 to 300 and the doctor used the dreaded "C" word (as in, Convert to IUI). Not as something he necessarily thought was likely to happen, but something that we might want to think about. Because apparently the first time we thought about IUI and rejected the possibility due to male factor issues was apparently not enough! Anyway, it's back in the stirrups on Friday, so we'll know more then.

I'm trying to stay even-keeled about this -- I've only done 4 days of stims, it's early and they can still play with my doses, and the E2 seems to indicate that my right ovary is doing SOMETHING. Plus, I feel very different on Day 4 than I did on Day 2, which gives me hope that things will get cooking even more before Day 6.

I guess most of all, I feel like a big wuss getting all worked up about today's appointment -- I mean, this is nothing compared to how the two-week wait (if I'm lucky enough to get there) is going to feel.

I think I need to, as the Mr. would say, "sack up."

Side Effects

Not too much to report in the Barefoot household. We continue to stim away (with much less bloody results, thankfully), and will know after tomorrow's wand-o-rama just how things are going in there. It feels like stuff is going on.....but that could be the spicy enchiladas.

On a lighter note, has anyone else noticed just how many side effects (or, as the brochures like to call them, "adverse events") the packaging on all of the meds lists? They've got it all covered, from the short term (hot flashes) to the long term (ovarian cancer). Honestly, I'd be willing to believe that I could wake up with a second head tomorrow. And I love all of the stickers on the prescription bottles: eat with food, don't chew, may cause dizziness, do not operate heavy machinery, don't dispense to other patients, etc. It's kind of awesome.

Amateur Hour

So, we started stims last night. I have to admit, I didn't really go into it with the best attitude -- I'd attended a family baby shower earlier in the day, and sat across from someone who basically spent the whole party complaining about how hard it is to have a newborn. I know, I know -- it IS hard (as I hope to find out someday), but it was a little difficult in the moment to see past the Lu.pron and the pre-stims anxiety. On the plus side, there was really good cake.

Anyway, back to the stims. My pre-game thinking: "Wow, those Lu.pron shots have been kind of a breeze, this should be no big deal." Um, yeah. I started with the Lu.pron, just to get things rolling, and managed to hit a blood vessel and bleed all over the place. Not so smooth. Then, a little rattled, we spent 20 minutes trying to figure out if we were mixing the Re.pronex correctly. I'm still not entirely sure, but it seemed to work out. And finally, I came within about a 1/2 inch of impaling myself in the eye with the Go.nal-F pen while trying to "prime" it for its first usage. I'm really not very good with this stuff, apparently.

And now I've had a raging headache for the last 24 hours. Ah, Tylenol, how I love you.

On the bright side, the wonderful Mr. surprised me with this little gift yesterday:

Probably my favorite TV series ever. Definitely my favorite series finale ever. It's nice to have 63 hours of distraction on tap for the next few weeks. Although who am I kidding, I'll probably be done before we get to retrieval.

(Thinking good thoughts here for Carrie, who had her retrieval this morning. Hope all went well!)