Joys of Fertility Meds (TMI Share)

So as part of my protocol, I am taking Endometrin which is a progesterone vaginal suppository.  I have to insert it twice a day and generally do it at night before I go to bed and in the morning when I wake up and have some time to lie around afterwards.  I have read stories of women who have found it to be very messy and have lots of leakage. It hasn't been too bad for me, until today.... (Again TMI, so look away if you don't want to hear more.)

The recommendation is that you lie for about an hour after inserting the Endometrin to help prevent leakage, etc... and many women on the boards advocate for wearing pads and liners with Endometrin.  I have been following both.  This morning though I could only lie around for about 40 min before I had to get going and I skipped the panty liners.  Well actually I only have pads at home (ran out of liners) and have liners in my desk at work.  This week I have been wearing regular "panties" and putting the liner on when I get to work and wearing a pad at home.  Today I didn't want to wear panties (I prefer thongs and really don't have many regular underwear) and went with a thong.  When I got to work, I got busy for the first couple hours and forgot to put on a liner...until it felt like I was leaking through to my pants (luckily just the inside layer and no wet spots that are visible from the outside).  When I went to put on a liner, not only did I have the clear liquid leakage from the Endometrin but also had what looked like thick, white discharge but was likely the semi-dissolved tablet.  Basically ick!  Main lesson? (1) Always wear a liner while on Endometrin (which per the boards can be as long as 12 weeks of pregnancy) and (2) keep a pair of spare underwear on my while on Endometrin.

In other news, today I am supposed to have the RE call to tell me how the embryos are doing.  My husband keeps bugging me to ask if they've called and I keep torturing myself with thoughts of options.  Such as, what if all 4 didn't make it to day 3? I'm trying to stay positive and believe that all 4 will make it, but from what I can tell, 100% making it to day 3 or day 5 is very unusual.

First Ultrasound after Starting IVF Meds

Today was my first ultrasound and bloodwork appointment after starting my IVF meds.  I had 6 follicles.  Not sure if that's good or bad (will start Googling & torturing myself on the fertility boards and likely find everything from it's great to it is horrible!).  It also pushed up my protocol by one day. My husband will start taking doxycycline tomorrow instead of on Friday to prevent any possible infections in his sperm.  I will add Ganirelex to my injections tomorrow (to prevent ovulation) and also increase my Menopur to 2 vials (I'm guessing to help the follicles grow).

This morning was the first morning since I started stimming that I woke up without a migraine, so that is a plus! The RE said that the migraines are generally caused my low estrogen (which makes sense as I generally get them the first day of my period when estrogen tanks) and that it should get better from here.  I hope so!

Tonight I am also trying a Reiki session for general healing and hopefully to help with the fertility.  (Hey why not try everything?) I will do a post on how that goes.

Injections

Last night was my second night of injections.  Continues to go fine and the injection really is no big deal.  Don't need to use much pressure and doesn't really hurt (tiniest of pinches).  The only surprise is how easy it is and how much blood there is.  (Not a lot, but more than the dot I'd expect.  I want to be able to just blot with a tissue and move on, but I do need to use a band-aid, so of course straight to Amazon to get injection specific bandages.  I went with these ones because they were relatively cheap and I didn't need 500 that other brands offered.)

Since starting the injections, I have noticed slight twinges in my lower abdomen.  Whether it's actually my ovaries growing follicles or psychosomatic, who knows?  I have also been "blessed" with headaches each morning since starting injections.  I am a migraine sufferer and the only thing that helps is Excedrin or Rx meds, both no-no's once pregnant.  Yesterday morning I took one (instead of the regular 2) Excedrin pill to try to ward off the migraine I felt coming.  Then of course I did a bit of Googling and found you are not supposed to take Excedrin while stimming either.  Guess I should have searched first, but I'm not going to beat myself up about 1 pill early my first day of stimming when my RE never told me it was a no-no.  Excedrin is made up of 3 components: acetaminophen, aspirin and caffeine.  Acetaminophen is ok when stimming/pregnant, caffeine consumption should be limited but isn't totally off limits, and my protocol includes baby aspirin to encourage blood flow to my uterus.  So while I'll probably tough it out from here on out, I'm not going to beat myself up or think I may have "ruined" something. Live, learn, do better going forward.

Today I not only have a headache but am having serious problems concentrating at work, am super emotional (have broken down in tears and got overly frustrated with my brother about something).  I also am tired and just counting the minutes til I can go home.  While I must admit I am always tired, I woke up this morning feeling as though I slept well and was, for once, refreshed and not exhausted so you'd think I wouldn't be so exhausted.  Unfortunately, I've red fatigue is a side effect too.  (Or it could be the crying, crying always makes me tired.)

So that's today's journey, emotional, tired, and a bit of a mess. Hopefully this isn't a pattern that continues!

First Day of IVF Meds

Tonight was my first day of taking my IVF meds for stimulating my follicles to grow. My protocol is that I take one vial of Menopur (75iu) and 300 iu of Gonal-f.  In my teach class I learned how to mix the meds so I take one injection instead of two.

So basically it's take 1/2 cc of sodium chloride, inject it into the Menopur vial (Menopur comes as a powder that needs to be mixed with sodium chloride). Then add the Gonal-f to the vial, draw everything's up into the syringe, add the proper gage needle and inject. I'm over simplifying as I'm sure if you're doing IVF meds your RE and/or clinic will instruct you as to how to administer yours. 

My nerves about the injection was how much pressure I would need to use for the needle to puncture the skin. As it turns out, very little. I am not squeamish so maybe that's why it was easy for me, but I simple pinched some of my skin on my stomach, inserted the needle, pushed in the meds, held for 3 seconds as instructed, released, and pulled the needle out. There was no pain (the expected feeling from inserting the needle but really it's the same as any injection, probably less so than your typical vaccine which is intramuscular rather than subcutaneous). I had read that Menopur stings/burns, it didn't. The only thing I was surprised by was that there was a bit more blood than I expected and when I say that, I mean that I expected there to be no blood and there was enough that I did need a bandaid. (Whenever getting vaccines I always thought the bandaid was overkill and thought how much blood could there be for a tiny needle. I guess there is actually some.)

So basically that was my first experience with doing my IVF injections. I think as with most things in life, the anticipation and concern about it is more than the reality. 

Meds Arrive

So my meds have arrived and it's a lot! (Don't think the photo really captures it since I condensed it all to get it into one shot.)

Even after going over the meds and seeing hem in the teach class there is still a lot when it's all laid out like that. Plus there's stuff that wasn't at the teach class and even stuff not in my protocol. I guess it's just in case the protocol changes?

The scariest of all of it? The total charged and expected from the insurance....over $11,000! Glad and so lucky insurance covers it and all I pay is $15 for the syringes.

Next Big Steps (Part 1): The "Teach Class"

This week I had two big steps on my IVF journey: a "teach" class and my IVF consultation with my RE. To avoid too long a post, I will break this post up into two posts, one dedicated to the teach class, and the other to the consultation.

The Teach Class
The "teach" class is a class required by anyone undergoing IVF at my fertility clinic.  The first hour of the teach class essentially explains what IVF is and the process.  I was already familiar with the process from what I learned in school over the years as well as extensive "Googling."  However, I'm sure it was helpful for those who had little familiarity with the subject and it never hurts to have yet another reminder and have everything fleshed out all together.

The second half of the class deals with learning about the meds/injectables that will be used for the IVF cycle and practicing mixing the meds and performing injections (on prosthetics).  This was helpful as I am definitely a tactile learner and while I would probably be able to figure it out and do it on my own, the whole IVF process, especially the injectable medications, is overwhelming.  I  was set up with the meds that will be in my protocol and others received the meds for theirs.  I also got to learn a bit about other people's protocols and possible meds that may be added to my protocol.

It was definitely worthwhile and worth the experience.  I don't know if all fertility clinics have a similar teach class, but they should.  I am a big Real Housewives fan (as you may know from some of my other blogs) and have been watching OC Housewife, Meghan King Edmonds, on her IVF journey this season.  I also checked out her IVF Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meghansivfjourney/ One thing I've learned from her journey is her RE/clinic has a different process for injections than mine.  At my teach class, I learned how to mix my injections (Menapur and Gonal F and later Garilinex) so that I am only taking one injection a day. Meghan was taking up to 3 shots a day! Every process is different, but I appreciate that my clinic wants to cut down on the number of shots, then again the Gonal F pre-loaded pen is pretty cool I kinda just want to be able to use that! But why have more injections than I need to!