Not Ready Quite Yet

This morning, the monitoring period at the Victoria Fertility Centre was scheduled for 8:15-9:00 AM, later than usual. I had to inject my Cetrotide before we left the house to drive there.

Mixing Cetrotide for my morning injection.

This is the thicker of the two syringe tips for mixing only, not injection. You change to a thinner needle for that.

Morning injection . . . done!

I felt queasy and dizzy on the drive out to the clinic. I find dizziness, nausea, low blood pressure, and suddenly losing my balance for no reason are increasing as I go further into my cycle and the hormonal injections. The headaches are epic and it's hard to fall asleep and stay asleep at night now, because I'm sore in the back and can't get comfortable (my ovaries are swelling with the multiple growing follicles and I'm bloated) and as discussed in the previous post, I can only take Tylenol now.. I can't take Advil or other NSAIDs due to the risk of bleeding during the egg retrieval (NSAIDs are blood thinners). Today is day 13 of my cycle.

#carselfie

I was the second person onto the list at the clinic and we didn't wait too long past when Dr. Hudson started examining patients. The waiting room was so full that there were no more chairs left when further patients arrived. My husband and I commented later that you would never know that any of these people were suffering from infertility and the emotional, physical, and financial strain that comes with it. It is remarkable how many more people suffer from infertility, when so few talk about it. It is an epidemic that is not spoken about enough.

Good old waiting room again.

I was shown to an examination room and assumed the position.

Back on the examination table again.

Dr. Hudson was examining me today. He gave me a pelvic ultrasound. He said that I'm really doing well, but that the follicles are not quite ready yet.

Ultrasound of my uterus.

The dark masses are follicles in my right ovary.

Measuring follicles in my right ovary.

Measuring follicles in my right ovary.

Measuring follicles in my right ovary.

The dark masses are follicles in my left ovary.

Measuring follicles in my left ovary.

Measuring follicles in my left ovary.

At the top right a line of black of a couple of inches vertically can be seen. Dr. Hudson says this is cervical mucus from the high amounts of estrogen in my system.

I must return tomorrow morning between 7:30-8:30 AM for another pelvic ultrasound and blood test to see if I will be ready for the "trigger shot" yet or not (this is done about 36 hours before the egg retrieval). He now says that my egg retrieval will likely be Friday or Saturday. We asked him if he thought that acupuncture would be beneficial at this point (there are some studies that have shown that it can improve blood flow to the uterus and therefore perhaps improve chances of implantation and the success of IVF), but other other studies dispute this claim). He said that it couldn't hurt. He said that he is qualified to do acupuncture and if he does the embryo transfer next week, he can do it on me at that time, but in the mean time, I could have some done.

After Dr. Hudson left, my nurse coordinator took my blood. She told me to go next door to the drug dispensary and get just enough of my drugs for tonight and tomorrow morning. I am to continue the same dose of Cetrotide in the morning and Gonal F and Menopur in the evening (plus the Dexamethasone tablets in the morning as usual). They will reassess tomorrow if I will need more drugs or not. As usual, she said that they would call me this afternoon after the results of my blood work are available.

Yet another cotton accessory perfect for the fall season.

My right arm (the easiest one for people to find veins in) is getting really bashed up from all the blood tests and the taped gauze.

I gave my four "empty" Gonal F pens to a nurse, who extracted the overfill and came up with enough for my 300 mL dose plus probably about 50 mL left over (that I can use if I need more tomorrow). One 300 mL pen (a single dose for me) costs $350.00, so this was a significant savings (the overfill in my four "empty" pens was worth more than $350.00, so you know the cost of Gonal F is very high).

A nurse extracting the overfill from Gonal F pens with a syringe.

This syringe holds $350.00.

We only had to pay $295.00 for one day's worth of medications (Cetrotide and Menopur) since we already had the Gonal F from the overfill in my "empty" pens (wow it's amazing what starts to seem cheap when you're undergoing IVF). So far, we're up to $5,995.00 plus the Estrace tablets I bought last cycle ($85.00) for a total of $6,080.00 in medications alone for this first cycle of IVF (over $2,000.00 over the estimate we were given). Since we're not even done this cycle yet, there will be further drug costs too.

While my husband drove us back into town, I called to book an acupuncture appointment at the clinic that specializes in fertility acupuncture (that the Victoria Fertility Centre recommends).

Around lunch time, my nurse coordinator called me to tell me that my blood work looks great and that I'm to continue on the same doses of all of my medications and return to the clinic tomorrow morning for another examination as planned.

I am still waiting for a call back from the acupuncture clinic. After all, what's more needles at this point?

My cat's grouchy look sums up how I feel right now.