Hellobee Boards

@kentuckygirl: @Shutterbug: @Apex: @twodoghouse: @Happygal: @LovelyPlum: @Leialou: @spaniellove: And to anyone else I might have missed - Thanks for the support! Sorry I haven't replied sooner, my parents were here for Thanksgiving from Tues - Sat and Sunday was spent getting my apartment back in order.
Tuesday night was the first injection and it was...frustrating! I took me about an hour to do the first injection (menopur) but not because of the needle - I was so paranoid about air bubbles! I (stupidly) kept thinking about an episode of Grey's Anatomy where someone had an air bubble in their IV and had an embolism or something like that and was convinced if I had any air in my syringe the same thing would happen. HAHAHAHA. After scrapping an entire syringe filled with 2 vials of menopur because I was convinced that I filled the syringe wrong (oops) I finally called the support line at Freedom Pharmacy and they assured me that a couple of air bubbles is totally fine and I wouldn't die. After that call, I just jammed the thing in and it was fine.
Then the Gonal-F Pen was a piece of cake.
Yesterday I started on the Ganirelix (sp?) and...seriously, WTF??? I thought that the prefilled syringe was awesome at first, but the needle is SO dull and I have to really push hard to get it through my skin. And it burns like a mofo for at least a half hour after. I've tried icing but so far it hasn't really made a huge difference.

Otherwise, I've been going in every other morning for monitoring since Friday and I have 5 follicles on one side and 6 on the other. I really didn't get all of the info I should have (like sizes and stuff) but the nurse and RE have reassured me several times that its going great. TENTATIVELY retrieval will be this Friday - that's what my RE is guessing, but I go back in on Weds again.

I had another really REALLY annoying thing happen at the RE Sunday morning - I almost lost my cool - but I'll save that for later since I need to head to the dentist. Yay! Nothing like starting your day with a dull needle in the abdomen and a transvaginal ultrasound - and ending it with a trip to the dentist.

@Shutterbug: Yay! Good luck! It'll go by so quickly from here!

@SweetiePie: Aww, to be honest even after all the injections I've done I still sweat the air bubbles And that Ganirelix, ugh. But wow that was all pretty fast! Retrieval is almost here and you're almost done with the injections!

@Shutterbug: So excited for you. I hope your appointment goes well this afternoon!

@SweetiePie: Glad things are going well since getting over the first injection! My husband was really nervous about air bubbles at first too, but no matter what we did we couldn't get them all completely bubble-free. And I didn't die of an embolism during IVF so it's probably cool. Glad your follies are growing well. Friday will be here so soon - how exciting! Fingers crossed for you this week!

@Shutterbug: I went to an injection class. It was actually one on one with my IVF nurse. She had what she called "the butt". It was a piece of rubber shaped like a mound that felt very similar to flesh. I practiced injecting in that.

@Leialou: haha ok, if it's a rubber 'butt' I can handle that thanks!

@Shutterbug: yay, good luck!!

@SweetiePie: what a day, indeed! And I can't believe you're already looking to transfer-CRAZINESS how fast time flies. Good luck with all of the injections. I'm so excited for you!!

@SweetiePie: you poor thing with a dull needle injection, a date with the dildo cam, and then a trip to the dentist all in one day? You so deserve some good news for that day. How very exciting to hear things are going well for you and your retrieval is so close.

Shots of any kind that you have to self administer are the pits. I don't have to self inject for fertility purposes but I do give myself 4 shots per month for a different medical condition. The best advice I got was to numb the area for 15 minutes prior to injection, let all the alcohol evap off the area you wiped down, and let the meds be as close to room temp as possible. I ice down after some particularly bad shots too.

Since I've not yet started the IVF process and don't know, can you do any of them on your upper thighs? My sub-q meds can be done either in upper thighs or stomach. For me the stomach was worse. Just curious in case it helps. I don't mean to offend or step on toes.

@Shutterbug: good luck if you do do the classes. One more step closer.

@SweetiePie: @PointeShoesTutus: I think the answer is yes, you can use your thigh or possibly even your upper arm? (I don't know much about that arm one.) I didn't know until the very end of my shots when I complained to the nurse that I'd totally run out of injection sites and she said I could have used a limb!

@SweetiePie: I see the bloodwork ladies wipe the alcohol away with gauze but it made me wonder about recontaminating the site so I'd rather just wait for it to evaporate. With the Ganirelix no matter what I did I ended up with welts afterward...on the bright side it's only for a few days and hopefully you never have to do it again!

@SweetiePie: @spaniellove: the bloodwork people at my clinic always just wave the alcohol pad back and forth over my arm (like a fan) after they use it to help it evaporate quicker. I'd also be worried about re-contaminating it, or getting little bits of gauze fiber left behind or something. BTW - you guys are really stressing me out about the Ganirelix!

@Shutterbug: That's a better strategy! The Ganirelix is not really that bad; when I think back to IVF I hardly remember it because it's normally only a few doses at the very end of stims before trigger to keep you from surging too early. It's just that by the time you get there (especially if you stim for a long time) between the appointments, the Ganirelix, and the separate stims, you kind of feel like "wow this is a lot". But it also means you're in the home stretch!

@SweetiePie: I'm glad you figured out your next step and didn't give up and I wish you and DH the best of luck on everything!

@SweetiePie: Glad things are going well so far and hope your appointment this morning went well too! Do you think they'll give you the ok to trigger tonight? So exciting! You are in the home stretch now!

@SweetiePie: ahh that's exciting!! I think 19-21 is the "mature" size, so that's probably perfect. Keep us posted, and good luck on Saturday!

@SweetiePie: thanks we're good but I just can't tell you how happy I am for you can't wait until you give us all your good news soon until then you're in my prayers

@SweetiePie: Following along and wishing you so much luck!!!

@LovelyPlum: @Honeygold89: @MrsKoala: Thanks for the love

@twodoghouse: I know! I'm so glad no shots! Though they did call me back yesterday after my blood results and I had to do one last shot of gonal-f last night, then the trigger at 11:30pm.
My wimpy husband was afraid to do it so I ended up giving it to myself! It was actually one of the easiest shots yet.

@Shutterbug: That is too funny! I noticed it yesterday too and thought the same thing! I had to tell Shutterbug!
How are you doing? How often do you have to go in for the bloodwork?

So in general, I'm now dealing with loads of crap from Reprogenetics, the lab that is doing my PGD testing. I just got an email from them yesterday saying payment was due before retrieval...which is tomorrow AM. So now I'm frantically trying to get forms signed and sent to them and I'm afraid that this whole cycle will be for nothing if we can't get the PGD testing set up. Of course, that's the worst case, dramatic reaction. But I'm not very rational right now!

@spaniellove: Thanks, Love!

So since the trigger last night I do feel achy in the area where I assume my ovaries are. Is that normal? Quick movements or even walking heavily kind of makes them feel achy. They just feel really big and heavy and achy!

@SweetiePie: haha I'm no doctor, but they're filled up with mature eggs, so it makes sense they feel heavy! The only thing I really notice after my trigger is a little nausea. Good luck tomorrow, I'm so excited for you!!

@SweetiePie: it is definitely normal! I felt so achy and bloated the days before my retrieval.

@Shutterbug: Haha, yeah, the bloating and heaviness I was kinda expecting. The aching made me start to worry about hyperstim or something (I'm so neurotic). But I'm reading that it is pretty 'normal'.
@justdarling: Here's to hoping I get that many! With my odds I really need a lot! When my doc was reading off the sizes the other day, it didn't seem like very many. But I'm hoping its just because he can't see all of them and I have a bunch of lurkers
@Leialou: @Apex: Thanks, you're making me feel better about it!

Confession: I totally POAS this morning. I was just really curious to see if the HCG made it into my system, and it did! Made me feel better about doing the shot correctly.
Why is a BFP so exciting even if I know its not a real BFP? I almost had to remind myself that it was fake!