Gina and I woke up early this morning, mixed our Menapur cocktail, got dressed, shot me up and headed out the door to the doctor’s office. There was an accident on the Marquim bridge and snow on the west side so we were a half hour late but they are gracious and just fit us right in.
Another vaginal ultrasound and blood work. Dr. H wanted to see if and how my follicles were growing from the stimulant injections. Turns out, the smaller follicles are growing and the large one grew but not too much- that’s a good thing. He said that maybe, even, the disparity in the size of the follicles got smaller. That’s kinda cool.
Caitlin reminds me that we’ll know more as we go and truth is, we just won’t know until the end how many eggs we’ll get and if we’ll have any to freeze or second try or what. For now, as my good friends remind me, we just pray for one beautiful happy little being.
Wanna know what pure goodness looks like? See, Caitlin, pictured here from this morning’s visit. Can’t you just feel her joyful, helpful spirit oozing off her? I speak with her just about every day and she is always just like this. Amazing.
Caitlin; our amazing IVF Coordinator
So, wanna know what a Vaginal Ultrasound Wand looks like? Yep. That’s it. That big giant THING goes up my front side nether region and when it can’t go anymore, they turn on the ultrasound machine and we can see my uterus and follicles on the big screen. Pretty cool technology, but, lest it’s not obvious, it’s not entirely fun to be on the receiving end of that thing (contrary to what some of you may think).
When we are all done with those vaginal shenanigans, we head on over to get my blood work done. Yet again, another needle. But, it’s made all the better by my favorite phlebotomist, Katie. Last week, to keep me smiling, she informed me that she is a beauty school drop out. What?! Well, it’s a good thing because she’s steady hand and an incredible joy. If you have to get your blood taken, you want it done by Katie. Here she is.
Katie, our beauty school drop out Phlebotomist
Once all done in the office we went home, back to work and wait for a call. In the mean time, I couldn’t help but notice my headache worsening to the point of feeling nauseaus. I’m on the tenth day of having a headache but it’s only been this bad once before. And never with the nausea.
Caitlin called me around 1:30 and told me that my body was responding “very well” to the stimulants, in fact, they are going to lessen my doses until the next check. My estrogen level was at 26 two days ago, it’s in the 400 range now. I’m not really sure what all those numbers mean but that sounds like a big jump to me. And Caitlin confirmed; when I told her about the headache and nausea she said, “Yeah… that’s really normal.”
Me: “The nausea too?”
Caitlin: “Yep. It’s from your estrogen being so high now. It’s like morning sickness when you are pregnant. We are simulating that. All the hormone injections are making you feel that way. You’re really liking what we’re doin’ to ya, eh?”
Me: “Oy. That’s all right. I’ll take it!”
And I’m gonna have to take it for a while. We still have more than 8 days before the retrieval. After that, our meds change again… prepping my uterus to lovingly and hospitably take the embryos that Dr. H will transfer 5 days later.
For now, I’ll hang out in the crazy mix of it all; deeply grateful, thrilled with the possibility of what all of this will bring us, headache splitting, nausea persisting, belly so tender it hurts to wear pants, tears bounding and faith beyond belief.