Day 4: Wishing, Hoping, Itching

Today is day 4 of our embryo's growth and following the traditional protocol, we did not get an update. I'm choosing to take this as a good sign since I'm fairly sure they would have let us know if something happened to our embie babies today. One of the women in my online PGD support group also had two embryos growing at the same time as mine and she lost both of them on day 4. I'm so crushed for her and am now even more worried for our two, this is such a big jump for them to make.

I'm hoping that our next update will be tomorrow, but there's a chance we won't hear from Dr. D until Monday. Last cycle we had 2 embryos biopsied day 5 and 2 biopsied day 6 so these two could be ready on either day. My nerves seriously hope they're healthy and ready for biopsy/freeze tomorrow because I can't take much more of this waiting.

In other news, I haven't been reporting too much on recovery but I'm doing okay. I had so few eggs that I didn't get OHSS this time and only needed some Advil/Tylenol for the first couple days. I've taken an odd one here or there for a hormone headache and some muscle aches as everything returns to normal but overall it's been a pretty uneventful recovery. They didn't even need to give me Fentanyl after the retrieval, just two Tylenol and a hot blanket on my belly. Mostly I'm just exhausted, like can't keep myself awake tired, have to pee all the time and am still crazy bloated. I've been sustaining myself on a diet of Matzo Ball soup (thank you E for repeatedly playing delivery man) and Gatorade/Electrolyte water and feel like I have the flu.

Cillian takes advantage of my exhaustion and bloated pillow belly to get in a good nap

My most obnoxious complaint is probably the bruise on my hand from my IV. The nurse, who was quite experienced and really nice, had to try twice to get my IV in. She tried first on my right hand, which is usually my good one, numbed it up with lidocaine and popped in the IV needle. The needle went in correctly but she was right up against a valve so the catheter couldn't go into the vein. She tried to apply some gentle pressure to open it and then tried to float the catheter in but neither worked. She ended up taking it out and going for my left hand, where she repeated the process and the IV catheter went right in. That site doesn't hurt at all and didn't bruise but my right hand has this nasty, deep bruise that has been surprisingly painful. It was really bad the first day, definitely worse than my sore ovaries, and the bruise is still there and still tender today.

My other big complaint is that somehow, the hivey rash has returned to my stomach. This leads me to believe that I had two separate rashes last time - hives on my belly from the medication, and an allergic rash to E's shaving cream on my bikini line. They were there at the same time so I assumed they were connected but apparently not. The new rash is pretty close to where the old one was on my belly, a little lower, and has to be related to the hormone injections. Just like previous flare up, it itches like a bitch and I have to keep compressing Yin Care, slathering on Cortisone cream and pouring on Benadryl.  Maybe it's related to falling or rising hormone levels or a reaction to the HCG (please don't let this happen when I'm pregnant!) but whatever it is, I really wish it would take a hike.

The Rash Strikes Back!

Just one more day to get through. One more day and then we can move on to testing, find out that all our embryos are magically healthy and perfect and we can start putting them back where they belong. If we're able to do a successful FET in early December we could be bringing home one of these fighter embryos as a baby at the end of August. I hope, I hope, I hope, come on embryos, you can do it. 

Day 3: Growth Report

We got our growth report this morning and our embryos are still dividing! We have 4 that look really good with nice, even cell division and 2 that look good but are growing a touch slower. We also have 1 that fertilized but is pretty far behind the others with only 2 cells so we're not sure if that little guy can catch up. E is calling it our runt, Wilbur, but I don't think there's any chance of him catching up.

Original Photo came from here

I talked to Dr. D about our next cycle and he thinks we're on track to start in about 6 weeks. I didn't get to really clarify what that means since I later realized it could mean taking a month off or not taking a month off. If I get my period in about 2 weeks, then go on birth control for about 2 weeks, then stim for about 2 weeks, that's 6 weeks right there. I was asking if we'd take 6 weeks off doing nothing before starting the next cycle but I don't think I got that across. I'll have to bring it up again another time.

I also asked about the crazy bloating which he said is probably from the HCG as well as the estrogen. He said I should expect it to stick around in my system for at least 10 days so I don't see this belly going down anytime soon. I have no illusions about the physical side effects of infertility and the IVF process but it would be nice if I could save some growth for a baby.

As far as recovery goes, I'm feeling a bit crappier today than yesterday. I'm still only mildly sore but I have a weird nauseous/imminent cold feeling that probably wasn't helped by the fact that I woke up every 2 hours to pee and didn't get great sleep. I'm not sure where I could have picked up a cold since I've been taking it pretty easy and not going anywhere but I can definitely feel it hovering at the edges of my throat. Hopefully it's just the hormones because I can not get sick right before our next cycle.

Day 2: Recovery

Thus far I think I've been pretty lucky with my recovery. I'm still good with just a couple Tylenol or Advil every 4-6 hours and if I don't take it, there's only a minor ache of discomfort. I never really had any bleeding, nausea, constipation, or serious pain. I know every egg retrieval is different and I don't want to jinx it for next cycle, but I hope I can get off this easy next time. Maybe it's my reward for having such a shot heavy stim cycle :)

The two symptoms I am experiencing at the moment are two I could definitely do without. For starters, I'm still super, super bloated and uncomfortable with a belly the size of a watermelon. Possibly even more bloated now than on retrieval day.  I haven't tried to wear my jeans yet but I doubt they'd button comfortably right now, even my loose jeans would cut right across my ovaries. This is probably still mild OHSS so I've just got to grin and bear it and hope it goes down.

In the same category, my grapefruit sized ovaries must be pushing on all sorts of things because I'm getting awful heart burn. No matter what I eat or how I sit, I have the worst acid indigestion. This is another one of those things you just have to wait out, so I'm popping Gaviscon like candy and hoping that it passes quickly. I just ran through my last bottle so getting more is first on my list of things to do tomorrow.

My secret weapon

For anyone else getting ready for an egg retrieval, I absolutely think that the crazy amount of water I've been drinking has played a big role in why I've felt okay. I drank 100-150oz the day before the retrieval and another 100-150oz the day of. I've been drinking at least 100oz a day since and despite the anesthesia, it's probably physically impossible to be constipated with that much water in your system. I know a lot of clinics push laxatives after a retrieval but I prefer to avoid that stuff if I can. In this case, I think the water is a pretty viable alternative. Plus, peeing every 10 minutes, while also tied to OHSS, helps clear the extra hormones out of your system which should mean less bloat and misery. I'm still sleeping with my feet up on a pile of pillows as well, which is supposed to help all the excess fluid drain.

The acupuncture has probably also played a roll. Even the regular treatments that just keep all your energy and such flowing normally can really help with clearing out your system. The surgery center was a little weird about herbs so I stopped drinking my herbs a couple days before the retrieval and I just started back up again today with my acupuncturist's blessing.

The embryologists try not to bother the embryos on days 2 and 4 so I sadly didn't get an update on my embies growth today. They should be growing and dividing with at least 4 cells so that they can reach 6-8 cells tomorrow. I'm on pins and needles waiting for tomorrows phone call and I'm hoping and praying that all six are still growing well.

 

Original Photo came from here

ETA: I totally forgot to talk about boobs! My boobs are SO SORE. They feel awful if I'm not wearing a bra, which luckily is almost never since they're on the gigantic side and I never go braless. This is probably from all the hormones too and just another thing I have to wait out :(

 

Day 1: Fertilization Report

Dr. D called this morning to give us the news that we now have SIX wonderful looking embryos. I was getting kind of starry eyed there for a bit, dreaming about having 11 embryos, but I'm very, very happy with our six.

Out of the eleven, 3 ended up being too immature/small to fertilize, leaving 8 good mature eggs, and 2 of those 8 don't look fabulous after fertilization, giving us the 6. The six all fertilized quickly and easily and are looking really good thus far. Dr. D said getting 80% of the mature eggs to fertilize is very good and I'm really excited for these six. Our next report will be on day 3 when we should be seeing 6-8 cells in each embryo. 

Original Photo came from here

As far as recovery goes, I'm doing better than I expected. I heard all sorts of horror stories about people being in terrible pain after a retrieval and I've been extremely lucky that that hasn't been my experience. I took two Tylenol around 1am and went to sleep with my feet on a big pile of pillows to try and help the bloat go down. Aside from getting up at 1:30, 2:30 and 5:00am to pee, I slept pretty well.

When I finally woke up, it was to the sensation of cramping and stabbing, but in my stomach not my ovaries. My first thought was:

"oh nooooo, is this the god awful constipation everyone talks about??? Noooo do not want!"

Ten seconds later I realized they weren't. Nope. Not even close. They were actually hunger pains! Apparently my body has not caught up to the fact that it's no longer feeding 11 protein leeching follicles and I'm still starving and craving soup. I did end up being a little constipated later but it wasn't anything like people had described, it did not make me feel like my ovaries were going to die and fall out, so clearly guzzling all this water is helping.  I'm averaging somewhere between 100-150 ounces a day of PH/electrolyte water, 2-3 of the big bottles from Whole Foods, and I have a couple more left to get me through today. 

I took two more Tylenol around 9am just in case and Dr. D told me to take it easy today. Since I inhaled all the Matzo ball soup E brought me yesterday, my first trip out of the house was to Factor's Deli to get two more Matzo ball soups. I'm pretty sure E thinks I'm a little crazy but it's nice to be craving the stuff I'm actually supposed to be eating. Clear, salty broth and protein is exactly what the doctor ordered, and as long as it continues to help, who am I to disagree?? 

Insanity: Recovery Week

I am so very glad to finally be in the recovery week! The first month of Insanity was intense and my body is so in need of a break. After just one recovery work out, it's pretty obvious that we probably should have done the recovery disc for a couple weeks before actually doing Insanity. It's supposed to be a low key, don't stress yourself work out and it still makes me sweat and has things I can't do. They actually consider level one drills to be a recovery exercise and I can't successfully complete even one!

(Source)

For those who don't know, level one drills involve dropping down to plank position, doing four push ups, running in plank position 8 times, jumping your legs in, jumping up with arms raised, and repeat. Since I can't do push ups, this exercise is brutal and had I known it was considered "recovery" I would have approached this whole thing differently.  The routine also has a lot of core and balance work (hence the name core cardio and balance lol) which is the kind of stuff that hurts the next day. Power squats, balancing on one leg while lifting and flailing the other, lots of spinny and lifting arm work and such.

I'm thinking that two weeks of this work out would, gentle and easy as it should be, work us up to the full Insanity. Instead, we're a month in, my plantar faciatis is fully inflamed in both feet, and my dumb ass went and slipped in the shower and smacked my head against our little portable heater.  It's still a big sore knot 3 days later and hurts like crazy when I bounce around doing Insanity. It literally feels like I'm pounding on the bruise on my head,  shoulder, and leg, while aggravating my feet as usual. E is pretty sure I should be doing Insanity and asks me at the beginning of each work out if I want to run on the treadmill instead. Since I've committed to this crap, the answer is always no.

(Source)

What's even worse,  I blabbed to my mother about my embarrassing slip, hoping for a little sympathy and humor, and instead she told me I must have slipped because I'm too fat. Because, you know, only old people and fat people slip on wet tile. It couldn't have been because E had showered and left the slick tile floor wet, and I was rushing to get in and out because my burgers were on the grill. No. I must have slipped because I'm fat. Right.

So to recap: Month one of Insanity is complete! The recovery work out is still hard. My feet continue to suck. I slipped in the shower because I'm fat. Even after a month of Insanity. According to my loving mother. Right.