WTF Side Effects??

Fuck. I was so jazzed about not having to take more stimulating injections that I didn't even consider the possibility of side effects from this teensy amount of Lupron. What could I possibly get from 10 measly units? I didn't even look up if Lupron had side effects. 100% my bad.

The shot itself went off well. Teensy needle that barely hurt, the site was a tad sore but nothing awful. About 2-3 hours after taking my first dose, I started to feel off. First it was a head ache that kind of crept up out of nowhere. Then my back started to ache. Then my right knee. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I asked E to look up the side effects an hour later after I started getting light headed.

I should really have done my due-diligence. These are only a few of the "common" side effects:

• acne, increased growth of facial hair;
• breakthrough bleeding in a female child during the first 2 months of leuprolide treatment;
• dizziness, weakness, tired feeling;
• hot flashes, night sweats, chills, clammy skin;
• nausea, diarrhea, constipation, stomach pain;
• skin redness, itching, or scaling;
• joint or muscle pain;
• vaginal itching or discharge;
• breast swelling or tenderness;
• testicle pain;
• impotence, loss of interest in sex;
• depression, sleep problems (insomnia), memory problems; or
• redness, burning, stinging, or pain where the shot was given.

This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. (Source)

I'm going to have to call or email the nurses if I continue to feel this shitty. Hopefully I'll get used to the medication and the side effects won't continue, I'm going to be useless if I feel this way for the next two weeks.

SO ITCHY

My HCG symptoms finally went away and I was feeling really good! I could wear my pants again and was basically back to normal when it was time to start up birth control pills again. I'm used to the pills making me feel exhausted and hormonal but this round came with an unexpected and miserable side effect.

Bane of my existence right now

Almost immediately after starting the pills, I broke out in small, ITCHY, red bumps. I'm used to having rashes, I get contact dermatitis all the time from detergent, chemicals, all sorts of things you touch by accident, but those rashes are usually gone in a couple days and they aren't too itchy. This rash makes me want to scratch my skin off with a fork and I've had it for a week - I can't seem to get rid of it!

Thus far I've tried cortisone cream, coconut oil, tea tree oil, benadryl gel, benadryl pills, and the left over anti-fungal cream from when Button caught ring worm at the vet. They all soothe the itch temporarily but don't seem to be helping the rash. The anti-fungal may actually be upsetting it but I'm not sure.

It started under my right breast so my first though was heat rash or retained detergent in my bras. I soaked all the bras and washed them by hand while airing out my skin. Instead of going away, it spread down my belly and is still as itchy as ever.

SO ITCHY. You can tell when I've scratched it :(

At the same time the boob rash popped up, the same itchy, red bumps appeared in my right groin area where I usually shave and on my thigh. I mistook it for razor burn until it started itching and didn't go away with a cool compress and some coconut oil moisturizer. Then I thought it must be from my pads, I was on my period and last month had an awful reaction to the latex in my pad adhesive - maybe I was having a reaction to this brand too?

At this point, I have no idea what's causing it. Since it popped up with the birth control my current theory is maybe a skin yeast infection? You usually see them as diaper rash in babies but you can get them from birth control and antibiotics. If so, the anti-fungal should help it but like I said before, I'm not sure if it's helping or hurting. It's hard to tell since I've been on so many medications and it could just as easily be some hormonal or immune reaction. It's also right where I lay on my side to sleep so it could be detergent in my sheets? Ugh.

I hate you rash. So much.

The only things I know for sure are that it's not contagious, it's only on my right side and it itches like a bitch. It's your standard nondescript red bumps so I'm not sure if I should make an appointment with the derm yet. In the past, they see red bumps, tell me it's contact dermatitis and to basically wait it out. If this is a birth control reaction and the price of success I'm willing to grin and bear it, but I'd really like to get it cleared up before I start stims.

I think I'm going to ask S, my nurse midwife/acupuncturist if she knows what it is and how to get rid of it. If she says I need to see the derm, I'll make an appointment ASAP before I scratch my skin off.

PSA: Ganirelix Totally Has Latex

Both the doctor and the nurse said I would be okay to take the Ganirelix even though I'm allergic to latex. I asked both of them separately, explained again that I'm allergic to latex and they said no worries, it should be fine.

The itchy hives currently covering that injection site beg to differ. It also burns like a mofo and my head and ears feel heavy and clogged. I am so NOT impressed. No more Ganirelix for me. Ugh.

(Source)

If you are allergic to latex, stay far, far away from Ganirelix.  It's not worth the allergic reaction.

TWW: Almost There

Tomorrow we finally (finally!) go in for our blood test. I am so ready for good news, today has been a bit of a rotten apple. First, I was feeling a little too eager this morning and decided to test with one of my internet cheapies. Definitely not a brilliant move since I got a blindingly white big fat negative. It's really difficult to sort out how I'm feeling, between trying to think positive and the progesterone making me feel nuts, I'm not optimistic about the blood test tomorrow. It could still be too early for a pregnancy to show on a urine test, but I would have killed to see two little lines.

After the negative test, I got to enjoy a generous helping of cramps all morning. I didn't want to take anything just in case I am pregnant, so I just waited for them to fizzle out. Luckily they were gone by around 11am so they weren't too awful. This of course leads me to - what does it mean? My period? A pregnancy? Progesterone? Who knows!

In an attempt to improve the morning, I stopped and got some Coffee Bean for E and I. E got a Vanilla Ice Blended (so jealies) and I got a sugar free Chai Tea Latte with almond coconut milk. Mine was quite tasty, but I have a strong preference for cold drinks (not allowed - boo) and it was over 80 here today.  I was just starting to recover from the cramps and was making some omelets for breakfast when bam, that miserably familiar stomach pain (not the gallbladdery awful pain, that achy abdomen pain that pops up every few days). I have no idea where this pain comes from - it's best described as abdominal pain rather than a stomach ache and if I had to guess, I'd say it's probably from the progesterone. That drug is awful. It's almost 5pm here and it's just starting to go away, which means I've been miserable for 6 hours. Ugh.

Add in the general gross feeling of progesterone "squishiness", the fact that I can't have sex with my husband (see aforementioned nasty progesterone), and today has been an all around sucky day. My mind has been running to our next steps -IUI #2/ IVF, and now I'm wondering how soon we could get started on the Fragile X probe. If our blood test is negative tomorrow, I wonder if we could start the probe process early since it takes a couple months to make. I know they're going to need DNA from my sister and I, but there's no way they're going to get DNA from my sperm donor who passed on my lovely premutation.  Damn, I was so hopefully that this IUI would work and we wouldn't have to go there.

Eff you stupid negative pee test. Eff you and your stupid one line.

Day 666 of Happily Ever After

Sometimes, E gets called to work out of town for a couple of days. On this particular weekend, he was scheduled to work a game in Santa Barbara, just a couple hours away from home. He's worked games at this location before and they're generally pretty easy and relaxed. He gets a nice hotel room for the night plus a little stipend to help cover his food. This was one of three Santa Barbara weekends E had this month so we figured hey! lets make this a romantic little getaway!

Our hotel, it even has a gorgeous koi pond <3 br="">

That's about when things went Wrong. Soooooo very wrong. I'd gone with him before on weekend trips to SB but on this occasion we had literally everything working against us. To start off, we both came down with the flu. The flu sucks at the best of times, but it sucks even more when you're out of town away from your comfy bed. That was strike 1.

So E and I have a nice drive down. The road is mostly clear, the weather nice and the ocean beautiful at our side. We check into our hotel and everything looks rosey. It's the same hotel and almost the same room we stayed in before, perfectly comfy and cozy. We unpack and go out to take a romantic stroll in downtown. We don't pick a restaurant beforehand, figuring we'll pick somewhere on the fly. We haven't eaten lunch, and start to get hungry. This is strike 2.

Beautiful downtown Santa Barbara. How can this not inspire romance?

The first hour of our stroll goes swimmingly, all the shops are adorable and we have a good time. Then, my flu start to get exponentially worse. We start to get hungry-grumpy. And the world explodes. Strike 3, we're OUT! We can't pick a restaurant, we start bickering, E goes into hungry-fail mode and then we have a miscommunication. E ditches me to go back to the car, he thinks I'm following, I think he's left on purpose. I'm now standing in the middle of downtown Santa Barbara without a car and he's not picking up his phone. My flu gets even worse and I just about hit the roof, which is impressive considering that downtown Santa Barbara is open air.

Around this time I walk back to the car, E leaves the lot to drive around looking for me, and we eventually connect. E runs through a drive through just as my flu is moving from bad to worse and I turn down his fast food dinner. He starts to feel a little better since he's eaten and I'm feeling god awful. We get back to the hotel, start arguing, the gloves come off and the low blows start flying. It gets pretty ugly and we're both seriously regretting coming on this trip. It is NOT the romantic, indulgent weekend we pictured.

Somehow, we both pull our heads out of our asses and decide to be grown ups. I am seriously impressed with this, not because adults shouldn't be able to have conversations without arguing, but because I am so sick that I can't even see straight and I know E doesn't feel great either. We talk things through, agree the weekend is an awful failure, and order iHop to go, which I didn't even know was possible. We eat, we take a crapton of medication, and hit the hay.

I have never been so grateful for take out service before

The next day is much better, in that the worst is over for my flu, and we've both had a solid nights sleep. We eat our left overs, pack up and I drop E off at work. I spend the rest of the day puttering around Santa Barbara visiting over-priced thrift stores and as long as I stay topped up on my DayQuil, I'm good. E has a similarly decent day at work, but is anxious when I pick him up around getting out of the lot and on the road. Things get a little tense again but I've got enough DayQuil in me that I don't engage and E relaxes once he realizes I do know where I'm going and we're well on our way home.

Finally, we make it home safe and sound. Huzzah! We're tired, sick and ready to unpack and roll into bed. But no. Oh, no, no, no. This weekend is not over yet! We walk into our bedroom and it smells like pee. Not like, hey we need to change the potty box pee, but like omg a drunk person pissed all over the place pee. Only it's not a drunk person, it's our kitty Button, and she's chosen to pee AND poop on our lovely bed.

And, this doesn't seem to be normal cat pee. This is angry, vengeful, I hate you for leaving cat pee! Rooooaring cat pee! I think hey, we're okay, it sucks but we have that allergy comforter protector on our duvet, remember? We registered for it and it should be all good, right?

Wrong. So. Very. Wrong. The cat pee has soaked through the duvet cover, through the allergy comforter protector and deep into the down comforter. The down comforter that is large, and fluffy and expensive and did I mention so much larger than our washing machine. I can not figure out how our comforter wasn't protected, the comforter protector is supposed to keep out dust mites and air and OMG how can it not have kept out cat pee?!?!  I hop online, check our wedding registry to re-read the fine print and there it is. In big, bold letters right at the top.

Welcome to Day 666 of Happily Ever After.

Well, fuck me. I have never been superstitious or religious, I am a firm believer in the incredible power that is science. But damn, this weekend, this day is the epitome of craptastic, shitty 666. If I believed in any of that I'd be ready to call someone to exorcise the weekend (and the cat pee!) from our house.

Instead of rolling into bed with a NyQuil nightcap to end the weekend, we get to strip the bed and spend the next two days washing our comforter 487634756374563 times until it's clean and dry and fluffy again. I have never been more glad to see the end of a trip and say a firm goodbye and fuck you to this weekend. Also, I cannot recommend Allergy Luxe comforter protectors. They are not waterproof and will not keep the devil cat pee out of your down comforter.