Progester-Woah!

I went in for my progesterone draw this morning, fingers crossed that my progesterone decided to climb, at least a little. We had to go in early since the lab closes by 9:30am on Saturdays and I was moving extra slowly from the lingering shadow of a migraine. I had a feeling some head aches would be forthcoming from the hormones I started yesterday and they certainly didn't disappoint. After this many medicated cycles, it's pretty much a guarantee that high estrogen and progesterone will give me at least one migraine within the first 12 hours.

Still, I made it there in time and was finished with the draw in just a few minutes. I had gotten home, put in a new Endometrin and changed my pad (ew - I got lucky yesterday with a clean pad but last nights pill pretty much dissolved and fell out this morning. GROSS) and started prepping breakfast when the phone rang with results.

By today, they're looking for your progesterone to be 8 or above. Since mine was only 1.5 when they were looking for 2.0, I was a little worried it might still be low but all that anxiety, and the chocolate bunny head I ate, were for nothing! The nurse immediately said my progesterone looks great and told me my level was 15 today! This officially clears us for our Tuesday transfer and we're now just waiting on the lab to assign us our official time. Only 3 days to go until our frostie is home!

Gratuitous photo of Milou that a fellow agility student took today. Look at my lady rocking that tire :)

Endometrin Again

Today's appointment was a quick one, just a single vial blood draw to check out my progesterone levels. Unfortunately, it looks like my numbers are just a tad low, they like to see a level around 2.0 and mine was only 1.5. This isn't a setback though, it just means it's time to start my Estrace and Endometrin as scheduled to boost it up a bit. It is rising as it's supposed to, it went from 0.7 to 1.5 with ovulation and since I haven't taken any hormones until now, that was entirely on my own steam.

 Still, it's time for a little extra support so as soon as I hung up the phone with the nurse, I swallowed my Estrace and popped in an Endometrin tablet and snapped on cloth panty liner. Then I rushed off to acupuncture for my weekly needles and nap session. I'm gearing up for the transfer with S as well, I did my last regular heat clearing and energy moving session today and will see her again Monday where she'll prep me for the embryo by improving blood flow to my uterus.  I'll be seeing her or her associate D on Tuesday after the transfer as well to help our little frostie stick.

Please don't kill my panty liners Endometrin...

Since this little babe IS going to stick and I'm going to be taking Endometrin for the next 10-12 weeks, I'm curious to see how my liners hold up to the assault. I'm trying out an all cotton flannel liner today and I'm thinking I might strip it with dish soap or something similarly grease cutting afterward, just to prevent any of the medication medium from affecting the absorbancy of the fabric.

My next check in is tomorrow to see how much my progesterone has gone up in 24 hours. My poor little arm, the tech can still only draw from one vein so it's taking a lot of abuse. This brings the FET calendar to two more days of Medrol, three more days of the Z-Pack and aspirin, and hopefully 10-12 more weeks of the Endometrin and Estrace to look forward to.

Jinx

At my ultrasound appointment yesterday, the nurse asked me if I was having any side effects from the Menopur I've been taking. Apparently it can cause cramping and a whole lot of other unpleasant side effects in many people. I was happy to report back that I felt just fine, no cramping, and the injections *didn't even hurt OMG yay!* as long as I did them slowly! I felt like I could ride off into the sunset on a rainbow shitting unicorn on because I felt great! *insert some rainbows, sunshine and glitter shit here*

Ha Ha. Not.

Yeah. Because that's not painting a big huge target on my back for fate.

So, naturally, the second I left the doctor's office I started to feel sick. Then I remembered that I had had some digestive upset when I woke up that morning, but I'd attributed it to nerves. I sucked it up, blamed nerves again, and went to my acupuncture appointment. I told my acupuncturist, S, all about the insurance woes and my low estrogen and she told me she'd already received a call from my RE, Dr. K, that morning.

Dr. K actually called S, personally, because she believes in what she does. Even though S sees Dr. K's patients and is a Nurse Midwife at Kaiser, S said she's never had a doctor personally call about a patient before. Dr. K asked her to please do whatever she could to help me, to try and get as much blood flow to my ovaries as possible because we have to help my follies develop and get my estrogen up or this wasn't going to work. This really choked me up, I don't know how my chances are looking for this cycle but I really love my infertility team. I couldn't ask for better, more supportive doctors.

With specific marching orders in hand, S began my treatment to clear out the cold and phlegm and get my blood flowing. I also told her about my weird stomach pain so she added on a stomach treatment for that. And for the first time ever, those needles hurt. She put the first one in my foot and my leg nearly jumped off the table. "I'm sorry," she said, "you're much more sensitive today. The Menopur can do that, make your skin much more sensitive". Ow.

This was the 4th time I've done acupuncture and the first time it's ever been uncomfortable. Each needle hurt a bit going in and was sore during my hour, although I was able to ignore it and focus on visualizing all my energy going to my ovaries. S strongly believes that you need to put positive energy out there so I'm sending every positive thought I've got down to those follies. Afterwards, the points in my left wrist and left foot were actually too sore for me to put my watch or sandals back on, another first. I usually feel relaxed and refreshed after a session, not sore.

Before I left S also told me that she had a patient who might have some extra Menopur. She had been planning to donate it to another woman who ended up not needing it so it might be available for me! This would be so, so wonderful, with the increase to 5 vials a day, I don't think the stash I just bought is going to get me through this entire cycle. I might also be one of those people who are slow to stimulate and require a couple extra days of injections, which would mean I'd definitely be short.  I should know on Monday if she still has the Menopur available.

As for the side effects, they continued for most of the day. S's stomach treatment worked for a couple of hours, but the general stomach pain eventually came back. I didn't feel nauseous, crampy, and I didn't have ovarian pain, my stomach just hurt. The injection was also much more painful last night, the needle itself was really uncomfortable for the first time and it took me a good 5 minutes to inject all the liquid. Even though the acupuncture hurt, I somehow wasn't expecting my injection to hurt and was completely surprised when I stuck the needle in and my skin went OWWWW. I hope this is a temporary side effect because I have at least 5 more injections to go.