AF With A Vengeance

Unsurprisingly, my period showed up exactly on time, 11 days after my trigger. There has to be something said for predictability, at least I know when the witch should be rearing her ugly head. The first couple days I had to top up my Advil every 4 hours instead of every 8+ like I usually would, those cramps break through surprisingly quickly. A couple days in they're not awful, uncomfortable yes, but I'm good with just a couple Advil each day.

I think the toughest part has been waiting with nothing to do. I've taken the supplements, done the injections, done the retrievals, and now all I can do is wait and wait for my test results to come back. There's absolutely nothing I can do to help or speed up the process which is a very unusual position for me to find myself in. I'm not even sure if they've started the testing yet since I haven't heard back from the financial person yet, I'll probably give both her and the lab a call tomorrow to ask for an update.

(And wait....and wait...and wait...)

Once I stop bleeding like a dying person and feel halfway normal again, my plan is to hit the gym hard and try to take off some of this IVF weight. I feel like I've been packing on inches by the handful and I'd really like to get some of it off before I get pregnant. I already know I won't be allowed to gain a ton of weight, not that I really expect to gain a ton anyway, but it would be nice to start at a more normal point for me instead of this far ahead. Of course, starting a diet/exercise plan right before Thanksgiving is probably not the smartest thing I've ever done, but I don't have a lot of time and I need to get rid of this IVF fluid belly so I have room for a baby in there!

Follies Ahoy!

Day 4 of stims and my ultrasound showed at least EIGHT follies! This is the best start to a cycle we've had yet!  And although I'm not getting my hopes up, the tech actually wrote 4-5 for each ovary, but I could only see 4 on each when I looked at the screen with her. Maaaaybe 5 on the right side, but she went pretty quickly. They don't measure each follie individually until they're bigger, mine were all under 10mm. They did all look about the same size though which is wonderful, I didn't see any lagging behind or pulling ahead. I forgot to ask my nurse what my estrogen level was since I missed her call and she left a voice mail, but I will definitely remember to ask next time. Until then, my marching orders are to continue with our existing protocol.

I didn't realize E had snapped this photo :) There are my 8 lovely follies, and my lining is 7.7!

I had the same phlebotomist this time as my last appointment, but I decided not to mess around and went straight for the hand. I told him about the bruising from last time and he agreed he'd rather go for the vein he knows he can get in one go, rather than poking and jabbing and bruising me again. It stung again but didn't leave a bruise and it didn't hurt nearly as much as being repeatedly poked.

Our next appointment for ultrasound and labs is Monday morning when I also do my blood draw for PGD and bring in my donor vial to be sent to Reprogenetics. Our clinic's lab guy said he'd rather all our genetic material go out at once so he asked me to let the clinic send the vial instead of having the cryobank send it directly.

Tomorrow I'm expecting my second package from IVFMeds.com and I NEED that package to come on time. Thus far it's mimicked the same delivery movements as the first package and it should be right on schedule for tomorrow morning. I've posted signs on the door for our postman to Not Leave without delivering the package, and there should be someone home all day. If the package doesn't come, I will be completely screwed and will have to rush to a pharmacy and get vials for the weekend. I don't think the Kaiser pharmacy is even open over the weekend so that package has to come on time.

Thinking positive, I'm so excited for those 8 follies. Sticking myself at least 3 times a day will be all worth it if this works!

Ouchie

Today was another tough day physically, I don't know if it's the Menopur or the acupuncture herbs/diet but I've just felt rotten. Stomach ache, nauseous, bloated, tired, sore back, the whole rotten spectrum and the stomach ache/abdominal pain is definitely the worst. I suspect it's probably a combination of both which makes it nearly impossible to get rid of since I can't stop taking the Menopur or the herbs. I've tried eating bread, taking advil, eating more bread, curling up in a ball, drinking tons of water and I finally capped it off with some soup which seemed to help the most. I'll try eating a more normal meal for dinner and see if I can banish whatever this is for good.

I will probably mention it to Nurse C tomorrow morning just in case it might be mild OHSS, but I doubt it very much. OHSS usually comes with loads of eggs, 20 not 5 teensy ones, and I haven't taken the trigger shot this cycle so I don't have any HCG in my system. My ovaries also don't seem to hurt, probably the only part of my stomach that doesn't, and they looked perfectly normal sized at my last appointment. It's probably the shit ton of Menopur I've started injecting over old needle marks -_-

Despite feeling like shit, I'm still really looking forward to my appointment tomorrow. I've got everything crossed that those 5 little follicles are growing into 5 bigger follicles that will become mature eggs. I'm just not sure how much growth I should expect since we suppressed egg development with birth control first. Is this going to be a long and slow cycle? Today is day 6 of stimms, how much longer will I need to go? Once I inject my 4 vials tonight, I will have 22 left, or 2.5ish days. That's enough for tomorrow (Wednesday), Thursday and Friday morning, bringing me to 8 and a half days of injections. I'm ready to buy another 20 if need be, but I hope we won't need much more than that.

Infertility Acupuncture

In addition to our infertility treatment, E and I decided that I should give acupuncture a try. I'd never had acupuncture treatment before, but I had read several good things about it online and many people seem to have excellent success with it improving fertility.

Super Skinny Needles

I'm not sure how much it can help with my FXPOI, but there is scientific proof of increased blood flow to the uterus and ovaries, improved ovarian environment, lower FSH, more balanced hormones etc. I need to get my estradiol and AMH up, my FSH down and help convincing my body it has eggs and isn't 40. So, I put the question to my RE and was pleasantly surprised with her response.

Since many infertility patients are interested in pursuing acupuncture, my RE refers her patients to a wonderful acupuncturist. She is a Certified Nurse Midwife with a degree in nursing, a masters in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, and something like 6 years of Acupuncture training. Because she understands fertility from both an Eastern and Western perspective, my RE is okay with me taking herbal supplements throughout my infertility treatment.  If you have any experience with infertility treatment, you will know what a high endorsement that is.

Fertility Points

I started acupuncture once a week and have had three sessions thus far. I generally feel more relaxed after after each session, and I can feel all sorts of tingly things happening during a session but I can't pinpoint what it's doing without testing. The needles are so thin you can barely feel them, and often times it's the tap of her fingers that lets me know she's put a needle in.  The other day she accidentally poked my foot with the plastic packaging the needle comes in and I was struck by how the plastic package hurt way more than the needles.  There are a couple points that twinge or ache a little when she puts the needle in, but the ache means the needle is placed correctly.

I also just finished my first week of herbal supplementation, the acupuncturists prenatals, and the acupuncture diet, and from that, I can Definitely feel the difference. It only took about 24 hours of the powdered herbal tea twice a day for me to be insanely hungry. I used to be able to go all day without eating and not notice it, but the past week I've been ravenous. I wake up hungry, I'm hungry in between being hungry, and I go to bed hungry. Basically, I've felt like shoving food into my face at all times, with both hands, and a side of more food.

As to what I'm allowed to eat, that gets a little tricky. My rules are:

• No cold food, ice, ice water, cold anything 
• No dairy 
• No cheese - this gets it's own category. I loooove cheese :(
• No raw vegetables 
• No white flour, bread, pasta, etc 
• No sugar or artificial sugar 
• No juice 
• No caffeine

This leaves me with whole wheaty options, cooked veggies, lean protein, fresh fruit, beans, and a whole lot of soup. Basically, I've been eating soup, eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, soup for lunch, and some sort of protein, veggie, and brown rice/some carby thing for dinner. Even my corn chex with almond milk are considered cold food, so while I've been pretty limited, I haven't let it stop me from shoveling food in my face.

Breakfast

When I told my acupuncturist about my need to be eating at all times, she was thrilled. Apparently my metabolism has been functionally shut down due to my lack of hormones, and the fact that I'm crazy hungry means it's turning back on. I've also been back at the gym 6 days a week, so it's a double whammy.

In addition to my weekly appointments, I have to go in more frequently around my IUI. We'll probably do the procedure around the middle of May, and I'll have to go in a day or two before, the day of, and the day after. Between the Menopur injections, the trigger shot and the acupuncture needles, I'm essentially a human pincushion.

The only downside to Acupuncture is the cost. Without counting the special appointments around my IUI, acupuncture is essentially like a car payment every month. I'm hoping that it will improve my fertility and our chances of having a healthy baby enough that we won't need to do IVF, which will should save us money in the long run. It should also make me healthier, which is always good, and which will hopefully contribute towards some weight loss, balanced hormones, and a healthy pregnancy.