Oven’s ready at 450º

Ok guys, my apologies. I have been quite the busy lady the past week and a half with work and all my doctor’s appointments. Remember how I told you I would have to go to the doctor every other day? Well that definitely didn’t leave me much time for myself. But here we are! You ready for a little update? It’s an exciting one if I do say so myself.

So last I wrote about completing my birth control pills and awaiting the phone call to see what dose to start my first injection, the Gonal F at. I started it at 300iui for two days and went in for my lab draw and ultrasound. Well my ovaries definitely got stimulated by the medication because my right ovary had over 17 follicles in it and my left had around 24. Now if you can remember at my original ultrasound just a few days prior I had 8 on the right and 10 on the left. So amazing the growth that already had happened! Now just a little education recap for you: women have two ovaries, each of which house many follicles (you’re born with a set number and that is it for your lifetime to work through), each month your ovaries grow some follicles and at some point, ideally, one will get large enough and release an egg. That egg will then essentially meet up with the sperm and possibly become fertilized.

Do you see how exciting it is to have almost twenty follicles in each ovary?! Now not every follicle will house an egg, there is always a chance that it is just an empty sac. So the more follicles I have to harvest, the better chances I have at retrieving multiple eggs.

After my appointment at the doctor I went through the process of filing for FMLA at work. My bosses just wanted to make sure that if I ever needed to call off of shift that I wouldn’t be penalized. (I truly have some of the best bosses I have ever met) I also had to turn in paperwork stating that my doctor wants me to be on light duty prior to and after my retrieval. As my ovaries grow with the multiple follicles, there is always a chance of ovarian torsion, where the ovary can twist and cut off it’s own blood supply and die. Ok, we do NOT want that happening after everything we have already been through.

I officially went on light duty at work on September 1st and am to be on it until the 24th. However, depending on how fast I bounce back after the retrieval I might try to have my doctor let me go back to work sooner. Light duty at work sounds nice when you’re working the floor and get a little burnt out. But let me tell you, light duty is so boring. You practically go around asking all your managers and team leads and fellow coworkers if there is anything you can do for them. I am getting very proficient in photocopying, laminating, packet making, organizing and cleaning various places on our unit.

Back to every other day lab work and ultrasounds. After my second visit they had me decrease my Gonal F to 225iui and then add in my low dose HCG shot, only 10units. Luckily for me the Gonal F causes no skin irritations and because the HCG is a small enough amount it hasn’t caused any skin issues thus far. By the third ultrasound my follicles were averaging 10-11 for size and I still had about twenty follicles on each ovary.  Overall I have been feeling extremely tired, some nausea in the mornings and evenings and some lovely breast tenderness and by tenderness I mean pain. I had asked my nurse why I was feeling pregnant and she just giggled and said I’m getting a sneak peak into how I will feel when the actual time comes. The meds I’m taking is having me produce some of the same hormones and causing all these symptoms. Joy!

Saturday, September 2nd I went for another appointment and my follicles grew another four in size! So each was averaging 14-15! Such a relief to see that my body is doing exactly how it should. I called in later that evening to see which meds and doses I needed to take and found out that I had to start adding in the Cetrotide. Cetrotide helps to tell the body not to release/ovulate any of the eggs. So it pumps the breaks on that, but does not affect or slow down the growth of the follicles! Three shots each night. By now I have got pretty darn good at giving them to myself. No more of that “one, two, three, go!” over and over again for five minutes at a time. I just get them ready and poke! I won’t lie though, when I am at work I totally have another nurse give me the shots. It is just easier that way. My brain isn’t hard wired to like to cause myself pain, I would much rather someone else do it!

Two out of the three needles are wonderful. They’re super skinny and sharp and you can barely feel them go in. The third however is awful. I don’t know if it is more blunt or what, but you can feel the drag going into the skin initially and while you are trying to push it all the way in. I could do without that one..

Unfortunately for my skin the last shot that I had to add in to the mix, the Cetrotide causes bad reactions to everyone. I was warned by my nurse that it would cause a warm, red, hard spot on my belly that would go away just in time to give myself the next shot a day later. So I definitely wasn’t looking forward to giving myself this shot for fear of what I might experience. At first poke it wasn’t so bad, the needle was nice and sharp and barely felt it go in, so that was a plus. I injected the medication and all things were a go. Then within the first minute of injecting it I could feel it start to burn. The burn quickly started turning into an itching sensation and by minute two or three I looked down and my stomach had some hives starting to pop up right where the medication was on my belly.

It literally itched like no one’s business. I’m not going to lie to you, I got a little nervous that I was having an allergic reaction to the medication. The only reason I questioned that thought was because the hives were just residing directly within the lines of the medication. But I definitely still called the nurse on call that night to make sure that this reaction was normal and that I didn’t need to take Benadryl or anything like that. The nurse called me back and just laughed and reassured me that hives are normal and not to worry. Great, just what I always wanted! Oh well, it’s worth it, right??

Sure enough within the first thirty minutes to an hour the tiny hives turned into one large welt and that’s what remained on my stomach until sure enough, just before it was time to give my next shot the following day.

This morning, September fourth, I went in for hopefully my last follow up labs and ultrasound! It was amazing. My ovaries really do look like huge chocolate chip cookies. Even I know what I’m looking at now on the screen (which is saying quite a bit cause I never know what I’m looking at on an ultrasound). My right ovary still has about 20 follicles, all about the same size just coming in slightly under 20 each for size. My left ovary was quite a bit more full and most the follicles looked to be over 20 for size. In my left ovary there are so many and they are so big that they’re being squished into weird shapes and not pretty circles like normal. But my nurse reassured me that it is a good sign! Both my ovaries are so full and big that they are also squishing my uterus and we could barely see it on the ultrasound, they were creating too large of a shadow over it! Haha. Way to go ovaries!!

I definitely am feeling pain today and yesterday. Which is quite understandable after seeing what is going on inside me this morning! It is such a relief though and so satisfying to see how much I have progressed in the last week. The meds are doing their job and my body is doing it’s job as well. My nurse predicted that we can rule out the retrieval for Tuesday and Wednesday and we more than likely won’t make it to Friday. So Thursday as of right now is the set day. Once she talks to the doctor though we will know for sure.

Brandon and I are SO excited. We are getting closer and closer each and every day. This past week has flown by. I think it helped that Brandon was away hunting the whole week. It is probably the best thing that he was because I know I have a very short fuse right now and I would have snapped on him quite a few times. It was also good I went on light duty because my patience for my patients was wearing very thin and that is not a good thing.

So my oven is set to 450º and my follicles are almost ready to be taken out! Once that happens the lab gets to create our babies, we will have them tested to see which are the healthy ones and then eventually we will be able to put a bun in this oven to see if it grows!

I owe each and every one of my family members and friends that have reached out to me, said prayers for us and continue to check in on me, a huge thank you! Knowing how many people are thinking of us and wishing us the best is such an amazing feeling. Our future babies are already loved and wanted so much from so many people and I can’t quite describe how wonderful of a feeling that is. As I sit here and think about it, like every time I do, it brings tears to my eyes. I am surrounded by the best and I am forever grateful. So thank you all for going on this journey with us and not giving up on us ever. We love you all and can’t wait to share the good news as it keeps coming in!