One more to-do ticked off the list. The mock cycle is complete, right on schedule.
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen me mention that my E2 blood work earlier this week came back way too low. The ginormous estrogen patches weren't having enough impact, so they added little blue estrogen tablets to my protocol (not to be taken orally) which had the unusual side effect of blue cervical mucus. Good times here in SlackieLand!
The emotional roller coaster evened out quite a bit with the decrease in the lu.pron dose and the addition of the estrogen, though the headaches continued undiminished. I was doing OK until Thursday when I had to increase the number of patches to four and ran out of unused belly real estate. These things are ridiculous! They are perfectly round and about three inches in diameter. As a result, I had to place them higher on my abdomen than I liked and BOY was that a miserable sensation! Every move I made caused the patches to pull and pucker and it was driving me batshit. There was an awful lot of pouting on the couch last night.
This morning was the Big Reveal - my appointment at the RE to check my lining and see how I responded to the mock protocol. When the nurse walked in and asked how things were going, I kind of exploded about the patches. Oops. I felt like she was humoring me a bit, but when I pulled up my shirt and showed her just how big these patches are... she agreed that they were ridiculous and suggested I request a smaller brand when I refill (which, you bet your boots I sure will).
The good news was that I managed to grow a lovely triple stripe lining just under 10mm, even with my earlier sub-par E2 levels. So the mock cycle was declared a success and the nurse let me pull off all my icky patches right then and there. YAY!!! In other way-to-start-the-weekend news, Prof's emergency swim team got an even better report than the crew he dropped off last year when we tried IVF for the first time with my eggs. Smiles all around!
So - the Plan is that I call the nurse coordinator when I start bleeding next week (uh.. didn't I just do that LAST week?) and she will present us with one or two donor profiles to review. I'll go back on BCP and stay on them until our donor starts stims. When the time comes for our real DEIVF cycle, I will start the estrogen patches and the little blue tablets at the same time. Otherwise, they are happy with my plan.
NOTE ABOUT PATCH ADHESIVE: There has been much commentary between here and Twitter regarding the removal of the patch adhesive. The ones I have are less sticky I guess, since after two days most of them started to release on their own even though they were meant to stay on four days. The silver lining is that my Purp.ose facial cleanser got all the sticky bits off with no scrubbing or struggle at all.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Mocking Me
Wow. Real life does occasionally just take right over, and that's not always a bad thing.
I suppose I started my mock cycle with BCP at the end of May. We met with the DEIVF nurse coordinator last week to get the rest of the mock cycle calendar. I added Lup.ron and baby aspirin to my regimen last weekend. Did YOU know the baby aspirin is NOT shelved with the actual baby medicines at the pharmacy? I didn't. Estrogen patches start next week and the calendar for those is crazy complex - it's a good thing they wrote it all down for me...
Prof has to drop off the emergency swim team next week and I have a uterine lining check at the end of June. If my lining looks nice and cushy, I stop the meds and have a period. If not, we tweak the doses until they see that triple-stripe Holy Grail. THEN I stop the meds and have a period.
That done, I will restart BCP and we will be presented our donor profile to approve. The DEIVF nurse coordinator says the donor will likely want to start stims with her August period, so we will be moving forward directly.
As updates go, that all seems so cut and dried... just the facts. The rest of the story is that Lup.ron SUCKS. Obviously, I knew it would though I've never taken it before. The shots themselves are nothing really. Tinier needle than any I've encountered thus far. I've read enough accounts of others' experiences with it, but oddly enough I haven't had the symptoms I was expecting (headaches, hot flashes). Instead, I'm getting super bloated, exhaustion AND insomnia and some pretty intense depressive incidents. I cry at the slightest passing breeze - seriously, every little thing brings tears to my eyes. So yeah... not a fan.
I just turned down the opportunity to attend a professional conference mid-July because I'm afraid of being away from home and being forced to socialize. I'm also contemplating skipping out on a destination wedding in August for the same reasons. I know this isn't necessarily healthy. At the same time, I just want to cocoon myself for the duration.
I suppose I started my mock cycle with BCP at the end of May. We met with the DEIVF nurse coordinator last week to get the rest of the mock cycle calendar. I added Lup.ron and baby aspirin to my regimen last weekend. Did YOU know the baby aspirin is NOT shelved with the actual baby medicines at the pharmacy? I didn't. Estrogen patches start next week and the calendar for those is crazy complex - it's a good thing they wrote it all down for me...
Prof has to drop off the emergency swim team next week and I have a uterine lining check at the end of June. If my lining looks nice and cushy, I stop the meds and have a period. If not, we tweak the doses until they see that triple-stripe Holy Grail. THEN I stop the meds and have a period.
That done, I will restart BCP and we will be presented our donor profile to approve. The DEIVF nurse coordinator says the donor will likely want to start stims with her August period, so we will be moving forward directly.
As updates go, that all seems so cut and dried... just the facts. The rest of the story is that Lup.ron SUCKS. Obviously, I knew it would though I've never taken it before. The shots themselves are nothing really. Tinier needle than any I've encountered thus far. I've read enough accounts of others' experiences with it, but oddly enough I haven't had the symptoms I was expecting (headaches, hot flashes). Instead, I'm getting super bloated, exhaustion AND insomnia and some pretty intense depressive incidents. I cry at the slightest passing breeze - seriously, every little thing brings tears to my eyes. So yeah... not a fan.
I just turned down the opportunity to attend a professional conference mid-July because I'm afraid of being away from home and being forced to socialize. I'm also contemplating skipping out on a destination wedding in August for the same reasons. I know this isn't necessarily healthy. At the same time, I just want to cocoon myself for the duration.
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