Feeling full and fat

Today I am really uncomfortable.  My tummy, although looking almost normal, is really tender.  I feel fat and swollen.  My trousers are really tight.  When I sit down or stand up it's as if I was already pregnant in the way that I'm moving.  I was even sick today because my stomach was clearly so full by eating that it couldn't cope.  The good news is, though, my head ache has gone!

Yesterday I had to reduce the dose of the drugs to one and a half powders, or 0.75ml of the fully mixed solution.  This was a bit fiddly for me to do, just after I was starting to get confident with these second injections.  They want me to do the full two powders this evening though.

Tomorrow I'll be back at the hospital for another blood test and no doubt another bruise to add to my collection of rather spectacular bruises.  I think they will make me reduce the dose as I feel like I'm filling up fast.  Having said that, I don't know really how I'm supposed to feel.  Maybe this is normal.  I do know that I'm worrying about OHSS.

This post has taken me an hour to write! Due to me being distracted by watching the programme "Four of a kind" (identical quad girls!).  I found it totally fascinating! I couldn't imagine there being another two of me and my twin sister!

Pics of the day!

I'm a visual person so for all you other visual people I thought I'd stick on a few photos of my stimming injections!

The photos show all the stuff I start off with.

The needle for preparing the solution (thankfully NOT the injecting needle as I panicked like nothing else when I saw the size of it!)

The vial of solution, with the top that has to be snapped away from the dot (as I subsequently found out after crushing the first one!)

The powder that is mixed with the solution to the vial.  I use two of these per injection at the moment.

The needle almost ready to inject (just need to get the air out!)

This all makes me feel like a professional at the buserelin injection now.  Just suck it up and in you go for that!

Stimming has started!

Today I went to the hospital for a blood test and a transvaginal scan (TVS or dildo-cam!).  The blood tests were all fine and afterwards I went to request my prescriptions and had a hot chocolate and a raspberry and white chocolate chip muffin (important information for scene-setting surely?!).  I desperately craved a cup of tea but I have given up now I'm doing the stimms and although the hot chocolate was nice, it didn't have the simplicity and caffeine kick of my usual tea.

Collecting the prescriptions was a task in itself as there was a very large carrier bag full of medication! I did try to sneak in Mr Waiting's prescription for antibiotics with mine since I've got a pre-payment card but they sussed me out...! Since some of the medication needs to be kept in the fridge, I decided to go back later.

Onto dildo-cam! Just one of the many indignities that this process entails.  I still can't get the whole 'wrapping the sheet round you to hide your dignity' thing right... covering the front but not round the back whilst climbing on a bed and putting your bum on the bum-shaped cushion.  So in goes dildo-cam and has a good rake around.  I can't say it was particularly pleasant, and definitely not in a dildo-esque way that's for sure.  It wasn't painful but more uncomfortable.  At one point she asked me to press on my tummy on the right hand side and I sensed that there was something amiss.

Once didlo-cam was removed I got off the bed and was handed some tissue to clean myself (oh so dignified!).  So I went behind the curtain to at least preserve some dignity.  (Goodness, the amount of people who've seen my fanjo now is ridiculous!).  Then she handed me the sheet with the report.

• Endometrium = 1.3mm
• Left Ovary     = 16 follicles @ 4mm or less
• Right Ovary   = 10 follicles @ 6mm or less plus 8mm paraovarian cyst?

On the way back up to see the nurses to discuss the next steps I panicked over reading about the cyst and I admit that in the waiting area I went onto google to find out what it is.  Apparently it's a cyst on the edge of the ovary or fallopian tube and shouldn't stop IVF treatment.  

When I went into the nurses they explained that it all looked fine and that anything under 4mm for the endometrium is good.  She also said that the cyst is nothing to worry about and they might aspirate it when they do Egg Collection. That was a relief! Next was all the medication.  I came away with:

• Menopur vials and powders
• cyclogest pessaries (progesterone)
• doxycycline antibiotics for me and Mr Waiting
• pregnyl (hcg injection)

and I think I've missed something else? In any case I came away with a trolley full of drugs to the point that they have filled my kitchen table! I also managed to get a parking permit for the hospital, which will save me money in the long run for sure!

So tonight I did my first menopur shot.  Oh my Goodness it's complicated.  I think you need to do a nursing qualification to be able to manage it.  It all seemed so simple when she explained it.   I did my buserelin first (down to 0.2ml per day now) and then started with the menopur.  I laid out all the stuff.  Two different needles, two powder vials, one liquid vial, one syringe and a little rubber thing to supposedly help us snap the vial.  The nurse did it very easily but could I do it? No. Mr Waiting had a go and eventually managed to do it, crushing the top of the vial in the process... I was a little anxious that I'd be injecting glass into my stomach but he assured me that it was fine.  So I mixed it with the powders and I think I might have lost a little liquid in the process but it was my first one... I'm sure I'll get better at it! Apparently there is a knack to opening these vials - something to do with a dot on one side of it.  Hopefully tomorrow's effort will be better.  And, I ended up doing the injection through the skin twice because I didn't know if I'd missed some fluid (I hadn't, but just added another puncture wound to my collection).  

And what a collection that is - lots of little bruises on my tummy.  I'd take a picture but it's not pleasant.  So that's it; we're on to stimming (as they say on fertility sites!).  So please make a wish for my 26 follicles to grow big strong eggs that will turn into big strong embryos and big strong Stanley and Lucy.  My fingers (when not injecting) are firmly crossed.