IVF Round 3: Self-Administered

Happy Friday, loves.

Thank you, again, for your continued support and warm wishes through thick and thin on this journey.
I must say, moments of anger and doubt are fleeting, but they are very real.
By the time I hit publish on my last post, I can honestly say I wasn't in that lull anymore.
At that point I had already given myself five injections and was cruising right along.

I had my first follow-up appointment this morning, to check on the progress with round three.

I wanted to see if I could administer all the shots myself, seeing as Mark may or may not be available at the time he would normally help me out, and I didn't want to be left high and dry, worried I would pass out or something.

It has been....okay.

The quick pinch of the needle poking through my skin will never be normal, but it has quickly become my new normal right now, so I just go with it.

Saturday and Sunday were twice daily Lupron injections, to help flare up my natural hormones to hopefully produce a more consistent amount and size of follicles this round.

I have continued this twice daily regime on top of the stimulating injections.

Monday evening was the first day of stim injections.
Again, this is the old stand-by of two additional shots, Follistim (or Gonal-F) and Menopur.

I was hesitant about administering the Menopur myself, because it burns really bad going in.
But...as Mark watched a movie on the bed next to me, one by one, I got through it on my own.

I wanted to get the Menopur out of the way as quickly as possible, so I mixed up the meds on my night-stand, held the needle above my skin, said a quick fuck you Menopur and jabbed it in.

And as smoothly as possible, the burning started, but I didn't falter.

My other hand was pinching my skin, just next to the injection site.
I didn't realize how hard I was pinching until it was actually hurting MORE than the injection.
Finally, it was over.
The needle came out, and I iced for a few minutes in between the next injection.

I had two more; the second Lupron and the big mama jama, Follistim.
Lupron is easy so I got that one out of the way, on the other side of my belly button.

Then came Follistim.
Like I said in the past, this one looks like a pen, and I'm not going to lie that it was a bit cumbersome to hold onto and push the medicine into myself.

I couldn't grip it easily and was starting to get shaky because the needle was just kind of ...in me...for a period of time before I could start pushing the medication in correctly.

But, I trudged on...allowing extra time for ice after everything was over.

And like Groundhog Day...this exact routine has been part of my evenings the entire week.

My frienemy Letrazole joined the party each night as well.
Tonight is my last night of this terrible pill and I could not be happier.
The ongoing vice-like, dull headache, has been just wonderful.

Each day has been easier, but like always, some days the medicine burns more, sometimes it burns less.
I realized during this process, that the right side of my abdomen is much more sensitive than the left.
I am more bloated this round, most likely due to the Lupron.
It's weird, honestly, to be bloated, but not full-feeling, like you would after a big meal.
My stomach is just....puffier.

Both Lupron and Letrazole have been giving me the slight headaches, so whenever I administer them, I take two Tylenol, just to be safe. Other than going kind of whacko on Tuesday after my first round of stim meds, my hormones have been rather stable.

I have also cut out all alcohol this round. The last two I would have a cocktail here and there, but I'm going for gold this round, hopefully better habits will help!

I am in the final stretch.

I typically stim for 10 days. Today is Day 5.
I am waiting for the nurse to call this afternoon to see if I'll be heading in for any weekend monitoring, otherwise, I'll be back in the local office next week.

I should trigger by next Thursday!

Another quick update about our cat.
He managed to unhinge his left teeth from the bonded solution on Sunday evening (his jaw was now completely free to open and close), so we headed to the specialist early Monday morning because his jaw alignment still looked really messed up.

Turns out we paid out the ass for nothing.

His jaw is exactly how it was five weeks ago...but it is healed, so we are moving forward with managing a crooked jaw. The Dr. ended up having to file down two of his eye teeth super short so his jaw would close normally, as they were jabbing him in the gums or roof of his mouth.

I'm not going to lie, we were pissed.
All this time and effort to heal him and we are back at square one.

But, this is now his new normal, so we are working to get him adjusted.

We attempted to get him to eat normally, but noticed he would flinch every time he tried to chew.
This isn't like him...he LOVES his food. But he withdrew and we were worried.

After talking a couple times with the Dr., we decided to bring him back in for another round of dental surgery where she noticed a couple of his back teeth were grinding his gums again.

She extracted two teeth and he is now in his second round of recovery.
They gave him a shot of pain killers that should last 3-5 days, so he is sleeping a lot at this point.
We are still tube feeding until he is better.

None of this is ideal, but we are making the best of it, in the hopes he will be eating on his own within a week.

And with that update, I'm out.
Have a great weekend, folks! XO