Last night was my last night of Follistim, Menopur, and Ganorelix injections. Yay! I don't know if I get to take any of the same medication again later on down the IVF road, but for this time around, I'm done with them. Brad and I went and saw Dr. Norion this morning. I had blood work and an internal ultra sound done. Dr. Norion said my follicles have continued to make nice growth, and Sunday will definitely be the day of the retrieval. I have 22 follicles on my right ovary and 16 on my left. He said that I am at risk of hyper stimulation, so he prescribed me another medication that I get to take for the next eight days to help with that. He asked me how I was feeling and I said I was feeling a little bloated. He said that I should be given the amount of follicles I have and their size. This past Tuesday was the first day that I started feeling too uncomfortable to button up my jeans. One of my friends taught me about the rubber band method for jeans, and that's worked out beautifully!
After meeting with Dr. Norion, I met with one of the nurses. When she walked into the room, she said that her and the other nurses were just looking at my follicle numbers and sizes and they were amazed by how quickly my follicles grew and by how many have grown. I guess not all normally grow, but a large amount of mine have. Let's go eggs! She had me sign a bunch of paperwork. Not as much as last time, but there was enough and it was uncomfortable to sit up straight for a long time (I need some stretchy pants like Nacho Libre). I filled out info about the egg retrieval procedure. I will be under anesthesia for a couple of hours for the procedure, so there were some questions regarding that. I was also given a schedule for the next three days. I get to take a trigger shot of Lupron tonight at 9:00 p.m. on the dot (I already took my hyper stimulation medication today). Then, I get to take an antibiotic starting tomorrow morning, so I don't get an infection from the procedure and continue taking my hyper stim pill. I don't get any injections tomorrow! That's some exciting stuff right there! I get to fast for 8 hours prior to my procedure, which in the past, has made it difficult for the nurses to get an IV into me. I'm going to work on envisioning that my veins are fat and plump for Sunday's procedure even without water. The nurse said that I should feel back to normal by the time I start my next period, in around 8-10 days after the procedure. I am taking off Monday from work, and am planning on going back on Tuesday, but if my body needs more time to recover, I will take more time off. I have already started saying affirmations like, "my body recovers and heals easily." I will be sure to listen to my body and not push it too far. In addition to the schedule, the nurse also gave me a hyper stimulation diet to follow. I am supposed to add more salt and dairy to my diet, cut out sugar and starch, and drink coconut water and vegetable juice. I should also eat eggs. I absolutely LOVE eggs and have two of them a day. Seeing eggs and milk on the list made me happy! I LOVE the raw milk I drink daily, too! I pretty much already eat a hyper stimulation diet as is, minus the high salt, so there's not much I need to do differently.
Brad and I went to Clarks after meeting with Dr. Norion to pick up some organic vegetable juice, soup, milk, bacon, and a few other staples. We also stopped at a Rite Aid pharmacy to drop off the prescription. I didn't know what to expect cost wise, but I knew it was all going to be out of pocket since I have Kaiser and the prescription wasn't requested by my Kaiser doctor. We were given a quote of almost $300! The pharmacist suggested that we shop around and try Walmart's pharmacy. The nurse at HRC also suggested that I go onto goodRX.com to find the cheapest place to fill the prescription. I decided to try out goodRX after school was over. Brad dropped me back off at school (I went in for an hour this morning before our appointment with Dr. Norion). Within about 15 minutes after being dropped off, I started feeling really bloated and I was having lower back pain. And to make matters worse, the whole rubber band and jeans trick wasn't cutting it. I didn't want any pressure on my stomach at all! It was really hard to sit, but I was too tired to stand up for a long time. When the kids went out to recess, I checked out goodRX.com and it said that the Vons pharmacy had the medication and it would cost $70. Sweet! I texted Brad and asked him to come pick up the coupon that I printed out from goodRX.com and the prescription request and take it to Vons. He did and came back with the medication 25 minutes later. I took it right away. I made it through until the end of the school day, finished up my sub plans for Monday, and went straight home.
Sitting on the reclining couch at home has been helpful and pretty much pain free. Bending over is no bueno. In fact, I could barely tie my shoes this morning and I had Brad tie my shoes at HRC today. I'm thankful that tomorrow isn't a work day and that I can chill. Dr. Norion said no exercise, so I guess I won't be doing my normal weekend house cleaning, which is a little bit of a challenge for me. If you know me, you know that I have a broom and vacuum fetish and enjoy cleaning. I guess this is another lesson for me in letting go of things, like embracing the tiny sticks that are on my living room rug right now that Betty has brought in from her adventures from outside in the backyard. It's all good. Egg retrieval day is almost here, and I can hardly wait!
